Malaysia!

Malaysia Blog Oct 22- Oct 25

Malaysia was such a beautiful country! I stayed in the state of Penang the whole time which is an island of Malaysia. On first day I decided to go and hike up Penang hill with some friends. It was so pretty and was exactly what I imagined the rainforest to be like when I was learning about it back in the days of elementary school, haha. Except, instead of trails, we ended up trekking up a steep road that winds its way to the top, all the while being smashed by buckets of rain. When we reached the top of the hill we were surprised to find a small little town. There was a temple, restaurants, a garden, and some small venders…however, it was completely vacant. I still don’t have a clue why but it was interesting to have discovered this beautiful retreat on our own. We wandered over to a building that seemed like a nice restaurant…lo and behold it was an English tea house! It was pretty strange and even shocking that on the top of this deserted hill, historic imperialism, and present globalization had still managed to reach. Another example of this was Little India in the capital city of Penang. I didn’t spend too much time there since I had experienced a healthy dosage of India a few days before but it was interesting to witness the combining of cultures from around the world in this one little country. Since Malaysia is a prime trade spot in the world, it includes a large mix of Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, and Korean culture, among others.
I loved Malaysia with its people, culture and food! My biggest difficulty was refraining from using my left hand for gestures. The left hand is considered unclean because it is used for toilet purposes, and toilet paper is a rare commodity, thus its offensiveness. Also I am very use to putting my hands on my hips, which in both India and Malaysia is a sign of arrogance and snobbery. I was always nervous to do anything with my hands for fear of ruining my good American name…

My favorite part of Malaysia was the two days I spent in a Malay neighborhood with a family. Kristi, another girl from SAS, who lives a few doors down from me on the ship, stayed with the same family. We had a ball the whole two days. It made it a bit easier to be able to talk and laugh at the end of the day about things that had happened. When we first arrived in the neighborhood our SAS group of about 30 people was greeted by the local mothers and grandmothers. They didn’t speak much English but the sure fed us a lot! Kristi, my roommate on the trip, and I were escorted to our house. It was a cute two story house with multiple bedrooms, a family room but I never did find out where we were supposed to go to the bathroom. Kristi tried asking a couple of times, the most we figured out, was that it was outside somewhere, who knows. They gave us our own little room to share, which was decorated with pictures of Asian boys (the teenage daughter’s room I’m guessing). She sat us down in front of Malaysian Idol and just kept feeding us. I’m pretty sure this was because the Grandmother, who was the only one home besides her three-year-old grandson, spoke little to no English and this was her way of avoiding the awkwardness of not being able to communicate. When the rest of the family came home we got to have a lot more fun exchanging cultures. They took us into town. We walked the night market, drove around the island of Penang and stopped off the road to have some good Malaysian food! I tried to impress my new family by ordering some spicy mee (rice noodle) soup. More than anything I just gave them a good laugh because I couldn’t help but tear up and chug the fluids, haha.
The next day we got to see the rice fields, watched some butik making (more or less beautiful paintings on cloth), and ate lunch in a cool, secluded little fishing village.

The rest of the trip I spent visiting some really elaborate Buddhist temples, seeing the beach (bustling with tourists), craft shopping, and eating great Malaysian food. Malay food is a mix of many Asian cuisines: it consists of a lot of rice, spicy sauces, chicken or fish, and noodles.
I had such a fun time there. I never felt uncomfortable around the locals. They were always willing to help me out, or answer my questions and did it with a smile. Yay for Malaysia! I would love to go back and see the rest of it!