Singapore: Little India was fantastic. The rest of the city, not so much. But the cloth and spices people sold along the street in the Indian district were fabulous. Basically, all we did was go out to for drinks and pool. It was pretty cool. We met a random guy who used to work at the south pole. And then we went to…………………………

BORNEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really, there aren’t enough good things to say about Borneo. We arrived in Kuching, “the city of cats”. We wandered about. We saw a Hindu temple, a Catholic church, Anglican church, a Buddhist temple, a Sikh, and a Mosque within about 20 minutes. It was so cool. We explored a shopping mall and the Chinese food court outside. Someone taught us to say thank you in Chinese, which made this one guy laugh uncontrollably. That’s us, just spreading the joy. We went down to the ferry around sunset. The river made calming noises, in the foreground were palm trees and the background was the outline of a mountain with a mosque. The sky was just cloudy enough to make it turn all different colors. There were hues of blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange. It was so picturesque. And then it was five oclock. At least six mosques began the call to prayer. Regardless of a person’s religious beliefs, there is something curiously haunting about the call to prayer. Just the sound of it somehow carries your thoughts toward God. At the end, there was one crier who was just a little behind all the others. His lone refrain lasted about 10 seconds longer than everyone else’s. It was really an amazing moment.

Then we were hungry. We went back to the Chinese dude who laughed at us for saying thanks. We thought the night was over. We could not have been more wrong. We make our way to the guesthouse, walking past one of the many Chinese Buddhist temples in the town. This one happened to be having a party. And we were invited. For no apparent reason. We looked as we were walking by, and they invited to sit down. So we sat. And they gave us beverages, attempted to give us food, and explained what they were doing. Apparently the god of heaven was having a birthday the next day. So everyone got to together to set and eat and make offerings and eat some more. And drink. There was a lot of drinking. We sat there chatting with a few middle aged fellows. Then we learned that one of these guys was the mayor of the town. We met the mayor less than six hours after arriving in the town! The best part: he’s a Catholic named James. Go figure. When he left the party pretty much broke up. So we went to the only logical after-party spot: McDonalds. Understand that there are no McDonalds in Cambodia. And in most other countries (Including Borneo) Mickey D’s is a lot nicer than in the states. So we went for sundaes. While we were waiting in line, we noticed an African. We played a game that we had started in Kuala Lumpur called “Where is that foreigner from”. Kelsey voted Kenya, I said Nigeria. I won. Obviously the only way to know who wins this game is to ask. So Kelsey did. And the four of had ice cream together. They were students at the university, and they were celebrating his birthday. It was cute. Then we went back to the hostel. Surely the night was really over by no. Wrong again. Chinese poker and Bollywood movies. Oh yes, both of these things were happening. The Chinese use playing cards that are shaped like tongue depressors. The poker is also more similar to rummy. It was fun to watch. But not as fun as bollywood. We had fun at that hostel, but it didn’t have breakfast or a toilet in the room, so we shopped around the next day. That was a stellar decision. We found Tracks, a cool little hostel run by some really cool guys. They’re Iban, one of the many ethnic groups in Borneo. Traditionally, Iban men got tattoos to mark events in their lives. Since colonization by the British, many gave this custom up. But these guys also run a tattoo shop. They were on National Geographic’s Taboo: Tattoo. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should. Anyhow, when they’re not tattooing folks, they just kind of hang out at the hostel and play the guitar. So we spent most of our time in Borneo hanging out and watching movies while the guys played guitar. It was very nice to be able to sleep in and do whatever we wanted. In Cambodia there are always people in your business, and so it was nice to just spend our days wandering around the city and nights chilling with our new friends. We did walk around a lot. We went to a lot of religious buildings, museums, and ethnic districts. We even saw orangutans. There is a rehabilitation centre where you can watch the feeding. There was a little baby and it was really cute.

After the orangutans, we went to the tattoo shop. We just dropped by and watched a guy get tattooed. There was a lot more blood than I expected. It was weird to be in the shop, there were posters and pictures of famous people he’d tattooed. If you want to check it out, the website is borneoheadhunter.com. So between tattoos (and there were a lot breaks) we watched movies and drank coffee. We got sharpie tattoos. It was a pretty cool day.

