Friday, August 7, 2009

August Update

Well... I still do not have access to my blog while in Guangzhou. I am able to access my blog right now only because I am in Hong Kong. For those who do not know, Hong Kong is technically in China, but at the same time is not. Hong Kong is to China as Puerto Rico is to America. So, fortunately I am able to go to Hong Kong if I need to get away from the strict regime of China. This is a huge blessing.

I have about 3 months left here and can't believe it! Time has just flown by! As of right now the plan for me is to go back to Yuba City at the end of November and finish out the school year with substitute teaching. This, however, is just the plan for right now and is subject to change with wherever He may lead me.

Thank you for your thoughts and emails. I really appreciate all of you.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

UPDATE

For about the last 3 weeks now, I have not been able to access my blog. I am able to post this right now only through a "crack," so to speak. Therefore, I just wanted to let my friends and family know that I am doing well and may or may not be able to continue posting things. I have bought my flight home and I will be there November 21! Everyday is something new and I have already grown leaps and bounds. Thank you for the thoughts and "sreyarp." :)

Friday, April 10, 2009

Mom's Visit- Hong Kong

Tuesday morning we left the apartment at 7:30am so that we could get to the train station by 8:30am. We planned it perfectly because just as we got through customs our train started to board. (Because Hong Kong is separate from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) you must go through customs when leaving or entering the PRC and then when entering or leaving Hong Kong). The train ride took a little over 2 hours and took us directly to Kowloon in Hong Kong. While on the train we were able to see the condition of the houses in which the local people live in. Definitely a far cry from what I see in the city.




This was my second time taking the train into Hong Kong so I felt a lot more prepared. I knew to take the metro to our accommodations instead of paying a ridiculous amount of money to someone offering you a ride. (Lesson learned.) I also knew to warn my mom before exiting the metro station about the horde of men repeating, “Copy watch, copy handbag, miss…” about a million times to you in very thick accents. I think my mom was quite surprised, but later said thanks for the warning.

I had asked my mom before her arrival if it was okay if we stayed in a hostel in Hong Kong. My mom agreed. However, I don’t think she knew exactly what she was agreeing to. Let me just say that when I travel by myself I stay in hostels because it is a place for me to sleep, shower, and it is very cost effective. My mom was such a trooper because she didn’t say anything when we arrived at our hostel in Kowloon, but really she didn’t have to say anything because her face said it all. But, she still agreed to stay there and give it a shot.

After dropping our bags off in our room we decided to go get a bite to eat. I, of course, was eager for some Western food. So, we opted for TGI Friday’s. I had an amazing AMERICAN hot dog and fries and my mom had a Cheeseburger.


Afterwards, we walked down to the harbor to grab a visitor map and brochure. Then we walked over to Starbucks to discuss our plan of attack over a cup of coffee. We decided to take the metro to Kowloon Walled City Park (九龍寨城公園 ). We had fun on the metro!


The park, which my mom chose to go to, was very informative. I suggest that you read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City. To sum it up, the park was built in 1995 after the destruction of what was known as Kowloon Walled City in 1993. This city has a very long history tracing as far back as the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279). The PRC and British authorities agreed to tear down the city because of its high population density, many brothels, casinos, and overall sanitary conditions. The residents and business owners were compensated and the city was destroyed. My mom and I enjoy learning about a city’s history when traveling so that we can gain knowledge and appreciation for the city.





After spending a couple hours in the park I decided to take my mom to the world famous “ladies market”. When we arrived at the ladies market both of us needed to use the restroom. I informed my mom that we would probably only be able to find a “squatty potty,” and I was right.



I enjoyed showing my mom around the ladies market because it is just a long row of vendors selling purses, clothes, shoes, etc. It is crowded and bargaining is a must! It had been 3 months since I was last in Hong Kong and in those 3 months my Chinese vocabulary had grown leaps and bounds. My mom was quite impressed with my ability to bargain in Chinese! She even took some pictures of me in action!




After walking around the market for what seemed like hours we grabbed an ice cold drink and found someone to give us a manicure. Sadly, the manicurists were terrible! My manicurists in Guangzhou are awesome! After getting our nails butchered we were ready to head back to our hostel.

The next morning my mom got up kind of early and said that she was going to go venture out on her own to fetch us some coffee. I was a little worried, but knew that she could do it! After getting up and showering my mom returned with lattes and scones in hand. My mom then proceeded to say, “I appreciate you giving me this experience, but this is my vacation too. Tonight we are staying at the Holiday Inn!” I don’t think that my mom will be staying at a hostel ever again. She told me that it was even worse than she expected. However, for me it was about what I expected and for a single woman traveling alone a hostel is just perfect. I must say though, I am SO extremely proud of my mom for giving it a try and not complaining. She is AWESOME!

