Hello.
Surprise surprise, I didn’t have much free time in Malaysia to go on the internet. I suppose I could have at one point, but it was 4:30 in the morning and I decided to sleep instead. Sorry.
Back in India, after my wonderful night in Hotel Perfect, we caught a train to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. It departed at around 6 in the morning, so everybody else in my group slept, but I love looking at scenery, so I stayed awake and just stared out the window for two hours. The scenery of the Indian countryside is so serene, which is a great contrast to the bustling, overcrowded cities. Every once in a while you can see an abandoned building or temple that some people may have occupied as their home. Sometimes there will be little villages, or the awkward people squatting beside the railroad, relieving themselves in the manner of the Eastern toilet. For those of you who have never even seen a squatting toilet, that is a cultural experience in itself. A very different kind of cultural experience. Sorry, I kind of lost my TRAIN of thought. I’ll try to stay on TRACK.
So we arrive at the station and head over to the Taj Mahal. It’s such a weird monument, because even when you get in close proximity of it, it seems like there’s some kind of fog or mist covering it up. It’s pretty surreal once you’re there. I didn’t realize how big the actual site of the Taj was. There is a huge wall around it with identical buildings to the East and West (identical to each other, not identical to the Taj), and the symmetry of the whole area is near perfect. The symmetry would be completely perfect, but the coffins inside that were carved from marble are deliberately to one side, because in the Islamic faith, God is the only thing that is perfect, and to have a building that is completely symmetrical, or perfect, would be a blasphemy to the religion. I think that’s how the story goes. The Taj is also built entirely out of a kind of white marble in India which is apparently 7 times stronger than Italian marble. Apparently my marble coasters that I bought were too. Before they broke.
We were able to see a lot of sites in India. The Jaipur palace was huge and impressive, with huge walls outside the city made entirely of a “pink” sandstone. We went to an old observatory site, the Agra fort, a few more temples, and saw some of the government buildings in Delhi. I had a great time on the tour, but some moments were really awkward. We were only a group of nine on a little bus, so the traveling was spacious, but in between sites, the guides would take us to see how some of the local products were made. This was always REALLY awkward. Here come the rich Western people to watch the impoverished locals spend hours everyday on tedious manual labor. We went to shops for marble plates, carpets, jewelry, and silk, and every time I felt guilty for just existing. Whoever was in charge of the operation would greet us, take us to see how the items were made, give us a free drink, and then try and sucker us into buying something. I’ll admit that it did work on me once. I bought a carpet. I just had to. It’s one of those things you just have to do. It was $125 for me, which is a lot of money for a rug, but I didn’t feel so bad after Grant bought one for $350 that just has a picture of a tiger on it. It’s on the floor of our room now, and he doesn’t regret getting it at all.
On the last day of India I went on a trip to see Kancheepuram and Mamallapuram, which are more ruins and temples of India. There are really so many temples in India, it is ridiculous. I had fun, but I think I would have rather done it independently than through Semester at Sea. That seems to be the theme of all my port time now: I wish I would have done more trips independently. I had a great time in India though, and like always, I wish I could upload pictures. I probably won’t be able to upload anything until China, but who knows, I might get lucky in Vietnam. As far as India goes, I can’t really explain the experience through writing. All the different sights, sounds, smells, tastes (Naan is the best thing in the world. Period.), and people. I would like to go back there someday, but only in certain ways. It’s hard to explain.
Then we went to Malaysia.
