We arrived in Malaysia at 8:00 in the morning on April 2nd. I cannot believe that it is already April. That means my little sister is going to be 18 very soon. That is crazy. I also cant believe where in the world I am write now. We talk about it all the time; how far we have come and how it does not feel like we are clear across the world. Right now we are 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. It is 4:00 in the afternoon right now, meaning you are all fast asleep because it is 4:00 in the morning. It really is crazy.
But anyway, I got off the ship almost right away because I had an SAS scheduled tour. Getting off the ship is not what you would expect it to be. The port was under construction so we had to take our tenders/emergency lifeboats from the ship to the port. It was the biggest pain in the butt ever! Malaysia is very hot and humid and the small lifeboats were horrible. The seas were rocky and only so many people could fit on each boat and you never really knew the timing of the boats so you could be waiting an hour just to leave the ship or get back on it. It was horrible and it was a shame because it discouraged a lot of people from leaving the ship. I know that I spent a lot more time on the ship than if I had just been able to walk right off.
So my tour; Ethnic Communities in Malaysia, left at 9:20am from the Union, and since we did not have a trip leader, me and this other girl Robyn (who was on my safari) were the acting trip leaders for the 13 of us students. We took attendance and led the group. When we got off the tender on land, we found our tour guide and loaded the bus. It was nice being in a small group and not having a million people everywhere we went. He gave us somewhat of a city orientation that was great, telling us what a lot of the buildings that we passed were and telling us where to go and where not to go and giving us some history as well. Our first stop was the Chinese community. They live on the waterfront in small, but very clean homes. They have shrines/alters set up in their homes as well as stuff for the devil to take so that their loved one can be left in peace. Each makeshift street houses one extended family, so people never get married to someone on his or her street. It was amazing to see and the views that they see everyday were beautiful. Our next stop was Little India where we visited the oldest temple in Malaysia and at Somosa or Momosa or something like that. It was delicious. Then we headed to the Malay community, which was far off in the mountains.
When we got there, the Malays had a traditional lunch prepared for us. Like usual, I stayed away from the meat and stuck to the rice and vegetables. It was good, but due to previous upset stomachs, I am skeptical. They were so nice. The entire village had come together to welcome us and they had put up special decorations that are reserved for special occasions like weddings. We were that important to them. After lunch, they gave us a tour of their beautiful community. It was nothing like that of the Chinese. Their houses were more spread out and they were freestanding. Their homes were larger since extended family often lived together, but the cluster of houses on a huge plot of land was the community. The showed us which berries to eat and we got to try them, and after seeing us all dripping sweat they showed us how to keep cool; they make this powder-like substance that when mixed with water and put on your face, keeps you dry and is supposed to keep you looking youthful. We all used it and bought some so we’ll see house young we can keep ourselves looking. After that, we headed back to the ship, but most of us got dropped at the mall to do some shopping. We set up a meeting time to get a cab back together.
The mall was huge and overwhelming. It was 7 stories tall with a movie theatre and stores set up outside the stores sort of like a marketplace. I bought some bootleg dvds of movies that you all have probably seen already, and I bought a dress incase I don’t have time to have one made in Vietnam. (We need one for the Ambassador’s Ball at the end of the voyage.) We met up and came back to the ship. At that point, I could have showered and got dressed to go back out for dinner, but the difficulties with the tenders made me want to stay on the ship. I was tired anyway, and I had movies to watch. So Dannie came over and we watched Dream Girls, and then I went to bed.
The next morning, Mary (my roommate), Brenna and I went shopping again. We had a taxi driver take us to Little India to do some shopping and then to the mall again. we used the internet café in the mall and found a phone calling place where we could call the United States. I got to talk to Paco before we continued shopping.
