Malaysia's Cat City

Kuching, the City of Cats, is located in Sarawak, southern Borneo.













Cat lovers should not miss a visit to Kuching's Cat Museum.








The 90-minute Sarawak River sunset cruise is one of the highlights of a visit to Kuching.

Christmas in August?!

Last October I did a blog posting called "Christmas in September?!" I've slightly changed the title this year because the other day at Robinson's, the neighborhood mall, I spotted a Christmas display at the bookstore. The Philippines celebrates the world's longest Christmas season, supposedly running through the "ber" months (September, October, ...) well into January. A quick Ohio weather check shows current temps up to 90F, so I'm guessing my friends and relatives back home aren't yet thinking much about Christmas.

Preparing for takeoff ...

It's time to prepare for another trip, this time to Malaysia for about 5 weeks. Generally I start packing about a week before departure time, loading the iPod with new music and the Kindle with books, filling out the luggage tags, charging the camera batteries, deciding on these tank tops, those shorts, that belt. One thing I like about travel in the tropics is you can go light on the clothes -- a couple of pairs of shorts, a couple of tank tops, one T-shirt (though in Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia you have to go a bit heavier due to conservative religious mores). I don't particularly enjoy the packing, but it's great to finally lock up the apartment and depart. You can then relax and start looking ahead to the trip because even if you forgot something it doesn't matter as there's no going back -- You have what you have and that's that.