JB Malaysia

Last weekend I spent Sunday in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (called JB for short). For those of you who don't know, JB and Singapore are connected by a causeway, so it is an easy day trip.

Before I went, I heard a lot of mixed rumors about the city. It's dangerous, some said. Its boring. There are only shopping malls. There's nothing worth seeing.
Well before my little trip, which I took, by the way, with my friend Heather and her husband, Jim, I did a little research. Google, people. I wikitraveled (Did I just verb that? Yes.) it and...presto! A whole list of stuff to do and see.

So after making it across the causeway, the three of us started out towards the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque. We hopped on a bus (literally, hopping over the sidewalk rails which is where buses choose to wait, for some reason) and rode until the driver told us we were there.

Check out those doors! They looked like they were painted with gold or something! We weren't allowed to go inside here...I am actually not even sure exactly what this building is. It was right next to the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque, so it might have been another building more recently built, or just somethign else all together.
Anyway, so we walked up the hill a little ways and found the Mosque we were looking for.

Nice building, right? We poked around a little, but didn't really do anything here. We weren't allowed into teh Prayer Hall, of course, but we thought we might be allowed to go in other parts, but the place was pretty deserted... perhaps because it was Sunday, and sometimes things close then. We did see this interesting sign, though...

We headed around back and over a couple of streets, skirting past a local selling his wares. Heather discovered he was an Elvis fan, and he became entranced with the fact that she was very familiar with Graceland. It was then that we spotted the Zoo.

It looks kind of cute and quaint, right? Not much there? Wrong. We started at this bird show (those of you familiar with my Road Trip blog from when I was in Spain might find that fact a little comedic). The Bird guy didn't speak in English for most of the show, and so we had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. Towards the end, he started translating some into English for us... but only during the parts where we had completely figured out what he was talking about already. Figures.
Anyway...
The more we looked around this place, the more we began to realize just how huge this zoo was. They had tons of animals! One thing they seemed to have an excess of was Lions. They had grown lions, cubs and...teenage lions? So many! Oh...and camels!

I wanted a picture with the camels, but I was afraid they would bend down and lick me or somethign. Noooo thank you! I don't want that nasty looking mouth anywhere near me!
All in all, I was really impressed with the area...especially since it cost about the equivalent of $1 (USD) to go in!




After the zoo? Lunch, then an Electronics Mall stop, and then we were on our way to our next destination! Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Hindu Temple. Try saying that 5 times fat!... Or even just one time correctly, for that matter. Anyway, this is known as the First Glass Temple in the World. It was so...shiny! The entire thing was covered with glass! So cool!

All of interior was covered with glass! Really! But, that is not even the most interesting thing about of little trip here. There was a wedding going on!

The ceremony had already finished, but everybody was still gathered around the Temple area and were eating in the well... Fellowship hall, we would call it back home. Cafeteria? Well... the place the Temple had for eating.
Everyone insisted that we join in too! We were ushered into the room and sat down at tables with all the wedding guests. They served us a traditional wedding meal, apparently. It was on a banana leaf and we ate it with our fingers and everything! Some of it was a little spicy for my mouth, but it was still really good. Cool, right? I am so glad we went to that Temple! One more pic of it, just for good measure...

Let's see... for me, that was really the highlight of the day. Our other destinations included an old Chinese Temple, a trip into the mall that is right next to the border, a walk through some local shop area outside the mall, and another Hindu Temple. This one was completely different from the glass Temple.

So that was pretty much my day in JB! So what did I learn? There is definitely stuff to do and see there besides just shopping (consult wikitravel these and other options). Also, it is not as unsafe as some people seem to think it is! We stayed together and didn't do anything stupid, and the three of us were fine. I think that as long as you remain aware, you should be fine there! Glad I went, it was a lot of fun!

