Couchsurfing with Elma
As many of you know, we planned to couch surf throughout our trip, starting in KL. If you are unfamiliar with couchsurfing, see one of our earlier posts. Anyway, we arrived in KL on Sunday afternoon and made our way using the local bus system to Elma’s house, she lives near downtown KL.
Andrew and I are constantly amazed with the couchsurfing community…. its like a big family of budget travelers! We meet once a month with the Houston couchsurfers at a local coffee shop just to hang out and talk about traveling. It’s fun to be around people who love to travel. We get tips from each other on the best things to pack, where to go, what to eat, and it is amazing to hear some of their stories.
Elma planned a couchsurfing get-together for all the surfers in KL the day we arrived. It was a big potluck of Malaysian food….. yum! There were probably 30 people there, young, old, Iranian, Indian, Australian, Chinese, French, Danish etc. It was incredible. We sat and ate and talked until late into the night.
Our host, Elma, is a very gracious Muslim woman. We could not have asked for a more kind and thoughtful person. She made a delicious Malay dinner for us the second night we were there and cooked breakfast for us the day we left. Her only request was that we bring fridge magnets from Texas! ha! You should have seen her face when we gave her 2 of “Y’alls Texas Store” finest…. we should have taken a picture.
We stayed in a real Islamic Malay household. It was a good experience, stretching for us in many ways, but it really has made us appreciate the American comforts we take for granted. 
It gave us a real-life view of Muslim people in a Muslim country, too – separate from the stereotype that we tend to put on them because of the nightly news only covering the most extreme factions. Elma and her brother, and three children went out of their way to make us comfortable. Andrew talked for an hour with Elma’s brother about everything from schools to health care to gas prices to Israel. They certainly had different views on some issues, but Andrew had a great time talking with him. Her daughter who has a sprained ankle and had the only real bedroom in the house gave up her room for Andrew and me to sleep in for 2 nights. Unimaginably hot, but comfortable all the same. That was our first Couchsurfing experience with actually staying with someone. We had a really nice time! 
A Tale of Two (Asian) Cities
I must say, I love Malaysia so far! Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful city – prettier, cleaner, less crowded, and better drivers than Bangkok. If you like crazy city life, clubbing, crowds, and being in the thick of things, Bangkok is for you. It was a little much for us after a few days, especially since our hostel was smack in a hoppin part of the city. There is such a difference in population, too…obviously Bangkok is overwhelmingly full of Thais, but K.L. is Indian and Chinese and Malaysian (probably heavier on Indian and Malays). We don’t have a huge number of pictures from K.L. since it POURED rain the day we had to take all our pictures, but we did manage to get some of the Petronus Towers. Inside the towers is the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear any performances, but we did happen to go to the towers while an instrument exhibition was going on displaying several Stradivarius violins from the 16 & 1700′s. Allison went on a tirade to the display case about how 400 year old Stradivarius violins should be played, not hung in a box. I had to quiet her before the Petronus gaurds came and told us to vacate Moral of the story-great times in K.L.! 
We’re posting today from Tanah Ratah, in the Cameron Highlands. It’s like going from Houston in August to North Carolina in October. The difference is unbelievable-it’s probably 60 degrees right now (Allison is currently in long pants and a jacket. I have not changed.) It’s BEAUTIFUL scenery and we’ll do a post about it once we take our tours tomorrow of the tea plantation, strawberry farms, bee colonies, and other quaint little activities. It’s quite a change for us since we’ve been in big-medium cities so far and this place is like small vacation town with nothing to do but eat.
SPEAKING OF EATING
We had a South Indian/Malaysian Banana Leaf meal for dinner. The banana leaf is your plate and you use your right hand to eat (since you traditionally use your left hand for bathroom related activities)
SPEAKING OF BATHROOMS!!!
You have to bring your own toilet paper. And wetsuit/biohazard suit if you know what’s good for you.
Anyway, sorry They just kept bringing food and putting it on the leaf! Rice, chicken, soup, naan, doughnuts covered in yogurt (?) samosas, daal, vegetables, all sorts of things. We are so full it’s not even funny. AND, for all that food, 2 lassis (yogurt drink) and a bottle of water it was…..wait for it….$5 each!! Gotta love aisan food in Asia! 
