New Years in Kuala Lumpur (December 31- January 3)

::This is still in progress. I'll be posting pictures at a later date, but I'm so far behind with the posts themselves, I wanted to get something up::

We spent the night in Hat Yai, Thailand, which is a city apparently quite famous with Malaysian tourists. We had left the island kind of early in the morning by ferry. Once we got to the mainland, we got on a big tour bus that took us to the main bus station. We waited in the station for our next bus to pick us up. The bus was actually a 12 passenger van, and they drove around, continuing to pick people up, making sure there were 12 people in that van. James and I sat in the back, and needless to say, the next four hours or so were a little cramped. It started raining, and the window I was sitting next to did not close all the way. Yay Thailand.

The van dropped us off in what was supposed to be a bus station, but just looked like a market area. We hadn't even gotten off the van before the vultures descended, poking their heads in the van asking who needed a taxi? Who needed a hotel? It didn't seem to occur to them that we would need to get OUT of the van in order to actually need a taxi and/or a hotel.

When we actually got out of the fan, we shooed the drivers away long enough to figure out what we wanted to do. Then James got one of the taxi drivers that was bothering us the least to take us to the hotel. We wanted to walk around a little, but after traveling all day, we were both too tired to do anything but sleep.

We had breakfast the next morning at the hotel, a weird combination of Western and Asian food, and got a taxi to the teeny tiny Hat Yai airport. It had only 3 terminals, all right next to each other in one room. There was nothing to eat in the airport and we were both starving. Luckily, the flight to Kuala Lumpur was very short.

We got there around 4pm on New Year's Eve. We had some vegetarian Indian food in the airport, and caught a bus into the city, which took about an hour. The bus dropped us off at a main station, and from there we had to figure out how to find the monorail to get to the hostel. This is where we started learning how well designed Kuala Lumpur is for pedestrians.

In the main station, there was a sign for the monorail, which we followed downstairs. We looked around, and there were no more signs, and no indication of where any monorail would be. We went back upstairs and asked someone who told us the monorail was across the street. We looked out the windows and all we could see was a big construction site, which we ended up having to walk alllllllllll the way around in order to get to the entrance to the monorail.

We were staying in Bukit Bintang, which happens to be the area of KL where all the action is. We were within walking distance to several ginormous malls, the Petronas Towers, the KL Tower, and pretty much everything. The area in front of the hostel was like a mini Time Square, with lights and billboards and people everywhere. After checking in and taking a short nap, we went out to explore the area and find a good place to watch New Year's fireworks.

We got a map of the city from a nearby fancy-schmancy hotel, and followed the crowds to the front of the Petronas Towers. We were standing next to a park that had people performing on a small stage. We had gotten there a bit late, so we couldn't see the people very well, but we knew they were there.

We wanted to walk around a little to kill some time, but we actually had a moderately good place to stand, and if we left we never would have gotten it back. The crowds were filling in pretty rapidly, and there was all kinds of pushing and shoving going on. At one point, a greasy-looking guy and his girlfriend shoved past me. I thought they wanted to get to a spot beyond me, but instead, the guy pushed me out of the way and then just stood there. He took my spot while I was still standing in it. That made James kind of mad, so we sort of pushed back and completely blocked anyone else from getting by. Good job, rude greasy guy.

We waited for an hour, watching the clock on the top of one of the towers count toward midnight. I bought an ice cream from some vendor guy. At midnight, there was an incredible fireworks show, and the smoke made the towers above us look like they should have been in Gotham City. After the fireworks, the crowds cleared, and we were actually able to walk around a bit and take pictures of the fountains and whatnot.

I was hungry because we hadn't eaten dinner, so we went to one of the big shopping malls nearby that had a large restaurant area, and after much deliberation, decided to have our first dinner of the New Year at a Mediterranean place.

The next day was a sightseeing day. We went to the Petronas towers with the intention of going up to the observation deck, but it turns out that you have to wait in line early in the morning to get one of a limited number of tickets to go up. We didn't really care that much, so instead, we took some pictures from the outside, and after a lunch at Chilis (!!!!!), we did some shopping and eventually made our way to the KL Tower, for which there was not a waiting list.

