Attempting to blog about a 3-week vacation is like trying to study for a final. You want to do it yet don't really want to. You get easily distracted by things like the America's Game series, Esperanza Spalding, and motorbikes on seoul.craigslist.kr.co. You know you need to do it sooner than later, but the latter always seems to trump the former. And when coffee doesn't help either, you start googling symptoms of adult attention deficit disorder only to discover that WebMD thinks you're actually probably dying (just like studying for a final right? right???).
With no further adieu (after I read a little about the latest Radiohead album dropping this Saturday!!!!! (hopefully I finish this post by Saturday or that won't make sense...)), I bring to you...(oh who was the best dressed at the Gram.......focus Quinn!)....Malaysia!!!!
While scoping out a possible itinerary way back in October, it was discovered that flying Air Asia from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur was the cheapest way to get to SE Asia. Leaving KL the next day seemed impractical so it made more sense to spend a little more time in the (personally) relatively-unknown Malaysia. After doing more research, we decided to start the vac-asian by spending a week in Malaysia, followed by moving north to spend a week in Thailand, and ending the 3-week trip in Vietnam. All along I had wanted to visit Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, but the time crunch and necessary start in Kuala Lumpur meant Angkor Wat would unfortunately have to wait. 'Nother day, 'nother dollar.
We left Seoul the night of January 14th and arrived first thing Saturday morning. The first leg of the trip started with 10 of us. That sounds like a headache-in-the-making (also known as a BieberJustin) but it actually worked out real nice. All of us are used to each other, know how to handle each other, get along, and are generally-speaking easy going.
...aaaand that's as far as I got last week...
I don't want to bore you with too many words since I can let my pictures do most of the talking, but we luckily arrived in Malaysia a few days before Thaipusam, the grand-daddy of Hindu festivals. For those of you who didn't know the religious breakdown of Malaysia (how ignorant of you...), it's about 60% Muslim, 20% Buddhist, 9% Christian, and 7% Hindu (...thanks wiki). Even though it's a relatively small percentage, the Malaysian Hindu population turned out in the masses for Thaipusam.
Just outside of KL we visited the Batu caves. This massive cave temple is home to one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of Inida, a giant statue dedicated to Lord Murugan. Being my first real encounter of the Hindu religion, outside of movies, it was pretty surreal seeing all the magnificent colors, outfits, and food. It was as close to India as I've ever been. More a PG-rated version. Nobody trying to scam us, steal our things, or dropping dookies in the street (oh wait that's Slumdog Millionaire).
Since I'm getting bored with this post and need to hit the road soon to get my comp inched closer to a fixing, I'm going to try and speed it up a hair (borrowing Julie's great bullet points of the trip;)
Kuala Lumpur
- Stayed at the Classic Inn near Times Square: great outdoor patio
- Cool mosques all over the city
- Central market with all the cheap/knock-off crap that makes SEA great: watches, tank tops, Paul Smith garb, Ray-Bans, etc.
- Chinatown (Pedaling Street), more cheap crap
- Pitstop during day 1 for Chinese food and beer
- Long nap, boys played hours of poker, I rang up lots of ringgit ;)
- Free food and drink at a Stussy store grand opening
- Tasted durian; no one else likes it but me; tastes like a mushy, garlicky mango (I like mushy things, I like garlic, and I like mangoes.....durian's delicious!)
- KL Tower: saw Julie's co-teachers; met a group of Koreans who all wanted pics of us (but mostly Julie), saw Petronas Towers (they were closed)
- Dinner: 8 course meal at local restaurant next to hostel about $2/person (banana roti, curry sauce, various rice, noodle dishes)
Penang
- Very, very delayed bus ride; Mo laid into the dudes running our bus whom donned green and purple hair, respectively; words of wisdom: never buy bus tickets from dudes with green and/or purple hair
- Hutton Lodge: Nathan! So much to say about The Man who worked at our hostel. He was Elton John + Bollywood + probably owned lots of snake-skinned banana hammocks (just like the ones I own....) + all that is awesome and "fabulous"....he even professed his love for us on our last night.....Nathan!
- Stayed in Georgetown, old part of city
- Roti! A crepe-meets-filo concoction for dirt cheap and is made with either banana, cheese, egg, garlic, whatever! Ate an unhealthy amount of these.
- Thaipusam: witnessed the trek that individuals make; involves many piercings, shaved heads, and dance....sooo awesomeness (see photos)
- Rickshaw rides
- Trip to Monkey Beach: 130 ringgit RT boat ride, vicious monkeys, monkeys ate Julie's chips, crazy old Italian monkey lady/tamer, Captain Jack protected us and brought us beer
- Delicious koh tao noodles
- Phase 10
- Red Garden: many food options, Malaysians line dancing, ate frog
And that's our Malaysia excursion in a nutshell. Now that I'm 1/3 of the way done with the trip, maybe I can stop stressing about these posts.
To conclude, Malaysia was an amazing way to introduce oneself to SE Asia. It had all the cultural experiences one could ask for, without most of the tacky tourism that plagues much of SE Asia. Their British influence made it incredibly too easy to get around (even "uneducated" cab drivers who claimed to speak no English were fluent compared to my Korean students). We experienced things I didn't even know existed, ate great food, in restaurants and on the street, for fractions of what they should have cost, and got to meet some pretty great people. Malaysia was, simply put, Malayzing.
