A Very Malaysian Christmas

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Happy New Year!

Last time I wrote we had just arrived in Singapore from Bali. The plan had originally been to spend both Christmas and New Year's Eve in Singapore. This was of course all without knowing much about Singapore...

Our host Sam was very nice, though this was the first time that we've lived with someone and their parents. But Sam's family was amazingly wonderful to us, especially since Tay was sick and it rained the whole time we were there. Due to these two things we did little besides try the local cuisine and plan our onward travels. Singapore is a very modern city, but we found it unfriendly and uninteresting (sorry to anyone who really loves it!). We decided 4 days was quite long enough before moving on to Malaysia.

Our first night in Malaysia we stayed with a Chinese guy named Khoon, and, as is common in Asia, his parents. He took us out to a very nice restaurant for Western food for dinner. So naturally, Kristin, with the iron stomach and an immune system unaffected by foreign bugs, ends up with food poisoning. Did I mention we ate WESTERN FOOD?! This was made even more pleasant by the 6 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur the next day, booked weeks ago. For those of you who have ever had food poisoning before, think about the added discomfort of only getting rest stops every 2 hours and then the joy that is the Asian squat toilet. Toilet paper sold seperately. As for those of you who haven't has food poisoning, it's too graphic to describe here, but basically it's slightly more enjoyable than passing a kidney stone. Luckily our host in KL, Medhi, was an absolute savior, and he took care of me for the next 24 hours until I was able to eat solid food again.

We spent 3 nights in that house, a college apartment consisting of 5 Iranian guys. They spoiled us rotten, treating us to dinner and driving us around the city to see the sites. I would slowly come to realize that there is an enormous Iranian population in Malaysia, meaning you are just as likely to hear people speaking Persian as Malay or Chinese. On Christmas Eve the boys took us into the city, where the festivities were well under way. The streets were flocked with vendors selling everything from devil horns to silly string, and the crowd was speckled with Santa hats. Boys ran around spraying each other with fake snow in a can, and vuvuzelas rang out as obnoxiously as ever. We enjoyed dinner and a few drinks outside as fireworks went off at midnight. Then we went out dancing, where we were pleased to find a bar playing 90's dance music and two English guys in full Santa costume.

As it turns out, I had already "met" one of the Santas through couchsurfing, but I had received his reply after Medhi's. He happily invited Taylor and I to Christmas lunch the next day at his apartment and we gladly agreed to join. Christmas morning we packed up and made our way to meet the Santas, Daniel and Lee, our new hosts. We had a delicious Christmas meal in the company of three Englishmen, two other Americans, one Singaporean, and three (new) Iranians. We watched the Santa Clause- classic-, sang along to Glee Christmas songs, and enjoyed the fact that we were not alone on Christmas. The rest of the day consisted of watching movies, swimming in the pool, and getting "pissed" with the English boys. What's a holiday without a little alcohol, right? Vodka redbulls aside, it was definitely a better Christmas than we could've asked for, short of being at home with the family.

We spent the next week hanging out, watching movies, eating way too much food, and taking advantage of the warm Malaysian winter by the pool. Our final night together was New Year's Eve, and although it wasn't as flashy as Christmas Eve had been, it was still fabulous. Tay and I went out for drinks on our own, met heaps of other travellers/students, and eventually joined the English boys for the countdown. The night slowed down after this and we all went home rather early. This was not a bad idea, however, since Taylor had a bus to catch early in the morning.

Tay and I parted ways on the 1st, with many tears. She is heading back to New Zealand to work and save up some moeny while I continue to travel through Asia. Hopefully we will be traveling together again soon!

As for me, I caught an overnight train, top sleeper bed included, to Butterworth. I arrived at 6:30 in the morning, took the ferry over to Penang, and found myself a cozy little hostel. I quickly made friends with my roomie Carol, a German girl heading to Perth next week to work. We decided to spend the next night camping in the National Park. So we packed up supplies, took the long bus ride out, and rented a tent. Then we hiked for an hour and a half through the lush Malaysian jungle, admiring the butterflies and avoiding the occasional snake. Once at the campsite we set up the tent and headed immediately for the water- let's just say the hike was worth it. We spent the next 4 or so hours on the beach, eating our Malaysian take-away, swimming in the ocean, playing with jellyfish, petting monkeys, and chasing ghost crabs along the shore. We took pictures for each other and climbed up the enormous, barnacle-covered rocks along the water's edge until we found a perfect veiwing spot for the sunset. We awed at the bright orange sun as it sank beyond the horizon, perfectly silhouetting a local fishermen's boat. And when the sun was completely out of view we sat out in the sand, talking until the stars came out and the fireflies twinkled like Christmas lights in the bushes. Pure beauty, every second of it. And the pictures can't even do it justice. So on that note, I'll leave you to gawk 😉

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Photos

Petronas Twin Towers
KL

Playing with a Jellyfish
"Do not attempt without the supervision of a marine biologist"