Fish Food

Monday Night
This morning we got up and head into KL around 10:30. What was the destination? SHOPPING! The have a mall laid out with a bunch of little shops and stands run by the locals. It was great! I bought a wrap-around style skirt that is popular around here, my parents got a few souvenirs and gifts... but the best part of the day by far was the Fish Spa.
What is a fish spa, you ask? Well they are petty simple really... large fish tanks or pools with benches around them filled with small fish. The interesting part is what the fish eat... namely, YOU. Thats right. You put your feet in the water and the fish swarm around you and eat the dead skin off of your feet and ankles and...well, pretty much as high up your leg as they can get. They also have tanks for your hands, but I didn't do one of those.

So after convincing my mom that she also wanted to participate, we payed up for our ten minutes... (US wise, it was about $2) and stuck our feet in. The worst part was how much it tickled! The best part was the four late twenties-aged American guys who couldn't resist joining us, but then couldn't stand the tickley feeling long enough to keep their feet in for a full minute straight. Our little spa area was so loud with the male squealing that we drew a crowd!...which I am sure the spa lady loved.

Anyway, the fish spa was so funny, I am going to have to do it again! They are all over the place in Singapore.
hmmm... what else did we do of interest... well, we did eat at KFC. Since we've eaten at both the Singapore and China KFC we thought we had better try the Malaysian one... liked it! Actually, it was far better than Singapore's. Come to think of it, I haven't mentioned what we ate last night... Pizza HUt! Also delicious, though I still miss the good old USA version :(
Hmm... besides that, the other main activity was getting back home, I guess. Our plane was delayed at the airport, but only for about 30 minutes, so that wasn't too bad. We spent the remaining Malaysian money we had on duty-free chocolate... don't tell my dad! lol
Overall impression? I enjoyed KL and would probably go again... though I would mostly just do more shopping, so on second thought, maybe I had better not try visiting anymore! Next big trip starts this weekend: China! We are going to Xian and Beijing. I won't be able to upload new posts while I'm there, but I will keep track of all the cool stuff and update you later, promise!

272 is a painful number

Sunday Afternoon

Just got back from our day tour around Kuala Lumpur(KL)!
We started off today around 8am... our tour guide was a taxi driver. He drove us around all day in his taxi, telling us about the places we passed and visited along the way.

One of the first places we went was called the Batu Caves. They are these really famous, and even older, Hindu caves. The first place was visited was a sort of side cave that had been decorated with colorful paint on the cave walls, and had statues and information about the different Hindu Gods and ceremonies and stuff. There was also a small zoo... well, a reptile zoo, I guess. The snakes in there were pretty active and kept moving around and yawning.

Anyway, so apparently there is this deal with Hindu temples that they have 272 steps leading up to them or something... so said the tour guide, but I had never heard that before. Well, you guessed it.... there were 272 steps leading up to the main cave entrance. Next to the steps there was a HUGE statue, plated in gold, apparently it is either the biggest one, or one of the biggest ones around. Massive, right?Of course, what goes up must come down... unfortunately, because there were no less steps getting back to our taxi! Whew, talk about leg pain! haha...okay, it really wasn't THAT bad!
We also visited a pewter factory. Tin is one of the top exports there, so pewter is a big thing. Let's see... what else.... we saw a Chinese Buddhist temple, some big Mosques, and the tallest buildings in the city, the KL Tower and the Twin Towers. Now technically speaking these towers are just about the same height, but the KL Tower is built on a hill, so it gets the tittle of "tallest." Now remember that Tin I mentioned earlier?... well the Twin Towers are plated in it so that they will always be shiny.

The Twin Towers have another name as well... the Patronas Towers. I tend to like THAT name better... for certain reasons involving my favorite fictional books :] (for those of you who can't figure it out, I am referring to Harry Potter, people!)
Anyway, the tour was good. It had more freedom than usual since it was just us and the driver, which was nice, though an actual tour guide might have talked more about the history and stuff... but why do you need that when your mom has read everything there is to know about the city? haha
So now its right around 4 in the afternoon and we are back in the hotel. Spiderman is on TV, so guess what we are doing. Later we will probably go wonder around some more, but for now it is "rest time."





