The Malaysians Don’t Have Easter Eggs in their Stores, but They’re Still Cool in My Book.

So Malaysia’s over, and we’re on our way to Vietnam. The next few countries are probably the ones I’m most excited about, but for now, lets discuss Malaysia.

It’s a unique country with many emerging cultures. It’s mostly Muslim, but there are also Chinese (especially in the area we were at), Indians, some European, etc. Languages include Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, etc.
We docked on the large island of Penang, which is right off of the mainland. Georgetown (the capital) is the second biggest city in Malaysia. It was clean (huge fines exist for littering), safe (prison sentences exist for weapon possession), and the people were overall very kind. Many cultural aspects exist that we had to keep in mind. For example, speaking loudly in public is very improper. Even pointing with ones finger is very inappropriate; instead, people used their whole hand.

Like I mentioned in the last post, we weren’t able to dock at the actual dock. Our ship’s just too damn big it seems. Instead, we were forced to utilize the lifeboats and take them to and from the docks. This got annoying in about…say…5 minutes. The long waiting lines, the hot lifeboats, the fact that they never arrive on time, and I ALWAYS seemed to arrive just after the boat left, so I had maximum waiting time. Granted, I shouldn’t be complaining, because I just spent four days in Malaysia!

I initially escaped the dreaded waiting lines of the lifeboats the morning we arrived, because I had signed up for an SAS trip titled “Mosques and Temples.” Appropriately enough, we spent the day visiting various mosques and temples. We toured about 6 different religious temples; this included everything from Islam to Taoism to Buddhism to Hinduism to a mixture of a few. Many temples were quite extraordinary to view. Just beautiful. Around 3 or 4 o’clock, we arrived back at the dock, but I didn’t feel like sailing back to the ship. Instead, three of us visited this really snazzy bookshop/coffee shop a few blocks down in the city. The coffee was happening, yet the books were all a little too “new age” for my tastes.
That night I did yet ANOTHER SAS trip. This was a Malaysian Welcome Reception, and it consisted of visiting a university and watching a Shadow Puppet performance. The performance was pretty trippy at times, yet it was funny and enjoyable to watch in the auditorium. Afterwards I went up to the stage and talked to the performers/tried out some of the percussion instruments that they used. They fed us some good Malaysian food outside, as well as some tasty tea/coffee (though it had nothing on India’s coffee).

When we returned, about six of us visited an English pub down the street from the ship. They played nothing but Oasis the entire time, and the guys working there were really kool. It wasn’t crowded AT ALL, so the waiter allowed a few of us to jump up on the stage and jam for a bit. He invited us back to open mic night Wednesday.

A few of us decided to travel to the Penang National Forest on the morning of the second day. Chad, James, Kyle, Tina, and I took two separate taxis about 45 minutes away from the ship, and began hiking the woods located near the very tip of Penang. The heat and humidity ensured sweat drenching. We hiked along the trails only for 2 hours or so, but we saw (and almost got attacked) by some monkeys, encountered a giant monitor that looked and crawled like a dinosaur, crossed some fun bridges, hung out at the lookout point that was located STRAIGHT UP a bunch of steps, and followed some incredibly long ant parades. It was surely a fun afternoon in the woods.

Unfortunately our taxis left us there, so we had to call for a van to transport us to the major mall. There’s literally a huge mall in every city we dock in. This mall was pretty large. It had five floors, but most of the stores were either
a) trendy female clothing
b) massage chairs
c) massage parlors
d) foot massages
e) non-massage-oriented places (bootlegged DVDs/computer software)

We ate, then we walked around the mall, then moved on to the city. The major streets, like India, were insanely difficult to cross at times. We strolled towards the ship, met up with two friends, and went right back out.
We hit up an outside Indian restaurant, and then we proceeded to a Malaysian bowling alley.

Malaysia loves their bowling. A bowling league was happening when we arrived, so we had to wait till they were finished. The room overlooking the bowling lanes held some pool tables, so we decided to hang out there. The problem was that these pool tables were monstrous. Not only were the tables built football stadium-lengths, but the pool balls were completely different as well (much smaller than usual), and there were at least 10 more balls than usual. The only guy working up on this level didn’t speak English, and we were the only other ones present in the lonesome room. What does one do in situations like these? You make up your OWN game of pool.
This wasted about an hour. We then took to the bowling lanes. Unfortunately I completely sucked tonight, so after 2 games I decided to quit while I was ahead, and meet up with a few of the girls that were hitting up the karaoke bar.
The karaoke bar was closed (too early maybe…it was only 9 o’clock or so). We found a decent outside restaurant, and came across a band that only knew mid-90s American pop rock songs, so it was definitely a nostalgic evening. The five of us then caught a cab and made it back to the ship in good time.

