Holiday in Cambodia

Well, not really Cambodia, but the same general part of the world so to speak. (If you don't get it look up the Dead Kennedys.) We just got back from a 9 day vacation around southeast Asia. It was a wonderful break and was really relaxing. We never had to wear long pants or long sleeves and got plenty of wonderful sun. (A little too much sun on a day near the end). We began our trip in Singapore. We left on Christmas Eve. We had to get up around 5 in the morning to make the trek to the bus stop to get to the airport which is over an hour away. We traveled on Singapore Airlines which was by far the nicest airplane I have ever traveled in. It was so nice, and it was even decorated for Christmas. Once in Singapore we traveled through the city by light rail to our hotel which was near Little India. The thing that suprised us the most about Singapore was how different it felt from Seoul. I always thought that being a city state on an island, it would be super built up. There was so much green and the buildings were so many warm colors. In some ways it reminded us of Florida (though a very southeast Asian Florida). It felt so much less congested and relaxed. We had a great time exploring the area we were in until downpours put a little damper on our evening excursion plans. We wish we could have spent more time there.
Very early the next morning we got up and traveled to the train station. We then took a train through the Malaysian countryside up to Singapore. We kept making jokes that we were back in central America. It looked so similar. The housing in the poorer rural areas was similar to things we had seen there. There were palm trees everywhere! Forests of palm trees! We also came upon forests of what I suspected, and later confirmed, were rubber trees. It was nice to get to see parts of Malaysia that we would not have gotten to see in the city. We ended our ride in Kuala Lumpur and traveled through the city (after much confusion becuase they don't give you a visa stamp when coming in my train) to our hotel near the Petronas towers.
We spent about a day in Kuala Lumpur and enjoyed the breaks in the weather when it was not raining. At this point it was Christmas day but it did not feel like it at all. It was hot and humid and we even went swimming under the stars on Christmas night. The Petronas towers were one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I have ever seen. I loved them! From there we traveled again to a little tiny airport. It was the kind of airport where the baggage claim sign was a piece of paper taped to a door that lead out to the tarmac. We flew on Firefly Airlines, a domestic carrier that flies only turbo prop planes. I was a little nervous about flying in something small with propellers and it didn't help that they sat me in the seat where the propeller was only a few feet away from my window. However, it was one of the smoothest flights I have ever had and for around $30 a ticket, I can't complain. They even gave us food and refreshments!
We spent the next few days on the island of Penang in Malaysia. It is right near the Thai/Malaysia border on the western side. Our hotel was wonderful and the wall of windows in our hotel room gave us a panoramic view of the ocean and the distant mainland with mountains. We spent a lot of time exploring the city and its ethnic diversity. We especially enjoyed the Indian culture and had some of the best and most authentic Indian food of our lives. (Most people were eating with their hands from their banana leaf plate. As foreigners, they offered us utensils.)We explored many shrines and temples and relaxed and drank coconut juice from coconuts while watching the waves. We had delicious food and fun experiences finding our selves the only white foreigners in many areas (not like that doesn't happen all the time here in Korea). We really enjoyed the ethnic diversity of Malaysia which is something we really miss here.
We then traveled by Firefly/turboprop plane, to the island of Phuket in Thailand. This was a beautiful tropical island where, after much traveling, or only activities were to consist of sitting on the beach and enjoying a good book. We had a very relaxing time. I really enjoyed swimming with all kinds of tropical fish right off the beach. It was a great experience. We were suprised to find ourselves the only people speaking English even though everyone looked western. It appears that Penang is a hot spot for Scandanavians and Europeans. There were lots of big people with blond hair. Our resort was great and was on a hill between two beaches. We were surrounded by mountains and had a great view of the ocean on two sides. We also ate a lot of delicious Thai food. Since one of Matt's favorite dishes is curry, we ate our fair share, and it was so cheap! Our last day there was New Year's Eve. Since our flight didn't leave until 2 am on New Year's Day, we spent our last night at a New Year's Eve Gala hosted by our hotel. We ate lobster and other delicious food while watching hours of Thai dancing, boxing, and other souteast Asian entertainment.
Overall it was a great trip and we wish we could have spent even more time in each place that we visited. If you want to see all of our pictures, check out the link on the right hand side of our blog.