A Week in Paradise

Our weeklong escape from campus, with only a little biology involved, was heavenly. As with my previous vacation, I will set this up day by, with some pictures attached.

Day 1 (Friday April 25):

Travel from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang to the state of Kelantan Malysia on the East coast side of the island. It was a long, hot bus ride. Once we made it to Pasir Belanda resort, it was all worth it. This tiny resort in the middle of a Kampung has cabins in the traditional Malay style, but with AC and the nicest bathrooms we’ve had all trip. There is food cooked for us, and an infinity pool to swim in. You would never guess this place was here, and we have rented out the entirety of it.

Day 2 (Saturday):

After a delicious traditional breakfast served on the terrace overlooking a little pond and some cows, a bunch of us rented some bicycles and cycled around the area. It was a nice way to see the area, and further experience the always-fun stares and catcalls that come with being white in Malaysia. Never have I ever had so many children (and teenage boys) yell out from their small, poor houses, “hello hello!” We found a beach, practically deserted, with water that was almost too warm to be refreshing, but the prettiest blue. We made it back to the resort hot and sweaty, ready for a nice swim. Later in the afternoon, three of us took place in a traditional kite making class. They are decorative kites, not made for flying, and I’m quite proud of how it turned out! I’m skeptical about bringing it home though, so this picture may be the only thing I have. Directly after the kite making, I treated myself to a traditional Malay massage in my cabin. Oh my god heavenly. It was an hour long, and she hit every single part of my body. Exactly what I needed. After dinner, we watched the Notebook before bed. Probably one of my favorite days ever.

Day 3 (Sunday):

Another traditional Malay breakfast on the terrace this morning before we bussed into town. We stopped at a nice silversmith shop where they make the jewelry in the back room, and then sell it out front in the showroom. They got a ton of business out of us! We then went to the main market, and wandered around both the wet and dry portions of it. Mangos were delicious but the lunch we got in the food court was overpriced and pretty average. It was too hot for life though, so I was glad when we loaded up the bus to go back to the resort. I had an ice cream, and spent an hour and a half in the water at the pool and together they were day changers. Feeling refreshed, we went out to dinner as a group at a fancy restaurant. This was the best meal of the day, by far.

Day 4 (Monday):

 Western breakfast! Delicious. Then we bussed out to a secondary school in rural Kelantan, close to where our professor used to teach in the Peace Corps. We were the main event of the day, and the school pulled out all the stops. I call it the “Malaysia Red Carpet.” While the afternoon ended up near the top of top 5 sweatiest times of my life, it was also a really fun experience. We got to listen to speeches, view local handmade kites, mats, baskets, and shadow puppets, and were fed a traditional lunch while a group of students played music for us and sang. The funniest part of the whole thing was that we were the first white people most of them have ever seen, so they were absolutely enthralled by us and couldn’t stop staring. However, when we tried to take pictures with the guys, they all ran away. We were like Moses parting the seas, and always had a clear radius around us. It was quite comical how they ran. We managed to get a few pics with the guys, and the girls were much more willing, and it was an enjoyable, if hot, time by all. We continued our journey east, and made it to a small resort on the beach where we stayed the night before catching a boat to the island in the morning.

Day 5-7 (Tuesday-Thursday): Our home base was a small private beach, inhabited only by a few men who live there for about 7 months out of the year doing turtle patrol. That means every night, they watch for turtles making nests on the beach and mark the nest and the turtles, as well as data on the hatchings for scientific data. We slept in tents, for the 4 nights we were there, and spent our days snorkeling, both for pleasure and biology work. We had to complete transect and quadrant analysis of the coral reef directly in front of our beach and then write a report on our results. It wasn’t incredibly difficult, and I absolutely adore all things water so snorkeling was a real treat.

