Malaysian Odessey

I'm a little bit behind on my entries. This has to do with a combination of Internet access and forgetfulness. I'm currently sitting beach side at the Berjaya Tioman Resort on Pualu Tioman in Malaysia. One word: wow.

This place is beautiful. Getting here is a little treacherous and a lot scary, but so worth the danger! Since the island really only caters to the resorts and the SCUBA divers, the airport is tiny... I mean, this thing is small. The runway has to be only about the length of a football field or so.

I took a small propeller plane in from Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning after a stay for the night at hotel from hell. It was located approximately 15 minutes away from KUL. The downtown area is 1 hour away from the airport (!!!!!) and caters mainly to Europeans looking to shop for "cheap". The conversion for USD to RM is about 1 to 3.3, so the Europeans really get a bang for their buck here.

Anywho, about the hotel: it was dirty, small and broken. The shower had black feet marks in it, so, needless to say, I wore sandals in there. The toilet was running incessantly, but it was masked by the noise of the A/C. Unfortunately, the A/C could not mask the noise of the club 4 stories down on the first floor of the hotel. It was terrible.

I woke up in the morning, had some bfast and took a can to the airport that caters to domestic travel, Subang. The cab driver was very knowledgeable and we had some good conversation about his country. He informed me that Malaysia is a mixture of 55% Muslims (I was very surprised to see women in Burkas EVERYWHERE), 20% Chinese Buddhist, 10% Indian (he was 3rd generation) and the mish-mosh make up the last few percentage. Malaysia is a very progressive country, as evidenced by the brand new buildings, domiciles and sky-scrapers everywhere. Their main exports are palm oil (palm trees like you wouldn't believe here), rubber and electronics. Most citizens speak English, as Malaysia is a former British territory and English is compulsory in the schools. I asked about poverty and he said it wasn't bad -- about 30% poverty rate. Additionally, the medical system is socialized and free for everyone. I am very impressed with this place.

So, I got to the airport, jumped on the plane and the next thing I knew we were approaching the island for landing. The airplane banked suddenly and sharply over the water and around a mountain. Immediately after clearing the beach we landed. Just as soon as we landed we were turning because the runway was so short. This was by far my scariest plane experience to date.

I checked into my cabana (yeah, they have cabanas here!) and I knew that God was rewarding me for dealing so graciously with the hotel room the night before. It is a beautiful, functional, quiet and fully in tact room only feet from the beach!!

Today, I went on a tour of some local islands while other people snorkeled. I don't snorkel due to fear stemming from an incident in childhood involving a school of jellyfish. The last time I snorkeled was my sophomor-ish year of college off the Eastern coast of Puerto Rico. I jumped in, looked up and, as far as my eye could see, there were jellyfish. Done and done. But the water here is so beautiful!! I have some great pictures.

For lunch, I went to "town" and got some authentic Malaysian cuisine... Delish! Tomorrow, I have plans to take a boat to the South side of the island to see some waterfall. The following day, I am doing a jungle trek to a waterfall.

After this trip, I expect to be placed somewhere else to continue research for the MHIRT program. I will likely go to Rome, which I am none too thrilled about. The whole reason I wanted to participate was to see how other people live. I know it's slightly different, but I know how Romans live... I know how Italians live... I know how Europeans live. We are all at the top of the food chain, you know? I want to see how they do it in places that aren't as privileged as the Western world. I want to see poverty and struggle so that I can understand where less fortunate people come from and what their lives are like. It's not a done deal yet, but I'm not exactly hopeful...