Malaysia

Not many people know a lot about Malaysia, it is a well hidden treasure. There is a good mix of Indian and Chinese culture here, with a twist of Muslim influence. Malay is the dominant language but it seemed like everyone knew English.
The first day ,which was last Wednesday ,I went to a Thai Temple called Wat Chaiyanang Alaran and saw the huge sleeping Buddha. Across the street from that was a Burmese Temple which was gorgeous, I watched a monk blessing a piety. Then I went to the Leong San Khoo Kongsi clan house. I used this visit as one of my Zen FDP’s. That evening I went to a mall that was 6 stories tall and basically had the same stuff in every shop. Then I walked to China town and had the most amazing fried rice in the world. Oh, before visiting the temples I had lunch at a restaurant where we were served two whole fish, head and all. The fish tasted good but it was hard to look at the ugly cooked fish and be able to enjoy the flavor.
On Thursday I went snorkeling on the island of Langkawi. The fish were so colorful and the coral reef was really cool. We got to feed baby sharks that were about 200 yards away from where we were snorkeling. I am not sure what kept them from coming over to us. After feeding the sharks we were going to go snorkeling again but the tide must have changed and a lot of trash and oil came into the area making it impossible to see anything underwater. So that ended our trip short. That evening I went out with a bunch of guys which was nice because as you know the girl/guy ratio is not on my side. Most of my friends went to Kuala Lumpur which is a city on the main land. I had a great time listening to Chinese karaoke and observing local life.
Friday I went to Starbucks in the morning to skype with my parents. It was the first time I have had a vanilla latte in over 2 months. That afternoon a friend and I went to the Batu Ferringhi beach which was a half hour away. We got a hotel room for the night which cost 88 ringgits for 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, and kitchen. We had a balcony that over looked the ocean. Malaysia is definitely honeymoon material for any newlyweds out there. There was horseback riding on the beach along with jet skies and para sailing. We went to the night market and I bought a few trinkets.
Saturday morning we went to the beach and I acted like I was 5 years old and collected ever shell I saw. We went back to the ship for lunch and then went out shopping again that afternoon. Sunday I went to Penang Hill and Botanical Gardens. We drove up to the top of the hill to find that the canopy walk was closed because a tree had fallen over it from the heavy rains they have been getting. We were also supposed to take the cable car to the top instead of driving but the cable was broken. So Penang Hill was not a great success but it was absolutely magnificent, almost prettier than the Amazon. The Botanical Gardens were nice but it was super hot and hard to really enjoy the flowers.The ship could not dock in the port so we had to tender back and forth to shore. This was inconvenient because the tender only left the boat on the hour and came back on the half hour, so we had to plan everything around getting on and off the ship. Malaysia was so calm and relaxing compared to India. There were no kids begging for food, no cars constantly honking, no trash on the ground, and no toxic air to breathe in. I would even go as far to say Malaysia is cleaner than the United States. I would definitely want to come back and go to the Highlands and Borneo.
Country ranking based on my own experiences . 1- Cape Town, South Africa, 2 -Penang, Malaysia, 3- Chennai, India 4- Nassau, Bahamas, 5 -Walvis Bay, Namibia, 6- Salvador, Brazil