This coral reef was teeming with life, and while the coral itself wasn’t as bright as “Finding Nemo” led me to believe the fish themselves were incredible. I found Christmas Tree worms that would suck back into the coral if I got too close, and clams with brightly colored lips. My favorite was the green anemone that housed some clownfish. It was hard to find those clownfish, but such a treat once spotted. The highlight of my snorkeling experience was the two Green Sea Turtles I saw swimming gracefully in the water. The first one I saw was probably less than 10 feet away, and startled me. The second was a little further, but so beautiful swimming in the blue water.

Other than snorkeling, the other main highlight of Mak Kepit turtle beach was the turtles! The first two nights, my tent mates and I woke up to a turtle in front of our tent, using her strong front flippers to dig a nest. The second night, the turtle even tried to walk into our tent, before realizing that was a bad idea. One of the mornings, a straggling mother turtle was still digging her hole so we got to watch as she finished digging, laid her eggs, and covered them back up. They lay 80-120 ping-pong ball sized eggs each time they nest, so this poor turtle was exhausted by the time she finished all that work. It’s amazing how big these turtles are, over a meter long and half a meter wide, and how awkward they are on land compared to the water. Baby turtles though, are the cutest things ever. Another night, a nest was hatching so we watched as about 50 baby turtles emerged from the sand and scrambled their way down to the ocean… where a few sharks were already circling in wait. Only about 1 in 1000 Green Sea turtles makes it to adulthood, so they have terrible odds. I’m hoping for the best for the one I got to hold though, he’ll be the lucky one. Side note, while watching the turtles that night, I also got to watch the sky, and the distant horizon line over the ocean. There was some heat lightning lighting up the sky in the distance, and flashing gorgeous colors. Not only was that a brilliant site, the sky itself was the prettiest I've ever seen it. With so little light pollution the thousands of stars were literally glimmering. Incredible. 

The last thing we had the opportunity to do was transfer turtles eggs. There is another beach close by that the turtles also nest on, but that beach isn’t protected so poachers could potentially use it. The men on Mak Kepit watch that beach every night, and every morning they bring back the nests that were laid that night, and re-bury them on Mak Kepit. We got to help with three transfers!

Day 8 (Friday):

Free day! We paid some ringgit to get a round trip boat to the tourist beach area on Pulau Redang Island, and spent a lovely day eating, swimming, and soaking in the sun. Coming from someone who loves to be busy, it was nice for me to accept the fact that there were no plans and nothing to do and just enjoy the laziness of the day. This area had the most gorgeous water and sand beach I’ve ever seen. Pictures don’t even do it justice. The best part is that while I was laying on a tropical paradise beach, my friends back home were probably doing pre-final homework on their Thursday night. Sorry guys :)

Day 9 (Saturday):

Breaking down camp is never fun, but we were efficient and got everything done quickly. The hour long ferry back to the mainland was sad. I hate to leave the water, and the island, but I was excited to get back to a real (well as real as I have in Malaysia) bed and my friends on campus. It was a long, bumpy bus ride back across the peninsula to my home island of Penang, but we stopped at one stop that afforded us an amazing view of the country.

Overall, cannot complain one bit. My favorite trip within a trip by far, and I was sad to see it come to an end. I mostly have finals work to look forward to now.

Lenggong River Valley

Short entry here, because I have a lot of homework to do. Happy Easter though! I was able to go to a mass this morning, and it was comforting to be apart of many of the same catholic rituals here.

This weekend we went to Lenggong River Valley to study insects, and fish. Friday was the dedicated insect day. We first went to a creek that feeds into the large river and took samples from different microhabitats. We were looking at the different species found in the river and comparing them to a water index scale to try and judge how clean the water was. Surprisingly, based on our results, the water was fairly clean! After, we walked up to look at a small waterfall. It was quite nice minus the mosquitos. I must of gotten 30 bites, and I was wearing bug spray everywhere! Later that night we set up a light trap, with white sheets hung in front, and caught various bugs that fly into it. I'm not an insect person, so wasn't too thrilled about all the bugs, but some people really liked it.

