Tag Archives: Malaysia

Travel Guide: Langkawi

Sunday, 12 October 2014 Rebecca Michelle 5 Comments

This weekend was the first of our three consecutive weekends of travel. As I’m sure you gathered from my last post, I’m not 100% delighted with life here and Mitch and I decided it was high time to begin exploring Malaysia. We chose the island of Langkawi because it has beaches and we wanted to spend some time in clean mountain air, which one can find everywhere in Malaysia except in cities.

Our trip started Friday evening on a pretty amazing AirAsia plane. These are iPhone photos so they’re not the best quality, but I guess AirAsia loves Taylor Swift as much as I do!

I’ve never flown AirAsia before and got a good laugh out of just how “budget” the airline is.

Poor Mitch's legs hardly fit! — Poor Mitch’s legs hardly fit!

Our plane arrived about an hour late but the Seaview Guest House where we were staying is pretty close to the airport. Lesson learned: You get what you pay for. We paid $12 a night and had a room with two double beds and use of a shared bathroom located at the bottom of a very steep staircase. It was not pretty and I wouldn’t stay there again. (We do, however, plan to return to Langkawi.) Seaview Guest House isn’t exactly conveniently located (again, you get what you pay for) and we needed to take taxis everywhere we went. Since Langkawi is a very touristy island, each taxi ride cost RM20. It’s only about RM50 to rent a car for the day, so we learned after the fact, so that’s what I’d recommend to other travellers. We will definitely do that on our next trip.

The best part about Seaview Guest House, though, is that it’s attached to a bar so we were able to have our first cocktails since coming to Malaysia. Like the room, the drinks were cheap; unlike the room, they were amazing. There were a handful of people hanging out at the bar when we got in Friday night so we joined two guys from Sri Lanka and had a lot of fun talking to them. We exchanged contact information via Facebook (oh, Facebook, how useful you are) and spent quite a bit of time with them last night, too. Meeting new people is a lot of fun, especially when everyone is brand new to an area and when everyone is on holiday and therefore pretty happy!

We woke up pretty late on Saturday and then ventured to an area called Oriental Village, which is very pretty but also very touristy. Langkawi is famous for a cable car ride from Oriental Village to the closest mountain and we really wanted to go. There’s also a bridge that connects the mountain to its neighbor that adventurous people can walk along. We totally planned on doing that but the bridge was closed for maintenance, another reason we have to go back.

It was sunny when we got to Oriental Village, rained, and got sunny again, which you can see in the photos:

Not only was it beautiful, but we also found recycling!

Thanks to the weather, our cable car excursion perhaps was not as thrilling as it might have been. Visibility gradually decreased as we went up the mountain, which reminded both of us of skiing out West in the US. On a clear day, one should be able to see the entire island, but this was not a clear day. It was beautiful, though, in a very different way. At times, it honestly looked like the fog was creeping up around us. It was rather sobering to be so small and insignificant and hidden in a cloud when we knew there were mountains around us. The air smelled fantastic, too. If we were going to be in Langkawi longer, we would have waited to see if the weather cleared up but we didn’t have that option. That’s the drawback of short trips, I guess, but it’s better than not going at all. I’d definitely go again on a clear day.

In sharp contrast to Seremban, Langkawi has wildlife! It also has cats and dogs everywhere, but so do we. We passed multiple groups of crab-eating macaques searching for food, picking bugs off each other, and, in the case of this one, pursuing mates.

There were also groups of buffalo and cows grazing in just about every open field (and some not so open fields)

The afternoon remained cloudy but we went to the beach anyway and walked up and down for long enough to watch the beginning of the sunset. We passed a creek of little fishing boats on the way there, which I just loved.

The beach had some of the softest sand that I’ve ever felt, but we had to go pretty far into the water to find it. Otherwise it was rather rocky. There’s a marina in Langkawi that we passed on the way to the beach and a lot of the boats are fishing boats, so it was fun to watch them move around very slowly and then finally head back to the marina with their catch for the day.

As the sun began to set, it also managed to break through the clouds so we had a spectacular sunset when we got back to Seaview.

I have a thing for pictures of rooftops. I took this as soon as we got back from the beach and I love the way the light from the setting suns reflects on the roofs.