Speaking of our hotel, I noticed yesterday that there was an arrow on the ceiling of my room pointing in a corner, but couldn't figure out why. I couldn't read what it said, either. Today I noticed the same arrow in my parents room... there room faces a different direction, but the arrow was pointing the same direction as ours, I could tell...and I figured out what it was. It was pointing to Mecca! In my previous post, I mentioned that KL was predominately Muslim... well they pray facing Mecca, so all the rooms have arrows pointing out the right direction! Interesting, right?

Kuala Lumpur at last!

Saturday Night

We finally made it to Kuala Lumpur today! Yay!

So some background info: Kuala Lumpur is in Malaysia. Actually, most people around here call it KL for short, so I will also resort to the abbreviation. Malaysians speak Malay and I really have no idea as to how much English to expect everybody to know and understand. Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country, though it does not restrict other religions. Another big one in the area is Hinduism and probably Buddhism after that.

If you read my last post, you will know that we were supposed to arrive in KL Friday night, but we missed the flight and had to take one this morning instead. We made it to the hotel, a Hilton, though not the one my dad thought we were staying at. It was close to lunch time when we got here, so we decided to just eat at one of the hotel restaurants. They had this buffet… it was awesome. They had Western food, Indian food, typical Malay food, and other Chinese/Japanese selections as well. There were also a lot of good bread, soups and fruits. So good! Besides that, they had desserts! All types of strange looking little cakes, chocolate fondue (for the fruit), ice cream and shaved ice!!! Yummmmy! Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves.

 We took the LRT (Land Rail) into the midst of the city after a brief resting time (okay, okay, I conked out for almost 2 hours!).

We went to Petaling Street, this area where venders line up as close together as they could get and sell you all types of goodies. I GOT SHOES FOR 3USD!!!! Oh yeah! We also each got a pair of sunglasses!... mine are Louis Vuitton… or at least that’s what they say they are. Lol We got some Satay from a local vendor, later made a pit stop for some sodas at a grocery store, at McDonalds for some ice cream, then back on the LRT to the Hilton. Whew! Might not sound like much, but it was an exhausting day!


So tomorrow we have a tour lined up of KL. We are supposed to visit these really old caves and some of the tall buildings and stuff! Will let you know how it goes! :)

Close, but no banana

Well today has been an interesting one... interesting for lack of a better word. Technically, I guess you could actually make the argument that this was a day full of wrong. I will let you decide.
It started this morning, as most days do. I woke up at 7:30.... okay, okay, really more like 8, and ate some breakfast. The same breakfast, I might add, that I have been eating for the last two or three days. A few spoon fulls of apple sauce, a slice of bread from this loaf my mom picked up on Monday or Tuesday, and a glass of milk. Now the bread is a few days old, but we've kept it in a sealed bag, so it is still pretty good. This morning, it was on the verge of almost becoming stale, so sadly, I threw the remaining end piece away, thinking that I probably should not eat it after today. 
Fast forward to 30 minutes later.... and I feel sick. I was all dressed and ready to head down to the gym before those crazies who like to workout without the air con could take over, but instead I spent a while in the bathroom before deciding that maybe the gym wasn't an option today. I felt awful all morning.
To complicate matters, my family was scheduled to leave for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today, so I had to pack my stuff! Slowly I managed to gather my things, then around 12, when I was starting to feel slightly better, I headed into the kitchen to wash the piled up dishes while my brother thankfully agreed to make a Wendy's run for me so I could have a plain baked potato.
Now my thinking: it was the bread. It had been a little off this morning, and I had, after all, felt sick within an hour after eating it. Makes sense, right? Well part of my "cleaning the kitchen" task, involved me leaning food out of the refrigerator. That was when I noticed the mold in the tomato sauce I had used the night before. The mold was growing on the lid of the jar and the contents must have already been bad by the time i used it last night or something. I know, ewww.
Anyway, so I'm feeling much better that before, but not entirely recovered, when the time arrives for us to be off to the airport. Well, to make matters short, we were a bit late setting off, and the traffic was ridiculous, so we entered the departures area at 5:14 for our 5:30 flight. One look at the immense line before us, and we were like "Yeah right. This is NOT happening." It didn't.
So instead, we hopped back in a cab homeward bound, ate a plentiful dinner at Kenny Rogers, grabbed some ice cream bars and spent the rest of the evening finishing up season 3 of Merlin.
Don't worry, we are stilling heading to Kuala Lumpur... just not until around 9 tomorrow morning.For now, I will just enjoy teh extra night I get in my own bed. :)

*Title dedicated to my piano (and Sunday school) teacher, Susan Reed. lol... she used to say this to me during lessons.

