So after that eventful night, the next day we went to another part of the island where we took a boat ride to an Eagle spotting site, a fish farm, Bat Caves, and just a scenic river ride. It took a few hours and cost about $30 each, but was worth it. Especially since we had our on boat and guide. We took it easy that night and just hung out at Raffi's then went back to the hotel to wake up and run about 1.5miles and also book our ferry ride to Pulau Penang which is another island off the west coast of Malaysia. At the ferry port we met a Taiwanese guy named Danny and got to talking about Taiwan and a little bit of school. He said he was meeting with a Swedish friend of his and i just randomly asked if it was Olaf or Christof in a joking way, but it happened to be Olaf who he was meeting. So we randomly met Olaf and Christof in the Philippines and then met a guy in Malaysia who happened to be meeting with Olaf in Penang. So that pretty much started the friendship between us and we traveled and split a room in a hostel which happened to be extremely cheap (good to save money since 2 other hotels later were quite expensive). We arrived at night and Olaf was coming on a bus the next morning so we got some sleep, had breakfast then went on a Heritage Trail hike (Danny had a Lonely Planet guide book). Danny is not the typical taiwanese guy since he loves to travel alone and has even visited more countries in Europe than Toni. Penang was not that fun until the second night Toni and I found a cool restaurant/bar and began to drink off the aches/pains of the bus and ferry rides. Since Toni and I were going to Johor next to visit Anthony and his family, we did not want to take the bus which would have been about 11 or more hours so we found a flight to get us to KL and had another 4.5hr bus ride to Johor. Before our flight left we had about 6 hrs to waste so we thought we would find a beach on the southern part of Penang (closer to the airport) to try and get some more color before we left. Well we did it, we found "the beach" no, i dont mean the best beach, but more like the worst beach in Malaysia. It was dirty, maybe 50yrds long and out in the middle of nowhere 25mins from the airport. The cab driver told us "yes no problem, taxis come all the time here" well that was not true. we only stayed about 25mins, never got in the nasty water, and headed to the road to look for a ride back. So we started walking and waiting and finally a bus came by and stopped in the middle of a sharp curve and picked us up. we made it back but still had 4 hrs to waste. Im not sure why we didnt check in and go to the terminal where there were much nicer places to sit than outside the gates, but we didnt think of it and went in just before our flight left.
We had to stay one night in KL and it happened to be downtown near the twin towers. It was 1am by the time we had been dropped off by the bus and cabs so we didn't care where we stayed as long as it was safe. It was a nice and only $64US a night which we split the price. We had our bus ticket for Johor at 3:30pm the next day and had time to walk around the city and the mall again. Anthony picked us up at the bus station and took us to his house where he had about 20 relatives also staying. There house was larger than the asian norm and really utilized the living space by having 11 bed rooms. He took us to dinner where we had their famous chili crab which was amazing. Its hard to explain the taste, but just google it and read about it haha. well his family was extremely nice and the next day was his niece's 1st bday (there were lots of kids and babys in his family) and they had everyone over for a big cookout.
I ended up having a long conversation with Anothony's older brother who's english was good and just talked about many different things like the differences in our cultures. In Malaysia and many other Asian countries, when a man and woman get married, the woman moves in with the husband and his family and they raise their family there. His grandmother was also still alive and living with them as well so that made it 4 generations living in the same household. I asked how it was living having to live with his parents and all the In-Law drama that tends to happen in back home (not that i know from personal experience but just from listening to others), but he basically said if you can keep a good relationship with the mother then things can be fairly easy. So even on the other side of the world, the family issues can be the same meaning we are not much different. All of Anthony's little cousins and nieces are really cute and some extremely shy (because they have never seen a white guy/foreigner in person or up close). One little girl really liked me and was always peeking around corners and even let me give her a hug :) Anthony's dad was extremely nice and very welcoming. He was also very funny and loved to chat. We told Toni and I that we were the first Foreigners to stay at their house or even have dinner, so it was truly an honor to have visited them and shared such an important holiday celebration with their family.
We went out with a couple of anthonys cousins to a club where we ended up having a great time. It was later in the night and after a few drinks when a guy came up to me, asked me where i was from and said "I hate Americans". I stood there for a sec, sipped my drink while thinking whether or not i should knock him out and said "really, and why do you hate americans?" and he said he hated George Bush. So i told him that was an ignorant statement to make by saying he hates approximately 330million people because of one person. He stood there and realized what he said was stupid and apologized. I asked where he was from which was Libya and we talked a little longer about random things and then said our goodbyes. I thought about the incident and how different things could have went. I am glad i kept my composure and went from "i hate americans" to "it was great meeting you".
The next day we left for Singapore and was the last destination of our trip. Singapore is not far at all from Malaysia and it would not have been a hard swim if i really had to get there since you could see it easily from the shore. Anthony drove us across the boarder which now meant i have been to another country by car, plane, and ship (cruise ship) so i thought that was interesting. So Singapore was very clean and pretty. We checked into our hotel and then went walking around the town. Some of the famous night areas are Clark Quay (pronounced like "key") and Riverside. It must have been the dinner i ate (which was good) but anyways i got sick that night and no i was not drinking, but i had to make myself puke in the middle of the night and had a bad stomach ache. I didnt get much sleep so the next day i looked like a zombie, but at least felt a little better. Once again though we met with Danny our 2nd day when he arrived and he told us about a hostel that was really cool, laid back and nice. We went all over town, mainly by MRT and went to an artificial beach called Sentonas beach. All the sand and rocks were brought in from other countries and when looking out at see from the beach all you see is a shipping yard haha so it was not what i would call paradise, but unique. That night Olaf came to Singapore, so we met him in 3 different countries which is strange, but funny at the same time. He is a real nice guy, as well as Danny so it was fun hanging out with them.
The next morning it was our last day so Toni and I left for the airport for our flight at 1pm, then arrived at 5:40 in Taoyuan Airport, then caught the highspeed rail to tainan and made it to my place by 12midnight. The next day i cleaned and Toni packed because we had to take the highspeed rail back up to Taipei so we could spend one night there to party and his flight to London was at 6:40pm the 5th and I picked up Amanda (a friend from ASU you was accepted to the IMBA program here, so i brought her here and showed her around town.
So to sum everything up, we spent 5 days in the Philippines, 9 days in Malaysia, and 3 days in Singapore so it was from January 17th we left Kaosiung, Taiwan and arrived back in Taiwan February 3rd. It was a lot of traveling and im glad to be back in Tainan. It was really sad to say goodbye to my good friend Toni, but it was great to spend 2.5 weeks with him before he left. He plans to visit me this summer back in the States so i look forwarding to seeing him again soon.
Hope this blog was readable and if you have any questions about any part of the trip just email me at Logan.Reittinger@gmail.com
Love Always,
Logan
PS: I did not shave the whole trip, haha just thought i would try it out and yes it looked as ugly as i thought i would.
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