Our Sri Lankan friends introduced us to a new arrival at Seaview, a guy from Japan taking a year off from university to practice his English. We all had a few drinks and then we all went to Cenang Beach late Saturday night, once the tide had gone out. The sand was soft and the waves were larger and louder, which I love. We didn’t going into the water because it was 10pm by that point, but next time we visit Langkawi, I’d love to stay at Cenang Beach because that’s where all the action is – restaurants, shops, places to book island tours, etc. Next time, we also plan to visit the city of Kuah and hike up to Seven Wells Waterfall, which we could see from the cable car.

Lessons learned from this trip:

In terms of accommodation, you get what you pay for
Stay in the city where the action is
Taxis are expensive and renting a car is not; therefore, rent a car
Be friendly and you’ll make friends

It was a really great weekend. We were very glad to get away from the city, breathe clean air, spend time outside and in nature, meet cool people, and just be somewhere else. Hopefully we’ll return to Langkawi before leaving Malaysia because there’s definitely more to see and do!

Malaysia

Things I Didn’t Know About Malaysia

Monday, 1 September 2014 Rebecca Michelle Leave a comment

I admit, there are a lot of things I didn’t know before moving here all of two and a half days ago. There are infinite things I still don’t know, of course, but I have learned quite a bit over the last couple days. Teacher training this week includes talks on the culture and history of Malaysia, so I’m really excited to start that tomorrow.

But here are some things that I’ve learned:

1. Before leaving the US, I wondered if people ride mopeds and motorcycles here like people do in Europe. Yes, they do.

Mopeds! Maybe I'll get one :) — Mopeds! Maybe I’ll get one 🙂

2. Before leaving the US, I didn’t know whether it would be difficult to find supermarkets or food that I was used to eating. I really can’t wait to move into an apartment with a kitchen because not only are there supermarkets, but they have everything.

This particular supermarket chain, called Giant for a good reason, also has hardware supplies and a useful beer selection. Mitch was pleased about that. Unfortunately, there are some weird ingredients in foods (like ammonium bicarbonate in cookies) so I’ll have to be really careful with what I buy.

3. I definitely didn’t know people drive Lamborghinis in Malaysia, but they do!

My brother Adam, who is all of 17, has always wanted a Lamborghini. I wonder if it would be more or less expensive for him to buy one here or in the US? Does it matter if they all come from the same manufacturer anyway? I love cars, but I don’t know ~~a ton~~ anything about their cost in different parts of the world.

4. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, in addition to dairy, Malaysia has ice cream! This is especially notable because there are so many frozen yogurt places in the US now that it can be a project to find real ice cream, at least in downtown Rochester.

Baskin Robbins tiramisu ice cream on the other side of the world

Mitch’s tiramisu ice cream didn’t exactly taste like tiramisu, but that’s not too surprising as there aren’t many Italians here. My mint chocolate chip in a cone, however, was excellent.

5. While living in the good ole US of A, I totally took our engineers for granted. Who knew it was so hard to make a fountain that manages to contain all of its water?

This fountain is in front of our hotel; someone is usually standing outside to sweep the water back in after it comes gushing out the higher side because no, this fountain isn’t flat

6. Before leaving the US, I didn’t realize that it would be difficult to find cooked food as opposed to fresh, raw, delicious fruits and vegetables. Pretty much all Asian food in the US is cooked and soaked in sauce, so I was surprised to see so many fresh salads on restaurant menus. Today we went out for lunch to a steamboat restaurant and that solved the need-for-fresh-veggies-but-can’t-eat-them-yet-because-we’re-still-getting-used-to-the-water problem. I am so excited to be able to eat fresh produce! Give it a few weeks, they say. Whoever they are. Steamboat is called hot pot in China, where it originates.

We sat down at a table and the server brought over a hot plate and plates — We sat down at a table and the server brought over a hot plate, bowls, and plates

The server also gave us utensils so we could cook our food

We ordered some sort of vegetable balls (don’t take that the wrong way . . . I didn’t name them and they looked sort of like mini matzah balls), broccoli, spinach, noodles, baby corn, shimeji mushrooms, an egg, and brown rice. I didn’t take any pictures of the raw food because I was rather hungry and excited to get cooking in the vegetable broth.

