Penang

July 8

1:31 pm Malay time

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday... When we were heading toward the Malaysian boarder but still in Thailand, the people changed drastically. It was kind of like being in India again. Same same, but different. Ha. (If I never explained that they say that all over Asia and it is because they have so many of the fake brands with the real stamps on them. Brett actually told us the other day that the fakes they sell here are actually made from the same factory just after the normal shift with different workers and not as high quality standard set). Anyway, instead of saris the women were all wearing their burkas and hijabs. It's really silly and I know it ridiculous but it always makes me a little uneasy when people are dressed differently. Like when all I can see is their face or their eyes I feel uncomfortable. I don't know why. It's so stupid and not very nice. When we got past the border though and into Penang there weren't as many, if any, women dressed like this.

We are in the vans again right now in our way to Cameron Highlands. It's a jungle and from what I have heard Brett say about it, it kinda makes me think it will be similar to Chitwan National Park in Nepal but more of the terrain like Laos. We have an option to do a hike and go see a tea plantation and insect museum or something. It should be cool. I'm a little nervous about the hike. Brett said there are leeches and we have to walk through the water. So it's either have sopping wet shoes or maybe have to pull some leeches off your skin... Hopefully neither. I also feel like every time I go hike I'm told its easy and its not. Still kinda bitter about that. Well see though.

My nails are the longest they have been for the longest period of time without breaking. They're so thick and long. It's crazy. I also feel like I am not a real girl. I can't believe how many females always have their nails done! And almost everyone has their toes painted! It's crazy to me.

I have also noticed that this is the quickest I have been able to act like myself with a new group of people on the trip. I don't know if its because I feel really comfortable around these people or if its because I am getting used to being me and more outgoing with new groups of people, but its nice. I can even sing. Which rarely happens around other people. I have really bonded with jillienne and Marion though.

We went out this morning, the 3 of us, to explore Penang. I really wanted to do the bus tour to make sure I could see everything, but only 4 of us wanted to do it so it was rather expensive. I wanted to be able to take the zip line and go see the Penang hill with the Buddhist temple because it sounded really beautiful, but we didn't have time to walk around and do that, so we just walked around.

Marion and Jillienne find my phrase "rather unfortunate " really hilarious and they always laugh and kinda mock me a little by using it.

Penang surprised me actually. Last night I didn't think I would be too impressed with the city. This morning at breakfast I caught a view out the window and it was gorgeous. Picture worthy. So obviously I snapped a few.

Walking around was pretty cool. It's not an amazing town, but it was a lot cuter than I thought it would be. We did walk through china town and look down little India street but they didn't really remind me of what I would have thought china would be like it what India was like. China town in Bangkok reminded me more of what I thought china would be like. In Penang it wasn't very colorful, there were mostly white buildings, there weren't a lot of people on the street selling things, I don't know. Little India just looked like a street crowded with billboards which was kinda similar to India, but we didn't walk down it so I don't know if it was really similar or not.

A lot of the architecture of the rest of the town was European colonial style. It was a lot of whites and some browns. The buildings weren't too tall. There are a number of restored mansions around the town. We only went into one and saw the outside of another. They are pretty elaborate and very well restored. The people had to have been very rich. It was pretty impressive. I don't really know how to describe it. It was very colorful and looked kind of Chinese style architecture wise. There were big chandeliers and very nice furniture. We did get to take photos there. It was a 16 ringgit entrance fee for a student discount (a little over $5). The normal entrance fee was 20 ringgit. I don't know if they actually have student discounts but Marion asked and the guy said something in Malaysian (if that is even what they speak here?) and ten said okay, 16 ringgit. It only cut off a little over a dollar but still better than nothing.

We walked to Fort Cornwallis as well. It was only 2 ringgit to get in but we had walked around it and figured all forts are pretty much similar so we didn't feel the need to go in, especially since we were running low on time and still had 2 things to see and we needed to grab lunch.

The church was large and white and not very exciting. The inside had a bunch of wooden pews and a wooden cross. That was pretty much it.

We headed to the chocolate store building. It was free to go in which was nice and it had a little room where it had coffee beans and cocoa beans for you to smell. The history of them were also painted on the wall with some random facts about chocolate. We then got to go through a little room and taste some chocolate and coffee samples. The chocolate would have been really good to bring home aside from the fact it would all melt before I could even get it home. And apparently you can't bring any food into Singapore... No gum either. We tried chocolate with chilies in it and it was surprisingly hot at the end. We also tried white chocolate with fruit in it and 70% dark chocolate as well as coconut chocolate and probably a few others I can't remember. It was really good chocolate actually. We also tried a white vanilla coffee which tasted really great as well. They sold the coffee in sachets so it is instant coffee which I thought was different.

