Malaysia

March 22, 2008: Saturday (second to last day in Malaysia)

Wow guys, you should be proud of me for writing in this blog right in the middle of being in port—this doesn't happen often lol... Ok, where to start... In Malaysia, we cannot dock right at the dock and have to anchor in the harbor, which means that we have to tender in the lifeboats to get to shore. On the very first day, Tricia and I talked about how much we wanted to go inside the lifeboats, and we got our chance. We waited around in the Union to leave on our tender for the Malaysian village (kampung) homestay, which took forever. We finally left and man, is Georgetown really nice! We're technically staying on the island/in the state of Penang, and the port in which we are, well, porting, is Georgetown (Malaysia, believe it or not, was once a British colony, hence the name...). I couldn't believe how clean everything was compared to India. Literally, the city is in much better shape than Atlanta. I didn't see a single beggar on my first day—it was SUCH a nice break from India, and in my opinion thus far, Malaysia and India are opposites: in India, the people were so amazing and friendly, and I think the people in Malaysia are really nice but I feel kind of indifferent toward them, to be honest... and India was super dirty, polluted, and trashy (I am pretty darn sure that "trash can" was quite literally not in their vocabulary), and Malaysia (at least Georgetown/Penang) is well-kept, clean, and 99% beggar-free... the disparity between the two countries is crazy (but also kind of welcome... India was pretty rough). Anyway, we took a 1 hour bus ride over some beautiful mountains to get to our kampung, Jalan Bharu in Balik Pulau (pulau means "island" in Malay), and all of a sudden we were in lush, beautiful rainforest with tons of palm trees everywhere... I never would have thought that Malaysia would be so jaw-droppingly (I know it's not a word... deal with it) beautiful, and it makes me wonder why more people who can afford to go halfway around the world go there. I personally wouldn't stay very long in Penang if I came back just because there isn't a whole lot to do (in India, there is a ton of stuff to do!), but Teneya said something about taking a two-decker bus from here to Singapore someday for only 80 ringgits (about $27, and that's inclusive of a place to sleep, food, movies, etc... wow) and I would totally come back just to do that... Anyway, we got to the kampung and it was clear that they've done this before: they had commercially-made banners of welcome hanging up and whatnot, but that's fine... We had a quick snack and a welcome speech (these guys loved to give speeches... it was adorable) and then got introduced to our families. My "sister" was a nice girl named Stephanie, and our mom's name was Mariam. Everyone in the kampung is Muslim (well, for the most part), so all the women wore veils, which was cool. Random fact: the Muslim girls put on their veils for the first time at age 7. Anyway, our mom was so cute and sweet and we got driven the .01 miles to her house because it was raining (flash flooding... just like at home, but the rain was so nice and warm), and her house was comfortable and quaint—all the villager's houses have tin roofs and a vented border along the top of the inside rooms to let the air move freely throughout the house (it gets super hot and would feel like an oven otherwise—they enjoy 90% humidity here—Mom, I want you to come here so you will know that Georgia humidity is nothing)... We got served some more food, which was lunch, and consisted of: some really good vegetables in hot sauce, whole squid (brains, organs, and all... ick), some fried rice, and some other sort of seafood... Because both Stephanie and I took the squid, we felt like we had to eat it, and we took one bite and just couldn't do any more... It was gross and kind of awful, but we didn't want to offend our mom, so we did it anyway. After that, we went upstairs to our cute little room for a nap but 5 minutes later had to get up to do a communal thing in the gathering area, where we played some traditional games like the rock game (you basically throw up some little stones and try to get them all to land on the back of your hand—it's hard), spinning tops, and mancala (which I thought was an African game...). We also watched the local women make these AWESOME little crunchy cookies, which was a really cool process. I forgot to mention that our homestay house had a Western toilet (yay!!!), which was a luxury—no squatty potties! As our mom didn't speak much English, she and her husband sat us down to watch their satellite tv and put on the scary movie channel that was in English—it was funny that they thought that we would like it just because it was in English. We also got to meet their daughter, Su, who is 22 and goes to college and is studying accounting. She is by far the most liberal Muslim I've ever met—she doesn't wear the veil unless she is going to school, has a boyfriend of her own choice, wears skinny jeans and Coach shoes, and prays whenever, rather than the standard 5 