On the ship, there is this one girl who has magic pants, Lindsey. She got them in Mauritius. Now, let me explain magic pants; you have to put them on like a diaper because the pant leg is not sewn together on the outside. So they tie at the wait in the front and the bag and they are so light and airy and I have wanted them so bad ever since I saw her wearing them. Lindsey was in my SAS group in India so I talked about them A LOT and looked for them everywhere but had not luck. So, while shopping, I saw another girl, not from SAS, wearing magic pants. I asked where she got them, and in her British accent she told me she got them from the marketplace in Kuala Lumpur. At that point, I turned to Mary and Brenna and asked if they wanted to go to KL that night. They said that they had wanted to go anyway. So, we came back to the ship, dropped off our purchases, packed a few things in a backpack, and headed back to the bus station. Since the tender we were trying to get on left early, we missed it and ultimately missed the 8:30 bus we wanted to get on. So we got to the bus station area, ate some dinner, and got on the 10:00pm bus instead. We slept a little, ate some snacks, and talked a little. We were supposed to arrive at 2:30am. I woke up at 2:10 when we were pulling out of a station. I had no idea what station and no one seemed to speak English. So I waited hoping that another stop would be soon. I was worried we were going to end up in Singapore which would get us kicked off SAS since we are not allowed to leave the country we are docked in. I kept asking around but no one spoke English. There was no point on waking Mary and Brenna because all it would do is worry them and there was nothing we could do. Finally, the next stop came at 3:30am and some of the people on the bus turned around and looked at us, so we assumed it was our stop and got off. We were not at a station, we were at a bus stop. But it was KL so we were fine. We had a taxi take us to a hotel. Mary had looked up a few online, but the first one he took us too only had one room left that was too small for us. So we went to another hotel, each paid 20 dollars, and slept very comfortably in one king size bed. We could see the twin towers from our balcony. (If any of you have seen that movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery, that takes place in Malaysia on those towers with the bridge connecting them.) They are now the highest twin towers in the world. We got to the hotel at passed out.
Brenna and I probably could have slept the entire day, but Mary was forcing out of bed since we did not have that much time in KL. So we got up and left around noon. We went to the towers but the free tickets were already for 3:45. We got them and decided that if we made it back, great, if not, it was fine. We saw them and they were beautiful. We also saw the KL tower that looked like a space needle. I am not one to notice architecture, but the architecture in KL was amazing. There were round buildings, triangular buildings; it was beautiful.
The three of us were talking about how much we stood out in this country as white Americans, all of which were wearing shirts we had bought in countries we had previously been to. Mine had a picture of the Taj, Brenna’s said ‘I love India,’ and Mary’s said something about Brazil. When we left the towers, we were bombarded by a tour group of Indians who all wanted to take pictures with us because of our shirts. They wanted group shots, individual shots, everything. It was so funny and we were laughing hysterically. We were taking pictures with them for a good 15 minutes and every time we tried to walk away, one more person wanted a picture. It was a great way to start the day. We got in a taxi and went to what we thought was a marketplace but was actually another gigantic mall. We did a little but of shopping, ate at Chile’s and found another phone calling place, before getting into a different taxi and heading to the real marketplace.
The Central Marketplace was bigger than I ever could have imagine; fake handbags, sneakers, t-shirts, jewelry, clothing, anything and everything you ever could have imagined… and hopefully magic pants because we were not leaving KL until we got them. We shopped every inch of the marketplace for hours and hours, finally finishing at 8:00pm. We bought out the marketplace and I loved it! We had so much fun bargaining and walking away from people and having them come after us with a different price. The three of us just had a great time doing exactly what it was that we wanted to do. The problem with big groups is that some people always have to give in and it is impossible to make everyone happy. The three of us were happy. By the end, we had bought one of everything and were so hot and sweaty it was ridiculous. As we were coming to the end of the market after hitting up each and every store, Brenna saw magic pants. I was in heaven. I was so happy I couldn’t believe it, and Brenna and Mary were lucky because I wasn’t leaving without them. I bought three pairs and I LOVE them. Brenna bought some too so it wasn’t all for me. It was a great day.
