skipping my India blog for now...

           So, I had my India blog, which was half done, saved on my flash drive because I was having problems with my laptop and then my flash drive decided to crash and I had to reformat it. What does this mean, you ask? I lost about five pages of writing. Lovely, eh? Got to love technology. 

           I don't have nearly enough time to write even about one day in India so it will have to wait until after Malaysia. Just to give you a brief update on where I am, what I am doing, and how I am doing...here it goes. I'm docked off the coast of Penang, Malaysia for the next five days. We got here around eight this morning and because we cannot fit into the port, we have to tender from the ship to the dock. It's fun but it's also time consuming. At least I can say that I got to ride in one of our lifeboats- in a non-emergency of course. 

           I had an FDP this morning at 10am, which was called Ethnic Communities in Malaysia. Lucky for me, it counted for two of my classes. Basically, it was a bus tour throughout a small section of Penang. We drove through George Town (the main town where the British settled when they colonized Malaysia) and stopped in Little India and China Town. The three main ethnic groups here in Malaysia are the Chinese, Indians, and Malays. There are smaller ethnic groups that make up the rest of the minority, but they don't live in particular areas around Penang. After our short tours of Little India and China Town, we headed for the hills. Driving up narrow, snaking mountain roads was quite the adventure in a bus our size. Our tour guide, May Tan, took us to a traditional Malay compound, as she called it, and we walked around for about twenty minutes. 

           The thing I don't like about SAS trips are that they feel rushed. I would have like to spend more than 20 minutes in each of these places. Another thing that I didn't like is that we weren't able to go to an ATM because we were already running late this morning. Therefore, I did not have any Malaysian Ringgits and I couldn't taste any of the delicious-looking snacks that street vendors were selling (don't worry...the sanitation situation here in Malaysia is ten times better than in India. Actually...more like 100x better). My favorite part of the whole trip this afternoon was lunch. The good thing about SAS trips is that our food is usually covered in the fee that we pay. We went to a traditional Chinese restaurant called “Pinang Fisherman’s Warf”and it was situated right next to the water. Amazing food! I don’t even know what I ate (some rice, some meat, some noodles, some soup, some veggies, some fruit) but that does not matter. All I care about was that it was fantastic. By far some of the best food I have eaten on this trip so far.

           After my FDP, I headed back to the ship on the 4pm tender boat to meet up with Jen and Scott. I checked my emails, did a few housekeeping things, and then took a brief nap. The three of us met up, grabbed a small bite to eat, and headed out on the 6pm ferry. We grabbed a cab for 2.25USD each and headed to the mall. Jen and Scott made a beeline straight for Starbucks and I decided against getting anything. I’m trying to minimize as many “frivolous”purchases as possible. I really wanted to buy an external hard drive because I have about 15 gigs left on my laptop and I will most definitely be out of room before the end of this trip. I didn’t want to spend 80USD so I bought 10 DVD-R’s instead for about 4USD. I’ll probably back up all my pictures on DVD’s just incase my hard drive decides to crash like so many peoples hard drives have on the ship so far.

           After our little mall escapade, we decided that we wanted to grab some Chinese food figuring we were within walking distance of China Town. We went back to Starbucks, spoke with one of the “baristas”, and asked her if she had any suggestions as to where we should go for dinner. She didn’t have any names of places because they usually just say, “hey, let’s go get Chinese food”and end up at the nearest open restaurant that day. She pointed us in a general direction and after walking down a dimly lit alley for 5 minutes, we came across a packed Chinese restaurant. Scott, Jen and I were the only non-Malaysian people in sight. I loved it. It was nice to get away from Americans again and be surrounded by locals. We had the most pleasant Chinese woman as our server and she spoke English very well with a heavy accent. Jen ordered veggie fried rice, I ordered grilled veggies and chicken, and Scott ordered sweet and sour chicken. The food was delectable. Everything was hot and fresh and the atmosphere was perfect. I love enjoying my friends company in small groups opposed to larger groups reaching 10 or 12. 

           Overall, my first day in Malaysia could not have been better. The weather was damp, rainy, and humid, but hell, it’s Malaysia and it’s monsoon season! I say “get over it”to all those who are complaining about not being able to lie on the beach all week. As of this very moment, I am not a hundred percent sure of what my plans are for the next four days. I may be heading up to the Cameron Highlands with four friends of mine for 3 days but I have not heard from any of them tonight. Otherwise, I will be hanging out in Penang and exploring all the hidden treasures that this beautiful island has to offer. Either way, I’ll be happy.