March 16, 2024 Langkawi, Malaysia 50 days of 138

 We are down to our last 50 days of this trip of a lifetime. It is hard to remember all that we have done and seen in the last 88 days, but we are both surprised at how quickly time goes by.

Today we are in Langkawi, Malaysia. It seems that all this area was under the rule of the British Empire prior to WW II. Japan took control of this area during the war, and they lived under the Japanese rule for those 4 years. They have adopted the British way of governing, but decided independence, and coalition was required.  It is a slightly different story with each place we visit, but independence has been the constant. Some, Singapore for example, have done very well, others are still struggling as a country. 

I have been trying to get a good picture of Malaysia's flag, and I almost missed seeing it in this picture above. We had a long walk from the ship to our bus for todays excursion. They did have some transportation that would take you half way, but you still had to walk several football fields to get to the bus. We are happy that we are in good physical health, and can do the walking.

We are spending so much time in the bus I thought I would show you how they are decorated. We have an driver from India, so notice the curtains and fringe. Most of us try to tuck it up, so we can see outside. I don't know why, but the last 2 days we have had the back of the bus. Today's guide is young and fast. He starts walking before 1/2 of us have gotten off the bus. Several times we were looking around to find which way our tour had gone.

First stop was to this statue of an eagle. Lang means eagle and kawi means stone, eagle with nest on side of stone mountain. Langkawi. This eagle stands about 36 feet tall. Impressive!

The Eiffel tower looking object is a communication tower. It has been completed since covid. Above Mike is showing the way back to our ship.

This is a local food bank. I was taking a shot of the decoration on the top.

This isn't totally typical, some of the shops are two story with the living quarters above. Others are just tents along the street, and then there are these. Notice it is neat and clean, but totally open air.

Our guide was really excited to show us the rice paddy. This is the area he lives in, and it was a great stop. It answered some of the questions we have about growing rice, and harvesting it by hand. Some of the countries we have traveled to supply their people with the rice they consume, which is a lot, and export enough to make them one of the top exporters of rice.

These 3 pictures show them pulling the seedlings, getting ready to plant them in the next bed where they will mature. They are in the seedling bed for several weeks, and after planting they mature in 120 days.

He is also showing us the snails that will leave eggs on the rice plants.  If the eggs hatch they will be thousands of new snails to eat on the plants. The water buffalo help to work up the soil in preparation for planting, the egrets help with eating the bugs, snail eggs and snail before and during the growing season.

The top picture in the background you can see where the seedlings were taken to be planted 3 plants to a hole, in a straight line. See the photo below.

Above  you will see Mike taking a picture of the ripe rice ready to harvest. The rice is harvested by men and women using sickles, the crop is laid in a line, carried to a thrasher as seen on the right. They take a bundle and hit the seed head ends down against a wood ladder like item. The person then swings it back and forth in the tarp area letting the seeds fall down into the basket. Several of our group tried it, and said it was rather hard. We only did one bunch. There are several more steps to separate to get just the rice.

This was our guide for the museum. She is showing us the different kinds of rice grown in different areas of Malaysia. The difference is the weather, some places are cooler, some warmer, and some places grow rice that cooks up sticker.

In the museum they had a picture of a combine. I asked the question about being able to use equipment, but either it was not understood, or he didn't know how to answer. Yes, equipment is available, but not used here.

These are pictures of our sunset tonight. Notice we have the Malaysia navy sitting on two sides of us this afternoon. We don't know the reason, just pointing it out. They were not here when we arrived this morning.

Langkawi is surrounded by 99 islands, so notice I got some of them in my sunset pictures.

It has been a good fun day. It is definitely hot here with the temperatures up to 94 degrees. This is our hottest day so far.

Ok, you will have to forgive me. Above is the  

water buffalo they use to plow the rice patties, and the buffalo just walking on the mud helps break it up to allow them to be able to plant the rice. There are 3 albino water buffalo in the picture.

I have had a night of frustration with my pictures. First in getting Mike's pictures to show up and be available to use, then because I was adding them late, in getting them in the right place. Oh well, this just gives the family something else to assist me with in the future. If this is all I have to complain about, life must be pretty good.