Trip to Malaysia

We took a trip to Malaysia in May as we had a long weekend, and I wanted for Julia and the kids to experience some of the places I lived and people I met during my mission back in 1999-2001.  We flew AirAsia to Kuala Lumpur (KL), and we were impressed with the quality of the airline despite its bargain pricing.  We arrived in KL and checked in at the Novotel KLCC which is downtown near the Petronas Twin Towers.  As a matter of fact, we could even see the towers from our balcony!  KL has really improved its public transportations since I was living there, and we hardly ran into traffic.  Jakarta needs to take some notes from KL!

We walked around a bit and then headed to Petaling Jaya (PJ) to have dinner with my friends Adrian and Jackie (from my mission days).  We ate at a fun Korean buffet where we cooked our own food.  We had a great time and enjoyed seeing my old friends.

The next morning, we took an electric train from KL to Ipoh.  The train was pretty nice, but not as smooth as the high speed trains in Taiwan.  We were meet at the station by my friend, Chris.  She took great care of us during our stay and is a fabulous host.  We ate lots of great food, visited several Buddhist temples built in limestone caves, enjoyed a day a theme park called the Lost World of Tambun, and enjoyed the company of the great people of Malaysia.  The kids had such a great time, they had a hard time saying goodbye.  I have a hunch this won't be our last trip to Malaysia....

Camping at Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar

Friday evening, Joseph and I caravaned with some friends from church to a campsite called Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar near Sentul.  It took about an hour on the toll road with another half hour on a cobbled road to arrive.  We rolled into camp after dark, set up our tents, lit a fire, and cooked some tin foil dinners.  Joseph had a great time playing with the other boys on the large boulders and the men just sat around the fire as we have since the dawn of time...

The following morning, we woke up to loud jungle bird noises, a six inch centipede, a large scorpion, and a herd of asiatic water buffalo making their way up the hill.  I also got my first real view of the campsite, and I was impressed.  The campgrounds are well maintain and have new facilities. 

After a breakfast of sausage, eggs, and fruit, we packed up, and headed back to the big city.  We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again.  :)

Air purifier

We live on the 12th floor of an apartment in one of the largest cities in the world.  The benefits of being so high are that we have a great view and no mosquitos.  The downside of that is we are right in the smog that lingers above Jakarta's streets. 

We have been thinking about doing something to improve the air quality in our apartment, and we finally did something this weekend as Julia's allergies have been increasingly troublesome.  We decided to buy an air purifier!  We went to the local Ace hardware store (pronouced Aceh in Indonesia) and picked up a Kris Air Tamer.  We opted for this model over the USA made Honeywell units because it has a washable stainless steel filter.  Concerns about price ($100 USD every 6 months) and availability of the multiple filters the Honeywell units required pushed us away from buying it even though the Honeywell is likely better built.   At least the Kris unit came with a 6 month warranty.  If it fails after 6 months, we'll have to reconsider the Honeywell unit.

When we got home, I plugged in the air purifier in our bedroom and let it run on about half fan speed.  After only one day, the filter light came on indicating it needed to be cleaned.  So I dutifully pulled out the filter and examined it.  Sure enough, there was a fine coating of soot and even a couple tiny bugs (mites, I think) crawling around on it.  When I washed it in the shower, the water was dark gray in the tub.  Yuck!  And to think that we breath that air.  :( 

I must admit that I now wake up breathing easier now that the filter is in place. So the test now is to see if that was just an initial clean up of the room, or if it will always dirty the filter in one day.  If it gets dirty every day, we'll likely cough up the money to install more units in the apartment.  If it stays clean for a couple days or a week, we'll likely just move the purifier room to room to purge the junk from the air. 

Update 1 - 10 June 2012

We've had the air purified for about a month now.  It really does a great job and noticeably improves the air quality in our home.  The filter needs to washed about every three days!  Initially, I moved the filter from bedroom to bedroom: purging each room.  Now, I just leave in running in the family room as that's the closest places to the front door and balcony doors (where most of the air comes into the apartment).

The only issue is that sometimes the filter light comes on after a day, giving a false positive.  I realized this when I washed it out after one day, and there was not that much black stuff washing off.  I simply turn it off and back on and it resets itself.  I do this until the cleaning light comes back on as soon as it restarts.  It's a minor quirk, so far so good.  :)

Update 2 - 15 May 2013

It is has been over a year now, and well, the purifier has pretty much lost its ability to clean the air.  A few months ago, the coating on the filter started flaking off.  Now that has continued to occur, very little particulate from the air sticks to it anymore.  So I guess it was good while it lasted...

Final update - 10 Sept 2013

We limped the air purifer along for a bit longer and now it no longer turns on.  An autopsy revealed a poorly designed switch that had failed and a random coin inside the fan area.  So it is hard to say what killed it, but for sure it has gone to the happy hunting grounds.  Too bad it didn't last for the full duration of our stay here in Jakarta.

Singapore

A couple weeks ago we took a trip in Singapore for a three day weekend.  We stayed at the VIP hotel which is conveniently located with in walking distance to a Cold Storage grocery store and the LDS church on Bukit Timah road.  We were pleased with the accommodations and pricing.  We'll definitely consider staying there again for future trips to S'pore.

We started off having a meal at a British fish and chips restaurant that gave us huge, greasy, and delicious portions. 

We then stopped by the LDS mission office to show Julia and the kids where I had once served as a missionary back in 1999-2001.  Being there brought back so many fond memories, but also amazed me about how much had changed as there is a new stake center there and the mission office had been renovated.  I had hoped to show the kids my picture on the wall, but alas, they had taken it down.