We packed up our things and walked a block towards the harbor to check into the Holiday Inn. We went up to our room and discovered a room in which our hostel room could have fit entirely in the bathroom! It was a very nice room fully equipped with slippers and bathrobes!

After mom took a nice long hot shower and we chatted on Skype to dad it was time to go across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. We knew that the weather wasn’t clear, but we still wanted to go to the Peak to say that we had done it. We crossed the harbor on a Ferryboat and then walked to the metro station.



When we got off of the metro on Hong Kong Island it was not just raining, but it was a down pour! We were still brave and trekked through the rain to get to the Peak Tram. The Tram took us up a very steep hill!




We got to the top and still wanted to go to the look out point to see if we could see anything. Sadly, we couldn’t really see much at all. But, we had a lot of fun in the freezing cold rain!

My mom is so good to me that she allowed me to pick where I wanted to eat. I chose Bubba Gump, good ‘ol American food. My fish and chips were delicious!

We then shopped around a bit and had fun with the escalators and multiple levels the Peak center had.


Next, it was time to catch the tram back down the hill, get on the metro, and then take the metro back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we got dressed up to go have afternoon tea at the world famous Peninsula Hotel. We walked across the street to the Peninsula and were seated right away. Shortly after we were seated out came silver teakettles, and a large tier of sweets. We had a great time drinking tea, talking, and enjoying each other’s company.



After spending quite some time at the Peninsula we were ready to go back to the Hotel and prepare to watch the light show down at the harbor, A Symphony of Lights. God blessed us that night because it only drizzled slightly and overall was good weather to enjoy the light show.




At this time we were both quite tired and ready for bed. We went back to the hotel and went to sleep knowing that the next day was going to be another busy day.

The next morning we got up and packed up our bags since we were catching a flight that night from Hong Kong up to Beijing. We checked our bags at the front desk and went out to enjoy our last day in Hong Kong. Again, because my mom is SO good to me she allowed me to pick one of the activities that I wanted to do. I chose going to the cinema since it had been 5 months since I had been to one. We found a nearby cinema and chose to watch “He’s Just Not That Into You.” Overall, it was a fun experience and an all right movie.

After the movie, we decided to go back to the ladies market so that we could buy a few more things we had seen the night before. I had purchased a backpacking backpack the night before and wanted to go back and get a matching smaller backpack. We were able to find the same lady who I purchased the backpack from the night before and she was pleasently surprised to see us. I had fun talking with her in Chinese, in English, and getting to know more about her.







Next, I wanted to show my mom a part of Kowloon that I had seen the last time I was in Hong Kong called, “The Worderful World of Whoompa.” We took the metro there and then had to walk for about 15 minutes to get to where I wanted to go. At this time we were hungry since it was 4pm and all we had to eat all day was just a scone at breakfast. We tried to eat at the Outback Steakhouse, but they weren’t open yet. We tried finding a few other restaurants, but without luck. Trying to keep an eye on time we decided that it was just better to go back to the hotel, pick up our bags, and make our way to the airport so that we wouldn’t miss our flight.

It was a good thing that we decided this because neither one of us were anticipating the length of time it was going to take us to get to the airport. The process of getting to the airport started at about 4:30 and finally got to the airport at about 6:00pm! I had no idea that the airport was so far away from where we were.
Our flight was pushed forward so when we got to the ticket counter line we were whisked to the front and told to hurry. Again, we had no idea that getting to the gate was going to take so long. From the ticket counter to the gate took about another 30 minutes. We had to go through customs, go through security, take the escalator, take the tram, take another escalator, and walk for what seemed like forever. When we arrived at the gate they were already boarding. When we got closer to the doors we saw that we weren’t boarding into a plane, however, but rather a shuttle bus in which all the passengers just stand. After boarding the shuttle bus it drove for about 10 minutes to our plane. We couldn’t help but laugh over the fact of how long it took us to finally get to our plane. Literally it was from about 4:30 until 7:45pm!

Remember, it was now almost 8pm and we hadn’t eaten since our scone for breakfast. Needless to say we were hungry. I had packed a package of starburst from home to take some fun pictures with that we ended up eating since we were so hungry. This is why the starburst package in the pictures is an empty package. Fortunately, we were also served a teriyaki chicken and rice meal on the plane.