Batu Caves – Kuala Lumpur
Here are some pictures from the Batu Caves today. It’s one of the world’s biggest Hindu shrines and very beautiful. Luckily, it’s not January-February. The Taipusem ceremonies (Hindu penence ceremonies where men are put in trances and have hooks put into their skin to hold huge objects up) are held there at that time and it’s completely JAMMED with over a million people. Very nice in June, however. Right next to the stairs leading up to the caves is the biggest gold statue of its kind in the world. It’s HUGE!! Then you trudge up nearly 300 stairs and pass out at the top But it’s free! There are monkeys all over and they absolutely will steal your stuff if you’re not careful. Allison gets very nervous around monkeys since she used to watch them terrorize other people as a child, but these monkeys behaved themselves for the most part. Two of them worked for quite a while to get into a big white bag of rice – but it turned out it was only a big rice bag full of grocery store plastic bags. The monkeys were not happy. We decided to leave before they got angry and started throwing poo.
We’re going to see how long this rain lasts and try to get to the Petronus Towers to take some pictures (from the outside-it’s not open today-the only day we can go see it, of course). Tomorrow it’s off to the Cameron Highlands for some nice cool weather and the Boh Tea plantations.
Speaking of weather-I posted at the beginning about my fears about being so hot…and now I’ll respond. It’s actually not that bad heat-wise. Certainly it’s hot, but we’ve had hotter in Houston and Atlanta, and even occasionally in Kentucky. The humidity is what is awful-Houston and Atlanta are humid, but this is a CONSTANT feeling that you’re walking around in a steam room. It’s incredibly sticky at all times…night included. We’ve only been in one place so far that had no A/C at night and that may have been the most miserable sleep I’ve ever had. I feel like I’m sleeping in a hot, wet cotton ball.
Bleeeeeeeeeeech. 
Suk 11 Hostel (Bangkok)
Andrew and I are currently in Kuala Lumpur. It’s pouring down rain and we don’t have an umbrella, so we found an internet cafe to keep us dry. Here are a few pictures of the hostel we stayed at in Bangkok, Suk 11. It is beautiful and as Andrew mentioned before, each person that stays has to write a message on the white part of the walls…. not the 
wood. They are very green-friendly at Suk 11. I’ve also posted a few pictures of Bangkok’s most famous market, Chatuchak Weekend Market. We bought 2 beautiful porcelin jars to put in our living room, as well as gifts for family members. However, since we are cheap, we sent them to ourselves in the US using a postal service…. it will take 3 months to get to our house…. Christmas gifts anyone???
Chinatown!
Ok, so I pride myself on being somewhat of an adventurer….I took a 5 week trip around Asia, right?? Did I mention this is my first time out of the country ever? (besides Canada). I’ve tromped the streets of a massive Southeast Asian city, been grabbed by locals so that I might buy their stuff, watched all sorts of animal parts being barbecued, eaten a fruit that is banned in most public buildings because of its smell, jumped over the saddest looking dogs you’ve ever seen (10 times a day), and navigated us around a thoroughly foreign area.
Bankok’s Chinatown, however, was….diffcult for me.
I think I had my first bit of culture shock on this trip In the States, downtowns brimming with people at night with dark alleys and scary looking stores usually means you might get shot soon. Asia is different. Chinatown at night is packed with people and food vendors on dimly lit streets and that’s just normal! Allison grew up with that sort of thing. I, however grew up with my nice caucasian friends and evenings driving our own cars to Bruster’s Ice Cream where there were 20 people at the most (also nice and middle class) - Understand me-I love how I grew up, I’m just saying it’s very different than it is here. More…sheltered. I guess a lot of people have eye-opening experiences on big trips across the world. Anyway, I got a little nervous. Allison had to take over leading us around. I do believe Chinatown has been her favorite part of the trip! That’s why we work
After a market and some putzing around, we’re waking up at 3:30am to catch a plane to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia, here we come!!
Back in Bangkok
Here we are in Bangkok again. We arrived Thursday and are leaving Sunday. We’ve been staying at the Suk11 hostel in dorm room-type housing. It’s a very cool place – very much a hippie vibe – where everyone reads German philosophy books and writes on the walls before they leave. It’s actually very comfortable with A/C in the rooms (only between 5pm and 11am, by the way) and nice beds. Allison is all chummy with the girls (6 per room) but the guys are either wierd or quiet. One of them brings his own cereal bowl everyday to breakfast (there is no cereal available) and talks to himself more than is normal. Most of them have scraggly beards and are stick skinny and smell like feet.
So, Bangkok. We’ve been able to do more things now that we’re more centrally located. The Sky Train and Subway are really clean, easy, cheap, and AIR CONDITIONED. The tuk-tuks (little 3 wheeled motorcycle things with a roof) are the way to get wherever you want to go from those stations. Again, just close your eyes and let it happen. We visited the Phra Keow Temple (of the Emerald Buddha) and the Grand Palace. All very beautiful. If you go there, people outside will tell you it doesn’t open for another hour and then try to get you to go to their shop and buy stuff while you wait. Not true Seriously, I read that in a guide book and not 30 seconds later did a guy come up to us and say “Temple not open till 11! I work there!” We took a boat ride through chocolate mik I MEAN WATER to get to the temple. It’s best to keep your mouth CLOSED on the boat. We rounded out the evening with some really good Indian food.
