Gracious hosts!

We were very warmly received by the staff and players of the State Sport School. Once the matches started it was game on and it was easy to see why they have been national champions a number of times. The girls went down 4 - 3 in a hard fought game that could have gone either way. The boys gave blood, sweat and tears, but could only score 1 goal in answer to their 5. After an exquisite lunch the teams headed back to the hotel and then a tour of George Town. Colin went to hospital for a CT scan and we can confirm some grey matter, no fracture to the scull or neck, but soft tissue damage.
It is sad to think that tonight will be our last night here.

The crash landing!

The last leg of our tour arrived and this morning we travelled from Ipoh to Penang. On our way to Penang we stopped at yet another Mosque and another Royal Palace in a royal town called Kuala Kangsar. A royal town is the former capital of the province  Perak.
The state of Penang consists of the island, and a  strip of land covering 760 square metres. On arrival we checked into our hotel, The Flamingo, and the rest of the afternoon was enjoyed on the beach or next to the pool.
Miss Marais and I decided to be very adventurous and tandem para sail. As you know there is no skill, to this activity at all - until you land. It is quite important to focus and watch the instructor when you come in to land. As we approached the landing phase of our adventure, the instructor yelled: "Pull". This instruction was followed by us waving at the rest of the group on the beach, they were not waving, but trying to get us to look at the instructors. After several slaps to the leg from me, Miss Marais started pulling on the said ropes. The next instruction was:"Start running". All I could think of was how many people break legs when landing parachutes, so I decided to pull my legs up. Needless to say we drifted completely off target and the instructors came running after us. I managed to land very softy - on top of poor Miss Marais (photographic evidence will soon follow).
Another great day in Malaysia.

So much to share ... so little time to write

We left Kuala Lumpur for Ipoh, the city of millionaires, at 8:00 in the morning. Or first stop was at the Sam Poh Tong, a Chinese Buddhist Temple, within a natural limestone hill.
Then it was off to Kellie's Castle ( or sometimes also called Kellie's Folly). The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a Scottish planter named William Kellie Smith. According to different accounts, it was either a gift for his wife or a home for his son. This was meant to be grand mansion with a six story tower, wine-cellar, stately columns, Moorish arches and walls embellished with Greco-Roman designs. Work on the mansion was halted with the sudden death of the owner.
Then it was our turn to play hockey on, the "Smurf Turf", the nick name given to blue and pink astro. In this province the Sultan's favourite sport is hockey. Evidence of this is the  fabulous facilities which, was of course followed by so me of the finest hockey so far in Malaysia. The girls and boys once again made us proud. The girls won their match 4 - 0. Nicci scored 2 goals, one of them with a superb dive. The boys faced the strongest opposition yet and went 2 - 0 down within 15 minutes of the game. They quickly adapted to the fast pace of the match and scored 2 goals early in the second half. The opposition came back strongly and scored 2 more goals. It was the first loss for the boys on tour, but they learnt more about the game of hockey, than in any of the other match so far.
Later the evening we all went 10 pin bowling. What a busy, productive and fun-filled day we all had!

Shopping or fishing?

Some prefer to shop and others prefer to visit the aquarium. The aquarium is a double story building which includes a 90 metre tunnel through, which you can walk. It hosts creatures and fish found in and around the rivers and oceans of Malaysia. We saw sharks, turtles, piranhas, snakes, spiders, butterflies, sea horses, eels etc, etc, ect.

Technology is big here in KL and when something is considered cool we must all get it, even the teachers. So expect to see a group of 46 at O R Tambo on 24 April that looks as if they were sponsored by Beats earphones. It comes in all shapes, sizes and colours and the use of it at CHC or elsewhere, if in school uniform, is banned. But the biggest "wow" of the day was caused by very old technology, the Polaroid camera, that spits out a photograph, that develops in front of your eyes. Jip, they're back on the market and loved by teenagers. Courtney bought one and we all had to pose for the first photograph with her new camera. Soon after pressing the button, the photograph started sliding out the top of the camera. This was met by a huge exclamation of amazement by all present - so old technology is cool as well.

To top it all we ran into Neil on the street.

Tomorrow we're off to Ipoh...

A quiet day - 18 April 2013

There were no excursions or matches this morning and we allowed everyone to sleep in and then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. At 3 were we off to the hockey fields. The girls played Sekolah Gombat Setia and won 3 - 0 easily. The boys played the Bukit Talil National Sports School and drew 2 all.  We're now starting to notice that the boys are getting fatigued, and it is good that tomorrow is a free day, so that we can rest and recover before our last 2 sets  of matches.

Enjoy the photographs...

Dylan, Lyle, Ruan, Brandon, Stephan & Philip (with 1 "l") reading the blog...

This is where they're sitting to connect to the internet.

The fight, Batu Caves and the Fireflies

Our tour guide, Rambo, refers to a hockey match as a fight, and that is exactly what today's matches were. Both the girls and boys fought hard to draw with their opponents. The boys match was a physical and technical affair. The 2 all result is a fair reflection of the match although the technical skills of our opposition were better than ours. However, it is where the matches were played, that will be remembered longer than the finer details of the hockey. Both our number 10 players were chosen as the players of the respective matches. It was a privilege to play at the Sekolah Sukan Bukit Jalil. As Christos, now known as Al (Al Pachino), quite rightly said: " I don't think that I will ever play in a stadium like this again".
As if were we not tired enough after the hockey, we tackled the 270 stairs up to the Batu Caves after lunch. Look at the photographs to understand what an amazing experience this was. On the way down a monkey stole Jaco's drink and another the Hindu statue that Lyle had bought. The monkey did eventually manage to open the drink, drank some of it and poured the rest out - Lyle recovered his souvenir . Then it was back onto the busses and off to the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula.
After being treated to a Chinese meal, we got into boats to see the folded winged fireflies flashing from the mangrove Berembang trees. We were not allowed to take photographs, but there were so many fireflies in the shrubs along the river that one could think that it was Christmas.