Borneo is an interesting place. It is technically Malaysia because Malaysia defended Borneo from the Japanese invasion. But most Malay people are actually Indonesian. The native people don’t particularly like them, because they took their land and tried to make them Muslim. Borneans are Malay in name only. Going to Borneo from Peninsular Malaysia requires a trip through immigration, even though they are technically the same country. According to Borneans, the reason Malaysia is so rich is that they take the oil found in Borneo and keep all the money from it.

Borneo was really awesome. It is strange coming back to Cambodia. When I first arrived in Cambodia, I found it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting everyone to live in cardboard boxes. I have gotten used to Cambodia, and leaving made me realize just how bad it really is. Honestly, I would have rather stayed in Borneo. I didn’t come to Cambodia for myself, but because it was what I needed to do. It was good to be reminded of why I’m here. I chose to be here, not somewhere else, because here, people need help. So now it’s back to Kravanh. A new school year will be starting soon, a new start for everyone.

Love and miss you all!

Brief rundown of the week (more details later)
1. Played pool in Singapore
2. Met the Mayor of Borneo's capital within hours of arriving
3. Had ice cream with Nigerians at McDonald's
4. Watched bollywood movies
5. Hung out with the most famous tattoo artist in Borneo (possibly all of southeast asia. Watch "Taboo: Tatoos" on National Geographic and you'll see him)
6. Had Turkish coffee
7. Listened to the call to prayer while watching the sunset over the river
8. Stayed up til after 3am listening to native musicians
9. Folder paper boats at a buddhist temple
10. Escaped from the rain in a Hindu temple
11. Realized the building by the police station is actually a Sikh temple
12. Had junior high girls tell me about Jesus
SO much more! Still love and miss everyone. Will write more when I have time

Malaysia PTII: Leaving the jungle was almost a cool as being inside of it. We decided to take boat instead of a train so we could see the river. It was pretty fantastic. We saw some native people swimming. The women were all shy and covered their mouths with their hands, and the kids all ran around splashing in the water and yelling hello. We got very wet, not because it was raining, but because a little French girl kept sticking her hand out of the boat and dangling it in the water, thus splashing everyone behind her. But she was super cute, and we knew we would totally have done that at her age, so we didn’t care. We got into Jerantut and had to wait for the night train to Kuala Besut, the mainland access point to the islands. While we were waiting, we played Yahtzee with Florian and Thomas, two German mathmeticians headed to the same islands we were. (I won the Yahtzee game, btw) We shared a taxi with them to the jetty and hung out on the beach, where they told us about math formulas for calculating probability, the German word for “a spiraling descent into hell” and other assorted awesomeness which I will never be able to remember.

The second day was all about snorkeling. Uber awesome. Swam with the fishies and the turtles. Some people saw lots of sharks, but I only saw a tiny one. Oh well. There was coral that kind of looked like a clam, but closed up when you came near it, schools of fish that you could just swim through. There was a fish feeding frenzy on one pile of dead coral, and a pink and blue fish the size of a microwave came and started running the other fish away. There were fist of all colors and sizes. Seriously, some were as big as me. The turtles were definitely as big as me. They got rather annoyed by all the divers, but they have to come up for air sometimes, so when they do, we can touch them. Excellence. Also, in the course of the day I found that my sunscreen had expired, therefore I have the worst sunburn ever. I didn’t know the back of my knees could burn, but it’s possible. Oh well, the burn was totally worth it. We left yesterday. On the boat, we ran in to too cool guys named Ben (English) and Aurli (French, his name is really longer, but I can’t spell it, sorry). We decided to share a taxi. (In Malaysia, taxis only take four people in a small sedan; unlike Cambodia which can take as many as eight, nine or ten if you count children). This was not as simple as it sounded. Because it was so late, all the taxis raised their prices. And there was a guy following us around making sure that no one gave us a lower price. Then they told us that there was no bus. Then, when the bus does come, the taxi people tell it not to stop for us. So Aurlie jumps on the bus, and tells the driver if he doesn’t take us to the place we want to go, he will call the police. So the four of us had the bus to ourselves for the trip. Then comes the fun part. We get to our destination. Kelsey’s bag was stolen, so all of her local currency was gone. I had to pay for things like the room and bus tickets, so I didn’t have enough either. We needed a bus to Singapore. But there was no one to change money for us. We left our bags with the guys and went frantically searching for money changers. We finally found a ticket seller who would accept US dollars, but he gave us a terrible exchange rate. He also gave us tickets to Kuala Lumpur because all the Singapore busses were already gone. So here we are, probably but not certainly leaving for Singapore very soon. More updates pending.
Love and miss you all!

Malaysia: Pretty much awesome. We arrived at the Kuala Lumpur airport about 7 o'clock wednesday night. The first thing we saw was a McDonald's. We were not in Cambodia anymore. By the time we got our luggage and changed money, it was almost 8. Realizing that the airport is about an hour away from the actual city, we resisted the urge to get fries, and instead took a bus to Kuala Lumpur. Once in Kuala Lumpur, we were slightly overwhelmed by things such as paved roads, traffic lgihts, traffic laws, etc.The city at night is beuatifiul. The twin towers sort of glow, but more about those in a minute.We took the monorail to the place that the lonely planet guidebook said had hostels. Unfortunately, we went one stop too far. So then we walked. It was fun. And tiring. And we met a nice Indian guy who tried to help us, but he didn't know anymore than we did. We still slightly in awe of being in a city with public transportation. Eventually, we found a hostel. We had rice and fried chicken for dinner (the fried chicken is fantastic!) The next day, we trekked all over town. We had curry for breakfast, then we headed for the towers. They are amazing. I bought a lonely planet calendar last year, and each month it has some pictures and a little blurb about a different city. After the month was up, I hung the pictures on my wall. The picture for Malaysia was of the Petronas towers. I always thought if would be super cool to see them. I saw them. And it was super cool. The building is beautriful. The first five floors are a shopping mall (the food court included A&W and Dunkin' Donuts) and the higher floors are offices. They let you go up to the bridge that connects them. You can see the entire city. It was kind of surreal to be standing in the Malaysian equilivalent of the statue of liberty, looking out on the city. Kuala Lumpur is encircled by mountains. It was overcast the day we went, and the fog was just starting to roll off the mountains. It was incredible. We spent the rest of the day trekking around the city. I found a starbucks, that made me pretty happy. Then we found a huge mall/foodcourt/spa/movie theatre.I can't even begin to describe it. really. I have never seen anything like it in America. After spending 8 months in Cambodia, it was really too much. We saw "He's just not that into you", ate popcorn, and then had subway and baskin robin for dinner. It was fantastic. It was a bit diffifcult to get used to things like crosswalks, and forming orderly lines, and not bargaining for everything you buy.
Then we went to Taman Negara. It means "National Park" in Malay. Their creativity with names is less than astounding, but it was really too wonderful for words. It was hard to get to, as no one could seem to agree on where the bus station was, but after many navigational misadventures, we arrived in Jerantut. This is the town with a bus that goes to the rainforest. And a KFC. And that was were things got really interesting. There were two guys sitting across from us at KFC. They stared and made kissing noises, but that didn't bother us because we get that in Cambodia all the time. We didn't think anything of it. And then we boarded the bus. One of then comes up to our window and points to a pick up. His friend is sitting in the driver's seat. Neither speaks English. We figure out that he wants us to get in the truck. He tells us that they will take us to our destination for free. At least we think that's what he was trying to say. After suspending sanity and consdiring it for moment, we decide that would be one of the most stupid and dangerous things we could do. So we stayed in the bus. They drove off (or so we thought) revving the engine as they went past the bus. After a few more minutes the bus takes off. Suddenlly, the two guys are behind us. Maybe they just happen to be going this way, I thought. Then the bus stopped to pick up another passenger. And the truck stopped too. Maybe they have arrived at their destination. Negative. They waited for the bus, and then continued following. It was funny for the first 20 minutes. Then we were a little creeped out. Thankfully, about halfway to our destination, they stopped. Then it started raining again. The windows on the bus were down, and some wouldn't stay closed, including mine. So one of the teenage boys who had been staring at us came over and held my window closed. The whole bus cheered for him. It was priceless. He continued to hold the window closed for a good ten minutes. His name was Azman; he didn't speak much English, but he was adorable. We were sad when he and his friends got off the bus.
