Malaysia

Holy cow, it’s already the end of October. This trip is flying by.

Malaysia was so much fun. It was the first port where I didn’t have any planned activities or obligations. I was able to spend some real quality time with a great group of people. It’s amazing how close you get with people when you travel.

We arrived in Penang, Malaysia on October 22nd. The weather was really yucky. I don’t know the exact reason but we couldn’t dock the ship right up at the pier, instead we had to anchor in the bay and take a smaller boat to and from land. This process is called tendering. It was kind of fun, especially since the water was really choppy, but it was also a pain. After the first day, they only had one tender running per hour, so to come back to the boat would take a huge chunk out of your day. In addition, the last tender stopped running at 1 am, so if you wanted to stay out later than that you had to provide your own accommodations. I had only planned to stay off the boat for two nights, but ended up being gone the entire time. I left the boat at 11:30 am the day we arrived and didn’t see the boat again until 3:30 pm the day we left.

The first day in Penang, me and three other friends explored the city by foot. It was so nice to be able to walk around and not feel like you were going to get run over by a rickshaw. Malaysia is extremely culturally diverse. I had no idea what to expect before I got there. What I found was a pretty clean city with lots of different architecture and influences from many different Asian cultures. In a matter of a couple hours we walked through China Town and Little India. You can get all kinds of food: Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, and it’s all incredible. Malaysians make the best tea and coffee I have ever had. We’ll see how that stands after I visit Costa Rica. I finally had the opportunity to experience really spicy food. One day I ordered spicy seafood soup. After I had consumed about half of it, I was disappointed that it wasn’t actually spicy. Then I saw what I thought was a green bean and popped the whole thing in my mouth. Big mistake. That was the spiciest thing I have ever tasted. I swallowed about half of it and spit out the rest. My mouth and throat were on fire for a while. My eyes teared up and I got really hot and sweaty. Lesson learned – sometimes things that say they’re spicy, aren’t really spicy, they just have insanely hot peppers in them.

After hanging out in Penang the first day and night (we stayed in a hotel so we could stay out late) we caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I was traveling with a group of 10 girls. That was pretty intense, so we usually broke off into two groups of five. Kuala Lumpur is a really cool city. It’s super nice, with lots of shopping, places to eat, and great nightlife. On the second day in KL we went to the Petronas Towers. I think they are in the top five tallest buildings in the world. I got to go up to the skybridge, which is the highest one in the world. Our second night in KL was girls’ night out. We got really dressed up and one of the girls treated us to an entry fee at a really nice R&B club. For the first time in my life I wore 4 inch heels. I have gotten used to being significantly taller than all of the people in the countries we have visited, but that night I really stood out – standing at about 6’3”, dressed up, wearing make-up, and being American. I couldn’t walk from one side of the club to the other without people wanting to shake my hand and asking me if I was a model or actress. It was really fun pretending to be someone important for the night.

I am slightly embarrassed to say that while we were in KL we stayed at the Ritz Carlton. It was considerably less expensive than it would have been in the United States, and split between 5 girls it wasn’t too pricey. Plus, the accommodations were incredible. We had a personal butler 24 hours a day, the most awesome pool I have ever seen, free wi-fi, and access to the spa. We could walk just about everywhere we needed to go, but if we needed rides the hotel arranged it for us. It felt slightly awkward getting such royal treatment having just come from India, but it was nice to relax for a while. On the last night we took a bus back to Penang. This bus was pimped out. It was a double-decker that had TVs with video games in every seat, the chairs reclined really far back and had massage things in them, and they served us a meal. It was the nicest 4.5 hour ride of my life.

The last day Emma and I made a quick trip to Batu Ferringi, a nearby beach. We just wanted to check it out and do a little shopping. We were so bummed that we didn’t have our swimsuits because the weather was incredible and the beach was beautiful.

So that was Malaysia. I definitely want to go back sometime. Tonight there is a crew talent show. I’m really pumped for that. In a couple weeks we’re having a student talent show and I am actually participating. I normally wouldn’t be a part of something like that but I’m dying to choreograph and dance, so my dancer friend from Atlanta and I are doing a piece together.

Lastly, I hope everyone has a fun Halloween! We’re having a costume party on the ship and I think four other girls and I are dressing up as the “Big 5” – lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo. I get to be a leopard. If we decide to go as other animals in the safari I got unanimously elected to be a giraffe.

We arrive in Vietnam in 2 days!