As you know, I recently returned from Malaysia after a 2 week vacation there. I took a lot of photos as I was determined to do being that I always forget to take pictures anywhere else I go on vacation. Check out the pictures below in my Flickr photo sideshow or click here to view my Flickr user page. Below is also a summary of my travels through Malaysia.
Here are some of my more artistically colored and framed photos.
Some of you might be wondering “Why did you goto Malaysia Rob?”. Well simply put, my girlfriend Michelle is from Malaysia and a majority of her family lives there so Michelle and I went there to see her family and eat lots of food.
We stayed for 3 days in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. KL is the biggest city in Malaysia and is a highly developed metropolitan area. Drivers are crazy and there are lots of places to shop such as malls, street markets, and the seedy pirated market places where you can go and buy ultra cheap pirated dvds and video games.
After 3 days we traveled to Sitiawan and stayed with Michelle’s relatives. During our stay there we attended a couple of dinner parties, went site seeing to places like Pangkor Island and Taiping. We also visited a turtle farm and street markets.
One thing we did a lot of is eating. Malaysians love to eat like hobbits. I guess it keeps everyone close and gives them something to do. I am guessing this is why a majority of them are so skinny. Working in the hot sun plus eating constantly must give them an incredibly fast metabolism.
What is Malaysia like you ask? It is kind of hard to describe. The land is much more Tropical than anything I have seen here in the U.S. Very beautiful landscapes such as the beaches and islands. Majority of the buildings and populated areas where businesses and such are operated have a very run downed look. Common business buildings like restaurants and mom and pop shops are dirty compared to U.S standards.
Food is very different. The main courses are usually based around rice, noodles, chicken, fish, and pork. No bacon and eggs breakfast. The quality of the food is usually pretty good because it is hand made and not some pre packaged franchise signature food. I recommend roti canai.
Driving is quite scary. I would say almost 50% of people on the road ride motorbikes. You can see this in my pictures above. They ride so dangerously close to cars and will randomly veer out right in front of your car without a care in the world. This really had me stressing the first couple days, and I wasn’t even driving the car.
The people there don’t speak english that well so it is hard for me to say if they were nice or not but from what I gather, if you know the language and hang around long enough, people are very friendly and towns have a small world atmosphere where everyone knows everyone.
The weather is what I would call ridiculously humid and the only relief I got was a few rainy days. Long pants don’t work out to well unless you enjoy sweating your ass off.
It was definitely a great experience. I hope to go again some day. Maybe with a better camera and more money / bigger suite case.
*Note* We also stopped in Korea for a day due to issues with our flight. I really really liked the area we stayed in and wish I got to explore it a bit more. It was freezing cold and really quiet. Some of the pictures above (mainly the night shots with the neon signs and buildings) are from Korea.
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