So we get to the little resort town. We have no idea where to go. So we just look for a place to get out of the rain. We literally stumble upon a small hostel, ran by a Bob Marley fan named Zeck. Zeck was a pretty cool guy. He's Malay, but he has worked in Scotland for 7 years. He came back to help friends run a hostel. We played rummy with him. He usually lost. When he wasn't there, there was a kid name Ihi. He was a 19 year old from another city who had been sent to help family work at the resort. He was bored and lonely (as he repeatedly told us) being away from all his friends and family.He really liked us a lot. He didn't speak much English, but he taught us some malay words. Adorable. And then there was the jungle... We took in well over 11k (I've forgotten how to use miles, you figure it out) and that's just distance, not elevation. First of all, I can't even describe what it's like being in the oldest forest in the world. You are complelely surrounded, cut off from anything. everywhere you look there is green. We took a small side trail accidentally at first. Thankfuly it was a loop and we ended up back where we started. When we got there, there was a tour group. Knowing we had to uphold our reputation as Peace Corps Volunteers, we raced them to the next stop on the trail. They were unaware of this fact. And then they took a different (easier) trail and it didn't really matter. But we still felt good about winning. The whole point of this exercise was to get to a rope bridge in the canopy. Which meant climbing a really steep hill. But we did it. And then... the rope bridge. You know how on movies, people cross vast casms in the earth on rickety rope bridges? I did that. Except it wasn't really a vast casm. But we were really high up. We walked on a mile's worth of rope bridges suspended above the rainforet canopy. Wow. At first, I was pretty much freaked out. The first bridge (they were laid out in a series of about six) I could barely look down. They move a lot, especially when other people get on them. But by the third bridges it was really easy. I was hundreds of feet obove the ground, looking down at the Malaysian rainforest. Just wow.
And that was only the first leg of our trek. After that, there was a mountain. We didn't actually realize it was mountain at first. We just saw a said that said that there was something down the trail to our right. So we thought, "why not check it out?" Um...It was definitely a mountain. A REALLY steep mountain. It was nearly vertical in may places. We had to stop several times. But the view from the top was worth it. It was like being in national geographic. And then we had to go down. Going up a sheer mountain isn't easy, but getting down can be downright dangerous. But we are peace corps volunteers, and we don't let little things like mountains stop us. We slid down on our butts a couple of times, but we were victorious in the end. After that, we felt we deserved lunch. So we ate. And then we went to a cave. At first we were a bit worried. The trail seemed nearly vertical, and we were tired from the morning's adventures. But then it got remarkably easier. We even came upon a local village. We didn't go in because it seemed impolite, but it was super to see people just coming and going, from huts, in the rainforest. And when it isn't raining, the rainforest is a mudforest. And leeches like mud. I don't like leeches. I only got bit once, Kelsey twice. I think that's respectable. Thankfully, there are no leeches in caves. The cave was narrow, and we had my tiny flashlight (thanks Maw-Maw!). So we crawled around and I held the flashlight in my mouth. We are hardcore (not really). Anyway, we slipped and slid on the rocks. They were blue and metallic. But it was the bats that really made it special. They were all over the roof of the cave. We really shouldn't have been surprised, being in a cave and all. It seems sort of obvious really. But imagine yourself suddenly surrounded by bats. Hundrends of thousands of bats. Everywhere. Alas, were thwarted by bats. We got to a point where the bat poop was so thick that the rocks were too slippery to climb on. It was just a little gross. When we came back out of the cave, we were disgiusting. We were covered in mud and bat crap. But it was definitely worth it. Our last rainforest adventure was leaving it. We took a two hour boat ride up the river to the bus station. It was really realaxing. And we are not even halfway through the trip. At 1am, yes, in the morning, our train leaves for our next destination, the Perhentian Islands, which are supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. I'll let you know.
Also, for the family: I received Maw Maw's and the Nannies' birthday boxes. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much! AND I can recieve phone calls from Cambodia here in Malaysia, so it you want to try and call, you might get through!

Well, being in a Muslim nation there hasn't been much talk of easter. I didn't actually realize it was easter til I checked facebook and saw everyone's status'. So happy easter everyone! Love and miss you all!