Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The posts might get a little confusing right now with Sheri reporting from Malaysia and Michiel still enjoying the hospitality of the US Antarctic Program at Palmer Station.  Hope you don't lose the thread!

Arriving in hot, humid, tropical climates is always a shock after the ice.  I never seem to remember how difficult the transition is, but at least the temperatures in Kuala Lumpur are only about 90F/33C  :)

I planned a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur on the way to Borneo in order to see the city and acclimate to the heat.  I ended up doing a full day of sightseeing followed by a half day in the air conditioned room.  I discovered that I could have limited my time in KL to just that one full day.  Like many Southeast Asian cities, KL is all about shopping - perhaps because the malls are air conditioned and comfortable or perhaps because there isn't a lot else to do in the heat.

For me, the highlight of KL is the blend of architecture, from Dutch and British colonial to Hindu to Islamic to Chinese, there is an incredible blending of styles.   Malaysians seem obsessed with having the biggest whatever - the tallest flagpole, the largest bird park, the largest mall, etc., etc.  Though it is no longer the tallest skyscraper in the world, the Petronas Towers structure (which houses a......you guessed it....a giant shopping mall), is a stunning addition to the KL skyline and a lovely building, especially at night.

Earlier in the day, I strolled around the historic (though nothing in KL is much older than the 1850's) district, Merdeka (Independence) Square.  It has the tallest flagpole (99 meters) in the world, a British colonial-era men's club (it still functions as a men's club),  the oldest mosque in KL, and Mughal-style (neo-Moorish) governmental buildings and old railway station (love these!)

Merdeka Square and it's huge flagpole

Mughal architecture

Luckily, the public transportation options are plentiful (monorail, free buses, trains, taxis) and excellent, so one never has to sweat too much to get around.  Walking can be a challenge, with many bottomless sidewalk holes but it's not too difficult to find your way once you get oriented.

The main neighborhoods of Kuala Lumpur reflect the mixture of cultures living here:  Chinatown, Little India and the rest - Malaysians.  There is definitely a feeling that this is a predominantly Muslim country, with most Malaysian-descent women wearing head scarves and full length sleeves.  The call to prayer is heard throughout the day from the many mosques in the city.  In fact, the prayer times are even posted each day in the newspapers (even in the English-speaking newspapers).

Interspersed around the city are colonial-era structures like Dutch-gabled row houses and Victorian fountains and a tudor-style men's club.

Railroad Station, Telecom and Petronas towers in the background

 After all of the walking around, the most natural way to end the day is to have the dead skin of your feet eaten off by little fish...at least that's what you do if you're a tourist in Southeast Asia.

Christchurch - Two Years On

On September 1, 2010, Christchurch, New Zealand experienced a 7.1 earthquake.  This was the beginning of a period of over 11,110 quakes and aftershocks that continue to this day.  In fact, in just the last 24 hours, there have been 5, none stronger than 3.6, but 5 nonetheless.   (For a fascinating time lapse of quake activity, see http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/all)  Almost exactly two years ago (February 22 at 12:51), Christchurch experienced the most destructive of these quakes.  Michiel and I were here for that one.  You can read the story here:  http://michielandsheri.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/earthquake.

Last year, when we deployed to Antarctica, we took a walk around the perimeter of the red zone, the "no-go" area in the former the city center where many buildings were still being evaluated for safety and plans were being made for demolition.

This year, expecting much progress and the beginnings of re-birth, renewal and rebuilding, I took another walk around the red zone.  These days, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) has opened up more areas to pedestrians.  Buildings have been torn down, rubble is everywhere and weeds are reclaiming what used to be Cathedral Square.  It feels, frankly, like a war zone.  Abandoned red-zone homes have been boarded up or have been graffiti'ed.  Roads are torn up.  The sounds of demolition are inescapable.

In an incredibly painful walk of discovery through the downtown area, I tried to find hope.  Yes, there are pockets of Kiwi ingenuity - the colorful shopping mall made of shipping containers, the performing arts space made of pallets, the street art, but these hardly balanced out the disorientation anyone who was familiar with the old Christchurch would feel.  So many buildings have been removed that it is difficult to get your bearings and what remains looks to be so far damaged, that you can't imagine that it would be cost effective to restore them.

The international media seemed to forget about Christchurch as soon as the tsunami in Japan hit.  This is the way it goes.  But in the interest of showing you just how devastated this city is and how far it has to come to return to even a part of its former charm, I've taken some photos to share with you.

Many spires and steeples on heritage structures had to be removed and placed on the ground for fear of toppling.

The most heart-wrenching of all....the Cathedral

The New:  Christchurch's Re:Start Mall made of shipping containers

Shipping containers are frequently used as shoring.  New Regent Street is the next area slated to open.