We went back to the hotel, where we had left our backpacks, walked somewhere close to eat dinner, and then took a taxi to the bus station. We bought tickets on the nicest bus we could fine, with beds (seats that completely reclined and had foot rests and had individual entertainment systems). It was supposed to leave at 11:00 and get in at 3:30, but we ended up leaving at midnight. It was fine and we were all sleeping immediately. It was that comfortable. Around 3:15 we stopped at a gas station and all three of us went to the bathroom thinking that we would be back to Penang very shortly. We got back on the bus and all fell asleep again, until 6:00am when the bus stopped again, finally at the Penang bus station. The trip had taken forever, but there were no complaints since we all slept so well. We got back onto the ship, after the tender and everything, around 7:00am. I had another SAS trip planned for that day that left at 8:20am. I debated going, but ended up showering and grabbing breakfast and going.
It was a trip to a disabled person’s home and I am so glad I went. We got a tour of the facility before being able to interact with them. We colored and talked and watched them do aerobics. It was very rewarding. There was a store in the facility where they all sold what they made. Half of the money went right to the person that made it while the other half went to the facility itself. It was wonderful and it was great to see in another country. I got back on the ship around 1:00pm, at lunch, and went back to sleep. I was on the ship for good since I knew that everyone else would be waiting in long lines for the tender to get back on the ship. I love Malaysia and I definitely want to go back. We were told that the culture here would be more different from the United States than any other country thus far, but I, along with everyone else, didn’t really see it. It was different, but I wouldn’t say the most different. I loved it. The atmosphere was relaxed and I had a great time.
Now I am anxiously awaiting our arrival in Vietnam on Monday where my mom will be waiting for me!
But anyway, I got off the ship almost right away because I had an SAS scheduled tour. Getting off the ship is not what you would expect it to be. The port was under construction so we had to take our tenders/emergency lifeboats from the ship to the port. It was the biggest pain in the butt ever! Malaysia is very hot and humid and the small lifeboats were horrible. The seas were rocky and only so many people could fit on each boat and you never really knew the timing of the boats so you could be waiting an hour just to leave the ship or get back on it. It was horrible and it was a shame because it discouraged a lot of people from leaving the ship. I know that I spent a lot more time on the ship than if I had just been able to walk right off.
So my tour; Ethnic Communities in Malaysia, left at 9:20am from the Union, and since we did not have a trip leader, me and this other girl Robyn (who was on my safari) were the acting trip leaders for the 13 of us students. We took attendance and led the group. When we got off the tender on land, we found our tour guide and loaded the bus. It was nice being in a small group and not having a million people everywhere we went. He gave us somewhat of a city orientation that was great, telling us what a lot of the buildings that we passed were and telling us where to go and where not to go and giving us some history as well. Our first stop was the Chinese community. They live on the waterfront in small, but very clean homes. They have shrines/alters set up in their homes as well as stuff for the devil to take so that their loved one can be left in peace. Each makeshift street houses one extended family, so people never get married to someone on his or her street. It was amazing to see and the views that they see everyday were beautiful. Our next stop was Little India where we visited the oldest temple in Malaysia and at Somosa or Momosa or something like that. It was delicious. Then we headed to the Malay community, which was far off in the mountains.
When we got there, the Malays had a traditional lunch prepared for us. Like usual, I stayed away from the meat and stuck to the rice and vegetables. It was good, but due to previous upset stomachs, I am skeptical. They were so nice. The entire village had come together to welcome us and they had put up special decorations that are reserved for special occasions like weddings. We were that important to them. After lunch, they gave us a tour of their beautiful community. It was nothing like that of the Chinese. Their houses were more spread out and they were freestanding. Their homes were larger since extended family often lived together, but the cluster of houses on a huge plot of land was the community. The showed us which berries to eat and we got to try them, and after seeing us all dripping sweat they showed us how to keep cool; they make this powder-like substance that when mixed with water and put on your face, keeps you dry and is supposed to keep you looking youthful. We all used it and bought some so we’ll see house young we can keep ourselves looking. After that, we headed back to the ship, but most of us got dropped at the mall to do some shopping. We set up a meeting time to get a cab back together.