Elephants in Chiang Mai!
We went with Uncle Brad, Aunt Joyce and Lauren (Hazlett) to the Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary on Sunday. They have an elephant show that is quite amazing…. my favorite part is when the elephants all grabbed harmonicas in their trunks and swung them around and created “music”… if it could be called that. They even trained the elephants to paint pictures of flowers! The sad part is that most of the pictures were better than anything I could have painted. We finished the morning by visiting a baby elephant and her mom. The baby was so adorable, it had hair that looked like peach fuzz all over its back. All elephants are trained from the time they are born and are given one trainer for life. We also learned that there are no longer any elephants in the wild in Thailand due to endangerment.
Following this visit, we made a stop by a tiger sanctuary. The place was bizarre! They had a big restaurant overlooking a huge tiger play area. The only thing separating the guests from the tigers was a few lines of wire. Guests could pay to go into the pen and play with the tigers…. not something that you would see in the States! Lauren, my cousin, went to the baby tiger cage and played with 4 cubs…. very cute.
Next we’re headed by sleeper train to Bangkok… hopefully this train will be a bit more clean than the last!!
Cooking classes
My cooking classes here in Chiang Mai have been amazing! Each of the 3 days I’ve been in there with culinary school students from the Phillipines- so fun!! We cooked, ate, talked Asian food, ate, and I caught the words “chiffonade” and “bechamel sauce” among the stream of Phillipino. 
If you go to http://www.cookinthai.com/intensive_courses/index.php you can see what I’ve made the last 3 days! (classes 1A, 1B, and 1C, Monday-Wednesday) If you go to http://www.cookinthai.com/webphoto.php in about 2 weeks, you can see all the pictures of me in my cooking class. I have a certificate, too, so I’m going to open up a Thai restaurant in our kitchen. Come Eat!
The picture is me and my teacher, Boom (Thai for “dimples”). She said she wanted to be an English teacher, but found out she hates kids.
Fair enough.
In Chiang Mai
So here we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand! The first go around in Bangkok was nice – much more crowded than Chaing Mai, but we went to a steaming hot market place (think Mall of America crammed into a Wal Mart with 8 times as many people at 98 degrees and 350% humidity) and then we got a VERY friendly Thai massage. We actually met some Asbury people at the guesthouse we stayed at-didn’t kniow them in school, but they’re missionaries in Cambodia. Very small world!
We took a sleeper train up to Chiang Mai – wouldn’t recommend the food, but it’s a great way to get a lot of ground covered while you’d otherwise be sleeping and to see some Thai countryside. We’ve had a GREAT time so far with Allison’s Uncle Brad, Aunt Joyce, cousin Lauren, and dog Spunky (we’ve been getting our dog fix Allison has been shopping and I have been taking my cooking classes! They’re awesome – I had a “moment” when I was sitting in the open air upstairs part of the cooking school – I was sitting, looking out a window at the Thai streets, and my teacher brought me a massive plate full of all the fruit that I’ve only had in the can in the U.S. – Rambutans, Mangosteens, Longans – I just sat and ate and sat and ate. It was wonderful. After my class we went out to the huge Chiang Mai night market and spent money More to come on the classes – I have another today and another tomorrow.
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…………..TRAFFIC RULES & TIPS IN THAILAND! (Based on my monumental experience of exactly 4 days…)
1. There are no traffic rules in Thailand.
2. If there are, they are not inforced, and nobody cares about them.
3. Lanes and even some traffic lights are merely suggestions – follow them if you want.
4. The notion of “Clearance” between vehicles is different. You’re good if you have at least a quarter of an inch between you and the car next to you…and you’re holding up traffic and being ridiculous if you have more than a half an inch.
5. If you take a taxi, just close your eyes and let it happen.
6. You should swerve around sleeping dogs in the street, but don’t bother with the motorcyclists. They’ll fend for themselves.
7. Motorcycles can do whatever they want. There are helmet laws, but again, follow them if you want. Or don’t. It seems fashionable to have your helmet in the basket of your motorcycle instead of on your head (so you could quickly grab it put it on while you’re flying through the air…)
8. Taxi “meters” may or may not work. Negotiations for fares should go on before you get in and depend on how foreign you look.
9. Really, just drive however you want. Everyone else will drive however they want and the motorcycles will weave in and out and around however they want. You could call it a very relaxed system, other than the fact that your knuckles are bleeding from biting them so hard.
10. There are no traffic rules in Thailand.