When you buy an entry ticket into the KL Tower, you buy either the "cultural package" or the "nature package". We chose the nature one, which consists of entry into the tower with really nice night views of the city, as well as entry into this extremely sad little zoo with lizards, birds, monkeys, raccoons, and some very scary-looking spiders. The saddest moment of my life was looking into the tank of a very large snake and seeing a little lone, white mouse huddled in the corner, cleaning his paws. They didn't even pretend like that mouse had a chance, because he had no shelter and no food, only a giant predator sleeping in the corner. I was traumatized.

At some point, we decided to make our way to the Batu Caves, which were slightly outside the city.

We found out that we could get a number 11 bus from the center of town that would go straight to the caves. This seems easy enough, until one realizes that there are no marked bus stops or bus stations. No schedules. No routes. No maps. I assume if you live in Kuala Lumpur, you must be born with an innate sense of where/when to go to get a certain bus, because we wandered around for a good 20-30 minutes looking for ANYTHING that would give us a hint as to where we needed to go. Finally, we spotted a bus (not the number 11, but at that point, I didn't care anymore) that was headed for the caves, and we got on it.

The bus dropped us off in a neighborhood, directly across a busy highway from the caves. We found somewhere to cross, and went in. In order to enter the caves, you have to walk up a huge flight of stairs that is covered in monkeys. These monkeys are very crafty, and I watched them steal food and bottled drinks from many people. Mostly, though, they just hang out on the railings and run up and down the steps. The cave is an impressively huge, open cavern, with a few temples inside. While we were there, there was a small ceremony going on in one of them. It was also a really nice place to be in the middle of the afternoon, because the whole place was naturally air conditioned with a nice breeze that blew through it.

Aside from the cave, the best thing about Kuala Lumpur was the shopping. As I said, there were tons of malls everywhere, and I realized while I was there that I was on the vacation I had been saving for forever, so I just went nuts and bought all kinds of cool stuff. I would go back just to go shopping again :)

Koh Phangan, Thailand (December 25-30)

We chose to spend Christmas on Koh Phangan, a small island off the eastern coast of southern Thailand. To get there, we first took a night bus from Bangkok to Surat Thani. The bus station was really confusing at first, and it took a while before we were able to figure out where to go to get on the buses. We ran into some foreigners who were trying to find the place to buy tickets. We had gotten ours ahead of time, so we had no idea. I hope they found some :/ We had gotten there early, so we had some time to kill. The station had a kind of mall inside. Nothing really worth looking at, but it was something to do while we waited. At one point, I walked in a shoe store that sold Thai-looking sandals, and as I picked up a pair, the guy who worked in the store came up to me, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "We have big sizes, too." I put down the shoes and walked out.

We spent a good portion of our time wandering around in one of the many 7-elevens that was around at the train station. We bought some snacks for the bus ride and some toilet paper, as we had come to realize that there generally is none. When it was finally time to get on the bus, it turns out that the time that they say they will leave is more or less just a general estimate, not a schedule. Most of the time they want to make sure that the whole bus is full so that they can make as much money as possible, so we sat for about 30 minutes waiting for people to board the bus. Soon after we left the station, they started to play "Salt" as the in-bus-movie. It was terrible. Don't see it. I was able to sleep on and off. We made some random stops in the middle of the night, and they kept telling us it was time to go get food, but who wants to eat dinner at 4am?! I would rather they had just let me sleep. At one stop, I experienced Thai-style bathrooms for the first time. Those things are quite an adventure. In Japan, I'm used to seeing the squat toilets, and as disgusting as they usually are, they at least flush and work like regular toilets. Thai toilets, however..... They don't flush. There is usually a basin full of water next to the toilet with a bucket. You use the bucket to scoop some water into the toilet and it "flushes" that way. It's gross and I was traumatized.

Very early the next morning, we arrived at the ferry port. We got on the ferry, which seemed to be a retired Japanese ferry - the Japanese writing was still everywhere - and after a few hours we finally arrived at the island.

We hadn't been on dry land for more than a few minutes before it started:

"Hey! You want taxi!?"

"Where you go?!"

"You need hotel?!"

and so on.

We spotted a 7-eleven across the street, and ran for cover.

