Paradise Found

Phuket/Phi Phi Islands, Malaysia

Let's go, Thailand!

On Phi Phi Don Island, Thailand now. This place has worked out very well for us! I am going to have to catch you up on the past couple of days with my next post because I am so dang tired! I put one photo up to give you an idea of my surroundings. More to come! I made it to Maya Bay. I'll give you all of the details later. As for now, I must sleep!

Welcome to Malaysia

Phuket, Malaysia

(Fight the urge! It is actually pronounced POOH-KHET. I was just as disappointed as you are when this news was broken to me. I had been running around shrugging my shoulders like, "f*ck it".)

We flew on tiny planes again. Took a short flight to Phuket and immediately made our way toward the docks so that we could get to the gorgeous islands the next day. We stayed at a hostel for the first time and I feel like I’m finally a true backpacker! It was actually a really good experience. Clean, nice people, internet, a good place to kick back and relax. It was called iHostel.

Upon our arrival in Phuket, we booked a round trip ferry to get to and from Koh Phi Phi Ley Island. Koh Phi Phi Don houses the place (Maya Bay) where the iconic scenes from The Beach, starring Lionardo DiCaprio, was filmed. I had to go! Everything seemed legit with the booking office, receipts, business cards, etc. but the next morning when they were supposed to send a taxi to take us to the pier, they never showed. We called and were given excuses and unsatisfactory concessions for the fact that we’d missed our ferry but were denied a refund. They played the whole, ‘I speak no English’ card up as best they could be we weren’t fooled by their scheming butts. This travel agent next door (shout out to Punyawee Khampin of Phuket Five Stars Travel Agency who came through BIG time) and the owner of iHostel worked it out and got us there on time for the next ferry at no charge.

Koh Phi Phi Don from the ferry

It was a gorgeous 2-hour ride and I still feel like I’m bouncing on a boat two days later! My equilibrium is shot. Had some pictures of this journey but the camera with most of those pics was stolen on the first night on the island, so those are history. (I'm not even going to go into detail about how that whole scenario took place! Another time, another place.)

Me, relaxing on the side of the ferry

I did manage to hold onto this gem though...

This guy never shut his legs once!

Little People, Big World

Just as an observation, everything in Asia is tiny!

• The people
• The "one size fits all" clothes
• The Air Asia plane seats....a JOKE. (No one over 5'6" will be comfortable. Anyone over 5'8" will want to shoot themselves. Anyone over 6' will need to have their legs amputated from lack of blood flow.)
• The masseurs' hands
• Couches and chairs sit low
• Beds and chairs are hard like a rock covered with a thin yoga mats (oh, and they're small)
• Toilet seats basically scrape the ground.

Speaking of...toilet paper is rare here. It's like, the Holy Grail and everyone knows it–Which is why I've theorized that people snatch it up if they ever come across a roll, hence, none remains for anyone else. I've found myself using this hose (looks just like a kitchen sink hose, with a sprayer and all) to give myself short bursts of water as a cleansing mechanism after peeing on numerous occasions. Not sure if it's intended for that or more for rinsing the toilet bowl...but either way, I am treating it like a poor man's bidet. Oh, and I have neglected to mention that bathrooms are all-in-one. As in: sink, toilet, shower, and drain, all in one cubical space with no dividers in between. No shower curtains. No half walls. Everything gets wet.

Back to the size observations–One thing that has been throwing me off is the size of the steps around here, especially at temples. You'd have thought that giants built these cities! Every step up burns my quads. But then again, you can find stairs so narrow that you need to walk down sideways in order for half of your foot to find the landing.

Oh, well. I don't pretend to understand. I just observe!

The City That Truly Never Sleeps

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

What can I possibly say about this place to make you understand?!? It's New York City on crack. Skyscrapers, people, endless advertisements, food, shopping, traffic, tourists, more shopping, more people, awful smells, incredible smells, lots more shopping, hotels, dark and pissy alleys, TEKSIs (that's taxi, for clarification), hawkers, vendors, 7-Elevens, eye-catching lighting, architecture, and more shopping!!! 

There aren't enough superlatives in the English language for me to use to describe the sheer size and volume of malls here. Every single corner has a mall. Even when it looks like it might be a hotel or business building, go inside and find my words true. And these aren't any puny rinkydink malls, either. They are ENORMOUS! Every one of them is bigger, broader, goes deeper underground, is built higher, consists of more stores and more attractions than the last. Some malls are specific, like the electronics mall. Store upon store upon level upon level of every electronics brand you can think of plus hundreds more that you've never seen before. Prices? Not anything special because of the area of town, I'm guessing. But I was too overwhelmed to shop, anyway. Oh, and they entertain you all the while! Dancers, singers, drummers, fire dancers, dragons, fireworks, theme parks, and on and on and on. My head is still spinning.

And just so we are clear: when I went to sleep at 4am on my first night, the city was still in a heightened state of awareness. Markets continued to make and distribute food, kids were running around playing, people were out clubbing, stores remained open, sidewalks were crowded, vendors were pushing their products in your face, people at intersections were singing and drawing crowds, and I couldn't hang anymore. KL showed no signs of slowing down, so I pulled my own plug. Lights out.

Willy Nilly Silly Ol' Bear

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

United Buddy Bears

The United Buddy Bears are on exhibit in KL. Go to www.buddy-baer.com/united-buddy-bears to get an overview. Basically it is a world tour of 140+ bears each designed by a different country that promote World Peace. I took waaay more pictures than made sense, but here are some of them. Can you guess which country is represented without looking at the flag at our feet?

Good pics of Malaysian exhibit

It's The Year of The Dragon

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It is The Year of the Dragon and Asia won't let me forget it! There are some really impressive pieces of dragon art around. Here are just a couple of them:

You might not be able to tell from the angle but this dragon is about 20 ft tall, chillin' in the mall

Look that the tiny people on the maze of escalators in the background to get a relative sense of the 

sheer size of this dragon...it was about 3 stories tall and snaked 50 ft in diameter, 

suspended from the ceiling of this shopping center

Just me, being a dork

The Magic Dragon

Because 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, I am constantly running into randomness such as this:

And this:

And this: