and they are off, Race Day Formula 1 Grand Prix in Malaysia

If words such as those were spoken, we did not hear them. We did hear the Malaysian national anthem at the onset of the afternoon. At the conclusion of the race, spoiler alert if you have not heard, Sebastian Vettel won. Hence the German celebration from the Berliners who were next to us in the grandstand. Another young Sebastian here with his family were around to pose in celebration with their flags which broke out in profusion.  

As a result of his victory driving a Ferrari, an Italian car, after the race we heard two more national anthems.  

But I am ahead of myself. Here is the start. From our seats in the grandstand at the end of the start/finish straight-a-way and at the first of a series of sharp turns.

advancing through the turn.  Hamilton of England driving a Mercedes is on the pole followed by Vettel.

Lap three, this guy spun out in front of us and could not get out of the soft dirt and so was picked up by a crane and carried away. A DNF on lap 3, not such a good race.

I moved from our seats for a while and ranged around — even got down to the front row and of course got up to the top row as I moved across the grandstand. Had several different views of the sharp turns coming off the straight-a-way.

Just after I took a picture, perhaps this one, one of these cars did a 360 right in this curve.  I, of course missed the photo - or of the car sideways, the other cars somehow missed him.

Vettel in his red Ferrar and white helmut. Like me when I was on the simulator, spent just a wee bit of time cutting grass.

We missed the action in the pits where changing tires was a big deal. One of Vettel's changes was in 2.4 seconds. Other changes for drivers were in 2.7. When you win a race by just a few seconds, these kind of seconds matter I suppose.

Below you can see the far turn. In the straight leading up to it, there would be one heck of a speed up and often attempt to pass in that more gentle? curve.

Looking to the right over the center area you can see some of the back area. The course is a little over 5.5 miles long. Takes a little over 1 minute 40 seconds to do a lap.

one of the favored, Mercedes — favored, does not mean won.

Linda keeping a close eye on the action and in contact with the Vettel team. I was not aware that she is an advisor to the team. Note the team colors that she is wearing.

Sebastian, as Linda calls him, in front of the rest of the pack.

and it is over, party time is here. We did not go down to the track. Patt taking the picture from top of the stands captures Charles, me, and Linda exiting our row. Great seats we had too.

Good times, real good time. Charles and Linda headed back to Penang. Patt and I to Kuala Lumpur for another day (Monday) of touring. Then early Tuesday we fly to Hanoi.

Practice day at Sepang F-1 Circuit, Kuala Lumpur

This is not NASCAR, but is is similar, you've got your noise, your expensive hats, shirts, beer, not so good food, and crowds. The crowd is very very different though. Not a Confederate flag in sight. German, Australian, Finnish, Spanish, well yes, there are. Valvoline, Cheerios and Budweiser, no, Stantander (a Spanish Bank) yes, and well you get the idea. Average weight here is probably a little less too.  

This crowd also had cameras on practice day as it was not crowded and a person could go pretty much anywhere in side the main facility grandstand areas. We did.

See that race car photo, there are about 15, no exaggeration,15 photos deleted to get that one, perhaps more. They are hard to photograph coming by at about a bazillion miles per hour. I had to pan the ole point and shoot Cannon whatever kind of point and shoot it is and it was quite a bit of luck to occasionally get a car in one of the pictures. This car is from Team Red Bull - they will not do well in the race I understand. Renault, their engine supplier, is struggling this year.

and without verification this is, I think, Sebastian Vettel, from Team Ferrari. He is German and is a crowd favorite. He finished third at the first race of the season two weeks ago in Australia (after the number 1 and 2 Mercedes drivers). His helmet is white and if you look close it has a famous line from Maya Angelou, 'Still I Rise', on it.

An Englishman - Lewis Hamilton - driving a Mercedes - is the favorite to win - go figure). We are going for Sebastian because Linda does. Can't help it. Go figure. Might as well not pull for Duke or Kentucky either.

Charles and me, "on the front row"

still on the front row

and Patt got a car too, 

look at that!

(She did take several)

--for frame of reference and future blog —

This is along pit row, where we were on the front row, looking down the straight-a-way and away from the start / finish line. If you look closely at the grandstand at the end of the straght-a-way you can see a green stripe going up and to the right. Our seats for the race Sunday are in that section at the level of the top of the letter S in Sepang. Now you know where we will be siting.  

At practice day we enjoyed watching the teams practicing the tire change routine. Some teams were awesome. Good ones completed the switch in something like 2 ½ seconds (or so it seemed).

I think I counted 17 people working on changing red wall to white wall tires, not counting the guy filming standing to the upper left.

We walked around and went to the top of one of the towers at an end of one of the turns. Check out that blue sky. Pretty day too.

Yes, we bought some of the race gear. We also brought ear plugs - we were prepared.

Because we bought some of the gear we got a chance to race simulators in the game tent. When your screen is white like that you are looking at the wall. I think also crossing your arms is probably not good driving technique.

About to get back onto the track and start gearing up to race down the straight-a-way prior to having trouble again in the turns. Never did figure out the track in the three laps and finished last I think of about 10 or so participants in my heat. (I had a death grip on that wheel too.) Check out that jaw — man I am getting ready to rip— that was a fun part— getting out of trouble was not so much, but my going fast was.)

Kuala Lumpur and Restaurant Review # 1 in KL

Came a good bit south and met Charles and Linda in big city with a capital C, Kuala Lumpur for the Sepang F-1 Circuit Race of formula 1 cars.  As we arrived a day prior to practice or time trials we spent a day touring.  Rode the "hop on hop off" double decker open top bus around town.

