Besar - Biting Fish, Alligators, and Night Rats

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Hi everyone!

Hope everyone had a wonderful labor day! it was the malaysian independence day here on Sunday, and starting Monday, ramadan, with all the muslim majorities fasting for the next month. It's really amazing to me that they can't even drink water all day. seems almost dangerous. It means all the malay restaurants are closed, so food options are more limited : -(

It’s Ju-Hyun’s birthday today! My dear college friend from Korea. She’s not even on this blog, but I will still post the msg ;-)

some VERY exciting news for me! Next Saturday, on my way back to the states I have a 9 hour layover in Tokyo. I emailed my host family from back in 2001 and I'm planning to spend the day with them! Really excited! i have not seen their little boy who must be 3 or 4 by now, and the little girl, who was just 2 when I stayed there has grown up so much! I'm really excited to see them. I’m going with the family to some “sports event” at Mizuki, the daughter’s school, and then out to lunch with them. Japanese food - yum!

It just occurred to me that I wonder if we need a visa? Hmm. Some countries I've been to have this special "transit" thing where if you're staying in the country for less than 24 hours you don't have to get a visa. I will try to talk my way into this, and basically just hope the people don't speak english well and if i start rattling off and talking really fast maybe they'll just let me go rather than deal with me. I have successfully talked my way across 2 borders using this method. Once, crossing into Uganda I argued with the guy for ages, saying my visa wasn’t expired when he wanted me to pay for a new one. Finally he just let me go because I was too stubborn, and it was only about a week later that I realized he was RIGHT, my visa was expired! Well, that was $30 saved.

i'm DYING for a hot shower. I had only cold water at the beach, which was fine cause it was super hot out. Now i'm back working in what I call the "cooler" - (i wear my fleece 90% of the day) and living in the "artic" - it's ridiculous! Cole has the AC blasting, and I don't think I've used mine yet - I get too cold with just the fan blowing on me! So this morning I woke up chilled and the shower was, as usual, tepidly warm. (it's electric heated and just doesnt work well) I LOVE hot showers and haven't had one since I left the states, so i'm really really looking forward to that.

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So, I am now back in KL after 5 fantastic days at the beach!! Last Thursday, I went into the city and had dinner with Cole and Gab, and then spent the night at Gab's house before heading to the airport early (early!) Friday morning. At around 4:45am I was sitting in Gab's lobby (btw, I have to say I am enjoying the luxury there - I just called the front desk, they arranged a cab and everything ;-) ) and was chatting with the very nice doorman, who, no matter what I said, insisted on calling Gab "japanese" - it was quite funny. (she’s Thai) This guy works 16 hours/day as a doorman! from 4pm on....he sits there all night, i have no idea how he can stand being that bored. But I have a lot of respect for people who work hard to improve their life.

It was pitch black on the ride to the aport and it started raining on the way and I've never been driving in such rain before, and the taxi driver's windshield wipers were just awful. I really thought we were going to crash. If i was driving i would have had to pull over. you couldn't see any lines on the road or anything. I guess it was just okay since there were so few cars out. prior to leaving, I think I mentioned it was raining every day here....Rainy season came early I think. It's really interesting here, a lot of people ride motorbikes and when they are on the highway they just pull over under overpasses, etc. until the rain stops - right before the overpasses there are actually road signs with a motorbike pic on them :-)

I chose to go to the Perhentian Islands - located in the very northeast corner of Malaysia. It's one of the bit "quieter" beaches - less mainstream touristy. There are two islands there, the "big" and "small" - there are no facilities out there, meaning banks, medical services, etc. The islands are these massive jungles which are 96% completely undeveloped and then with a handful, perhaps 5 or so coves with beautiful beaches that have a few restaurants, dive shops, and places to stay. The only way to get around is by boat really. Or you can do jungle trekking, but that is more just for fun not a valid method of transport. I didn't realize until my fourth day that there were no cars (it just hadn’t occurred to me). In fact, there weren't even any PATHS on the islands. Because it's so jungle-like with these isolated coves, you can't even ride a bike around. I could see someone getting claustrophobic quickly. There are also no piers, so when you take the speedboat from the mainland, you have to transfer to a little motorboat, and then jump off in the water's edge (no way to avoid getting wet) to reach the island. I actually had a pretty close call, after showing up and the airport and realizing i had NO CASH (barely). There was one sketchy ATM there where I was able to get some money before heading off to the islands.