Saturday was the fish day. The morning was spend on small boats, traveling to fish nets and checking them. We all got a change to untangle fish from the net, and kept the specimens for analysis later back at base camp. We then boated around the river a little bit, as this was the downstream and cleaner area. In the afternoon, we drove to the more upstream part of the river, about an hour and half away, and observed how polluted and disgusting it was. After dinner and a discussion, we made our way back to campus! It was a nice short trip. This friday, we leave for a 9 day trip on the East Coast of Malaysia. Wifi will be incredibly limited, if it exists at all so a next blog post won't come for a few weeks!

Cookies can be a lifesaver

During my time in Malaysia, I've been volunteering every Wednesday for 3 hours at St. Nicholas home for the Blind. It's about a 40 minute taxi ride away and so takes up a lot of time, but a few of us go together and it's very rewarding. It was scary at first because while I've worked with Autistic and ADHD children before, I've never worked with someone who is visually impaired and it's quite challenging. I've gone for 5 weeks now, but this last week was my favorite by far. I was finally assigned to somewhere I really understand.. the pasty kitchen. I had emailed in my brother and I's favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe in hopes that by some miracle, they would have the right ingredients and allow me to show them how to make a real cookie. Cookies in Malaysia are actually gross. They did! I spend a few hours teaching them how to make the cookies, and then helping them make a cheesecake. I have never realized how therapeutic and wonderful baking (even cooking) can be. The lack of a kitchen, and homemade meals is really getting to me. I understand that food is super cheap here, and eating out makes the most sense, but there is just something about a home made meal thats comforting. Anyway, the cookies turned out pretty good and I've never been more happy to have a western desset. During a week filled with homework and stress, it was exactly what I needed. Next week, I'm hoping they will put me back in the pastries and that I can teach them how to make muffins. That sounds delicious as well :)

Gurdwara Visit

Our group had the opportunity to finish our unit on the religion of Sikhism with a visit to one of the Gurdwara’s (their place of worship) on the island. It was a wonderful evening, as the community was incredibly welcoming and hospitable to us.

At a Gurdwara, it’s the practice for everyone to cover his or her head out of respect. We were provided orange bandana type cloths to use, and a few of us even had the opportunity to get a traditional turban tied on. I stuck with the classic cloth, felt like I was back in my Girl Scout days!

The services at Sikh Gurdwara can last for hours, so we simply went in for about 15 minutes to observe. There was live music and singing, and everyone was seated on the ground, facing the alter and their holy book.

After the service, we were served a huge meal by volunteers of the Gurwara. It’s customary that everyone eats after attending, and so we just joined the rest. It was incredible how much food they kept bringing out to us. I ate way to much and was uncomfortably full, but I couldn’t say no to all the new dishes to try! It was a really enjoyable evening, and I actually really liked the atmosphere of the Gurdwara. Everyone was friendly, hospitable, and generous, and completely tolerant of us taking a ton of pictures in our hilarious head coverings!

Vietnam. Cambodia. Thailand.

Spring Break 2014. Wow. I don't even know how else to describe it. I did a 10 day tour that started in Vietnam, went through Cambodia, and ended in Thailand. I experienced so much, had so much fun, and learned so many new things, it's hard to fully explain. The best I can do is a mini day by day summary of what I did. But just know, it was so much more. Also, so I don't overwhelm you with photos, I will choose only one (or two or three) photos for each day, thats it!

Day 1 (Friday):
Arrived to Ho Chi Minh city and had our check in meeting with the Intrepid travelers group. After, we explored the streets of Ho Chi Minh city, grabbed some yummy Vietnamese dinner, and soaked in the atmosphere. At one part, the sidewalks were covered with people just sitting and hanging out, having a drink. We joined :)

Day 2 (Saturday):
Woke up to experience Ho Chi Minh by daylight. Gorgeous place. There was a large park close to our hotel that tons of local people were at. Doing tai chi, jazzercise, walking, they were busy! Left by bus to drive to Phnom Penh. To get there we had to take a large ferry across the Mekong River. Busses and cars and people piled on! Once we arrived, we took a tuk tuk tour around the city, stopped at a market to try a bunch of local fruit, saw some important places. Ended the night by meeting up with friends from Malaysia, plus a few from our travel group to hang out a bar for awhile.

