Selamat datang!

Welcome! I wanted to say hello, but I'm not too sure how to spell it, so that will have to do. I think Bahasa Malay looks like a great language to learn, though I don't know how I would go about doing it. A lot of the words are similar to English, like farmasi (pharmacy), fisiologi (physiology), restoran (restaurant), teksi (taxi), and bas (bus). I learned some other random words simply because they were on street signs or signs with translations on them. From what I've heard, it is a relatively easy language to learn, unlike Chinese! I can only say a couple of things in Mandarin, and it's much harder for me to pronounce. As for reading, definitely not. I can write "China" in Chinese and that's about it.

I've just eaten lunch up at the Deck and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to post about my experience the past few days in Malaysia! It was such a contrast to go there after being in Singapore for three weeks. Oddly enough one of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Kuala Lumpur and got out of the bus were the dark circles pasted all over the streets-- yes, chewing gum. Singapore has banned the sale of gum, as I've mentioned before, so that something I would never see on the island. Kuala Lumpur was basically filthy. However, I say that not because it was extremely dirty compared to a typical city, but only dirty compared to Singapore. The streets were no less clean than an alley in Winston-Salem or New York City. Granted, Singapore isn't exactly in pristine condition itself. A couple of weeks ago I ate in a hawker stand and saw a rat running around in the rafters above my head. (I've definitely learned to appreciate the concept of A-grade restaurants at home... here I eat mostly at places with B ratings and occasionally a C.)

Anyway, my point is to give you a basic idea of what Kuala Lumpur is like. The most famous national emblem is probably the Petronas Towers, which is government sponsored but inhabited partly by a private/government oil business. I saw several Petronas gas stations as we travelled through Malaysia.



Okay, this picture is the only one I got of the towers that's even remotely close. I apologize for how blurry it is. I've discovered that it is very difficult to take pictures at night. I took this from an market area close to our hotel. We had just eaten and walked around a little, but it was getting late and we were all tired from the day's five hour bus ride through two immigration stops.

Earlier on Thursday we had visited the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, which was far more interesting than I had expected. My knowledge of embassies and those who work there was limited, so this was a great way to see the types of jobs available. The woman who led our group discussion/information session was actually a '98 grad of UNC and was very excited to see people from home. She was very nice and first gave us a rundown of the state of Malaysia before launching into information about herself and how she became involved in the foreign services aspect of the Department of State. There was also an intern there who was a grad student at... Cornell? Or maybe it was Drexel? At any rate, she told us that there were great internship opportunities through the Department of State, one of which was working in embassies all over the world.

The embassy itself was a mini fortress. We had to wait for several minutes and show our IDs to get admission into the premises, plus walk through a metal detector. None of that suprised me, though, considering how vigilant overseas US embassies must be to preserve security. Men with large guns guarded the entrance as we entered, for instance.

Anyway, we spent the day in Kuala Lumpur and went to Chinatown where there was yet another long strip of street vendors. The ringitt is valued at about a third of a US dollar, so the exchange rate is definitely in our favor. Several of my friends bought things, but I declined since transportation of bought items is still an issue. Also I've heard that Thailand and China are even better in terms of shopping cheaply.

While we were walking along and only minutes after we had first arrived in Chinatown, several young men pressed their way through the crowded walkway talking into their walkie talkies and yelling at some of the vendors. I didn't really understand what they were saying, but as soon as the vendors heard they began packing up some of their goods, and they packed up fast. By the time I whipped out my camera to catch them in the act of hiding the stuff, most of them were done and sitting at empty tables. Frustrated and still confused I put up my camera only to see policemen hurrying toward where I was. I don't know if they caught anyone selling anything illegally, but I doubt it. Obviously this had happened many times before. Throughout the rest of the evening and when I went back later those young men with walkie talkies kept weaving in and out of the crowd, apparently keeping tabs for the vendors.

This is only a glimpse of how busy the street was. It took nearly half an hour to push your way from one end to another.

That night I also tried something new with Dan's advice and encouragement, and that was Chinese herbal tea. Or maybe it's just called medicinal tea. He got two kinds for a group of us to try. One was very bitter and really good for you, while the other tasted more like honey and wasn't quite as healthy. I'd had a bit of a scratchy throat for a few days, but after I drank (read: practically chugged) half of a cup of the bitter tea, I felt better. Now, I don't know if that's merely psychological or if it really did any good, but there you have it. Tea has definitely grown on me over the course of the past few weeks. I may have to enjoy it at home as well if I can find one that I like, though I'm not sure I'll be an Earl Grey enthusiast any time soon.

Friday morning we enjoyed a nice walk (hike!) through a forest conservation area just outside of the capital. Even though I wore long khakis and a long sleeved shirt, the heat did not really bother me that much. It's suprising how quickly your body can adjust to very different environments. Within two weeks of being in Southeast Asia I already could tell I was adjusting. Hot doesn't really feel so sticky and unbearable anymore-- just hot. Throughout the hike we saw some cool things, like tiny leeches that tended to attach themselves to whatever part of your body they could find (I was thankful for my sleeves and pants) and giant ants about an inch long.

