Malaysia, Simply Asia!

Malaysia! A country I had absolutely no expectations going in to, down to the point of having absolutely no plans. But I couldn’t be more pleased with these last five days. Now, when you hear what all I did in port you might think “Really? That’s how she chose to spend her time in port?”And I’ll admit it wasn’t the trip I had in mind, but it was definitely the trip I needed at this juncture of Semester at Sea.

Malaysia is a different port from all the others because of the docking process. The ship can’t pull up to a pier, so we have to take tenders to shore –essentially, our lifeboats. Our first experience of the tender process was terrifying. That first morning it was basically monsooning outside, which equals rough waters. So to get on the tender we had to stand on a small deck on the side of the ship and then step onto the tender. This would have been fairly simple, were it not for the fact that the tender was rising a foot above and falling a foot below the stairs. So two crew members held our arms on the deck and then when the timing was right we stepped onto the tender and were grabbed by another crew member. But the tender wasn’t sanctuary. Instead it was more like a sauna –100 people crammed into a boat that is sealed up so that it could survive in the middle of the ocean if necessary, not really made for air circulation. It only took about 5 minutes to get to shore, but it took 15 minutes to load the boat and more to unload depending on how close to the door you sat. Plus it only left the ship on the hour and the pier on the half hour; there was a lot less pit stops on the ship than normal, to say the least.

So after we survived the tender, my friends and I braved the downpour to find a place to eat. We happened upon a food court with a bunch of kiosks of vendors selling different foods. We were so excited because this was the first country they didn’t warn us about the street food, so we went to town. The other incredible part? Each meal cost only one US dollar. That’s what I like to call a deal. I honestly couldn’t tell you what I ate, but I can tell you it was so good I went back every day and tried something new and equally delicious each day. Best discovery ever. After the meal it was still raining, so where do you go on a rainy day? The mall! I could see Mom rolling her eyes when I told her I went to the mall, but it was still a cultural experience! For instance, going into stores was really unnerving because they employees would follow you around wanting to help you, but conditioning in the US has made me think that means they think I’m going to shoplift. In the evening I went to the Welcome Reception; it was cool, but definitely not up to par with what I’ve heard about the ones in the other countries –everyone was very unsatisfied with the SAS day trips this country, I think they need to work with a new tour agency. I got to see a shadow puppet show at the reception. We couldn’t understand half of it because it was in Malay, but the comedic break in the middle was an American trying to get directions from a Malaysian, I liked that they were poking fun at us. It is a very neat art form.

The next day I spent in Little India –yes, even though I had just spent 5 days in India. It was worth it though. I got to get all the souvenirs I didn’t think to get in India, and more things that just weren’t available in India. Monday is the Festival of Lights, so they were selling all kinds of decorations, it was neat to see. My friend got a Punjabi suit at a store that made a sari for Miss Universe that she wore in the competition. Mid-day we went back to the ship for an hour break. We ended up on the tender with all the mail coming in; it was really neat to see all the packages and the huge sack of mail, and the crew kept joking that we could take what we wanted. In the evening I just went out for a nice meal at a place on the water near the pier and headed in early.

Friday was spa day. That’s right, I went to a spa, and every single minute and dollar spent was fabulous and worth it. After so many trips of carrying my huge backpack everywhere, my back was aching walking around. I got an hour-and-a-half massage, a body scrub, a milk bath, and a pedicure. The place was gorgeous too. It was tucked away in the hills with an ocean view surrounded by huge lush trees, just fabulous. That night we went to a restaurant/club right by the pier on the water. We had the best time when people asked us where we were from, because we could just point to the ship. Too cool.