It took us four batches to cook all of our food. We also ate almost all of the broth, which was really tasty. It felt so good to eat vegetables, too! Definitely my favorite meal so far. Oh, and it was all that food and two bottles of water for about $9 in US currency.

I’ve definitely had an education about Malaysia over the past couple days. Looking forward to learning more!

Malaysia, On My Mind

Not in Kansas Anymore

Saturday, 30 August 2014 Rebecca Michelle Leave a comment

We made it! Mitch and I traveled for about 40 hours door-to-door, but we made it to Malaysia and so did our luggage! I ignored the flight attendant’s request to “stow all electronic devices” during landing and took a few pictures to document my first glimpse of my new home.

I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting so much greenery. I am aware of the fact that Malaysia is tropical and that a large part of it is rainforest, but somehow that did not equate to green in my head. Sometimes it’s nice to be mistaken.

My bosses picked us up at the Kuala Lumpur airport and we drove for about 40 minutes to reach Seremban, the city where we’ll be living. Or, at any rate, the city where I’ll be living and working; Mitch still has to find a job, and Seremban is an “up and coming” city, which, in Southeast Asian terms means it has more than doubled in size in the last decade, so it’s probably not going to be here.

On our drive we passed literally dozens of palm oil plantations. We were warned not to make friends with any of the many stray dogs that roam the city (so far I’ve only seen one) and told to watch out for poisonous snakes. Apparently Malaysia has more species of poisonous snakes than any other country. Excellent.

The on-campus residences are still under construction (yikes?) so the school has put everyone up in a hotel for now. Part of orientation will also include off-campus house hunting, too, so I’m really excited about that. Mitch and I spent the afternoon getting organized, trying to figure out cell phones, and wandering around town. One of the more interesting aspects of our wanderings were our attempts to find and ATM. There were signs for ATMs at the mall next door to the hotel, but they’re not installed yet (“up and coming” in Southeast Asia also means currently under construction) so a helpful lady directed us to a 7-Eleven around the corner. We’d already been there and their ATM was broken, so we went back to the hotel and asked at the desk. The gentleman on duty directed us to a hospital down the street.

Never in my life have I strolled into a hospital, wandered around the first floor unaccompanied and completely ignored, taken money out of an ATM, and walked out again. I did not leave feeling incredibly confident in the Malaysian healthcare systems, especially considering the sign announcing prices for different procedures at the door. Toto, we are certainly not in Kansas anymore.

After 40 hours of travel, sporadic eating and sleeping, and lightheaded wandering, we were more than ready to find some dinner. We had asked a hotel employee for suggestions, stipulating that the menu include vegetarian food. He directed us to a Chinese restaurant in the opposite direction of where we’d walked earlier. I’m not positive we found the specific restaurant because there’s more than one Chinese restaurant here, but we ended up finding the spiciest tofu I’ve ever tasted.

When we walked in, a server handed us menus (mercifully written in both English and Chinese) and we sat down at a table. After looking over the menu and consulting our friends Google and Wikipedia, we learned that we were in a laksa restaurant. We also learned that laksa is a spicy soup that combines Chinese and Malay culinary traditions. Good for us, we’d found something authentic! It also wasn’t too hard to figure out how to order after we realized that no one was coming by to check on us.

The instructions were pretty self-explanatory

When we pressed for service, a bell chimed and a number flashed on the wall, like the numbers people take in the deli counter line at the grocery store. A server came over, we ordered, and a short time later, we had food!

Mitch's chicken (and some other unidentified items that he said were tasty) — Mitch’s chicken (and some other unidentified items that he said were tasty)

It’s a good thing there were tissues on the table (maybe they were supposed to be napkins?) or I would not have gotten through that bowl. Quite tasty, though!

All in all, so far so good. We’re basically watching the clock until it’s late enough to go to bed. I know what day it’s supposed to be, though not exactly what day my body thinks it is. At any rate, I’m glad we have a couple days to acclimate before teacher training starts. We certainly need it!

By Rebecca Michelle

Tag Archives: Malaysia

Travel Guide: Langkawi

Things I Didn’t Know About Malaysia

Not in Kansas Anymore

Photos, travels, musings, and ideas on education by someone trying to make the world a better and more peaceful place