Malaysia Trip, Part 1

I realize it's been a month since I got back from Malaysia. I had a great time though! The food was excellent, the people were very friendly, there was lots to do, and most people spoke English quite well.

The famous Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Actually, this picture was taken the day before I went back to Vietnam, as I didn't take many photos when I first arrived!

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 27th. When I arrived, I immediately noticed how it was much more humid than Saigon, as I was closer to the equator and KL has a tropical rainforest climate. Also, I saw a McDonald's in the airport, a sign of civilization. I had traveled to KL with a couple of friends. We took a bus to a train station and then traveled to the city itself. What struck me is how modern Malaysia seemed in comparison to Vietnam. The infrastructure was better. People drove cars instead of motorcycles. The streets were cleaner.

We only spent a night in KL before moving on to Penang. It was a fun night though. After meeting up with a couple more friends, we went to a bar/restaurant with an excellent view of the Petronas Towers and enjoyed some food near our hostel. The next morning, we tried to catch a bus to Penang. We got ripped off though! The taxi driver drove us very far away from the bus station we wanted and dropped us off. We only lost about $3 each, but it still was rather annoying. Like in Vietnam, I guess you shouldn't trust taxi drivers that much...

Our bus to Penang was wonderful! I fell asleep for much of the trip, but the landscape was stunning. George Town in Penang was pretty amazing. More to come soon. Also, I'll upload an album full of pictures.

Chinatown in George Town. We stayed in a very cheap hostel in these parts!

Traveling for Tết

I won't actually spend Tet (the Vietnamese Lunar New Year) in Vietnam. Instead, I'll travel to Malaysia for about 10 days. For Tet, many Vietnamese people return to their hometowns, and Saigon loses much of its population for several days. While that might be an interesting sight, I have a lot of vacation time coming up, so I'd like to travel. I'll arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. At the moment, I don't really have an itinerary beyond that! I hope to see some beaches (of course...), hike through some tropical rainforests, and eat some delicious food.

In other news, I've been driving a rented Yamaha Nouvo scooter around the city, and it's lots of fun! The traffic is insane here sometimes, but I've been getting used to it. I feel like I have much more freedom now! After my trip to Malaysia, I'll try to buy either an automatic scooter or semiautomatic motorbike.

Teaching's alright. It's a lot of work though. I have 21 hours of teaching each week, and I have to prepare lesson plans for all of that. Each class is different. I'm still slow at lesson planning. Got to get more efficient or something...

Also, I really need to send out a bunch of postcards and gifts one of these days.