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Revisiting my Childhood at the KL Butterfly Park (Part 2)

In Part 2, I dive back in to the heat of the Butterfly Park armed with a telephoto macros lens. My mission was to capture some close-up video of some of the dozens of species of butterfly fluttering around. In this, I was only partially successful. I blame it on the camera as it falls apart and refuses to either autofocus or even manual focus. …

Revisiting My Childhood at the KL Butterfly Park (Part 1)

I go full-on tourist once again as I visit the Butterfly Park in Kuala Lumpur. It’s kinda like the Bird Park but with 5,000-6,000 fluttery butterflies instead of a couple thousand feathery birds. I collected insects as a boy in Canada (butterflies, moths, beetles, dragonflies, ants, bees, wasps, etc), and I’ve been fascinated by them ever since. So when a Butterfly Park is located just …

Goodbye, Dog! Hello, Pig! Chinese New Year Traditions at Thean Hou Temple

Chinese New Year is the biggest and most lavish holiday event in the Chinese calendar. Families gather at home, at shopping malls, and at temples to celebrate. As a backpacker slash tourist, I chose to visit the inspiring Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur to begin my exploration of the traditions of this important festival.
The six-tiered Thean Hou Temple is dedicated to the goddess Matzu …

Shop Till You Drop at the Megamall – Window Shopping at the Gardens Mall

Shopping and shopping malls have become a big part of Chinese New Year celebrations. The malls organize sophisticated artistic and cultural displays, put on exciting lion dances, and install lavish decorations to attract customers during the biggest holiday of the year.
And it works! Malaysians flock to the malls to enjoy the festive atmosphere (and air conditioning), and I joined them for a stroll through Kuala …

Vlog: A Walk to Dhaka’s Buriganga River (Part 1)

My first vlog from Bangladesh on The Cycling Canadian YouTube channel. In this episode, I walk from my hotel through the bustling city of Dhaka to the Buriganga River. I met lots of people along the way and saw plenty of amazing sights. And the river more than lived up to my expectations with the fascinating boat traffic.

Getting a 30-Day Tourist Visa Extension in Indonesia

I’m no expert in the process of getting Indonesian tourist visas and visa extensions, but I thought I’d share my most recent experience in case it might help someone else go through the process.( I don’t know anything about the 30-day visa on arrival. The following applies only to the 60-day tourist visa.)
Here are the brief facts:

Staring at the Camera Like a Buffoon

Today is the big day. I was told I can pick up my passport, and it should contain my 30-day extension. Technically, it will be a 28-day extension because my last visa expired two days ago. This extension should date from my previous visa’s expiry date, so it will be two days old by the time I receive it.

Later: Got the visa extension, but it wasn’t easy. I had been told to just return on Wednesday to pick up my passport. But there was more to it than that. First, I had to have my picture taken. And this has to be done as a live insert with one of their cameras tethered to a computer and logged into the national immigration website/database. You can just imagine how that went.

Successful But Predictably Weird

My trip to immigration for the interviews ended up being successful but predictably weird. I got there on my bike, of course. My sponsor, Stephani, was going to get there on her own. I assumed she would be on a scooter. I showed up a few minutes before my scheduled interview time of 10 a.m. The usual woman was sitting behind the main counter, and I went up to her just to let her know that I had arrived but my sponsor wasn’t there yet. Then I sat to wait.