The Malaysia Edition (in full)

So, I am home now (at my apartment in Japan), but my trip was definitely one of the best trips I have ever taken in my life. I arrived in Osaka yesterday evening and have been missing Kuching ever since I left. It is just a really cool place, the people were awesome, the city was nice, good food, and a lot to see and do. Going back to work tomorrow will be a bit rough, but I don’t think it will be too hard to get back into the swing of things. I just wish I could have had a few extra days in Malaysia.

Since my last post I have had a lot of awesome experiences. I also have some things that I didn’t include in my last post because I started talking to Sam (the hostel owner) and didn’t have the motivation to include the last few details. My conversations with Sam became a nightly occurrence while I was staying there. He was an older man, probably in his late 50s or so. He was full of stories and he liked to talk, and I enjoyed listening to him. We got along pretty well, and he ended up adding me on Facebook before I left, to keep in touch.

So, to catch up from the last post. My day in  Kuala Lumpur was pretty good, there were a lot of col shops we went to, we had some awesome food, and we made it to a few cool sightseeing destinations as well. As I said before we went to the National Mosque, the Batu Caves, and the PETRONAS twin towers. The mosque was ok, it was interesting to see, but it wasn’t really that exciting. It was fairly modern so there wasn’t much history to it. There were some cool fountains, but that was about it really. We did have to wear these tunics that covered our arms and legs. They had hoods too, but only the women had to put the hood up. The place was ok, but if I ever go back to KL (which I am not dying to do right now) I doubt I will visit this place.
The Batu Caves were pretty cool. There was a massive golden statue of Buddha at the base of this giant rock/mini mountain. There were steps leading up to the mouth of the cave. A lot of steps. I was happy when I saw monkeys about halfway up. They were the first wild monkeys I had ever seen, but I was mostly just grateful to have an excuse to take a break from climbing the stairs. These monkeys were crazy though. Twice, they jumped up on me to try and steal my water bottle. My buddy Edwin had warned me that they would try and that I should leave the bottle at the bottom and get it on my way back. I was kind of looking forward to them trying to steal my bottle though, so I decided to hold onto it. The first assault took me by surprise. I was just walking, and looking at some other monkeys, when all of a sudden another one came up and blindsided me. I guess I had a strong enough grip on the bottle though. He/She was unsuccessful. The first attack really surprised me though. I kind of jumped and let out a small scream. Yes, only a small scream. There were people all around, and I felt a bit embarrassed at first, but then I realized these monkeys were trying to do the same thing to everyone, and everyone was being caught off guard just like I was. One guy had some postcards taken out of his hand. He had just bought them at the top of the hill, and was pretty upset, but still smiling a bit. He chased the monkey down the stairs a little bit until it climbed up a light post, out of reach. I don’t think the guy ever got his postcards back. I made sure to keep a much tighter grip on my phone and water bottle from then on though. I was well prepared when I saw my second assailant approaching, they were equally unsuccessful. So at that point they were 0-2 against me. I shooed a few other would-be thieves away as well, but they just moved on to someone more vulnerable. I did make it to the caves though. they were pretty cool. The biggest caves I had been in at that point and I was pretty amazed. The Buddha statue was really cool as well, but they were all overshadowed by the thieving little tricksters who accosted me on the stairs. It was pretty funny though. I was proud I had defeated the monkeys in this battle, so I treated myself to a nice celebratory drink of fresh coconut milk and  then resumed my day of sightseeing.

We went to a museum, which gave a lot of information about the history of KL and stuff. It was just a normal museum. They had a massive model of the city and a short little presentation about the model and the city. The gift shop had some cool things too. They had a big “I <3 KL” statue outside of the museum, much like the “LOVE” statues in Philly and NYC.  Inside the building, it was just a museum though. It was cool to learn some more stuff about KL, but I have never been to interested in museums. I cant complain though, it was free.

After the museum we walked down the street to China town. Basically it was a few streets lined with vendors in little lean-tos/tents selling counterfeit everything. From shoes and perfumes to jewelry and electronics. I was a bit tempted to buy some things, but I really didn’t need it and I didn’t want to have to carry the extra weight in my bag for the rest of the week.

After China town, we hopped on a bus to head to the twin towers. I didn’t really do much research on KL before going on this trip, but I knew I wanted to see the twin towers. The bus took what seemed like hours but we finally arrived at our stop. The towers were massive. It was just getting dark too so it was all lit up. I don’t know how these towers compare to other buildings now a days, but they were the tallest in the world up until 2004. We hung out below the towers for a little while, taking pictures and people watching. Then we started to get hungry so we headed to get some dinner.

