We completed our 3-week lap of Tasmania and came away seriously impressed. What an amazing destination! Despite taking our time, we still could have spent more time soaking up the beautiful scenery. Compared with our 6-week stay in Australia last year, we think Tassie offers everything the mainland has . . .except Koalas and the Great Barrier Reef (two of my favorites). Nonetheless, you can see and enjoy almost everything else on offer in a more compact location.
Our list of favorite things would include the wine – we visited 14 wineries and tasted a large variety of wines, in addition to trying others while dining out. The pinots were terrific, and the sparkling wines were a nice surprise. The best winery undoubtedly was Glaetzer-Dixon.
Of course, the wildlife was a highlight. How could it not be? I really loved the wombats!
And the landscape is remarkable.
During our trip, the New York Times included Tassie on its 52 Places to Go list for 2024, which we expect will drive increased tourism there. So, we’re glad we made it before that happened!
In addition, while we were in Tasmania, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark abdicated, and her son’s Australian commoner wife, Mary, is now queen. But she’s not just any Australian, she’s Tasmanian! (From a suburb of Hobart.) Imagine all the hoopla this created. We didn’t see that many Danish flags while in Denmark! Some Tasmanians we met even referred to her as “our queen.”
Finally, while we knew that Australia had boldly enacted gun control laws in response to a tragic shooting in the 1990's, we didn’t recall the specific details. It turns out that the massacre occurred at the Port Arthur Historic Site in 1996 – the perpetrator killed 35 and wounded 23. Shortly thereafter the government restricted private gun ownership severely and never looked back. It was very chilling that one of the most famous tourism sites includes a memorial to such a horrible event. But at least the Aussies did something, rather than offering “thoughts and prayers.”
From Tasmania we moved onto Malaysia, arriving a day later than expected due to a flight delay and consequent missed connection.
Why Malaysia? We wanted to continue traveling a bit while we were so far from home again, which gave us an opportunity to explore another Asian country in depth. Malaysia has a good reputation for great food and diverse sites. What more do you need? Plus, the fact that it is majority Muslim was intriguing to us. We decided to go to the mainland peninsula (as opposed to the Borneo Island part) where the weather would be drier in the time we had.
Here are our first impressions of Malaysia. The heat and humidity are oppressive. We had forgotten how difficult this can be. Thank goodness for air conditioning! The people are friendly and diverse. You see many Malay Muslim women wearing hijabs, along with a significant number of Chinese, and a smaller number of Indians. Many languages are in use, but English is highly prevalent. While the sidewalks are better than Vietnam, in some places they are non-existent, or the curbs are very high. This is due to the amount of rain and the necessary related drainage needed. Thus, walking is challenging.
The Malaysian flag is similar to the US flag: it has 14 red and white stripes, and the upper left corner is blue, with a yellow crescent and 14-point star. The flag is displayed in many places, like in the US. At first, we thought we were seeing the US flag, but our brains adjusted quickly. The 14 stripes and points signify the 14 states in the country.
Kuala Lumpur, where we started our journey, is known for tall towers, with more being built all the time. While you can pay to go up in the various buildings, we’ve never seen the appeal of this opportunity. Still here’s a day and night shot of the Petronas Towers – the tallest twin towers in the world (88 floors), but no longer the tallest building(s).
More from Malaysia soon,
Shana & Jeff
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