We arrived in Beijing a little after 11pm. After going through customs, and picking up our bags we were ready to find a taxi and get to our hotel. It took us about 40 minutes in the taxi before finally arriving at our hotel. By the time we laid our heads on the pillow it was almost 1am. It had been a long day and we needed our rest for our whirlwind 4 day trip in Beijing.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Day One of Mom's Visit

My mom arrived at the Guangzhou International Airport at 10:30pm on Sunday night. I was more than excited to see her! I even made a sign that read, “Welcome to China Mom!” just in case she couldn’t spot me in the crowd. We found a taxi and made it to my apartment at about 11:45pm. My mom was so eager to show me all of the gifts that people sent with her for me that she proceeded to unpack it all and pile it on top of me. I was so overwhelmed with the love and generosity of my friends and family back home. Thank you all!

The next morning, I didn’t allow my mom much time for jet lag recovery because we hit the ground running. First, we ate lunch at a little local Japanese restaurant called Futian Noodles. My mom ordered Japanese Fried Rice and I ordered noodles. Due to my mom hosting a Japanese exchange student in March, it was my mom who was showing me how to use the chopsticks to eat the noodles. *smile

After lunch I took my mom to one of the nearby malls so that I could go to the bank. Here, my mom had to experience her first “squatty potty”! This may have been the first one, but was definitely not the last one.

Next, we walked over to Ikea. This was my mom’s first time visiting an Ikea. At this point I think the jet lag was hitting her a little bit.

At about 2:30 we walked over to my company’s downtown office so that we could get assistance in registering my mom as a visitor in the city. In the office I was able to introduce my mom to my Chinese teacher, Sara. We ended up talking for awhile and Sara gave my mom a Chinese name, lè lè 楽 楽 . This means “happy or glad” which is so fitting for my mom!

About an hour later my company’s visa specialist was ready to take us to the police station to register my mom. (This is a mandatory procedure in the People’s Republic of China.) When we got there they said that they could not help us because the man who was in charge of registering people was in a meeting. Therefore, we got back in a taxi and headed for the fabric market.

When we arrived I whisked my mom up to the third floor to see my tailor, two wonderful Chinese women who speak minimal English. After looking through some books my mom picked out a jacket pattern. One of the ladies then led us to a fabric stall in which my mom could pick out which pattern she liked. After finding the fabric she wanted it was then up to me to try to bargain with the lady to get in down to a lower price. I was able to lower the price a little, but not by very much. I am still working on my bargaining skills.

By this time my mom was more than exhausted. It was only about 5:30pm, but my mom had not even been in China for 24 hours yet!

We went back to my apartment, ordered pizza (yes, I can get Papa John’s pizza delivered), and relaxed. We also needed to pack because the next morning we were getting on a train to go to Hong Kong and then on to Beijing!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

March Update

Another month has somehow passed me by! I have almost been here in China for five months now. I am almost half way through my one-year contract! I love China so much that I have already pretty much decided that I am going to stay here for at least a total of two years! Have there been many things to adjust to? Yes, of course. Am I still adjusting? Yes, everyday. But am I growing leaps and bounds? Yes.

This blog is meant to review my last 2 months of experiences living day to day in Guangzhou, China. In the last 2 months I have been robbed for the second time, joined the gym, completed my 3-month probation at work, and celebrated my 25th birthday!

First, we will start with the story about me being robbed. Truly in the end it was kind of my fault for being too careless. Anyhoo…I was wearing a backpack because I was walking to the gym. I stopped at a little store to buy a bottle of water on my way. I think what happened is that someone saw me put my wallet away and then followed me waiting for the right opportunity. I was walking along listening to my MP3 player when all of the sudden I felt something hit the back of my ankle. I turned around, looked, and saw my wallet lying on the ground. I immediately picked it up and looked around, but of course saw nothing out of the ordinary. Fortunately, all they took was my cash. (About $60 US dollars worth.) This combined with my first incident at my work equals to about $150 US dollars worth. I truly feel extremely blessed that in both cases all they took was just my cash and nothing else. I am trying to keep a positive outlook on it and saying, “Since being in China I have donated $150 US dollars to the needy people of Guangzhou!”

As stated above, I have decided to join the gym here in Guangzhou. I had been debating about joining for a while then one day decided to go and try it out for a day with a co-worker. I liked it so much that I joined the next day! With my job here I really have a lot of free time. I am able to go to the gym, eat lunch at a nearby restaurant, get a manicure, and then go work a few hours in the evening. How many people can say they have a job like this? Yes, on Saturday and Sunday I am working from 8:30am to 7:00pm, but Monday through Friday are quite easy going. I love my lifestyle here!