The mall was huge and overwhelming. It was 7 stories tall with a movie theatre and stores set up outside the stores sort of like a marketplace. I bought some bootleg dvds of movies that you all have probably seen already, and I bought a dress incase I don’t have time to have one made in Vietnam. (We need one for the Ambassador’s Ball at the end of the voyage.) We met up and came back to the ship. At that point, I could have showered and got dressed to go back out for dinner, but the difficulties with the tenders made me want to stay on the ship. I was tired anyway, and I had movies to watch. So Dannie came over and we watched Dream Girls, and then I went to bed.
The next morning, Mary (my roommate), Brenna and I went shopping again. We had a taxi driver take us to Little India to do some shopping and then to the mall again. we used the internet café in the mall and found a phone calling place where we could call the United States. I got to talk to Paco before we continued shopping.
On the ship, there is this one girl who has magic pants, Lindsey. She got them in Mauritius. Now, let me explain magic pants; you have to put them on like a diaper because the pant leg is not sewn together on the outside. So they tie at the wait in the front and the bag and they are so light and airy and I have wanted them so bad ever since I saw her wearing them. Lindsey was in my SAS group in India so I talked about them A LOT and looked for them everywhere but had not luck. So, while shopping, I saw another girl, not from SAS, wearing magic pants. I asked where she got them, and in her British accent she told me she got them from the marketplace in Kuala Lumpur. At that point, I turned to Mary and Brenna and asked if they wanted to go to KL that night. They said that they had wanted to go anyway. So, we came back to the ship, dropped off our purchases, packed a few things in a backpack, and headed back to the bus station. Since the tender we were trying to get on left early, we missed it and ultimately missed the 8:30 bus we wanted to get on. So we got to the bus station area, ate some dinner, and got on the 10:00pm bus instead. We slept a little, ate some snacks, and talked a little. We were supposed to arrive at 2:30am. I woke up at 2:10 when we were pulling out of a station. I had no idea what station and no one seemed to speak English. So I waited hoping that another stop would be soon. I was worried we were going to end up in Singapore which would get us kicked off SAS since we are not allowed to leave the country we are docked in. I kept asking around but no one spoke English. There was no point on waking Mary and Brenna because all it would do is worry them and there was nothing we could do. Finally, the next stop came at 3:30am and some of the people on the bus turned around and looked at us, so we assumed it was our stop and got off. We were not at a station, we were at a bus stop. But it was KL so we were fine. We had a taxi take us to a hotel. Mary had looked up a few online, but the first one he took us too only had one room left that was too small for us. So we went to another hotel, each paid 20 dollars, and slept very comfortably in one king size bed. We could see the twin towers from our balcony. (If any of you have seen that movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery, that takes place in Malaysia on those towers with the bridge connecting them.) They are now the highest twin towers in the world. We got to the hotel at passed out.
Brenna and I probably could have slept the entire day, but Mary was forcing out of bed since we did not have that much time in KL. So we got up and left around noon. We went to the towers but the free tickets were already for 3:45. We got them and decided that if we made it back, great, if not, it was fine. We saw them and they were beautiful. We also saw the KL tower that looked like a space needle. I am not one to notice architecture, but the architecture in KL was amazing. There were round buildings, triangular buildings; it was beautiful.
The three of us were talking about how much we stood out in this country as white Americans, all of which were wearing shirts we had bought in countries we had previously been to. Mine had a picture of the Taj, Brenna’s said ‘I love India,’ and Mary’s said something about Brazil. When we left the towers, we were bombarded by a tour group of Indians who all wanted to take pictures with us because of our shirts. They wanted group shots, individual shots, everything. It was so funny and we were laughing hysterically. We were taking pictures with them for a good 15 minutes and every time we tried to walk away, one more person wanted a picture. It was a great way to start the day. We got in a taxi and went to what we thought was a marketplace but was actually another gigantic mall. We did a little but of shopping, ate at Chile’s and found another phone calling place, before getting into a different taxi and heading to the real marketplace.
