Malaysia

So my Malaysian experience in a nutshell:
We arrived on Wednesday morning and my friend Evan and I were on an SAS tour of Penang’s Temples and Mosques. Malaysia is so multicultural that there are Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Daoist temples, churches, and mosques all throughout the city. I was shocked at how clean this place it- a huge change from India. Penang still has a very colonial feel- it gained independence from Britain only 50 years ago. There are many beautiful mansions around and the Eastern & Oriental is a beautiful colonial hotel. That night a group of 6 of us took the sleeper train to Kuala Lumpur. We departed at about 10:30pm and arrived at about 8am. (We later found out the bus only took 4hours.) But it was all about the experience- which I loved! It was so fun! (Of course I didn’t get all that much sleep- maybe 5 hours max). We all had top bunks and it was extremely loud. Evan and I were near the bathroom so it reeked when the doors weren’t closed. We stopped every hour or so and my backpack was taking up the last few feet of my bed so I couldn’t stretch out. But perhaps the worst part was that they left the lights on all night! I brought my cool max cocoon with me and it was wonderful! It was a really fun experience and I highly recommend it.
Then we got off the train and went straight to the Petronas Towers in the Golden Triangle District of KL. (The subway system in KL is awesomely easy). We got free tickets for later than afternoon and spend the interim hours laying in the park in the shadow of the towers. (Then we got yelled at by a policewoman who told us we could sit, but not lie down, in the grass. Strange.) There are lots of “PDA” police here because it is such a conservative country (60% Muslim). We went to the skybridge at the Petronas which is only half way up the World’s Tallest Towers.
We stayed the night in Chinatown at the Swiss Inn. Our 4 person room with 2 bunkbeds and a shower (and breakfast) cost $15USD. The next morning we went back to the Golden Triangle to go up in the KL Menara Tower (looks like the Space Needle-Seattle). It is 430+m and we were actually higher there than the sky bridge at the Petronas towers. We had lunch in Little India and then caught a flight on AirAsia (Airline of the Year 2007!) to Langkawi Island (up near Thailand). We spend our 4th day on the Beach and at Malaysia’s longest swimming pool! It was a great day (except the sunburn on my back.) Today I wandered around Penang and hit up the Chocolate Boutique!
We are refueling in Singapore on our way to Vietnam. We’re now half way through our ports with 7 weeks to go- it is flying by!