A Scuba Tale

There and Back Again: A Scuba Tale by Christy Sunshine :)

So this weekend I completed my Scuba Certification with my family! We did this by going on a Scuba trip to Tioman, Malaysia which is a beautiful island. I, by the way, never even wanted to learn how to dive. My family practically forced me, and as such, I was pretty much what you might call "reluctant" to go. Don't get me wrong, fish are cool and all, but I just don't like the idea of purposefully putting myself far enough below water that my body has to adjust itself to the changing pressure and there is even the possibility of getting stung or, dare I say eaten, by anything with no easy escape! Some might call me paranoid or over cautious, I call myself reasonably sane and justified.
On top of that, we are taken to a beautiful and mysterious island in Malaysia for almost two fulls days, and we spend all of our time going out to the ocean to dive. How about some land exploration, people? But I am getting ahead of myself... let's start at the beginning.

So we were told by Deep Blue (our Scuba Diving Company) to meet by 5:30 at the shop because the charter bus will be leaving promptly. Due to complications in traffic, we decided to be cautious and left at 5 by taxi. As such, we arrived 15 minutes early to the shop. Pretty good, right? Wrong. The instructors laughed in amazement at our over  preparedness at arriving so ridiculously early. Imagine... arriving 15 minutes ahead of time! Of course, they had reason to laugh, it turns out, since they didn't even end up heading out to the bus until close to seven... and left around 7:30.  No concept of time at all!
Malaysia and Singapore are connected by a causeway with their respective customs points at each end. We disembarked both times and made our way through the lines with relative ease. After getting into Malaysia, the bus stopped for a quick fill-up and we all got to get out for bathroom and snack. My brother was delighted to be able to buy a vanilla coke and gum, both of which are not sold in Singapore, then we were off again! It was a long and dark bus ride, we were unable to see anything of Malaysia at all except for the lit up cities when we passed by. It was close to Midnight when we arrived at the ferry.
We were heading for the Island of Tioman, so all of us loaded onto this ferry... and not the new and spiffy kind, and headed out. I had been under the impression that the ride would last about 20 minutes... instead it lasted over an hour. By the time we finally made it to the Island and into our room, it was at least 2 am, if not nearer to 3. The room was meant for all four of us. There were four twin sized beds pushed into two groups, two plastic chairs stacked up one on top of the other, and a small table with a hanging mirror above it. I was surprised that there was both air conditioning and a fan as well in the room. The bath room was... well, the word wet comes to mind. The floor of it was tiled. In one corner there was a sink with a set of wire shelves so rusty they looked like they could give your Tetnes shots a run for their money. Next to the sink was a small toilet and across from the toilet was a shower. The shower head was a small removable kind and was fixed to the wall above a large bucket, turned upside down, and a plastic pot which was positioned so as to catch the water dripping from the faucet underneath the shower head. There was no actual shower space, but rather the entire bathroom was the space. There was a drain hole underneath the sink which the water drained down. It was literally an all-in-one room. The floor, as I said before, was pretty much constantly wet.
The first day we were woken up at 8am. There was a buffet breakfast of some local foods, which included things like rice, noodles and soup, as well as bread which could be toasted. After that, we met around 9am with our Open Water Group. We had three instructors with us: Jenni, who is actually a certified Instructor and from South Africa, Samuel, the Dive Master, and Allan, the Dive Master in Training, who was actually with us for our pool certification. With us in our group were also the three other people from our certification and then another five or so people.
Now to be certified by Padi, you must complete four Open Water dives. We did three the first day. The first two were very basic. They were in 4-6 meters of water and mostly consisted of the different skills tests we had to know, which include things like being able to take off and put your mask back on while under water, being able to take your regulator out then find it and put it back in again while under water... things like that. These dives were actually shore dives, meaning we just walked into the water with our gear. Our heavy, heavy gear. From top to bottom our gear includes: goggles (mine leaked the whole time, so that I was constantly clearing them),  the wet suit (we wore a short one since the water was warm), our BCD (the vest-like thing you often see. They can be inflated and deflated), our Air Tank (which was strapped into the BCD along with our regulators and gauge), our weight belt (mine held 8 pounds) and our flippers. Boy that stuff really dragged you down! (My excellent gear model below... thanks mom!)