The Central Marketplace was bigger than I ever could have imagine; fake handbags, sneakers, t-shirts, jewelry, clothing, anything and everything you ever could have imagined… and hopefully magic pants because we were not leaving KL until we got them. We shopped every inch of the marketplace for hours and hours, finally finishing at 8:00pm. We bought out the marketplace and I loved it! We had so much fun bargaining and walking away from people and having them come after us with a different price. The three of us just had a great time doing exactly what it was that we wanted to do. The problem with big groups is that some people always have to give in and it is impossible to make everyone happy. The three of us were happy. By the end, we had bought one of everything and were so hot and sweaty it was ridiculous. As we were coming to the end of the market after hitting up each and every store, Brenna saw magic pants. I was in heaven. I was so happy I couldn’t believe it, and Brenna and Mary were lucky because I wasn’t leaving without them. I bought three pairs and I LOVE them. Brenna bought some too so it wasn’t all for me. It was a great day.
We went back to the hotel, where we had left our backpacks, walked somewhere close to eat dinner, and then took a taxi to the bus station. We bought tickets on the nicest bus we could fine, with beds (seats that completely reclined and had foot rests and had individual entertainment systems). It was supposed to leave at 11:00 and get in at 3:30, but we ended up leaving at midnight. It was fine and we were all sleeping immediately. It was that comfortable. Around 3:15 we stopped at a gas station and all three of us went to the bathroom thinking that we would be back to Penang very shortly. We got back on the bus and all fell asleep again, until 6:00am when the bus stopped again, finally at the Penang bus station. The trip had taken forever, but there were no complaints since we all slept so well. We got back onto the ship, after the tender and everything, around 7:00am. I had another SAS trip planned for that day that left at 8:20am. I debated going, but ended up showering and grabbing breakfast and going.
It was a trip to a disabled person’s home and I am so glad I went. We got a tour of the facility before being able to interact with them. We colored and talked and watched them do aerobics. It was very rewarding. There was a store in the facility where they all sold what they made. Half of the money went right to the person that made it while the other half went to the facility itself. It was wonderful and it was great to see in another country. I got back on the ship around 1:00pm, at lunch, and went back to sleep. I was on the ship for good since I knew that everyone else would be waiting in long lines for the tender to get back on the ship. I love Malaysia and I definitely want to go back. We were told that the culture here would be more different from the United States than any other country thus far, but I, along with everyone else, didn’t really see it. It was different, but I wouldn’t say the most different. I loved it. The atmosphere was relaxed and I had a great time.
Now I am anxiously awaiting our arrival in Vietnam on Monday where my mom will be waiting for me!
gMe, Robyn and Anna with the Malay women at the village.
Mary, me and Brenna in Little India with Buddah.
Me, Mary and Brenna at the twin towers in KL.
Me, Brenna and Mary eating in KL.
Me with my new friend from the disabled person's home in Malayasia.
4 comments:
I can't wait to see those magic pants hahaha that story was hilarious! I'm glad you found them...oh, and what about your 15 minutes of fame? hehe, all these people wanting to take pictures of you guys, that's funny! I sent you a little something with your Mom, i wish i could see your face when you open it. I love you boba!
Oh Jordi, fun times! hahah
Hi Jord,
I finally read your two newest entrees. Was too busy enjoying the Parent's Trip with you! I look forward to your blogs on Vietnam and Cambodia. I will never forget seeing you on the ship waving to me as you sailed in to Vietnam. Alex Saenz's Dad got a great picture of you along with his son! Enjoy the rest of your trip, be careful and tell friends who I didn't meet that I owe them a dinner if they come to Boston!
Love,
Mom
Hi Jordi,
Great story and all those places you've been too, I could only imagine. Luckily for me your description takes me right where you were. It's amazing that your so fearless in a foreign country, especially when you don't speak the language... And those magic pants sounds like a real dream, i could not believe that you would be so determine too get them...lol
But that's Jordi for yah!!! I see now what you've been saying...
See you soon and take care.
love yah,
Donnie
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