I am currently writing this while aboard ship in Singapore harbor two days after Malaysia. Before talking about Malaysia I just wanted to say that there are more ships around right now than I have ever seen. I did not count specifically but there must be 50+ huge freighters and tankers around Singapore right now and I thought it was just an amazing testament to the amazing economic growth of this tiny city-state-country over the past 50 years or so. Unfortunately we are still pretty far out from the city so I will not get a good view of the skyline. Malaysia was great and really renewed confidence in my ability to travel independently, flexibly, and cheaply in the world. I feel motivated to travel further away from home now to places that might have previously seemed to distant or dangerous.
I also want to add that my typing may be poor because I am sitting in the Union and the musical movie Rent is playing on the projector screen. This is slightly distracting because many musical loving singing shipmates who apparently love this movie are singing, dancing, and clapping along with all the songs in the movie. Isa if you are reading this, I am thinking that if you were here you would definitely be singing right along with all these kids.
I am going to keep my country summary short this time. I spent about 12 hrs writing the piece on India and it was extremely exhausting. I also have a test to study for tonight and just don’t have the time to elaborate as much so forgive me if the Malaysia summary is more direct and kind of boring. On that positive note I shall begin.
APRIL 2, 2007
I did not disembark the ship until about 4:00pm upon arrival in Penang Malaysia because I spent most of the day finishing my summary of India. My friend James and I set out on an exploratory walk of the city and found it to be extremely clean and modern. We walked through China Town and India Town then returned to the docks. By the way, we had to take the lifeboats between the ship and shore because there was no pier to dock to and this became a frustrating process. After walking around James and I met a group of girls we were friends with and took a taxi to a Thai food restaurant. I am not exactly sure what I ate but it was extremely spicy. For some reason I ate directly out of the extra spicy topping bowl when there was no water nearby to subdue the burning sensation. People laughed while I suffered until water finally arrived. After dinner we all traveled to a bowling alley in Georgetown because apparently they really enjoy bowling. The alley was very similar to bowling back home except the group next to us was insane. The reaction for every strike our bowling neighbors made me think they had perhaps won a billion dollar lottery or something. I bowled a 139 then a 92 which quickly reminded me that I suck at bowling. After bowling the girls left and James and I explored the nightlife area which was pretty dead on a Monday night. I did however listen to some cover bands. One band played Hotel California and another played Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I decided that night that there are way to many songs referring to California and we need more for North Carolina. And I am sorry but Petey Pablos rap about “North Carolina raising up” just doesn’t do our state justice.
APRIL 3, 2007
Today my friend Suzanna and I left the boat around 10:30 am with the mission to somehow get to the town of Tana Rata in the Cameron Highlands.
Before I continue the summary I need to explain that Suzanna is not a girl I am interested in or a boat girlfriend or anything special like that. She is strictly a friend and has a boyfriend who she talked about annoyingly often. In fact it was strange because her boyfriends name is also Nicholas so at times she would be blabbing about Nicholas blah blah blah and I would think “Man she talks more than my mom.”
So now that I clarified that situation, we took the ferry from Georgetown to Penang to arrive at the bus station. We asked around and had help finding a bus to Ipoh. In Ipoh, the third largest city, we transferred busses and arrived in Tana Rata around 4:30pm. The drive was very revealing to me as the cities of both Penang and Ipoh were very modern and clean while the countryside was hilly with many rows of large palm trees. I think these are for palm oil harvesting but they may be for fruits or rubber extraction as well. Also, being the nerd that I am, the terra forming of land along the highways I found to be very impressive. There are huge terraced hillsides, drainage canals, and structural reinforcements everywhere I presume to prevent landslides during monsoon season. So after our arrival in Tana Rata our search for a place to stay began. After wandering around for about 30 minutes we found a place called “Fathers Guest House” for R35 a night or about $12. Our room consisted of two hard full beds in a building that resembled an old style army barracks. We shared a communal bathroom that reminded me of the facilities of former Boy Scout camps. After settling in we decided to make a short hike before sunset. We set off on a trail to a dirty small waterfall and up a hill to a fire tower and a nice view of the town. Arriving back in town after sunset we grabbed an outdoor table at a Chinese restaurant. After ordering we ran into a nice German couple who had sat near us on the bus ride and invited them to join us. They were in their late 30’s and traveled for a month each year backpacking somewhere in the world. We ended up spending the rest of the evening with them talking and then enjoying dessert at another place on the street. Our conversations were very interesting and we spoke about US politics, education systems, travel, and other topics. The one real interesting comment from the guy, Christian, explained how Germans had not flown flags and exhibited publicly nationalistic pride until the World Cup in 2006. He said before the World Cup Germans were still shy of being prideful in their country because of the past atrocities of WWII but that the event gave them a new sense of pride. We then went to bed.