Below is a picture from when I went to the zoo with my friends. I was able to feed a baby tiger!





What has also made my time here better and better each day, has been the ability to speak more and more Chinese. I take twice weekly one hour Chinese lessons offered by my company, have a language exchange between a local Chinese friend where I teach her Spanish and she teachers me Chinese once a week, and also use my Chinese as often as I can! Quite a few people have said to me, “Wow! Your Chinese is very good!” I am not sure about it being good, but I am fairly pleased at how much I am able to communicate. By now I am to navigate around the city in a taxi, order food, and bargain shop all in Chinese. It is really quite fun! Oh! And, I have a Chinese name, “Wan Qing Qing” (丸青青). This means, “to be young forever”. The local teachers at my school gave me this name.

Speaking of my school, I felt very loved this past Thursday on my 25th birthday. One of my co-workers bought me a cake and all of my co-workers sang “Happy Birthday” to me. Then, that evening a bunch of my co-workers and other friends in Guangzhou met up for dinner and salsa dancing. I have so many great friends here in Guangzhou! I am very blessed!

The longer I live here the better I am at knowing my way around the city. The other night I tried to take a bus home. I asked my Chinese friend what bus number to take and she told me. After geting on the bus and having it turn in the wrong direction, I knew that it was not the right bus. I did not panic, but simply got off at the first available moment. When I got off I felt as though the area was familar. I quickly realized that I was in the same spot that I walked around my very first night in Guangzhou trying to find food. It was fun for me to remember that night and remember how scared I was. It was also fun to see how much I have grown since then. I found the noodle house I ate at that first night and decided to take a picture of it.


As I am typing this, my mom and I are at The Holiday Inn in Hong Kong on Victoria Harbor. My mom arrived late Sunday evening into Guangzhou. I made her a sign that said, “Welcome to China Mom!” Her and I are spending three days in Hong Kong, then flying up to Beijing for 4 days, flying back down to Hong Kong, and then taking a train back to Guangzhou. I will be posting a blog all about her visit here after she returns back to California. It is so nice to share in this experience with her.

Well… time to go venture out in Hong Kong

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

MALAYSIA

Yes, I know that this blog is about a month overdue. I have finally written about my trip to Malaysia and have written it with quite a lot of detail. I apologize in advance for this. Trust me when I say that I will not be offended if no one wants to read my lengthy ramblings. Here it goes…

My co-worker Lani and I left our apartment building at 7:00am on Saturday the 24th of January. After about a 40-minute taxi ride we made it to the airport. While waiting at the airport we were freezing cold. Both of us were only wearing jeans and a light sweater knowing that we were about to be in extremely hot Malaysia. I was so cold waiting for the plane that I went and spent 40 kuai (6 dollars) on a cup of tea! It wasn’t cold outside, only inside.

After about a 4-hour flight, we made it to Malaysia. As soon as we stepped outside of the plane I knew I had underestimated the humidity and sun of Malaysia. I was already wishing I had a pair of shorts to change into. Right outside of the airport we hopped on a bus to take us to the bus stop in Kuala Lumpur. One hour later we were at the main bus station in KL. By this time it was about 3 o’clock and the last time we had eaten was at 8am. We bought our bus tickets to Lumut and grabbed lunch at a little hole in the wall place across the street.

At about 5 o’clock we once again boarded a bus. We were sitting in the very back row on a bus that had seen better days. As the bus pulled out of the station and headed down the road I knew that it was going to be a long ride. The shocks must have been broken because I felt as though the bus was jumping up and down the ENTIRE bus journey. And how long was this bus journey you might ask?... It was 6 hours long! We didn’t arrive in Lumut until 11pm! By this time we had been traveling for over 12 hours. Little did we know that we still had a 1-hour car ride before arriving at our final destination! We finally pulled into our resort at about midnight. It had been a very long day and I was just looking forward to getting some sleep.


The next morning I woke up at about 7:45 because I was so eager to see what our resort looked like and especially to see our view from our balcony! I was not disappointed when I opened up the curtain. I could actually see the ocean! I quietly found my book and read on the balcony while waiting for Lani to wake up. At about 9 o’clock we headed downstairs to eat breakfast. I was quite surprised at how I was the only Caucasian person in sight. There were many families who were Chinese and many families who were Indian. Because of the demographics of the visitors to the resort the selection of “Western” cuisine was pretty scarce.