One thing I forgot to mention that happened on the 2nd day. My friend James and I were both craving a soccer game. Soccer’s really the only sport I enjoy watching, and I really wanted to attend a soccer game in another country. Brazil had Carnival, so I couldn’t find anything there. India had too much other stuff to do. This leaves Malaysia and Vietnam to find a decent soccer (football) game to attend. We found a travel agency, and the guy told us, in broken English, where the stadium nearest to Penang was located. He also informed us that there would be a game the following night at 8:45 pm. How exciting! We were incredibly pumped, and spent most of the 3rd day hanging around the mall and the city, because me, Chad, and James were going to leave early around 3 or so, because the stadium was further away, AND we’d have to arrive early to grab some tickets.

We caught a cab outside the dock. The cab driver hesitated the long distance, so he named a huge price for the trip. We bargained him down a good bit and were off! This excursion also required us crossing over to the mainland. I guess the bridge connecting Penang to the mainland is the longest bridge in southeast Asia, and yes, it was pretty long. As we were crossing the bridge, I asked the cab driver how long the ride will be. He said that he didn’t know…he’s never been to this part of the country before. The cab drier then began calling his friends, asking them where this stadium was. After passing the tollbooths, he also asked the toll guys where the stadium was. Bad, bad sign.

It WAS a long cab ride, and I was very tired, so I actually fell asleep…actually all three of us fell asleep at certain points. Eventually I woke up and began saw some signs for the stadium. Yes! Soon, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty huge soccer stadium in the middle of a field with a giant parking lot. It was still very early, but we figured that we’d buy our tickets and let our cab driver be on his way.

He dropped us off in the front. The only other visible sign of life was a small group of food stands sitting in front of the parking lot near the road and a village was further down the street. We walked up to the main gates.
Do you remember the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, when the family travels across the country and FINALLY makes it to Wally World, and the amusement park’s closed for another couple of weeks? Well…these three security guards stared at us bewilderingly the entire time we were walked down the parking lot.
I asked one what time the game started, already having an idea that the words he was about to say PROBABLY weren’t to be what I wanted to hear. They laughed at us. Apparently the first soccer game at this stadium isn’t until May 2nd. The people around the outside food stand didn’t speak good English either, but we found out through the paper that the closest football game was at least 2 hours away…and we didn’t have a cab…and the bus didn’t drive through this part of the country…and we obviously didn’t have a car.
We were clearly in the middle of NOWHERE. Not only that, but since all of us took naps in the cab, we didn’t even know which direction to backtrack towards.

A small village lay off in the distance, so we decided to stomach the incredible sun and walk towards the homes and shops with hopes of finding a phone and a number to call for a cab. This clearly looked like a scene from a horror film. We walked around small village looking for someone to help us. Nobody spoke a word of English. The adults shot mean looks at us. The school children pointed and laughed at us. Needless to say, we quickly left and walked back towards the stadium.
We walked all the way back to the security guards, and asked if they had a phone # to call for a cab, and they all shook their heads “no.” The one younger guard could speak very limited English. He walked over to his car, waved us over, and told us to get in. Walk in to a stranger’s car? At this point, I really didn’t care…as long as he would take us somewhere near some civilization.
This incredibly nice guy drove us 40 minutes out of his way, and took us to a mall close to the bridge (where we could grab a taxi). Talking with him was kind of difficult. I was trying my best NOT to fall asleep, but was also trying to have a decent conversation using limited English, since he WAS helping us out.

This is just one example of the kindness we’ve been encountering through many people in other countries. Most individuals are so polite and always willing to help, even if they don’t speak the same language. Even though some Americans are the most polite people in the world, our general population doesn’t possess this mentality. Most Americans will point a foreigner towards the right direction, then walk away, because let’s face it, one can’t put his or her life on hold just for some stranger. The people we’ve been encountering won’t point you to the right direction; they’ll stop everything and physically take you there, and probably start a cool conversation with you on the way.

So we’re at this mall, still on the mainland. We ran into another problem. There was a bomb threat on the Penang bridge. Later on, we found out that there WAS an actual homemade bomb sitting on the middle of the bridge, and because of this, nobody could enter Penang, so we just waited around the mall.
Even after the bridge re-opened, most cab drivers wanted an arm and a leg to drive into Penang because of the traffic. After much negotiation, we found a driver who’d take us there for 50 ringgets, which was somewhat decent.