We headed to subway and I got a turkey and cheese wrap which was so good. I miss turkey and cheese so much. That may be the first time I had it here since I left home. They only had the choice of BBQ or chili chips so I went with BBQ and it wasn't very good. Not as flavorful as the ones at home. I also ate an apple. Yum.

4:30pm Malay time

Around the second or third hour of driving we started doing a lot of winding through the mountains. The scenery is beautiful. It's Laos like with the rock mountains and jungle. I think there may be more jungle here though. Or it's a different type of jungle.

David got sick. That can't be fun at all. I would hate to have motion sickness. I think we have about half an hour left but Brett is in the other car and we don't really know.

It started down pouring but only for maybe half an hour? All around the mountains there were what looked like stairs and I just figured they were trails. When the rain started I realized it was actually a drainage system. There was water rushing down these stairs into a concrete gutter area at the bottom. It was pretty cool and not what I was expecting.

Later Malay time

Okay. It rained way more than half an hour. Maybe a few hours in total. And it was pretty hard. Brett said its the most rain he has seen in Cameron Highlands before. It is a rainforest though...

That night we didn't do much. We checked into the hotel (again, pretty basic) and met for dinner and to book our activities for the next day through the tour organization.

At the tour organization, there was a lady boy at the front telling us information. I suspected this as soon as I saw her but I didn't say anything. Her legs were really muscular and she had a pretty thick neck. She also had a lot of make up and fake eye lashes on and her voice sounded a little off. Later, Marie asked me because she had told David and he said no! But Brett said she was. Win! I won't say I can always tell but it's a lot easier now.

I, along with 12 other people from my group, booked the full day excursion. This included trekking in the rain forest to see the worlds biggest flower, seeing a strawberry farm, an insect farm, and a tea plantation. We had to buy our own lunch though. It was 70 ringgit which is about $25. That was pretty similar to the fees... If not cheaper... At Chitwan.

We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant. I wasn't too excited about this experience. Although I really do enjoy Indian food, being in Asia and eating Indian food just reminds me too much of being in India and eating Indian food. Obviously it was good, but woah. I got sick or felt sick so often I just don't like the flash backs to that. I had naan and tandoori chicken. It was pretty good. It also wasn't like the tandoori chicken they would have served in India. Also strange since the family running the restaurant were Indian. But it was just a spiced chicken leg. Not a bowl with a bunch of sauce and spices and other things in it like it would have been in India.

A bunch of people also decided to buy these really shitty shoes for our trek the next day. Brett made us think this trek was going to be so ridiculous! He said we might have to trek through water and there are leeches. He made it sound like it would be a pretty difficult trek as well because of literally going through the rainforest. I was kinda nervous because I already thought the hikes I have done in Asia were hard. And way more difficult than they told me before I started. So this, jeezus!

I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy shoes. It was a huge debate. I didn't think I needed shoes because I have my hiking boots and my runners. But, if I got my hiking shoes wet inside the boot I would be screwed since they have gortex in them. If I wore my runners, I knew I would have no traction and would be slipping all over the place. But I also didn't want to have to walk around with wet shoes and socks all day. Clearly, this is dilemma worthy. In the end, I decided to skip on the shoes (they didn't have any in my size anyway and my orthotics wouldn't fit in them which I'm sure would make the situation a million times worse) but I did buy a pair of soccer style socks just in case we needed to walk through a river. Knowing there were leeches I knew I would not like just taking off my shoes and socks and walking across like I did in Laos (where leeches were a risk but not at that point in time and I wasn't told ahead of time). The sold were maybe $2.50 and I felt the peace of mind would be worth the money.

It was a long day and I was exhausted to say the least. Our room was nice enough. We had beds. And a bathroom. Other people had to use a bathroom that was outside their rooms so we were lucky in that respect. The Cameron Highlands are like 10 to 15 degrees Celsius cooler than the rest of Malaysia. I wore a long sleeve shirt to dinner :o

I also put almost all my clothes into laundry here. It was kinda expensive (10 ringgit) but Brett said they did a good job. And in all reality, $3 isn't too much for laundry, just more than I have been paying.