After breakfast we decided to walk down to the beach and check it out. We were quite disappointed by the condition of the beach and water. It was dirty and not well kept at all. The water was not clear in the least and the sand was quite muddy feeling almost like you were stepping in a thick paste. Needless to say we knew we weren’t going to be spending much time on the beach of our resort. However, I did convince Lani to go kayaking with me in the ocean. We grabbed two kayaks and had a blast paddling around in the water! (Well at least I did.)

After our somewhat disappointing time at the beach we decided to go to the pool. We ended up jumping in on a game of water polo with a bunch of people who did not speak English. Even though there was a language barrier it was still a blast! Afterwards while floating in the water we met a man who could tell by our accents that we were from America and asked where we were from. We chatted with the man, Kupreet, for a little bit and then he invited us to go with him, his wife, and child into town for lunch. We of course were thrilled by the offer.

We met Kupreet’s wife Michele and son Christian, got into his car, and headed for Lumut. Upon arriving in Lumut we soon found out that because of Chinese New Year a lot of places were closed. Kupreet informed us that a huge population of Chinese live in Malaysia and are the ones who own a lot of the shops. Kupreet and his family reside in Malaysia, about 3 hours east of where we were. We ended up finding a little local hole in the wall place with authentic Malaysian food. Kupreet was even so kind to pay for our meal. Perhaps he felt as though we were two under-paid starving traveling teachers because he also gave us some oranges from the back of his car.




After lunch Kupreet was kind enough to drive us to the bus stop in Lumut where Lani and I made our plans for the following day. By this time it was already 2pm so we decided just to walk around Lumut to see what the city was all about. Quite honestly there wasn’t much to see at all. We ate dinner at KFC in Lumut and caught a shuttle back to our resort. (Yes, American fast food chains can now be found just about everywhere and yes, the foods at these American chains are always different and unique wherever you go!) By the time we got back it was a quick dip in the pool and time for bed.

Monday, day two in Malaysia was spent basically in a bus or taxi the entire day. This was probably one of the most frustrating things about our trip. The taxis were very expensive and in order to escape from the resort they were a necessary evil! Anyways, we rode a bus for 2 hours to a city called Ipoh. When we arrived in Ipoh we took a few taxis and visited Sam Poh Tong Temple and Kellie’s Castle.

We first stopped at Sam Poh Tong Temple, which ended up being a huge let down. The description for it read,
“Located within the huge limestone caves of Gunung Rapat, the Sam Poh Tong Temple is a famous cave temple with various statues of Buddha sitting among natural stalactites and stalagmites. There is also a vegetarian restaurant, a wishing well and a tortoise pond on site.”
It ended up being nothing but a crowded, smoky, ash covered shrine in which I didn’t really understand. There were so many incense sticks burning inside the cave that my eyes were on fire! Would I recommend this place to anyone? NO!







Our next stop was Kellie’s Castle, which ended up being WAY better than I expected! The description for it read,
“The incomplete dream of Scottish planter William Kellie Smith, Kellie’s Castle is believed to have secret rooms and underground tunnels. Building began in 1915 and stopped in 1926 with the sudden death of its owner.”
Now, please note that I am not a believer in ghosts, but it was definitely interesting walking through this never completed castle. I walked through it imaging how it would have looked if it were ever completed. I also couldn’t help wondering about the man who dreamed up the design of the castle. It was so amazing that I really didn’t want to leave. If I had millions (perhaps even billions) of dollars I would want to restore Kellie’s Castle and see William Kellie Smith’s dream realized.








When Lani finally pulled me away from the Castle we realized that we needed to somehow get back to Ipoh to catch a bus back to Lumut. After standing on the road for awhile and seeing no bus nor taxi I decided that perhaps what we needed to do was to make a sign saying “Ipoh” and basically try to hitch hike our way back to Ipoh. (Please note that we were two obviously foreign girls standing beside the road in what felt like 100+ degree weather.) Fortunately about 10 minutes later a man stopped and gave us a 15-minute ride back to Ipoh. We bought our tickets for Lumut, had an hour to spare, and decided to walk around to find a place to eat. We again, found a hole in the wall place and grabbed some rice and curry mush to eat. (Sounds delicious doesn’t it?)

After eating we had to walk back to the bus stop in a torrential down pour just to discover that our bus for our 2+-hour ride back to Lumut was a much smaller, more dilapidated version and had standing room only. We were not very happy campers. Some how we must have did something wrong because this smaller, more dilapidated bus went incredibly slow and stopped for people to get off every 10 miles or so. So our 2-hour bus ride turned into a 3-hour+-bus ride! We got to Lumut, caught a taxi, got to our resort, and went straight to bed.

