on Borneo

Malaysia

We have just arrived in East Malaysia. We took a flight to Kuching, the capital of the Sarawak province. It is extremely beautiful here. It is calm and peaceful, unlike anywhere else in Asia. The sky also looks different- the sunsets are beautiful and the weather is warm yet not oppressive. It is very tropical here, with most of the island being a jungle. We have spent the last day walking around the city and tomorrow we are going to an orang utan recovery center to visit our ginger-haired friends. In a few days, we will head over to the Indonesian side of the island.

Singapore Eats

Some of the culinary highlights of Singapore:

Singapore Eats

Short Stop in Singapore

Singapore

Yesterday we arrived in Singapore around 2PM and, after having a drink with a Texan ex-pat named Marlon at the bar beneath our hotel, we headed to Orchard Road, where conspicuous consumption is the name of the game. The 2-km walk is lined with 4-storey mall after 4-storey mall, with movie theaters, food courts, Louis Vuitton and any other name brand designer stores you could think of. The crazy thing was every single mall was packed with people. We were definitely bumping shoulders with the glitterati of Singapore. It was pretty overwhelming, given that we have been wearing the same 3 sets of clothes for the last 9 months, but the Singaporeans are enjoying their new found wealth and they are not afraid to show it in everything they wear.
Today, we walked through Chinatown, which is home to not only Buddhist temples but mosques, Hindu temples and churches. Some of the oldest religious sites in the city are located in this area. We had a wonderful Sichuanese lunch spiced up with plenty of chilies and peppercorns, which made our mouths turn numb. We walked through the business district and picked up some DVDs to watch in our cheap yet huge double room with a DVD player (don't know how we lucked out with that).
Singapore is a very modern and orderly city. While this is not the only police state that we have been to, it is the first one where people seem to follow the rules, being that the consequences are so high. You can get heavy fines for jaywalking, gun chewing, feeding the birds or forgetting to flush the toilet. You get caned for vandalism and the death penalty for trafficking drugs. As a result, Singapore has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and is impeccably clean. I have not yet seen any litter or graffiti and everyone stands on the corner until the little green man tells them they are allowed to walk (like Germany). The latter rule is a little hard getting used to but I don't want the maximum penalty of 3 months in jail. It is the cleanest city I have been to, without a doubt.
We have one more day in Singapore before we fly to Kuching, the capital of East Malaysia.

Malaysian Eats

Food highlights from Malaysia:

Malaysian Eats

KL

We have spent the last two days in the very modern city of Kuala Lumpur. Like the rest of the country, KL is very diverse. The Chinatown and Little India take up substantial chunks of the center of town and we definitely enjoyed eating and walking in those areas on our first day here. We have also been enjoying the Malay's Nasi Kandar, a plate of rice topped with whatever meat or veg dishes you would like. It is quite filling, cheap and really delicious. It is also worth mentioning that almost every dinnner is followed with some durian, which smells bad but but tastes wonderful.
Yesterday, we visited the skyscraper section of town and visited the Petronas Towers, now the largest twin towers in the world. We walked through the extremely modern malls, which are much nicer than any malls in America. We saw the new Tim Burton movie after eating in one of the best food courts either one of us has ever been to.
Along with modernity comes more civilized atmosphere. When you don't want to buy something from a street hawker, they say, "That's fine" and smile. Cars obey traffic rules and are not trying to run you over while you are crossing the street. It's very clean and people are aware of the idea of personal space. KL is a nice city, but it has left me feeling a little bored. After a very over-stimulating 3 months in India, I have come to appreciate a certain degree of chaos, which is somewhat charming and without a doubt exciting once you get the place's rhythm. Yesterday, as our second day of touring this capital city was ending, I jokingly said to S that "I only want to love in a civilized place if our family and friends are there." I was joking but I kind of meant it. That being said, we are very excited to fly to East Malaysia on the 28th. After visiting Melaka and spending a few days in Singapore, we will fly to Kuching, the capital of the province of Sarawak. From there, we very much have an open-ended plan as the weather can make travel pretty unpredictable. We will eventually make our way to Indonesian side of the island and then see where we end up. I think it will be an exciting way to end the trip.

Selamat Datang di Malysia

Welcome to Malaysia!
Family members and friends- we have left Bangkok. Yesterday morning we went back to the hospital to see an ENT specialist about my ear. We checked out of our hotel and brought our bags hoping for good news that we could leave town. After the doctor cleaned out my ear and prescribed new medication, we were in a taxi to the train station to get a train out of Bangkok to Hat Yai, a city on the southern tip of the country. We caught a 3PM train and arrived in Hat Yai at 8AM this morning. We crossed the Malaysian border around noon and arrived in Penang around 2PM. Penang is an island off the northwestern coast of Malaysia that is known for its multiethnicity, thus known as the food capital of Malaysia, and home to well-preserved heritage buildings. We are going to eat at Chinese vegetarian buffet restaurant this evening before we set out to see all the sights tomorrow.

Happy Thai New Year

As my ear pain subsided last night, I decided that I was ready to leave the hotel room for the first time in three days. We decided to go out to dinner and, on our way back from a delicious meal at a street stall, a bucket of cold water was thrown into my right ear. In a fair amount of pain, I rushed back to the hotel room immediately and took some more Aleve. Fortunately, I felt completely fine today and was finally ready to take part in the revelry that is Thai New Year. The tradition during the holiday of Songkran is to arm yourself with a water gun or a water bucket and run around the streets throwing water at people. It is a very festive time and everyone, young and old, is involved. The restaurants and shops have a few employees outside with a huge tub of water bucketing passersby on foot or in a tuk-tuk with H20. If the kids or teenagers get close to you, they will rub white paste on your face, arms, back and neck. It was very fun. We had a great vegetarian meal tonight and are signed up for cooking classes tomorrow morning.

Bangkok