We call our tour guide Mama Duck. He always is keeping count of his ducklings, making sure no one gets lost. And he takes care of us by demonstrating how to use the butt squirters and squat toilets (fully clothed) when we have questions about “happy rooms.”
Melaka
Mama Duck took us to a palace, a high point for a good view of the city, through markets, and along the river to show us Melaka. He’s a big foodie, so he forces us to eat the must-have foods in the countries we’re in. For me it’s not forced (except for 1 food so far) but some group members are much picker and more stubborn! The one that he forced me to eat was a durian puff…it’s said that durian is a fruit that “smells like hell, tastes like heaven,” but if that’s what heaven is like then it will be torturous. They use durian to make all sorts of foods and desserts, it blows my mind. Honestly sometimes I walk by shops and I can’t tell if the horrible smell is durian or the sewer.
The guy below is making one of the must have desserts for us…hot coconut and brown sugar. It was amazing! I didn’t take a photo of the durian “treat” though because I’m trying to repress the memory.
In the evening we had free time, and most of the group went on a little river cruise. The bridges were beautifully lit up. This is not what I was expecting when I planned to come to Malaysia!
Kuala Lumpur
Our hotel was in the middle of Chinatown.
When we ate lunch in Chinatown, I saw something hilarious on the menu: USA fried rice. It includes a hot dog.
We went to the Batu Caves, which is a beautiful Hindu shrine in a cave. You have to walk up over 200 steps to get there, and it’s required for people to wear clothing that covers their shoulders and knees. There were SO many monkeys hanging around as we walked up, so we had to be careful of all our belongings! I only took 1 picture of them because I was afraid they would steal my phone!
While we were up there, Chinese tourists kept taking photos with us without permission. And once they saw one of us, they wanted photos with all of us girls. 2 of the girls in our group are blonde, I have blue eyes, and the other is biracial so I guess they saw something rare in all of us.
At night we went to the Malaysian Twin Towers. Tickets to the top for a view of the city were sold out by the time we got there, but the building itself and fountains all lit up were pretty.
I know this is stupid, but the next day we had a free day and 7 of us went to a water park. I really wanted to do something that shows us the culture or is something you can only do in Malaysia, but the closest elephant sanctuary was 2 hours away and no longer lets tourists interact with the elephants. I am against the animal cruelty that goes along with entertaining tourists with animals, so I’m happy that southeast Asia seems to be getting more strict with it, but 2 hours is too far considering we are on busses for 2-8 hours a day on this tour anyway. I must say the water park was super fun and it felt so good to not be sweating all day!
Teaching and Learning in the Journey of Life 