For our third dive (which was after a buffet lunch of crab, rice, soup and some kind of curry-like food) we rode out in a boat, the same one which brought us to the island, to a place called Raggis. There, we dived to about 8 meters and got to swim around looking at the coral and fish. We actually saw a sea turtle there, too.

The dive was fun enough, but I have a tough time with my ears whenever pressure changes, so I often have a hard time descending into the water as quickly. It is also tougher than you would think to swim with all that stuff on, and not float too far down or too close to the surface. Even though you can put air into your BCD, you are supposed to control yourself using your breathing, which can take some getting used to.
After spending all day out there, I was pretty worn out. For one thing, my gear was starting to bother me, as would be expected of rented stuff. My flippers were cutting into my toes and ankles and my eyes were dry and stinging from all the salt water leaking into my mask. Plus, we'd been out in the sun all day managing heavy stuff!

There was a barbecue that night... and I discovered Blackcurrent Juice. It tastes like heaven. Okay, okay, maybe that is a little over exaggeration. In this case Heaven = Koolaid. It was so good, especially since 90% of the time I usually am drinking water. The food was pretty good too. They had a lot of seafood, which would be expected from an Island, I guess, and one of their dishes actually had tons of tiny, though whole, octopi in it to eat. You can see them below, in front of the calamari which I thought were actually pasta.

I don't get sea sick while in boats, but sometimes I do get that thing where after you leave boats, you still feel like you are on one. Boy did I have it bad. I pretty much went up to our room and got ready for bed, hoping that the rocking would stop.
The next morning we headed out on the boat again for two more dives. This time the place we went to, Marine Park, didn't have a lot of reef stuff, or any other common marine life other than fish. The floor was silt, too, so visibility was known for being pretty pour, but the spot was known for it's fish life, and for wrecks. There were several wrecks in the area, including one car wreck, but most of them were too deep for our level of diving. I actually enjoyed this dive better than the day before. It was a lot deeper, about 16 meters, so there were points when there seemed like nothing was below or above me, but I was completely surrounded by fish of all shapes and sizes. That was cool. We did get to see the first wreck, since it is located at about 14 meters, and that was cool I guess, though it wasn't a huge one, or one that you could swim through or something... not that we were allowed to do that with our certification level, anyway.
There was another dive that day, it was at the same reef as the day before, but I didn't go. I will admit freely that I was certified, and tired of diving! I sat on the top deck of the boat, which was open on all sides, and island-watched while the others did their last dive. The boat moved to a slightly shallower area while waiting for the divers, and the visibility was good there, so I could see the bottom. I watched as the sailors appeared to release the contents of the boat's bathroom (oh joy!) and also as an entire group of fish began jumping in unison, creating waves of jumping fish on the surface. After the dive, the group headed back to the resort, ate lunch (a buffet of too-spicy-to-eat food for me, which included more of those octopi), packed our bags and readied to leave. We were on the boat back to the main land by 1:30. This time the ride in our charter bus was more enjoyable since it was still daytime. I saw lots of monkeys by the side of the road, stocked up on some of my beloved Blackcurrent juice, got to watch Cowboys and Aliens on the bus (even though it hasn't actually been released yet, thank you sketchy dive people lol) and even a little of the Captain America Movie (which was just released last weekend). We made it through our border checks and back to the dive shop by 8:45, then off to home we headed!
So there you have it, my Scuba trip to and from Malaysia!