Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix - The Race

The Formula One cars are a technological wonder. They weigh about 1,300 pounds - including the driver - and would weigh less if they didn't have ballast added to the bottom of the car. What I didn't realize is how fast these things are. Yes, I read about it ahead of time, and I had seen it briefly on TV. And I read stats on the speed - they can go from 0 to 100mph to 0 in less than five seconds.
Photographing the cars was a huge challenge. I took about 300 pictures and very few have the cars in-frame and in-focus. By the time you pick up your camera, they're past you. When they pass directly in front of you, they're just a blur.

The sound was deafening. The engine makes a high-pitch whine / whir (due to revving to 18,000 rpm's, compared to a street car around 6,000 rpm) that is intolerable without earplugs. You can feel it in your chest every time they pass, and my beer can would rattle around on the seat next to me. Every shift would elicit a booming sound, like an explosion, and flames would shoot out of the back of the car. The first time I heard it, I thought there had been an accident. The cars were mind-boggling powerful. And it was awe inspiring. I can see why people are captivated by the sport. I can definitely see myself returning to the next Asian race in Singapore in September.

Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix - The Scene

The crowd and the energy are a big part of seeing Formula One races live. Almost all of these people have spent a fortune to travel around the world and support their team. Many came all the way from Europe. As a result, you're looking at rabid fans. And colorful fans! F-1 teams have splashy, bright colors. Ferrari is solid red. Renault is blue and yellow. McLaren is electric orange, white, and silver.

There are some real characters at the race. This guy is a gladiatior (Italian) riding a stylized black horse (Ferrari). He kept banging his sword against the sign, which was clever play on the opposing drivers' history. Hamilton ("theif") is a McLaren driver, and last year McLaren stole some technology / spied on Ferrari. Alonso ("traitor") is a Renault driver that was on the McLaren team, but he jumped ship. It helps to know some of the F-1 history; I did a crash course in the week leading up to the race.

Batu Cave Monkeys

On the steps up to the Batu Cave temple there were a lot of monkeys. And I mean a LOT of monkeys. They were very used to being around people - it's tradition to offer them bananas and peanuts. Anyway, I was able to get very close to the monkeys and take some good monkey pictures. These three are my favorite. I think their faces show very human emotions.

Batu cave interior, amazing race

Apparently the Batu caves were featured on the Amazing Race (season 9). Excerpted summary from someone's blog:

"Charla and Mirna were the first to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 4:45AM, and learned teams had to now take a train and a bus to the Batu Caves, with the catch being they had to decide which train and bus "would serve them best." The cousins received some help from locals on their plane and boarded the correct train and bus to the Batu Caves. When they arrived at the steps of the caves, Charla and Mirna spotted the clue box perched high above them requiring a long walk up a very long set of steep stairs. After reaching the top, they opened their clue and learned they had to travel 10 miles by taxi to Kampung Baru Mosque and search the nearby streets for their next clue and the first opportunity in the race for a Yield, which allows a team to slow down another team behind them but can only be used once by each team during the race.

Eric and Danielle, Dustin and Kandice and Ozzy and Danny all arrived in Malaysia at 7:25AM and used different tactics to find the best route to the Batu Caves. Eric and Danielle asked for help at the airport, Dustin and Kandice followed Charla and Mirna's idea and received help on the plane and Ozzy and Danny did research at the hotel. While they all used different routes, they all eventually arrived at the caves, with Dustin and Kandice second behind Charla and Mirna, followed by Ozzy and Danny in third and Eric and Danielle in fourth. "

This gives me a new perspective on the Amazing Race, because that description is not dissimilar from my experience. I landed at 6am, took the train to my hotel, dropped my bags, took another train to Putra, then took a taxi to Batu Caves. And you know what? IT WAS NOT HARD AT ALL!!!

Where do I begin? Everyone in Malaysia speaks decent English, so asking for help is easy. But c'mon, who needs help? Kuala Lumpur has one of the best public transportation systems I've seen - better than Athens or Atlanta, and up there with London. There are only three train lines and a monorail. And one of the train lines is the Putra line - so if you're looking for Putra, it's hard to miss. The train cost me 75 cents USD and the taxi from the train station was an extra $3.

All of which to say - I've always thought that the Amazing Race has to be easier than it looks. "For their next task, teams must book a plane ticket! And then use a well-marked public transportation system!" Wowsers.