In the relative safety and quite of the convenience store, away from the tourist-hunting taxi drivers, we pulled out our map and the directions from the hotel. We were staying on a beach called Haad Yao, which was on the northwestern part of the island. It was a bit far away-too far to walk- so we found the phone number and called them and it turned out they had a free shuttle from the ferry port. They said they would meet us at the 7-eleven in about 20 minutes. While we waited, we had a few people come up to us and try to get us to their hotel/bungalow/taxi, but they left us alone after we said we had already called someone.

Soon, the taxi showed up. I use the term taxi very loosely. On the island of Koh Phangan, "taxi" means a pick-up truck. They have benches on either side of the bed in back, and a cover over top with some railings to hold onto. It was quite the bumpy ride, and it took about 20 minutes to get to the hotel. Once we got there, everything became wonderful.

The people working at the front desk were so nice, and not the "I want something from you" nice that we had previously experienced. The hotel was right on the beach and there was a really cute restaurant/bar that we had to walk through to get to the ocean. After having lunch at the nearby 7-eleven (even in the middle of nowhere, they're EVERYWHERE), we went out on the beach to relax and watch the sunset.

This is Christmas Day. On the beach. \(^o^)/

Christmas Day sunset.

For Christmas dinner, we decided to try the hotel restaurant. They had a sitting area sort of inside, with a bar, tables and chairs, and also a section with low tables with pillows to sit on and hammocks. We chose to sit in the more outside section, directly on the beach. We sat at one of the tables that had the pillows, but some of the other nights, we sat at tables with beach chairs that were 10 feet away from the water.

The bar area of the restaurant.

View of the tables on the beach (they're right in the sand!!) and the Christmas lights the employees put up.

Christmas dinner. Hot and sour soup, and chicken satay and mojitos.

Sometime during dinner, a bunch of the guys who worked there would perform fire dancing on the beach. Some of the guys were just learning, but a few of them were really good. They all had burns on their arms from practicing.

Fire dancers at dinner on the beach.

Basically, my entire time on the island consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, going to the beach, floating for a few hours on a cheap raft that I had bought, laying on the beach, lunch, maybe floating some more, watching the sunset, eating dinner, sitting on the beach some more, and sleep.

One night, I decided to get a $5 Thai massage, and it was so fantastic. Thai massages are supposed to be very painful, but I think they are more careful with tourists- they know we can't handle it.

Pretty much the most perfect 5 days ever.

We had some cloudy weather one day, so James and I decided to go into town to go shopping. I bought some really cheap dresses (although I think I overpaid for them- my bartering skills were still kind of shaky) and James got a book.

We were both getting hungry, so we decided to have lunch. We walked around for a little bit, trying to decide which restaurant was least expensive/least likely to make us sick. We decided to go in a small cafe. Right as we walked in, we were looking for a place to sit, and I saw something on the floor. I looked down at it, and it was a centipede. Or milipede. Whichever one is the giant poisonous one over 6 inches long and as big around as your pinky. I started freaking out, James ran over to it to take a picture, and the lady who worked at the restaurant just looked at it, completely unphased. It was an open cafe, so I suppose they get strange Thai bugs all the time. We found a seat as far away from the door as possible, checked the cushions to make sure nothing scary was hiding in them, and sat down. I had a delicious sandwich with feta cheese, bell peppers and olives on ciabatta, and then we headed back to the hotel. We got a taxi, and the guy made us sit in the back for 15 minutes while he tried to get more people. It was extremely annoying, and I was very close to getting out and finding another taxi, but he finally took us back.

Then we sat on the beach and had dinner and watched the sunset.

Our hotel had really good food, and it was really cheap, and we ate at the restaurant there everyday. They had an amazing Thai curry and spring rolls that I ordered almost every night. I love Thai curry, because it's made with coconut milk which gives it a very unique, very amazing flavor. It was very spicy, and I know it was toned down because it was made for a tourist resort. I think eating Thai curry at the spice level it's supposed to be would probably kill me.

This is a sauce that usually comes with another Thai dish- Basil Chicken and Rice. The Basil Chicken is already enough to make you sweat, and I can't imagine what adding this would do.

After a perfect 5 days, we (very regretfully) caught another ferry/bus combo, leaving the island and onward to Hat Yai, where we would catch the plane heading towards our next destination: Kuala Lumpur.