times a day. She's really tall and skinny and she knew a good deal of English. She has two cell phones for some weird reason, and she originally told us that she has two boyfriends (and we believed her), and only told us two days later that she was only kidding lol... Oh, I forgot to mention that on the way to the kampung, I was reflecting with a girl named Melodi about how I think it's kind of a shame that we always go to countries that usually speak a little bit of English, and the signs are often in English, etc... I like being challenged and I was kind of disappointed that we keep going to former English colonies. So, I got my wish to be challenged language-wise during the homestay because our mom spoke very little English, so it was awesome to mime things out, and I'm very glad I had Stephanie because when I didn't understand what mom was trying to say, she understood, and vice versa. It was cool to work together and it was more meaningful to get what our mom was saying because we worked for the answer. I enjoyed that very much. Anyway, we later went back to the communal area after a nice nap and yet another snack of these little cakes and Milo hot chocolate for dinner and a cultural show. The dinner was pretty good, and we had to eat with our hands (I'm ready to start using utensils again... I'm not a very big fan of eating with my hand, but it's ok because it's a cool experience nonetheless), but it did consist of fish, and I absolutely hate fish... I wound up eating a whole lot of fish over the course of the 3 days we were there and I of course had to eat it because I didn't want to offend my dear mom—it was a funny situation. Anyway, the cultural show was adorable: the children put on dance and singing shows and their form of dancing is very beautiful and graceful, and kind of reminded me of Greek dancing. When I studied folk dancing at school, we learned that dance pace varies in different climates, so when it's hotter, they move slower (think hula) and when it's cooler, they move faster (think riverdancing or Irish stuff), and I noticed this to be true—they move a lot slower. We got to perform with them later, and I went up and had a very good time. Oh, I forgot to mention that we went to an herb farm and saw pineapples, mango trees, and lots of herbs, naturally. It was surrounded by lots and lots of tall palm trees, and the clouds were dark and stormy, so it made for a beautiful scene. It rained some more later... Oh, I also forgot to mention that our mom had us wear her nice satin outfits (local dress—it is a lot like an Indian punjabi suit, which is a more conservative outfit than a sari, in that it covers your whole arms and legs) and later wound up giving them to us! That night, I got bitten up pretty badly by the mosquitoes and got kind of freaked out because I have a kind of weird fear of getting bugs in my ears, and the mosquitoes would buzz around my ears, which prompted me to crawl under the hot covers and cover my head... I could still hear them through the covers and was paranoid enough to think that they were inside my covers and would occasionally shake them out... It was kind of miserable lol. Day two of the homestay: fried egg, fried rice, and doughnuts (these people don't eat healthily), ran to the goat farm to get there with everyone else (got to hold the cutest little 3 week old baby goat... it was sooo soft and made the cutest little sounds I've ever heard), went to an ostrich farm (those guys can be vicious... ), went to a tiny batik factory, about died in the heat in my t-shirt and jeans (but had to wear that stuff because it's a Muslim area and we can't offend them by showing our shoulders and anything above the knee...), had to eats lots of fish (ick!), had lunch at stinky fisherman's village (where they served every Malaysian's favorite drink, apparently, which is basically watered-down cough syrup... they love their stuff super sweet to the point of being disgusting...) and a very small group of us got invited to go on one of the fisherman's boats for a short ride to an oyster farm, where we walked over the water on very thin planks (I had my camera on me—eek!) and where we saw a cuttlefish in a bucket (they change colors to adjust to their environment for camouflage and they kind of shimmer... it looks cool... and they squirt ink if you bother them enough, which was cool to see, and they get darker and darker if you poke them enough lol), went to beach to play games and no one wanted to because it was in the middle of the day and therefore oppressively hot (plus we were all wearing lots of clothes because we have to because of the Muslim influence), saw rice paddy fields that were flooded over, got back spasms and have yet to find a chiropractor, our mom did our laundry (aww!), gave us two shirts each, and gave us each a new head veil thing (our theory is that she only gave us them because she thought we weren't covered up enough), wore them out to go to Night Market (candies, food—including chicken feet and hearts—urgh, cheap toys, groceries, cheap clothes), watched a scary movie on the tv, got fed even more snacks (one of which included these crunchy, itty-bitty WHOLE fish on top of rice... I had to eat it, and it was awful... they had the heads and tails on and everything lol), then went to bed. Day three: woke up, had our mom's famous rice dish that was really good, went to the communal area to receive our gifts that they made us (paper cup peacocks with little golden "eggs" of soap inside, two random shirts each, a mug with pickled fruits in it, etc), mom gave us tons of snack cake things and a little egg caddy with a hard-boiled egg in it (kinda weird but adorable nonetheless), left on the bus, got back to the ship, showered, and left with Melodi to walk around Penang. Visited a Chinese ancestral temple thing that's being restored and covered in gold and they were nice enough to give us a tour, walked along some more and saw another Chinese temple with the biggest incense sticks I've ever seen burning outside of it, walked through Little India and got major nostalgia (I miss India), finally made it to the internet cafe we'd been looking after having Kickapoo's Joy Juice (a citrus soda that tasted just like Mellow Yellow) and a watermelon slice, went grocery shopping at the 7-11 next door to the internet cafe while waiting for two computers to open up, I bought crispy M & Ms (you're jealous) and lots of other yummy snack foods, went on the internet for 3 hours and uploaded some photos on Facebook (it cost me $3 total... wow), went to a super cheap and very tasty Indian restaurant and had the BEST Indian food I'd ever had (tandoori chicken with cheese naan... oooohhhh my goodness sooo good) and a yummy Milo (hot chocolate mix) ice blended drink, walked back to the ship and went to bed... Next day (yesterday), slept in (yay!), watched P.S. I Love You with Teneya (worst movie ever), finally went out in Penang with her, Catherine, and this girl named Lauren (I think?), went to Little India where I bought another sari (this one's for Jess—you're gonna love it, gorgeous!) and bought a funny hat for Dad (and jangle bangles for my feet, which I wore for the rest of the day), started raining and Teneya and Lauren left and Catherine and I took a taxi to the mall, where I got a haircut and the most amazing head massage for $9 total (including the tip, and I was being generous!), went to Starbucks (which was in all honesty pretty nice to have), bought a camera battery charger (yay!), and splurged on myself at the Body Shop ($43 on mascara, a microdermabrasion face wash, and lip butter lol) and it felt AWESOME to treat myself (I'm still excited about it), and bought myself some itty-bitty hair clips (bows!) to put in my hair, yay!... then, walked in the rain a little ways to get a taxi, and went back to the ship. Today: slept in, intended to meet everyone else at the internet cafe but they weren't there, went on internet for a long time and they still didn't show up, so I found a taxi, went to the Eastern and Orient hotel on my own, and sat down for afternoon tea! :-) Some SAS lifelong learners/staff were there, too, and saw that I was alone and invited me to join them, so I did. It was really fun and very yummy. I had jasmine tea—my favorite! :-) Then, I walked around the grounds of this British colonial era gem of a hotel for a while, and then set off toward the ship for an approximately 20 minute long stroll... I came across a park with a playground and enjoyed watching the children play with kites (it was about to storm and it was really windy... I love it right before it storms!) and took some pictures. I felt perfectly safe walking around on my own—I never would have expected to feel safer in a foreign country on my own than I would in, say, Atlanta, or some other US city, and it was very refreshing to just be on my own. I very much enjoyed it and felt revived because of it. I hope that someday I won't be afraid to go out on my own, and I hope that I will learn this on my trip (employing, of course, common sense and trusting my instincts... remember that this was my last day there and I had plenty of time to assess the situation... I saw 4 beggars the entire time I was here, which was amazing)... I just still feel like I'm not travel savvy as much as I'd like to be yet, which is kind of disappointing. I also want to leave more room for spontaneity, because that easily makes for the best experiences. I really wish that I had known that you could do stuff independently and not only through SAS because I want to do more things on my own. At the very least, this is the beginner's course to traveling for me—you have to start somewhere. Then, I got to hear the coolest story from Caitlin about her experience, and that's exactly the kind of experience I would like to have. Anyway, tons of people went to KL (Kuala Lumpur), and I'm glad that I didn't. I've decided that I have next to no desire to come back to Malaysia unless someone successfully convinces me to come along with them—I wasn't too impressed at all, to be honest. It's a shame, too, because I thought that Malaysia sounded amazing. Oh well. Ok, time for bed! Much love to you all!

Michelle

A Whole New World <3>