Malaysia Part II

We're still enjoying Malaysia; much more so now that we're a little more used to the city and its culture. The first night was a bit awkward because the country has a lot of different customs and we didn't quite blend in but now we're on to how to act and dress so it's much more pleasant.

As always, we must report on the food, which for the most part has been excellent. I did finally get an opportunity to try durian, also known as the king of fruits. It's a large spikey green fruit that has four divided chambers inside. The chambers contain a creamy, slightly fiberous (somewhat doughy) pulp that stinks to high heaven and is highly prized by many Indonesians. I had read about it in some of my favorite books and had always been interested to try it. Well, yuk, it was barely tolerable at the moment of ingestion and gradually tasted worse all evening. By that I mean that the few bites I took (and then promptly threw the rest away) stayed with me all night. I can't imagine what a person would smell like if they ate that all the time! They say it smells like ammonia but I didn't quite think so; Michael thinks it does, anyway it doesn't smell pleasant. Oh well, I've been wanting to try it for ages. Maybe someday I'll give it another go, who knows?!

Other than the durian the food has been yummy. Lots of different cultures influence the cuisine of this region - local Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, a little Thai, and others so there is quite a mix of things to chose from.

What else....we visited the bird sanctuary and the orchid gardens, the Batu Caves (a Hindu shrine north of the city), the Petronas Twin Towers, the Central Market, Chinatown, Little India, and walked around many city districts. Tomorrow we're planning to go to the Forestry Reserve outside the city and check out some local forests. We watched a monkey get territorial at the Hindu shrine and terrorize many tourists (chasing and biting and jumping on them) until one Chinese guy stood up to it with some fancy karate moves. The monkey finally backed down and gave the guy some respect and a bunch of people started clapping. I kind of felt sorry for the monkey but then it was being a twerp. There aren't any stray dogs around here (unlike Thailand where they're everywhere); instead there are bunches of monkeys, rats, and cats. Weird.

Bird Park


Botanical Gardens


Batu Caves


On Tuesday we are flying to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We're looking forward to some jungle hiking and mountains and maybe hang out with a few elephants.

Ok, gotta run. Hope you're all having a great day!