APRIL 4, 2007
We grabbed breakfast around 9:00 am and met three young guys who were in their mid twenties and taught English in Japan. There were two Americans and a Brit who had been in Japan for about the past two years teaching. Quite randomly we decided to join up with them for the day hiking and set off on a big hike around 10:00am. The hike was great as the weather in this area of Malaysia is relatively cool with much lower humidity than along the coasts. It was extremely steep in areas and they had not yet embraced the concept of switchbacks. So we basically hiked straight up the mountain along our trail that doubled as a muddy gulley during monsoon season. The best part of the hike was observing a troop of loud baboons that swung past over us while near the peak. We finished the hike and arrived back at the hostel around 3:00pm. Everyone showered and took naps while I went back into town to use and internet café. I spent about 4 hours on the internet costing me $4 whereas on the ship 4 hours would have cost me $100. The interesting thing about the café was that I was surrounded by intense computer game playing young Malaysian males. Let me tell you, these Asians loved their computer games. People were yelling to each other, blowing stuff up, using magic spells, and having all kinds of computer game accomplishments. Finally, after updating the blog I returned to meet the group at the hostel. We all headed out to dinner at a local Indian food restaurant that served its meals on large tropical leaves. The food was spicy and delicious. Our German friends joined us again while passing by and we all had a great evening eating and talking to each other while drinking some local “Tiger” beer. Afterwards the meal we headed back to the hostel and played a quick game of Yahtzee. I won the game then headed to bed. This was also the night I lost my retainer. This is really upsetting because it may result in me getting a third round of braces which is just ridiculous.
APRIL 5, 2007
My last day in Malaysia was pretty uneventful. We caught a bus back to Penang around 8:00am and did not arrive back on ship until nearly 3:00pm. After dropping off the gear I returned to shore to explore Georgetown in my last few hours there. I caught a bus to the mall with Suzanna and we both explored for awhile looking for souvenirs. This was without a doubt the largest mall I had ever seen in my life. It was six stories high with a large open area in the middle. There were also connection bridges to two other mall buildings just as large on the other side of the street. I spilt from Suzanna to find a mouth guard to hopefully serve as a temporary retainer. I explored all over the mall with no luck then caught a cab to another mall. The second mall I explored was also huge but much nicer with many expensive luxury stores. Again no mouth guard, but a guy at the exercise store helped me find a place in the phone book that had what I needed. Again I took a cab to this store and then finally returned to the dock. I spent three hours and $20 traveling around looking for and finally finding a $1 mouth guard. At the dock I ran into some friends going out and joined them to head right back to the first mall I was at. I sadly ate at McDonalds and then spent the rest of my money on illegal DVDs. At $2 each I could not pass up the opportunity and the quality is pretty good. It was very interesting to me that the movies were not sold by sketchy street vendors but instead by recognized operations that paid to lease space in the mall. There were about five of these stores in the mall and I would pick the DVDs, pay the money, and then return 10 minutes later while they burned the movies for me. Finally, with all my money spent I returned to the ship for good around 8:00pm.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As I said in my last e-mail, Malaysia is an extremely modern country and the people are very friendly. While there still seems to be some division between the three main ethnic groups Malay, Indian, and Chinese they manage to put aside their differences to coexist peacefully in Malaysia. I highly recommend this country for anyone seeking a fun, inexpensive, and exotic vacation. Time for me to go study.