The music this cab driver played was HIDEOUS. Cheesy love songs for over an hour in Malaysian traffic was enough to make me feel sick. When we entered the city, it was quicker to walk than to sit in traffic. Chad went back to the ship while James and I went out to the English pub. The waiter remembered me, and told me to definitely bring my friends out later tonight (it was only around 8ish). I ate a very non-Malaysian dinner…a ham and cheese double-decker. Didn’t care…I had enough ethnic food for one visit.

We then explored the city for a while, and found this really cool night market. It had tons of different food, clothing, live music, and all together a really chill atmosphere. We found a McWaffles stand (it sported the arch and everything). Their menu consisted of only three things: a waffle, one scoop of ice cream, or two scoops of ice cream. Real complex, I know. I had a scoop of some weird flavor, but it was a good enough desert.

We ran into a group of our friends, traveled a 20-minute walk back to the English pub. Two older guys and the waiter were jamming up on stage…but they had no drummer. The waiter waved for me to get behind the kit, so I played about 4 or 5 songs with them, and had an unbelievably fun time. It felt SO good to play again. They all seemed pretty impressed. We played all American stuff, so nothing too crazy.
This was when things began getting weird, because everyone in the group wanted to now go to a club…a club that was in the same exact spot we had just come from 20 minutes ago. They all left, but my friend Jen waited for me to finish up a song, and we met the rest of the group outside the club, located near the nightlife section of town.
Jen apparently made great friends with the owner and general manager a few nights ago, because she got them to let us all in for free. Surprisingly, after about 15 minutes, everyone wanted to leave yet again (don’t ask me folks, I thought it was weird too). Jen and I stayed for a while, because I was getting sick of walking back and forth. We danced with a bunch of local guys on the dance floor to some techno and had a blast.

Alas, I had to arise early the next morning in order to attend a service visit at a home for physically and mentally disabled people. The service visit, though rather long, was really great. The residents weren’t used to visitors, especially American visitors, for most only knew Malay and no English. They were still kind and willing to play some games and draw some pictures with us. I drew them a picture of our ship with Captain Jeremy proudly standing near the front. His presence brought happiness to their eyes.

After the service visit, two of us decided to hit up the botanical gardens, located right outside the city. The gardens were all together pretty boring, except when Matt almost got attacked by a pack of monkeys. We were taking pictures and videotaping near the entrance, but suddenly one monkey bolts right towards us (the last thing I have on video is a monkey sprinting towards the camera), and a bunch more begin to congregate as well. Pretty scary. I began hiding my camera away in my bag, because I had heard stories about monkeys jumping up and stealing peoples cameras, and these monkeys were NOT getting my video camera. They were all following Matt though…following REALLY closely. They also started hissing and yelling, but luckily they stopped and ran towards this little Asian boy that was throwing candy at them. I hope the poor boy made it out alive.
We took a taxi back to the mall where we were able to use some FAST internet! FINALLY! The ship’s internet is so, SO slow, and it costs 40 cents per minute. This is why I usually have little to no pictures to share on here…it takes forever to load them.

I met up with the rest of the group while at the mall. I also bought this sweet little Batman bear that I’ll attach to my backpack zipper. After stopping at the bread store, the grocery store, and a 7-Eleven (I wanted a slurpee), we took two taxis back to the ship, and luckily made it back in the nick of time, because as soon as we showed up, the line for the ferry began stretching out to the road.

We arrived at the ship, ate a horrible dinner (seriously, the food’s beginning to really get old, but we have some good days every once in a while), and then made plans for the evening. A few of us watched a bootleg copy of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in my cabin. I love how it was showing in the theater on the 5th floor, OR someone could just travel down to the 3rd floor and buy the bootlegged DVD in one of the DVD stores. The quality was sufficient on a laptop, though the movie severely sucked.

Malaysia proved to be a good time. I was hoping to buy a copy of the Koran here, just because it was a predominant Muslim country, and it be a great souvenir. Oddly enough they didn’t carry them in the bookstores and I couldn’t find them anywhere else. As far as books go, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code are seriously the most popular books in every country, in every language.

Our ship’s going almost 30 knots at the moment, which is insane. This is the fastest passenger ship in the world, and we’re going really quickly because of pirate attacks in these waters. I must admit though, a pirate attack would be pretty fun.

We’re now docked in Singapore for a few hours in order to refuel. There are small boats circulating our ship; I think they’re seriously pirate ships, I don’t care what anybody says.

We get to turn our clocks BACK tonight!! Such a wonderful Easter present. We’ll be sailing into Vietnam on Monday, and I already have a few crazy plans up my sleeve for this country. I’m not going to give anything away, but let’s just say that you’ll hopefully read about some elephants real soon. I know what you’re thinking…elephants playing soccer…exactly.
I’ll try to post some Malaysia + more India pictures if I can.

Happy Easter folks!