Day 3 (Sunday):
We visited the killing fields, and the genocide museum. Both were very interesting, and incredibly disturbing. The afternoon was free, so I took a walk around the city with a few other travelers, and saw the Royal Palace. That night, we took a river cruise on the Mekong River and had $2 cocktails. Whoo! It was beautiful and I love being on the water. Went out with our guide afterwords, and ended back at our hotels rooftop bar, using our iPhones to have a dance party! Side note.. almost got my purse snatched by a guy on a motorcycle but it's all good.

Day 4 (Monday):
Left early to drive in a van to Siem Reap. Roads were terrible, so the jostling, bumpy ride was quite terrible. We stopped at a roadside market and tried fried spider (yuck! too oily!) and then stopped for lunch at a nice little silk farm. We learned about the silk process, and met some local women who work there. After arriving in Siem Reap, we had free time. Some of us went to the tourist center and wandered the night market before heading to bed.

Day 5 (Tuesday):
Visited Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (Bayon), elephant terrace, and the Lady Temple at the Angkor Wat complex. This place is amazingggg and I highly recommend everyone going. Before Cambodia breaks out into another war, which I think is entirely possible. Touring took quite a long time, and exhausted me. Swam at the hotel for a bit, and then went back to Pub street for dinner and to meet up with a few people from Malaysia. Early bed though.

Day 6 (Wednesday):
Sunrise at Angkor Wat! We were there by 5:30 and watched the sun come over the temple. Absolutely stunning. After that, we toured the Tomb Raider temple (from the movie!). It was also incredible, the roots that have grown into the temple give it a really neat feel. A bit later in the day we visited the floating village of Siem Reap. Didn't really enjoy it because the people are so poor, and I felt like they were in a zoo that we went to. Interesting though to see an entire village floating in a lake. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and enjoying some poolside time. That night, we had a huge party on pub street. There are 2 bars that blast music directly across from one another, and we danced and danced. If one bar had a bad song, we took 5 steps in the other direction and danced to the other bar's song. Great night. Probably my favorite of the trip!

Day 7 (Thursday):
Drove to Battambang today, and had a delicious western style (thats huge for me at this point) at a nice little cafe. Later we took another tuk tuk tour to see how the locals make a sticky rice dish, and noodles, and then went to where the old bamboo train is. We got to ride the bamboo train to a little village and explore, before going back to the main city and touring a traditional Khmer house. Had an absolutely wonderful home cooked meal at a local house, and went to bed.

Day 8 (Friday):
Drove almost all day to get to Bangkok. Entering the country was crazy busy, but we made it through alright! After checking into our hotel, we had one last group dinner and bar time. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in the group, as we'd had such a good time together.

Day 9 (Saturday):
Bangkok Day! We did a walking tour around the main part of the city, and ended it by visiting the famous reclining buddha at the Wat Pho temple. After that, I took a mental health break and sat by the pool for a few hours. We then moved to our hostel, grabbed some food, and took a bus to check out the famous Chatuchak market. It was huge! and sold so many things! After wandering, we went back to our hostel (on the main party road) and discovered that the Thai New Year Celebration had already started. It's called the water festival and is the biggest water gun fight ever. We were drenched within 2 minutes, so obviously bought a water gun and took to the streets. Exciting wet night, and crazy how busy the street got.

Day 10 (Sunday):
Went to the amulet market (apparently the biggest one in Thailand) to wander a little in the morning, and then came back to Khao San road to pack up and head to the airport. Made it to the airport, bought the most overpriced meal and starbucks of my life, and got ready to depart back to Malaysia. And school. And classes. And homework. UGH.

So quick summary: Vietnam. Cambodia. Thailand. Tons of fun. SPRING BREAK 2014!

also, 46 days left in Malaysia for me. Time is moving fast.. but also so slow. Weird.