First, I spent 2 days on the "big" island - Besar. All the pictures in this entry are from this island. This is mostly "resorts" and more families, and quite a few local malaysians who were staying here for the holiday. I really like that, such a better experience than just a packaged tour w/ all foreigners! There was also just a great feeling in the air, what with it being a holiday for them. Remember the chinese/indian/malay cultural breakdown previously discussed? Well, this area/region of malaysia is almost all Muslim Malay - I liked hanging out with this "culture" as well. Oh and as you can probably tell from the pics, there were so many cute Malaysian kids there, i couldn't help but take lots of pics. I love goign up to kids in foreign countries and talking to them and trying to communicate with them. The little sisters I've lived with in foreign countries and I have always developed a strong ability to communicate w/o words. I have this very distinct memory in my head when I was packing up to leave Uganda. There was a young girl I lived with - perhaps 6 years old. Gidah. Super smart, and such a troublemaker! I loved her, and we got along so well. About a quarter of the time she would sleep in my tiny room with me. She would pull out the old potato sack stuffed with rags, lay down across the room from me in the filthy dress she'd been wearing all day and sleep. It was almost heartbreaking. Every morning, she would come to the entry to my room (there wasn't a door, just a hanging piece of fabric kind of) and my day would start off by Gidah saying "Good Morning Madam" in English, as she knelt. (women/children must kneel when greeting elders, or men) Then during the day she would follow me around, and she LOVED telling all the other kids (in Lugandan) all about me in a very bossy voice! (I never knew what she was saying). I would go to Kampala sometime on the weekends, and would say "kampala" and she would know what that meant... I woudl also on occasion, take out my mosquito net to the backyard and respray it with DEET. On the day I was packing up to leave, I took down my mosquito net and Gidah kept asking me in Lugandan "a-genda-wa?" No idea how to spell that, but it means "where are you going." She kept asking me "kampala?" but the answer was “neda” - no. Finally it dawned on her and she gets this look of recognition on her face, and imitates the sound of my aerosol DEET can spraying and gestures her arm as if spraying the net. I don't know why but it just really struck me. This little girl who I had come to care much about, who had observed my funny ways of the world and learned about them, and who didn't understand the concept that I was leaving and not coming back. And I had no way to tell her. It made me feel quite sad.

Ok - complete digression. I was just thinking about how I found these Malay kids on the beach playing "Memory" - they didn't really speak english. they understood "what's your name". Every time they would flip the memory cards over I would say the word in english (e.g., "pineapple", "orange", etc.) and they would all yell it out after me! So cute. Occasionally they would know some basic ones, like banana, and as soon as they saw it they would yell it out in English.

The diving was great! Water was so warm, saw lots of cool fish, didn’t recognize a trigger fish (the kind that bite!) and got a little too close looking at its fangs, till it lunged at me and I screamed underwater and quickly kicked away, kicking the fish in the process. Also some very cool wrecks - both very old and very new. On one wreck, you could actually go inside the boat and then swim up again to an air pocket! We could take our regulators out and talk (kept them in most of the time though, as they air may be contaminated or something) It was pretty cool, never done that before! A little scary tho, too, because there is about 9 inches of an airpocket and all around you the sides and ceiling there are barnacles and other dangerous items. So it also freaked me out at the same time.

I’m proud of myself for one thing! Given all the times I’ve stayed in ghetto accommodations, I have FINALLY learned my lesson that creatures such as mice/rat can go ANYWHERE, and you’ll never know where they came from. Last year it was my last night out of about 5 in a Thai beach hut and I left a package of open cookies in my room, and awoke to rat/mouse droppings everywhere, and the cookies crunched up and spread out - EW! Thank goodness I was leaving the next day! SO, when I checked in to my room on Besar, the first thing I did was put my trash can outside - ! Sure enough, the next morning I woke up and found the evidence of a CREATURE! (see the droppings on the white molding in the picture ;-) ). I finally feel like I’ve beat this problem and can now rest more at ease knonwing I won’t wake up with creatures in my bed. (hopefully)

Oh another crazy thing! I saw this girl taking pictures of something right on the border of the jungle/beach, so I went up behind her and saw - an alligator! I couldn’t believe it! (or croc - whatever - I don’t know the diff). It was about 4 feet long, so it didn’t look like a full grown up but it was decent sized! I’m thinking two things, first of all, I didn’t know alis/crocs could live in salt water? Is there a marsh somewhere here? I’m definitely going to have to google this. My second thought is, aren’t those things dangerous? How can we all be sitting here swimming in this water when there are alis/crocs in it? (but then, I’m thinking, maybe they aren’t salt water.). Anyways I’m checking out of the hotel and tell the guy “I didn’t know you had alligators here.” And he said - we don’t. I told him I saw one! No kidding! And he ends up telling me that it was an IGUANA. Silly tourist! I couldn’t believe it. I NEVER knew iguanas could be so huge. Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic as it was partially covered by leaves and kinda ran away when we got close ;-) That explained the salt water situation / safety concerns. Iguanas are not dangerous.

As usual, I’ve gone on for ages! I have a few more comments from the beach time and pictures from Kecil, but I will save that for a separate entry.

Lots of love and happy September!

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Photos

Beach on Besar
Located in a cove

Malaysian boys playing by boat
I watched them for ages - so entertaining!

Dropping Evidence
Finally smartened up ;-) (see blog)

5 days packing job
I was pretty impressed with myself, but by the end of the 5 days, I realized even this was TOO much

Comments

[Mom]

Sounds like an exciting time! It should be really fun to see your Japanese host family again! Takepictures and send them our regards!! Stay safe! Love, Mom