I don’t know how much you know about Malaysia, but I knew practically nothing about it, so I didn’t really prepare for it. Just three days after India, BOOM, we were there. Selamat Datang. I had the homestay on the first day, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. I thought it was going to be one of the most intimate cultural experiences that I was going to have on the whole voyage, but it just felt immensely touristy, if you can believe it. We arrived at the kampong (village), and there were banners everywhere saying “Welcome to Malaysia” that apparently belonged to a company that operates all of the homestays. I didn’t even know that companies like that existed. Apparently the families have people that stay with them all the time. Well, we were all assigned our families, and mine didn’t speak any English. I expected this, and I wanted to be in a family that didn’t speak English, but in all honesty we didn’t spend much time with our families. In the morning we woke up, had breakfast with them, and went off on a tour bus with the other SAS kids for the whole day, only to come back to our families at dinner time. Not quite the cultural experience I wanted. It didn’t seem like they put too much effort into the food either. After we had the same meal for the third time in a row, I was pretty hungry for something new. My family was great, and when I ate with them I enjoyed the food, but whenever we would eat as a group, it would be the same meal. Always. There were a lot of awkward activities that we did, but not all of the experience was negative. Some of the locals spoke English, and we got to find out a lot about the surrounding areas, and we heard about the huge tsunami that hit there four years ago. It was kind of funny, I got my host family a stuffed ship modeled after the MV Explorer, the ship we’re sailing on, and when I gave it to my dad, he smiled and pretended there was a tsunami and that our ship crashed. It was a little discomforting, but still pretty funny.
After the homestay we got a small group together and headed for Kuala Lumpur. There were only five of us: Grant, Melissa, Hope, Qi, and me. I don’t think I’ve mentioned him before, but Qi is amazing. He’s a student from China, his English is pretty good, and he won the Mr. Semester at Sea competition. It was really useful having him around too, because a lot of the people in Malaysia speak Chinese infinitely better than English, so he would be the guy to help us out with cab drivers and such. It was a small group, but most of the time that’s the best way to travel.
We got to Kuala Lumpur by way of bus, which took about 6 or 7 hours from Penang. The bus system in Malaysia is also the bane of my existence. There is no system or method or anything that guides you. Well, there are numbered areas that the bus is supposed to be at, but the buses themselves aren’t labeled with where they are going, and there are a TON of buses at the station. Also, there are about 20 or so different bus companies that operate out of the station, and no all-inclusive help desk that will tell you the schedule of each bus, availability, or anything like that. Our first bus was about 30 minutes late, and for the entire 30 minutes we thought that we had missed our bus. Let’s just say that the buses in Malaysia are stressful.
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at around 10:30 at night, with no reservation and no particular place to go. We managed to find a place that might very well top Hotel Perfect in luxury accommodations. I suppose it’s in a different category though, because it was a hostel, not a hotel. There were five of us, and we convinced them to let us have a four person bunk-bed dormitory room for two nights. It was a little cramped, but for $4 a night, who’s complaining? We were just relieved to have a place to stay.
Kuala Lumpur is one of the coolest cities ever. At night, there are so many lights around the city, and the famous landmarks, the KL Tower and Patronus Towers are incredible. Especially the Patronus Towers. Yes Harry Potter fans, they are called the Patronus Towers, and you should expecto a lot from them. They are highly reflective towers that are blasted with huge spotlights at night so that they shine like nothing else I’ve ever seen. And just on a side note, I found out about the last Harry Potter book being divided into two movies, and I’m very excited about it. Yes, I may be on the other side of the world, but I still get some news.
On out full day at KL, we spent most of our time in a shopping mall called Times Square. I know it sounds lame to spend most of your time in a foreign country in a shopping mall, but you have to see this thing. I think it was around 15 stories, and there were a billion shops. There was a theme park on floor 5 with an indoor roller coaster. Admission was about $10 USD, so we went to that for a few hours. This mall was just unreal. And to think that it was in Malaysia just baffled me. They had a Dairy Queen there, and for old times’ sake I had to order a Blizzard. Mango cheesecake. It was interesting to try mango in a blizzard, because they don’t have that back in the states (or maybe they do now, and I’ve just been gone for too long), but the “cheesecake” just seemed like graham cracker pieces.
I was really surprised at how developed a lot of Malaysia was. They are trying to become a first world country by 2020 (I think), and more power to them. This blog is way too long, and I hope you all are doing well. Take care, I’m off to Vietnam!
Why couldn’t the bicycle stand up by itself?
Because it was two tired.
