Vicki and I spent last Christmas in small-town Taiping, Malaysia. I was Santa Claus. We've stayed many times in Taiping, a former tin-mining town set in a rainforest. About 150 years ago the mine ran out, and someone flooded the pit and turned it into a beautiful lake garden. Huge rain trees line the road around the garden. We love that park. I've looked at birds in the spacious garden, while others jog, exercise, stroll, row boats on the lake,...