We ate at a little street market/food court. I came to realize, this was the standard in Malaysia. Most food places were just big outdoor food courts, with a bunch of tables and a bunch of little food carts selling different dishes. You just order from one cart, go and sit down, and they bring it to you, then there is another stand that sells drinks for all the customers in the whole area. It is pretty interesting.

I like the idea of food carts, and Malaysia really takes advantage of them. Overall, the food in Malaysia was pretty good. I tried a lot of different things. There was even a food festival going on while I was in Kuching with over 300 different vendors. My stomach and taste buds were very satisfied this whole trip, BUT I was extremely happy when I got back to Japan last night and got my hands on some real sushi again. I am afraid that I will never find another place with food as good as it is in Japan. There is no where to go but down from here. It makes me sad.

Anywayyyy, after dinner, Edwin insisted we go to a karaoke bar. I wasn’t the most thrilled about it so I made sure we went to one with beer. We stayed there for about an hour then headed home. I had to get some sleep before heading back to the airport to fly to Kuching the next morning. My flight was taking off at 7:20am so I had to be up around 5:45.

I made it to Kuching just fine. We landed around 9, and I made it to the hostel not long after. I got some breakfast at the hostel then asked for some recommendations on where to go for the day.

I just ended up walking around the city for a while. There was a nice riverfront area with a lot of shops and restaurants. A lot of the shops sold different kinds of souvenirs or foods. There were also a ton of fabric shops as well. there were 15-20 different fabric stores within a kilometer radius, they all had just as much fabric as one “Joann’s” fabric store. I think I found some stuff my mom would like there. She always says that she doesn’t want any souvenirs when I travel, she just wants me to get her different types of fabric prints for her to use in her quilts. Well mom, I think I did well this time. Sarawak has a lot of original prints derived from native art. I didn’t buy much else other than fabric. Most of the souvenirs were pretty basic and corny, or too expensive. There was some cool wooden art, but I was worried about that becoming a problem at customs.

I also made it to some museums in town, at first it was to hide from the sudden rainstorm that popped up, but it wasn’t too boring. Better than the one in KL at least. The one I went o first had some pictures and taxidermies of some animals native to Sarawak. It kind of made me nervous about my hiking/camping trip I would be headed out on the next day. There are some scary animals on Borneo, Rhinos, Monkeys, Bears, Jungle cats, tons of snakes, and a bunch of other weird stuff that I had little interest in coming face to face with while hiking solo in a tropical rainforest. It did make me a bit nervous, but I was very excited to head out the next morning.

After the rain subsided, I ventured back out and caught a boat across the river to see a little castle and an Orchid Garden.

The castle turned out to be the home of some local politician so I was not allowed to go inside the gates. The orchid garden was open though. Every bit of sightseeing I did in Kuching was free. I just had to sign a guest book with my name and nationality. I was very happy to save the money. It was all risk free too, so I was never upset if something was not so entertaining. The orchid garden ended up being really awesome. I have always liked gardens since I helped my dad grow vegetables as a kid. I even have some tomatoes and other plants growing on my balcony here in Japan. I have never been huge on flowers, but since coming to Japan I am beginning to appreciate them much more. This orchid garden had hundreds of different species of orchids, of all different colors and sizes. They were all gorgeous, and I couldn’t resist taking tons and tons of photos. Later that night when I was reviewing my photos from the day, I realized I went a little overboard. There were so many cool flowers though, and so many colors. I think it was one of my favorite places I visited.

After the Orchid Park, I headed to another food court. This one was supposed to be the mecca of all food courts in the city though. I ordered three or four things, thinking they would be single portions. Everything came out on a huge plate like it was meant to be shared between several people. But it was just me… The ladies at the stand seemed to be laughing at me, thinking there was no way I could finish it all, it was probably just me thinking that though, subconsciously motivating myself to finish it all, which  did. It was all very delicious. I got some local veggies, and some shrimp and a few other local foods. I could barely walk when I went to leave. The whole meal cost me about 50 RM or 15 USD.

When I arrived back at the hostel, the owners insisted that I walk down the street to the food festival. Even though I was stuffed, I went. I just got some dessert, and walked around. There were a ton of people there. It seemed like half the city was there. It was so crowded it was hard to walk… It felt like I was back in Japan.

I didn’t stay long at the food festival. I had to get up early to head out on my camping trip, and I wanted to try and get a bit more sleep than I had been getting the previous few nights.

sorry Not all the pics were loading so I had to split it into 2 posts. Just click on “The Malaysia Edition pt. 2” link below….