On Tuesday, day two of our trip we decided to try out a snorkeling park that we had seen in a brochure we had picked up. After spending a pretty penny on a 1 and a half hour taxi ride there we were amazingly shocked by what we found. Again, let me just point out some things that the brochure said,
“Fun snorkeling, floating board, having good time, easy fishing, fun and excitement, Teluk Batik Golden Beach, Malaysia first inland snorkeling.”
Our first clue that it was bad was seeing no one in sight. Before we purchased tickets to get in we asked to walk in and take a look. Lucky for us that we did because all that we saw was a poorly kept up tourist attraction that perhaps at one point was pretty cool. We of course declined purchasing tickets and instead decided to head down to the beach. The beach fortunately turned out to be pretty fun. We rented two chairs and two inner tubes. I, once again, was the only Caucasian in sight. So, needless to say I got a lot of stares. Lani and I swam, floated, and swam some more. The beach was crowded, but still was a nice relaxing day filled with sun and beach just how a vacation to Malaysia should be spent.







Now, let me first start by saying that, yes, I did put on a lot of sunscreen and did reapply the sunscreen several times. With saying that, I got SO burnt that day at the beach. I got the worst sunburn that I have EVER gotten! The most interesting part is that I didn’t feel as though I was getting that much exposure to the sun. I felt as though my body was mostly in the water. The place that the burn most affected me was my back and legs. By that evening at the hotel I felt as though my legs and back were on fire. I was almost in tears I was hurting so bad. During dinner I had to wear a sweater because the sunburn was giving me the chills. Needless to say that night was a very sleepless night.

Wednesday, day three of our trip was spent with me trying not to move reading a book at our resort. My legs were so swollen and so red that it hurt to stand, hurt to move, and hurt to even wear any type of pants or shorts. I also was never able to find aloe vera gel because again, I was the only Caucasian in probably a 100-mile radius! I did find some type of Nevea cooling spray, but it definitely was not as affective as good ‘ol aloe vera gel. That night I enjoyed a pina colada at the outside bar with the cool breeze while listening to a live band sing karaoke.


On Thursday, day four of our trip I was feeling well enough to venture out on the boat to go snorkeling and island hopping. We jumped on a boat at our resort and headed to nearby Pangkor Island. Our first stop was a little spot called “snorkeling paradise.” Would I necessarily call it “paradise”… probably not, but it was decent. I was able to see quite a few fish and a little bit of coral. However, the water quality was nowhere near the snorkeling I did in the Bahamas!




After an hour snorkeling we were dropped off on Pangkor Island. During our entire trip we were continually told, “Go to Pangkor Island, you just have to go to Pangkor Island.” Sticking to the theme of the trip, it was kind of a let down. All Pangkor Island ended up being was a place of little shops trying to sell wandering tourists a bunch of useless stuff. Trying to stay positive I told Lani that we should just walk down the road until we found something interesting since we had about 4 hours to kill. We walked until we found a little side of the road restaurant where we grabbed two cold cokes and took a rest. Once we finished our cokes we decided to walk down the road a bit more until we found the temple someone had told us about. After about 10 minutes of walking we found it. It was a temple that closely resembled many of the other temples we had seen since being in Malaysia.










We then walked back to the pier that our boat was meeting us at and waited until our boat arrived. We got on the boat and headed back to our resort. By this time we were both pretty tired. I decided to order room service since the restaurant I wanted to eat at didn’t open until 9 and Lani decided to go dine at the Italian restaurant we had eaten at the night before. I ate, packed my bags up, and went to bed.






On Friday, day five of our trip it was an early wake up call for us. We woke up at 5:30 in order to give us enough time to catch a taxi into town and to catch our bus back to Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately, this time our bus was quite nice and we even got to have two seats to ourselves. After a 5 hour bus ride and 1 hour taxi ride, we had made it to Kuala Lumpur airport. Our plane arrived in Guangzhou at about 9pm. We then, once again, got on a bus, rode for about 40 minutes, then hailed a taxi, and finally made it home at about 10:15pm.





I am so glad that I went to Malaysia. It was definitely interesting, taught me a lot of lessons, and gave me just more life experiences. Would I recommend others to visit Malaysia?… umm probably not. Would I want to go back?… umm probably not. Did I enjoy my Chinese New Year holiday?… yes.