These trees were also very cool. If you notice, they are quite unusual because the leaves don't touch like typical canopies. In fact, these are an oddity that even featured in National Geographic. The guide said that there weren't any like them in the world and they're not really sure why the trees don't touch. Strange, huh?

On Saturday we departed for Melaka, a smaller city but still quite large with 800,000 people. It was also the home of our tour guide, Eddie. Heavily influenced by the Portuguese over two centuries ago, the city has a Portuguese district and restaurants. We went to a Baba and Nyonya Museum (dedicated to the Straits/Peranaken Chinese who have both Chinese and Malay ancentries) which had Chinese, Malay (Muslim), and Victorian influences in the architecture and decorations. It's an interesting combination, but I loved it. I think Chinese architecture is colorful but still soothing, in a way, so the combination was enjoyable.

The hotel in Melaka was unlike the Swiss Garden Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Both were very nice, but while the KL hotel was more modern and upscale, the Melaka hotel was quaint but rich in decor. Of all the places I've been to so far, Melaka seems to be the most realistic. While tourist influences still mar the original, it's clear that Westernization has yet to completely twist its appearance.

Here's our hotel. Now of course you may not notice, but this is Sunday as we're packing up and heading out to go get on the coach. If you look carefully you can see this red cloth around the door and a strip of red carpet rolled out of the entrance. As we discovered two days prior to our arrival, the Prime Minister of Malaysia was scheduled to eat lunch at this hotel in Melaka only two hours after this photo was taken. Eddie tried to see if we could meet him, but it was too much red tape. This guy here in front of me facing the other way must have worked for the government or something, because he was busy directing traffic before they blocked off the road.

Just think: Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi might have been sitting at the same seat I did earlier that day. Actually, that's pretty unlikely. He probably was eating inside in a fancy room, whereas I had breakfast out in the courtyard. But still, it's a nice thought!

Oh well. I would have liked to meet the PM, but perhaps another time! You never know...

After we left the hotel we went to see a traditional Malay house where I finally bought my first souvenir (a purse, believe it or not) for only 5 ringitt. I was so surprised by how cheap it was that I didn't even bother bargaining. I mean, how do you bargain for something that's about a buck-fifty? Anyway, I really like it and I'm going to be selfish and keep it for myself. Sorry!

We also went to a palm oil plantation (see picture) and a rubber tree farm (see next picture). The palm trees have these huge fruits on them with over a thousand seeds and they weigh about twenty-thirty kilos. You have to get a ladder, get them down from the tree, come through with a trailer and pick them up, then ship them off to a receiving station, then do it all over in a few days with newly ripened fruit.

Here's rubber dripping from a tree after the man scraped it. Actually, I think this substance is called latex, but I'm not sure. I was only half listening at this point because... well I don't really know why. There were lots of mosquitoes. If anything is distracting, it's mosquitoes.

The palm oil plantation was pretty cool, I must admit, and I definitely paid attention here. I described it earlier, but here rae the fruits with the seeds, like giant strawberries except with oil and not juice. Here's the tour guide, Eddie. He was an interesting character. And Dad, here are the trees, though they're hard to make out in this picture. They aren't all that tall, despite how thick they are. Probably just a few metres.

After this we headed back home to Singapore! I actually was relieved to sleep at PGP last night. While I did enjoy the aircon in our hotels, I had to sleep under sheets and blankets and realized how uncomfortable that could be. My dorm room was nice and hot and remarkably ant-free! What more could you ask for?

Unfortunately, I don't think I have any amusing stories for the week... that's a shame. Actually, this might work as slightly amusing: When we went to the administrative capital on Saturday not far outside of KL (Putra Jaya), there was a very large mosque. Originally we thought we could go inside, so we put on some robes (guys included) to cover ourselves. Well, for some odd and unknown reason, these robes were a sickly color of pepto bismol pink. Seriously, take a look...

Exactly. That's some serious pink. I felt so strange wearing that, then on top of everything else I was standing with my friend Rebekah and the sophomore on the trip Joey (who has very blonde hair) when a few Asian tourists saw us and started motioning for us to do something. They had a camera so at first I thought they wanted us to take their picture altogether. Surprise, surpise, no. They wanted a picture with us. Yes, us. Standing in the middle of Southeast Asia in the administrative capital of Malaysia outside of a mosque, three Americans were asked to pose with Asian tourists. Since when did we become the tourist attraction? (You may be coughing and pointedly motioning to my photo spree at the cosplay event, but I argue that the anime characters wanted to be photographed... that's the point of the whole event, basically. Otherwise, you do make a good point.)

Needless to say, my picture is floating around out there with some really random people. And not only is it a picture of me, I'm dressed up like the poster boy for stomach medicine. Fantastic.

With that, it's time to bring this post to an end and start doing some work. I have a paper due Friday, a project due Monday, and another paper due early next week sometime. Oodles of fun!

I hope you all are having lovely Mondays, and I look forward to hearing any comments that you may have! Love to you all!