starbucks and sparklers for NYE in malaysia/homestay

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12/31
New Year's Eve homestay style.....but before that, I need to recap what happened earlier in the day.
Woke up early (we're early risers!) and we braved the train again to zip through KLCC 1 last time. We needed to buy a "surprise NYE present" for a gift exchange since we will not be woohoo'ing it up in a bar, there really is no where to go and we can't drink at the homestay. The gift had to be 10 ringitt or less. I got crafty and picked things that I thought would be useful whilst traveling. Thanks to Watson's I bought....a face mask (5R), wet wipes 1.50R, tissue .30R, and mentos 2 for 2.60R. I also loaded up on some supplies for myself...I heart Watson's and Boots! Took 1 last stroll in chinatown for some yummy mango and pineapple then jumped on the bus for a nice 4 hour ride to our homestay in Perak (aka middle of no where).
Right now I'm covered head to toe dying of hot so I won't get eaten by the mosquitos. I'm DEETed up and I literally have my pashmina over my head. The homestay house is normal. It's all wood with the steep, ginormous stairs, western toilet, tin roof (over our room), and an interesting shower situation. It's a deep basin with a bucket. You scoop the water and pour it on yourself to take a shower. Hmmm interesting, but actually it wasn't all bad. The walls are not closed all the way so there are some nice mosquitos and creepy crawlies keeping me company when I bathe. The malay house in the village has the same things as any other house like a tv and computer. Actually everywhere we went (rural) every house had a satellite dish. All that's different is the chickens in the back yard and the dirt road.
I'm in the single girls room (there's 3 of us). It's me, the Aussie, and the one we nicknamed PK or Princess "K" (gotta keep this anonymous 😊 . PK is the trouble maker. The aussie and I always room together so we will not be stuck with her. PK changes her room 3 times at each place we stay at because she is supposedly noise sensitive. I don't like complainers....especially when this is a budget trip in 2-3 star hotels, not the Ritz.
Dinner was so good and was way too much food! Just as an example of PK's antics of wanting her way---dinner was supposed to be at 8, but PK whined that it was too late so the poor homestay mom rushed so we could eat at 7. I thought 8 was late, but you eat whenever they decide to make it for you is my belief.
PK also thought it would be a swell idea to buy a bottle of champagne for NYE and had the balls to ask the homestay mother if she could store it in their fridge. OK, it's a muslim household and our tour list specifically tells us we cannot consume alcohol while staying there...but she did it anyway...could not believe how lame this person is. All she talked/whined about was what to do for NYE. Most of us were totally content with just staying in and reading...NYE is not a big deal out here so we were over it, but oh no, this girl bugged the homestay guy to get someone to drive into town 45 minutes away. We all really didn't want to do it, but had to because she made a big deal about it. The driver takes us to a hotel and there was a 50R cover charge...none of us wanted to pay that so the driver says that he'll take us to a mall where there's a bunch of restaurants. We get to the mall and everything is closed except for a starbucks, a roller rink, and a karaoke bar. PK was having a fit because no one wanted to follow her and go somewhere else. At this time it was already 11:45 so there was no choice but to get a coffee and just hang out. Then she pulls out the bottle of champagne with our homestay host right there. She was so proud of herself for smuggling it around...basically none of us touched her champagne. I felt bad and dumped some in my juice, but really that was a wasted gesture for her. I also liked when the host explained why he doesn't drink to her. It wasn't all bad though. Our guide brought sparklers and there were fireworks outside. We did our own mini countdown and we had fun! Sober, but fun!
We were all just over PK's antics.