Saturday we attempted to hike Penang Hill. I say attempted because we never made it. We started off with a leisurely stroll through the Botanical Gardens, and we kept getting passed by dozens of joggers –apparently it’s the place to work out in Penang. We should have known what we were in for by the people stretching at the base of the hill. But still, we decided to take the more difficult but more scenic route up through Moon Gate. Five minutes in we were all drenched in sweat and panting. It’s not that it was really that difficult, but paired with the humidity it was deadly. And there were stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. And these stairs were definitely not carved into the hillside with my little bitty legs in mind. Not so much fun. After about an hour and a half in, we decided to turn back. We’re not sure how far we made it, but I’m sticking with halfway to make myself feel better. It was beautiful hiking through the jungle though. And at one point we came upon a troop of monkeys (is that what you call them? Or is it a pack?) and they were leaping all around us and above our heads in the trees, with the yittle babies clinging to the mommy monkeys. We just stopped and stared at them, while holding all our bags tight because they have a penchant for running away with them. We recovered from our work out at our food court, and then went to a different mall –this one was the hawker mall. We decided to walk there, and got horribly lost in Chinatown but made it eventually. It was worth it though, because I made the best purchases of my life. For $70 US total, I purchased the following: All 7 seasons of The West Wing –Seasons 1-3 of How I Met Your Mother –Seasons 1-4 of House –Seasons 1-4 of Numb3rs. That’s right. The West Wing set has one disc for each season. They came in boxes too and I’ve checked them all and they all play and are good quality. Apparently you can get them cheaper in Vietnam, but I don’t have as much time there and word is that the quality is iffier and there’s a greater chance they won’t work, so I’m more than content. What’s more, that night I went to Batu Ferengi where they have a night market and bought even MORE DVDs! I’m crazy, I know, but it’s totally worth it. For just $30 US I got: Season 2 of Psych –Season 1 of Gossip Girl –All episodes of Black Adder –The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. And they are all in fine working condition as well! I will never be bored on the ship again haha, but it’s going to be much harder to motivate myself to work. The night market was really neat –1 kilometer of stalls along the road, with lots of knock-off bags, watches, and DVDs, but some cool art as well and the normal tourist souvenirs. The truly best part of the night was getting back on the tender, because we were on it with a bunch of the crew coming back for the night, including my room steward Jesse and my favorite server Perry. It was really neat to see the crew in their street clothes and just having a good time with their friends. And it just warms my heart how happy they are when they see me –I got huge smiles and waves when they spotted me. They are the most amazing people ever. Oh, and there was a huge and hysterical debate between the different dining room staff about which floor was better to eat on (obviously deck 5 –Perry brings me dessert!).

So Mom isn’t totally disappointed, I did go to some temples this morning! We went to two Buddhist temples that were across the street from each other. One was Thai and has the famous reclining Buddha (if my internet was working right now I’d look up how long it is) and the other was Burmese and had a giant, gold sitting Buddha (again, if my internet was working I’d look up how tall it was). Both were absolutely stunning. The outsides of the temples are just so bright and joyous, just covered in intricate and ornate carvings. Then you get inside and the main focus is the Buddha, but then there are other small Buddha statues absolutely everywhere littering the temples. The walls behind the sitting Buddha were just covered in hundreds of identical Buddha statues. They had really neat candles for prayers that were pink lotus flowers. Behind the reclining Buddha was a mausoleum, with hundreds of urns of ashes in glass cases along the wall. The glass was etched with information about the person and usually had a picture of them on it as well, it was really neat to explore. Strangely enough, they were also selling orange monastic robes there. We tried to go to our food court one last time, but for some reason it wasn’t open and the rest of Penang was like a ghost town, so we just took the tender back and ate on the ship. It must have been fate, because they were serving fried chicken and French fries so I was in absolute heaven. This afternoon was spent relaxing, catching up on work, doing the blog and picture thing, and cleaning up the tornado my room turns into while in port. Luckily tomorrow is my sleep-in day, because it’s already 11 pm but more episodes of Psych are calling me! Someone help, I have an addiction. I’ll be going cold-turkey in 3 days though, because I’ll be in Vietnam! Crazy crazy whirlwind traveling has officially commenced!