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Published: August 29th 2008
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We are now in Malaysia! 3rd country for me. But they stamped my passport on the same page as Thailand. Lame! Oh well...
Our last day in Krabi we relaxed. It was nice! We slept in and then went and got Thai pancakes on the street. Kind of a cross between pancakes and crepes with bananas and nutella. Delicious! Then for lunch a bunch of us went to Swensen's and gorged on ice cream sundaes. Then we watched Hillary Clinton's speech at the DNC and then all trooped down to the beach. Not too long after that it started raining so our group got massages right beside the beach. We could hear the waves and they brought us fresh fruit and tea afterwards. There was a special as well so with a massage we got free manicures or pedicures. Brendon didn't want his (who would've though?) so they let me get both! So we were very pampered. For dinner we had fresh seafood. It was one of our more expensive meals, but still way cheaper than fresh seafood on the beach in the States would be!
So we weren't really staying in Krabi, that's just what most people refer to the
area as. We were staying at Ao Nang beach. Krabi Town was a ways away, I think about half an hour. So that's probably where even more of the tourists are. I think that's where most of the big resorts are too. I'm happy with our deserted beach!
The next day (28th, yesterday) we drove all day long. We left at 8 in the morning and got to Penang at 6:30 pm. We had a break for lunch and the time in Malaysia is an hour ahead, but it was still a long travel day! We had mini-vans though (I was expecting public buses) so we were traveling in luxury and we made the time go by fast. We are staying at the Hong Ping Hotel on the island of Penang. It has air-conditioning! But it doesn't work very well and other than that it's the least nice hotel we've stayed at. It's still nice though.
Crossing the border was really easy. We went through customs on the Thailand side, drove a little ways, went through customs on the Malaysia side, put our bags through the x-ray, and drove off. It didn't take long at all!
For dinner Lynn
(our tour guide) ordered sting ray so that we could all try it. It was actually quite good! It was kind of like fish but a little slimy.
Today (29th) in the morning most of our group did a Penang tour. Brendon, Paul, Lynn and I got up half an hour early to have dim sum (Chinese) for breakfast. There are a bunch of different little dishes that you eat so you get to try a wide variety of foods. It was good that Lynn was along or else we wouldn't have had any idea what to order. She just ordered a bunch of little dishes that we all then tried. Most of them were pretty good! On the tour we went to Fort Cornwallis first, one of the oldest parts of Penang from the 1600/1700's when Penang was owned by the Sultan of Kedah and the East India Company. Then we went to Lim Jetty and a Chinese temple. Apparently Chinese Buddhists believe in a heaven and hell, which I didn't know. I thought it was just all about nirvana and reincarnation. While you're waiting to be reincarnated you either go to heaven or hell. They had a
shrine dedicated to the heaven god and they pray to them and bring flowers and fruit and then they also have one for the hell king and they bring meat and coffee or beer. They also pray to the king and if they're prayers are answered they smear morphine on the tongues of the statues. Morphine is illegal, but they do it anyway.
Next we went to a Thai temple, Wat Chaiya Mangalaram, where there was a reclining Buddha, Phra Buddha Chaiya Mongol. It wasn't as impressive as Wat Pho (the big reclining Buddha in Bangkok. This temple also had Chinese influence so there were statues dedicated to the different Chinese zodiac signs. Each one said what would happen if you worshiped it and donated money. Every prediction was essentially the same, all having to do with becoming wealthy and successful.
Then we crossed the street to the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple. Inside there was a row of Buddha statues donated by families each with their hands in a position specific to a different country. So there was one for Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia, and a bunch more.
Last we went to Kek Lok Si, a big temple area.
Outside it had a huge statue of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. It was over 120 feet tall and made entirely of bronze, but it was under construction so we didn't get the full experience. The temple area was pretty cool. The postcards we saw of it lit up at night were amazing, but we didn't get to see that. We're here at the low season so a lot of the temples are under construction. It means less tourists though!
We made a brief stop at a store that sold white coffee. There were a bunch of free samples so we got to try it. I don't really like coffee; I actually don't like it at all, but this white coffee was actually really good! I hadn't heard of it before, but it's actually really nice!
Brendon and I had lunch at the Rainforest Bakery (delicious sandwiches on fresh baked bread). While we were there we talked to the owner about Batu Ferringhi, the beach/resort part of the island. I heard from one of my Nepal friends that it was good for water sports kinds of things. We ended up taking the bus over there and going parasailing! Neither of us had done it before and we both wanted to and it was cheap so we did! Definitely worth it! It was like flying! Almost... We then took the bus back and had dinner in Little India. We missed the group dinner, but we found our own place. It was a little Indian cafe. We had chicken masala which also came with 3 different vegetable curries, dal, rice, poppadom, and chapati. It was served on a banana leaf instead of a plate and was FABULOUS! The vegetables and dal reminded me of the food in Nepal and, just like in Nepal, if we wanted more they gave it to us as part of the meal, not charging extra. There was so much food though we didn't need more. I am soooooo excited for India! The food should be amazing! And there will still be good fruit as well! We also had mango lassis which were superb!
And now I'm typing this and it's kinda late and it's taking forever. Tomorrow we go to the Cameron Highlands, leaving at 6:45 am. We're taking a public bus, so that should be interesting. Probably still better than some of our bus experiences in Nepal... It's good that I went there first, now nothing fazes me!
Some about Malaysia:
Malaysia has a large Muslims so gambling is illegal. However, some of the Chinese Malaysians like to gamble. From Penang there is a gambling boat that leaves twice a day, once in the morning returning at night and once at night returning the next morning. The boat leaves Malaysia and goes into international waters so that gambling can take place. I thought it was pretty entertaining that they have a gambling boat!
Malaysia is a pretty good example of religious tolerance. Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists all live together relatively peacefully. There is a street in Penang that is called Harmony Street because it has a Christian church, Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, and Islamic mosque all really close to each other. We need to all follow the example of the Malaysians and have religious tolerance!
Another random fact: Penang was named after the Pinang tree, the fruit of which is used in Penang curry, popular in Thailand.
Many people in Malaysia, especially from India, are converting to Islam. Apparently it's much easier to get a loan if you're a Muslim than if you're Hindu. So there are a bunch of Indian Mohammads in Malaysia.
Alright, now to bed! Miss you all!
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tosha
non-member comment
your trips always sound fun.. you are quit the adventurous one lol. Oh you said you were watching the news... well did you hear sarah palin is running for vice pres for mccain! That's crazy huh. Anyways service is working out with dimond now and i go help shannon coach so i got to see your sister yesterday. She helped shannon and i make a tape grip cause we're a little retarded lol.