An advantage of being upper deck is that you can see stuff, like the top of a merchant ally in China town.  It is lunch time, the bus is driving slow, so we hop off — the street looks good and we are near the famous Petalang Street.

and this is down below, not too crowded, a few food stalls, and some not overly aggressive purchasing opportunities,  "no I do not want a suit this afternoon, no not even a nice shirt"

this food court looked good to me and the group complied with my entreaties — after walking the perimeter — we went four directions, returned to table 17 and awaited our orders.

They came slowly and only with a few surprises.  The crispy pork is good.  real good - like a roast.

our fellow diners, this guy enjoyed watching us. We shoulda charged him a fee. We forgot to take a photo of the other dishes as they arrived.

But there was just a little food left toward the end so you can get the idea. Yeah we liked it.

and Petalang Street where the sales opportunities just keep on coming.

We resisted, but Linda was a hard one to keep from adding to her collection of hand waving cats. Don't Charles and I resemble this guy's smile?

The bus tour gave us chance to see the city and traffic of which there is a some — of both.

We went up the KL Tower, the 5th highest tower in the world. See shadow, do math, it was in March, about  1:00 PM, hot, now you know how tall it is. The city is very spread out with large clumps of tall buildings separated by green spaces and crowded highways.

The tower at dusk from our hotel rooftop looking toward a pending storm. Never did get photo of lightning. And Patt tried.

Today went by the Islamic Arts Museum, saw little, well not so little, mock ups of famous mosques from around the world and history. This one Tamerlane (Timour) built about 1200 AD in Samarkand, what is now Uzbekistan.  Looks real impressive.

Also had all sorts of artifacts, tapestries, books, and gems, jewels and, of course, war making materials.

The museum was next to the National Mosque, a large blue mosque, of somewhat the same significance to Malaysia as the National Cathedral in Washington DC is to us. This is the prayer room (photo taken from the outside as I, a heretic, according to those of the Muslim faith, was not allowed to enter).

And another heretic, made presentable enough to walk around part of the mosque with me.

Soi 7 Moon Muang Rd Chiang Mai - SriPat Guest House

was very very good to us. We enjoyed our stay at SriPat very much. We should have, we stayed here nearly a month. Started out as previously mentioned, pretty far out of town at a much less expensive place - nice cottage, just too far from town. Researched a bit, and moved here. Loved it. On a busy soi (side street) heavily used by tourists and Chiang Miaites? Miains? Mias? anyway, there is a lot happening on our Soi 7.

We liked the lobby, finished dressing here each morning. This is where shoes were removed prior to heading further into the Guest House. Yes it was that clean all the time. Had staff sweeping and dusting constantly. 

Fai, our favorite,  the head receptionist and manager when the owner is not there. Excellent English but never tired of helping us with Thai and let us try Thai first. A great teacher and helper in getting us what we wanted / needed and such.  She has been invited to Raleigh, hope she comes.

View out our third floor room window, with the full glass doors opened. It was a quiet and very nice room. Did have the firm Asian mattress though. Sleep number 14 on the 10 scale. We have had 20 or more so this we thought of as rather soft.

As I mentioned on our busy Soi sometimes it is better to watch than participate. There is much coming and going of tourists with big back packs, suit cases, all sorts of travelers and ages and origins. And the business of taking care of them and taking care of each other. Interesting to watch.

We do that actually every morning at breakfast as we have breakfast just across the street and up a bit at a raised open cafe in another hotel. This is the restaurant staff: waitress, cook, and manager (left to right). They too have somewhat adopted us, taught us a lot of Thai, fed us great breakfasts, and kept the coffee pot full. We always saved and read the previous day's Bangkok Post (the current day's edition did not arrive until 10 am), did some people watching and took our time getting started.  

Not quiet by any means is Moon Muang, one of the four perimeter streets of the old square city surrounded by the old city wall and the old moat which still exist in places. Moon Muang is nearly always busy. Sidewalks between Soi 7 and Soi 5 have hawkers, food stalls, a 7-11 (ubiquitous throughout Asia), a full market just off to the right, and Bank of Siam on the corner.  

and is quite pretty. This is just across from Soi 7, though not typically in our line of sight as there is normally heavy traffic.

Off of Soi 7 are many smaller lanes, some very quiet and I have gotten turned around often back in there. Patt seems to know where we are, what lane connects where and what place we have seen before — claims to and I sure can not dispute it. Surprises me when we show up on Soi 9 or get back to Moon Muang.

and some of the lanes between the Sois are full of tourist stuff. One place after the other offering pizza, German food, sushi, or what ever.

Many tour operators are in the area including cooking schools. Patt attended one with these two vivacious girls from Taiwan. I went over to have lunch with them. Got there late, missed my turn.

The Old Wall near our neighborhood.  Note the "moat" beyond.

and part of the Old Wall rebuilt near a street market— either the Saturday or Sunday one,  and it was on the other side of town.  

Outside of the Old Town was a market for hill tribe goods, did not need to buy these as we found a few more things that had not changed one little bit. Not even the design. I have one at home now that I use as a computer bag or camera bag a red one and blue one exactly like these.

and also outside the Old City we found this street. The sign just down the street reads "Siam Magic Massage" - not that there are not ample opportunities for drink and massage in our neighborhood either, just not this obvious.