So Much Sun...

Hello all!

Well, the three of us are currently in the small city of Kota Bharu near the Malaysia-Thai border.  A lot has happened in the last week, so here it goes:

After spending two days in the nice touristy city of Melaka, I boarded a bus and headed up to Kuala Lumpur (KL).  I was pleased to find out that KL is no where near as humid as Melaka!  I spent the afternoon wandering around the city, getting lost, checking out the Museum for Islamic Arts and the National Mosque. 

Katherine and Kymm arrived that evening and I had fun the next day watching them adjust to the humidity.  KL's a cool city and reminds me a lot of another city, but much cleaner :)  We managed to get tickets to the Petronas Towers (previously the world's tallest building) and got to go up to the 42nd floor walkway.  Great views of the city!  We then took a trip out to the Batu Caves, which are about 13 miles outside of the city.  The caves are truly amazing!  Upon arrival you're greeted by a huge golden statue of a HIndu god/goddess and many monkeys that litter the steps all the way up (one almost attacked Katherine).  We got some cute photos of some of the baby monkeys.  At the top of the steps, you could get a blessing (for a price of course) so the 3 of us spent the rest of the day wandering around with red dots on our foreheads.

After the caves, we spent the rest of the day wandering through Little India and Chinatown where we bought all of our knock-offs (ie: Gucci glasses and LV wallet) and checked out some of the other famous mosques.  It's really interesting to compare Islam here with Islam in Egypt.  More on my little comparison later.

One night train ride later and we were in the north-east corner of the country heading out for the islands.  The first stop was Pulau Perhautian Kercil (sp?), which is gorgeous and really touristy.  We spent 3 nights there and it was great (minus the sunburn!).  The sun is really strong here.  All the tourists were pinkish so at least it wasn't just us!  Getting to the island was a lot of fun though.  A 30 minute boat ride out and then being transported to a little motor boat (packs and all) to take us the rest of the way in.

From here we did our first snorkelling tour.  It was amazing!  We saw sharks, turtles, tons of fish (including "Nemos") and tons of jellyfish (to be avoided of course).  We also got to experience our first tropical monsoon!  Every evening we ate dinner on the beach and could watch the lightening show in the distance.  Overall, the island was great.

Getting back out to the big boat was even more fun.  Just picture 7 people and 6 large packs in a small motor boat.  The guy had to go really slow just so we wouldn't sink. 

It was interesting to see how the Muslim women dress in tropical weather.  In Egypt, if a woman wore hijab, then she covered everything but her hands and her face.  On the islands though, most of the women wore hijab, but also wore short-sleeves and capris or even shorts!  Definitely a difference.

We then headed down the east coast to Kapas Island, which is known to be less touristy.  The first day there was great, but then night fell.  Katherine discovered that little ants had migrated into her pack.  As we were trying to get someone to come and spray the ants, I spotted a huge spider (think 4 inch diameter) scurry across the door to the bathroom.  We managed to get another room.  Management got a kick out of us though.  I kept hearing "spider" and "Canada" been said amid the snickers and eye-rolls.  While Kapas does have much "wild-life," it does also have almost no tourists and pristine beaches.  I of course was still recovering from my sunburn, so I spend my beach time fully covered (including hat and shawl), nestled up on a lounge chair in the shade.  I still got to enjoy the views though!  We left this morning and here we are in Kota Bharu.  We plan on crossing the border into Thailand tomorrow where we then head up to Krabi on Thailand's west coast.

More later!

Katie