Selamat Datang!

Just 24 hours ago, my plane had landed in Taiwan after a fantastic five-day trip to Penang and Langkawi, Malaysia. It was a vacation the way I would have wanted a vacation to go. I had gotten over my fever by the end of the first day there, and was good to enjoy the high-20's to low-30's weather. Traveling with me were my cousin TC and her b/f BH. Here are the highlights:

Day 1: In our small group of 9 tourists and 1 group "leader" from the travel agency, we met with the Malaysia tour guide in Penang. The goal for the day was to get to Langkawi, which involved another 4 hours of busing and boating. Along the way was a trip across Asia's longest bridge (13.5km), and a stop at Eagle Square (Dataran Lang) where a massive eagle statue stands poised for flight. Langkawi actually means brown (kawi) eagle (lang). Our night ended with the 10 Taiwanese gathering in one hotel room for drinks, local snacks, card games, and some getting-to-know-you.

Day 2: To start the day, we took a boat to the Langkawi Coral, a catamaran from which we went snorkeling into clear tropical waters filled with a variety of fish. It wasn't until the last hour that we realized the best snorkeling was just a short ways away where we would snorkel with sharks. Now THAT was cool. That evening, we went to our second hotel resort. The resort was on a tsunami-affected island called Rebak, so the once-busy marina was empty, broken in places, and boats were lined up on the docks waiting to go back into the water. The tsunami did more than just take boats out of the water. We needed to change rooms a couple times that night because of some faulty electricity (which cause our room to smoke up), and non-working air conditioning. It was an interesting evening, that's for sure.

Day 3: The third day was mostly island hopping. One for its nice quiet beach (until the other tour groups arrived) and monkeys, another for more monkeys and some swimming, another to see a shallow cave, another for fishing, and a final for lunch. The rest of the day was spent at the resort.

Day 4: On this day, we returned to Penang, saw the Mahsuri Tomb (where a Princess unjustly accused of adultry was buried), went to two temples, to see the Seri Rambai Cannon (a 400+ year old cannon with much history) at Fort Cornwallis, drank Pepsi X (Energy Cola), bought dried lobster meat, had a bicycle rickshaw ride, and dinner in a revolving restaurant. That night, after check-in at our hotel, TC, BH, and I walked to a mall about 20 mins away to look for a Malaysia flag for me to buy as a souvenir. Unfortunately, I came away empty handed.

Day 5: Our final day was less eventful, including visits to a textiles shops, a pewter and leather factory, a tree or botanical garden, a herbal health foods (etc) shop, and the snake temple (which really didn't have that many snakes). Another 5 hour flight, and we were back in Taiwan.

Overall, I had a great time with TC and BH. I thought the food was good (maybe not always authentic Malay food), and the activities were eventful. I was surprised at how many people speak the "Ming Nan" (Fuken) language -- which is the same as the local language in Taiwan. Particularly in Langkawi and Penang, which are high in Chinese population. Things in Malaysia aren't that cheap - cheaper than Canada, but only about on par or just slightly cheaper than Taiwan. Imported things are much more expensive (brand name clothing and imported cars). I'm sure I will want to go back to Malaysia -> Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, and Singapore (ok, that's not in Malaysia).

I always had a problem knowing what to collect as souvenirs, and as pointed out earlier, I think I have found something. Country flags. I wanted to get one this trip, but couldn't find a large enough one on short notice. Unfortunately, that means I have a lot of previously-visited countries that I need to revisit. But now I'll start looking out for them.

Happy Chinese New Year.