The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens which is, like most of Singapore, immaculately landscaped and maintained.  We spent most the morning at the children’s area in the park.  The kids had a great time.

We then went to Little India for lunch.  We had a fantastic meal of roti prata and mutton biryani. As we were browsing in the shops, the kids convinced us to let them have an artist decorate their hands with henna.  The kids were amazingly still and even managed to not smear them too much during the 30 minute drying time.  One of my favorite things about Little India is the colonial architecture and that it isn’t quite as well groomed as most of the island.

Another highlight of the trip was going to the Night Safari.  Although, it is not cheap, it was well worth it to experience touring the zoo at night.  We did the tram ride as well as walking on foot.  We also watched an amazing fire breathing show.  Awesome!

Even the airport was amazing as they had playgrounds for the kids and a butterfly garden.  Very impressive!

All in all, we enjoyed our time in Singapore.  We stocked up on food that is either unavailable or crazy expensive in Jakarta and made some great memories.   

Future house

We don't really know when we'll return to the USA, but it’s still fun to scheme about our future home there. As mentioned in the previous post, we still have a house in Houston that is currently rented out. We could always return to live in that house, but we are also considering purchasing another property as we’d like a more sustainable and relaxed lifestyle in the country when we return.

Ideally, we'd be able to find a property with some acreage, maybe 3-10 acres, that has lots of trees, wildlife (ideally edible species like wild pigs and deer), some topography, a water source, and definitely no HOA or other restrictions. Of course, it would still have to be close enough to commute to work, decent schools for the kids, and not be crazy expensive. Now, that is asking alot of the Houston area (assuming we return there), so I don't know we'll be able to find such a property.

In the event that we did, I'd like to build an earth sheltered concrete house. I found out about this building technique about a year ago from my Mom as there is a builder in her area that specializes in it. Their website is here: www.earthshelteredhome.com

The benefits of this home construction method are so obvious that I am surprised that more homes aren't built this way. It offers excellent energy efficiency, resistance to natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes, reduced pests and mold, and many others. The cost is a bit more, but you'd make it back over time with reduced energy costs. I think it could also be designed to offer more security in an end of the world scenario than a traditional wood frame and brick exterior house could.

It would be of modest size for our family of 5 (2000-2500 sqft), have a big porch (maybe even elevated), and a generous garage/workshop area. I would likely tie it to the grid initially, but I’d like to eventually have it be totally self-sufficient with: water well, septic system, rainwater collection, gas generator, solar panels, and maybe even wind turbines.

In the spirit of my previous post, I would first pay off the rental property (if possible) and then use the rental property to help pay down the second property.

Makes me want to go search har.com. :)

Thoughts on house debt

I have been thinking deeply about debt and finances off and on over the last couple months. I find it an interesting topic, but I am certaintly by no means an expert in it.

Today, I had lunch with a co-worker who is from India. We discussed how buying a home in India is drastically different that in America. In India, getting a mortgage through a bank is underheard of. If you can't afford a house, then you save money until you can. Maybe you could even convince some friends or family to loan you some money, but the bank doesn't get involved. You can even pay your lifetime of property taxes all at once. Just that simple.

In the US, it is the opposite. My friend just couldn't understand why you would agree to pay almost all of the mortgage payment on interest, pmi, and property taxes (in escrow) while only making a small dent in the principle. I must admit that I just hadn't thought about how crazy it sounds because it is standard operating procedure to get a mortgage when buying a home in the US. The banks certainly like the way it is set up as you end up buying your house several times over if you take 30 years to pay down your mortgage or better yet that you upgrade your house every couple years.

He did, however, did see the value in me continuing to rent my house in Houston while we lived abroad as at least someone else was paying the bank. I often wonder if keeping the house and renting it out was a smart move. I hope I don't regret not selling it down the road. Time will tell. At least I am working towards increasing my assets...

Today's conversation renewed my conviction to work towards truly owning my own home and enjoying the peace and security that that brings to those so fortunant to achieve it.

Trip to Taiwan

We took a two week long family trip to Taiwan over spring break. Ok, so it was a little bit long than the usual one week spring break, but the kids going to school and me going to work is over-rated, right?

Anyway, we met up with Julia's parents in Taipei and the adventure started.

We walked around Taipei 101 (at one time the tallest building in the world), and ate way too much delicious food, while visiting Julia's extended family. We also visited the Taipei LDS temple.

Then we traveled to Taichung and more family, ate more food, and visited the scenic Sun Moon Lake (where we rode on the cable cars). We also cruised around the lake in an express boat. I always enjoy a boat ride, but Julia and Joseph tend to get seasick. :( We capped off the day having a snack at a ritzy new hotel that Julia's family member owns. Ohh, ahhh.

We also went to the National Science museum where we saw dinosaurs and tons of other exibits. We also watch one of the original IMAX movies about flight. I love how your stomach gets turned with the camera!

Then, we rode back to Taipei and visit yet more family and eat even more food and visited the Taipei Zoo. The zoo was great in that it had some real hard to find animals like koala bears and panda bears. Each bathroom had signs about feces, which was kinda weird, but funny.

Like a flash, two weeks were up and we were waiting at Julia's new favorite airport terminal gate to return to Jakarta. We loved how the Hello Kitty theme extended beyond the store into the waiting area. Each gate had its own theme.

Lots of great memories and time with loved ones! I miss the food and great people of Taiwan already. :)