1/1
Barely heard the mosque morning call or the chickens this morning thanks to my earplugs. PK true to form, ended up switching rooms in the middle of the night which is fine by me as we didn't want her in the room with us anyway. Then she annoyed me again when she started asking the homestay mom for things that were not on the table. She wanted bread, we told her, hello- it's asia so you eat rice. The people are so nice that they actually went to the store and got it for her. The literally gave her a whole loaf of bread haha which she barely touched. I'm just used to eating whatever the host gives me and not ask for substitutions or to change anything. The coffee/tea here is always with sugar and cream...PK of course asked her to make her another cup- black. On top that this girl was not eating anything, so the aussie and I had to make up for it by eating her portions. She only eats sushi at home...oh please honey, then what are you doing here on this tour?
We kicked the day off by going to the Matang Mangrove Forest. Saw some mudskippers, crazy monkeys, and little crabs. Glad I brought the deet as there were a bunch of mosquitos too. After that we went to a charcoal factory. I had no idea that charcoal came from wood! The owner was hilarious. He loved his "beautiful, black, shiny charcoal" ALOT! They use the trees from the mangrove forest. It was a pretty informative tour and I was surprised that I liked it. Came back to the homestay and we had lunch and the portions were huge. Did a little yoga in the room- it was more like bikram since it was so hot. After that we went to the owner's fruit orchard to taste the fruit. OK, so when they said orchard I thought we were going to be picking fruit from the trees and eating it...nope. We were at the orchard sitting at a table tasting local fruit that they bought. I guess some of the harvests were already finished. I really like the lychees. Never had a fresh one before...only the japanese kind in the syrupy fruit cups. I couldn't stop eating them. Passed on the durian and the honeyjack fruit...not a fan of stinky things. I already tried durian before in bangkok and couldn't swallow it. Not sure how people eat the stuff. After that we came back to the homestay for a HUGE dinner. Then we had to do the "mock wedding". I thought this was stupid because it was super unorganized and is really just an excuse to play dress up for pictures. Totally peaced out on this one because I was starting to get a bit pissy. I'm really tired of people asking me where I am from. When I say America they give me a puzzled look followed by, "no where are you really from"? Where were your parents born? Both my parents are american! It's too hard to explain that both my parents are mixed asian/white. So I go through the schpeel...my mom is japanese/polish and my dad is filipino/irish. Then they get fixated on why I don't speak "the language". Um, my whole family is "american" so we speak English. People don't get that I get asked this almost everyday of my life. Really, what does an American look like? If I was a true American I'd be a Native American Indian. I'm just over people trying to define who I am based on the fact that I have round eyes (not slanted) and my nose is straight (not flat). Then people examine my face and say you look more japanese than filipino, etc...really not interested in hearing a debate about my face! In thailand they thought I was from India. In china they think I'm mexican or korean mix. In Malaysia they say "you have a malay face, but different"....ugh... Ok enough of my rant about that. Like Popeye says, "I am what I am."
Did our gift exchange. My aussie roommate got my cool gift and I ended up with a KL twin tower figurine...what am I supposed to do with that?

1/2
I had to give PK the verbal beat down. I couldn't take her antics anymore and needed to stand up about it. The last straw was when she asked the homestay mom for orange juice- the woman did not even sit down yet to eat. We told the mom to sit down to eat and told PK we can do without the juice because it's not a restaurant. The mom said she actually was not going to eat...PK then had the balls to say "since you're not eating could you go make my orange juice"? I seriously almost lost it over her rudeness. I couldn't help myself because I couldn't stand one more day of her pushiness. So I just tried to be calm and diplomatic to explain how I felt. The aussie even backed me up. She didn't care...she said that we were too western and that she understood the islam culture better. Whatever, to me it's all about being polite and eating only what is on the table and not asking for more. That's just common sense and also something prevalent in asian households. No matter what you ask for they will oblige and she said that she knew that...so basically she was taking advantage of the situation. I don't like people that act like that as it just alienates the group. After that it was time to leave our homestay (yay).

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Photos

charcoal factory
he has to bring the wood to the domes...that's alot of work

14000 ringitt fish
homestay owners many business...fish farming

Comments

[tepid]

PK makes me angry
You don't know me, just a stranger browsing through the blogs. And the way you described PK just made me angry and leave this comment! You sound like a nice person and good blog btw.