Ok, enough about the Amazing Race. These pictures are from the inside of Batu cave. The ceiling rises a stunning 300 feet above the floor, and it's got a lot of interesting visual details because it's very craggy. It's not like other caves that I've seen that are mostly smooth and have stalagmites. The scale is hard to describe, but it's impressive. Inside there are assorted shrines to Hindu gods. They seem out of place amongst the rock features,

Batu cave temple steps

The biggest cultural attraction in Kuala Lumpur is the Batu Cave temple. Several hindu shrines were built into a string of caves in the side of a mountain. Prior to 1920 the area was virtually inaccessible (there were no stairs).
Today there are 272 stairs leading up to the largest cave's mouth, and they are painful. It's a steep climb up; I had to stop several times. And it really felt like climbing - more like a ladder, or something similar, than walking up some stairs. In front of the stairs is the world's biggest statue of Lord Muruga at 130 feet high.

Me at the top - almost there!

India weight loss

I just weighed myself in my hotel room for the first time since October. Keep in mind that lately I've been eating tons of potato chips and I stopped exercising (I probably added 5 pounds). I've lost 17 pounds since I've been in India. Yikes! Between not being able to lift weights (muscle loss) and a low calorie diet (fat loss), it's hard to keep weight on. But I'm doing my part - I just ordered a Black Forest Cheesecake through room service.

Awesome room in KL

I'll keep referring to Kuala Lumpur as KL to save space, but I don't want to confuse anyone.

Things got started on the right foot today. I checked in at the hotel at 7am and the room was already available for me. And what a room! I have an executive suite with a huge bedroom, huge bathroom, city views through picture windows from the 32nd floor, a sitting room with couches and a big plasma screen, and a little entry area that has a 2nd bathroom. Definitely one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever seen. I didn't think I spent too much... it looks like a dollar can still go far in Malaysia.

Nandhi temple

In Nandhi village, I happened upon a temple. This temple is not in any guidebooks, which is unbelievable. The temple is huge and dates back to the 6th century. It is, without a doubt, my favorite temple in India so far. Everything inside was remarkably preserved. Normally you will see carvings that are worn down or broken off - but not here. A nice gentleman followed me around, trying to proudly show off the temple in broken English. At one point he flicked the stone sculptures... and I heard a metal ringing sound. It turns out that all the stones were picked because the metal content is very high, and so they've lasted through the years.

Towards the end of my time at the temple, I got to see something interesting. They took one of the gods out and marched it in circles around the temple, banging drums and playing horns the whole time. I was standing in the wrong place and when they went to put it back in its "home," I was nearly trampled by the procession. But I was right in the midst of everything, which was a neat experience.
You can't take pictures inside a temple, so all of this will have to stay in my memory. Outside the temple were two structures that looked like medieval war machines. They were enormous wooden structures with huge stone wheels, and they were decorated with colorful banners. I'll never know quite what they were, but they were impressive.

Nandhi Hills

Two weekends ago I went to Nandhi Hills. It was billed as a day trip outside of Bangalore; just a one hour drive. It turned out to be closer to three hours each way. But I didn't mind. After being gridlocked in Bangalore traffic for five months, cruising on a nice (no potholes) road in the countryside was a welcome change.

I had hoped to find a bull temple with an enormous bull, but the Nandhi village bull is actually much smaller than the one in Mysore. The scenic views from the top of the Nandhi Hill are the real attraction. You can see off into the distance forever. Well, at least until the pollution cuts you off. The air India is poison. I assume I'm "smoking a pack a day" every day in Bangalore. Rickshaws belch fumes, poor people burn coal to stay warm and cook, and everyone burns their trash. There's a mountain range in the distance in this picture, but it's covered in smog. Anyway, I don't mean to sound too negative - the trip was great, and the view was wonderful.

The upside to pollution? Beautiful sunsets. This is actually the tail-end of the sunset from the top of the hill. There were richer red colors earlier, but I didn't break my camera out in time.

Lazy blogger

I have been really lazy about blogging for the past three weeks. But no more! I am determined to return to form. I have some exciting news. Talk about spur of the moment... I just booked a flight to Malaysia - for tomorrow night! I'll fly overnight into Kuala Lumpur and land on Friday morning at 6am. I'm hoping to tour a cave temple that afternoon. Then I've got a Royal Club Suite at Le Meridian (it was on sale), which should be nice. Saturday and Sunday I will be seeing - get this - Formula 1 racing! I don't know anything about it, so I have a lot to learn. But it strikes me as a very international thing to do. I fly back early on Monday morning, and should land on time to go straight in to work. I can't wait!