More vistors

The last couple of weeks have been very boat-intensive. Apart from our supply ship visiting, we also had the Point Sur. The NSF used this small vessel to see if it was suitable for doing research in the region; small and nimble and less costly than the LMG. Unfortunately also not ice reinforced, so the plan of dropping a group of geologists off at a field camp was foiled by too much ice. The geologists ended up staying in Palmer while we were already at maximum capacity.

Point Sur at the pier.

The other goal of getting the "whale hunters" group to their prey was very successful; they were able to gather a lot of data on predominantly Humpback and Minke whales. They use a couple of different tags that allow them to track the animals and learn about their habits. The 2 science lectures that they gave were very interesting and had beautiful pictures.

Quixote

Another vessel that brought us a visit was the Quixote, a 12 meter small steel hull ship that was built by 1 of the 4 people sailing it. They spent a couple of hours on station, received a tour and reciprocated by giving us a tour on their yacht. They had been sailing for 30 days now and had visited a lot of different station. Makes me realize how little we see of the continent. Ah well, at least we get to see a little bit of it.

This week's visit of the Ushuaia also marked the last cruise ship of the season to come and visit Palmer Station. One last time did we all get are tasks as Tour Guides, Store Helpers and Meet and Greeters.

Our cruise ship guests enjoying our hospitality and famous brownies.

Ushuaia with iceberg.

The latest bunch of visitors are a bunch of icebergs that are coming closer and closer to our station. Visually this is great because it changes the landscape a bit and now we don't have to take a zodiac to go and watch them up close. Of course, if they keep on coming they could make it pretty hard for the next LMG to come to port. The next LMG is a crucial one, because it is the one that will take us away.
:-)

To show scale.

To show the beauty.

Treaty Inspection

Regular readers of our blog know by now that Antarctica is protected by the Antarctic Treaty System. It came into force on June 23, 1961 by the signatures of the 12 countries that were active on the continent at that time and by now has now grown to be a list of 49 countries.

One of the clauses in the Treaty ensures that members can inspect each other's stations and operations at any time to see if the rules are being followed. So it came to be that we were informed half a day in advance that Palmer was going to get a visit from the British HMS Protector bringing with it an international delegation of inspectors. And to my surprise, one them being a Dutch representative.
The Netherlands has been a member since 1967 and became a voting member in 1990. I never realized it, but the Netherlands has an equivalent to the National Science Foundation which is called the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek or NWO which is part of the Nederlands Polair Programma. We don't have our own station, but as of this year we have a number of labs stationed at the British station Rothera. Link in English    Link in Dutch
 
The station manager provided the inspection team with the documents and drawings they requested, after which they did a tour of the station and spoke to some members of our Facilities crew and Waste Management. I think that overall they were quite impressed with our facilities and advanced labs, especially compared to some of the stations that they visited earlier. Some of them  apparently resembled no more than just a presence on the continent than a place where science was being conducted. They had already visited some 10 stations before coming here and had several more planned for the remainder of their journey,  but when a French yacht arrived and anchored near our station, they too were treated to an inspection to see if all their permits and equipment were in order.
Busy people those inspectors.

The HMS Protector.

The French yacht being inspected.

Visitor from outer space

The last boat that came to Palmer not only brought us freshies and new Scientists, but also some high level managers, one of which came from outer space. Actually, I should say that he was a former astronaut. Scott Parazynski is the Medical Director for the US Antarctic Program. If you look at his wikipedia page, you'll see that he has done 5 space shuttle flights and 7 space walks, as well as climbing Mount Everest and some other stuff.

While he was here, he gave 2 presentations. The first one was about a subject that is near and (maybe) dear to all of us who work in the Antarctic Program because it dealt with the medical qualification (PQ) process that we have to deal with before being allowed to come here. Scott explained about the transition process (after taking over from previous contractor; Raytheon) and what they had to do to be able to deal with the very short time frame that they were given (basically hiring a bunch of temp working, taking lots of work home with him, making a strict prioritization of who needs to PQ first because their plane is leaving and PQ'ing people as they were getting on the plane). He has also been inviting feedback from us about the PQ process as a step to improving the whole process.

In Scott's opinion the winning quote from that feedback was; "You people must have put the fax machine right above the shredder, because I have had to fax my forms several times to you." He also showed us the process from their point of view. The winner there was one person who after being told that a certain form was missing proceeded to fax everything several times again except for the missing form. Then there are all the people who forgot that the back side of the forms also needs to be filled out. On average a medical file requires looking at a couple of times, but there were instances where that number climbed to 10 because of omissions as mentioned above.

The second of his talks was about his NASA career and that was great to listen to. Unfortunately he had not really counted on doing this, so he did not have the cool video clips that would normally be in his talks. He made up for that by allowing us plenty of questions at the end. He also said that he had the time of his life during this visit in Antarctica (really, after having been in space? ) and enjoyed our hospitality very much.

I'm shaking hands with an astronaut.