Luke and I went to Malaysia during our winter break...without doing any research. We flew into Kuala Lumpur looking for a good beach to discover it was nothing but a bustling metropolis. whoops. let me just go ahead and list all the bad/ridiculous/hilarious things that happened to us.
1. I lost my beloved iTouch 5 minutes after entering the country.
2. We decided to fix our non-beach mishap by driving 5 hours in a rented car to the "renowned" island of Penang to discover it was nothing but a small, polluted island with 1.5 million people living on it and about twice as many motorcycles and three times as much trash. As, of course, with out a single nice beach.
3. Because we had booked our hotel through the internet, we couldn't get a refund. So we decided for the one night we went to Penang to just have two hotels (hey, if this madness would result in us sitting on a beach warming our bodies from the long Korean winter, we didn't care!).
4. After driving 5 hours to the hotel, we were told the beach was still 40 minutes away and that the beaches outside our hotel window weren't really beaches, but harbors!
5. They drive on the opposite side of the rode and this proved to be harder than we had imagined. The island traffic was one lane each way- which was really cars parked on both sides making it only wide enough for a car a half, and yet still functioning as a two way street AND motorcycles on both sides of the car. Luke did a great job...but still managed to hit two things. I can't be mad because I would have probably hit about 20 things. (so, hearing that the beach was 40 minutes away in island traffic was basically a death sentence.)
6. After checking out countless beaches and turning around from our hike to "monkey beach" (the name was a bit frightening to me), we found a decent beach and started having a great time for about 20 minutes. We decided to get in the water. 30 seconds after being in the water, I was stung by a jellyfish! That's when we decided to drive back to Kuala Lumpur- after they treated my leg. (We found out when we got home that I could have died. Apparently people die quite frequently from jellyfish stings on THAT beach!)
7. The GPS was programmed wrong and took us an hour and a half out of the way.
8. When Luke went to return the rental car in the morning, the worker didn't show up. Luke hung out with the 7-11 employee next door for an hour and a half before getting a hold of him only to find out he wouldn't be showing up ever. Why? He was in Penang! PENANG! The awful island that is 5 hours away! In the end Luke left the keys and car with the 7-11 man.
9. We tried to buy some shakes from a shake place and the man ended up yelling at us and kicking us out because he thought we had ordered when we actually hadn't. He just started serving us random shakes when we were still deciding what we wanted. (We ended up a Starbucks- because they are not allowed to yell at you).
10. The doozy. We arrived at the airport to discover that my ticket was for that day and Luke's ticket was for the day before. Awesome! He had unknowingly missed his flight by exactly 24 hours. Luckily they were able to get us both to Beijing. However, they informed us that when we got to Beijing we would have to exit customs, collect our baggage, and go to to the ticket counter to attempt to fly standby...with no visa. Now, Luke and I told them we had no visa (knowing this would be an issue), but they assured us we would be fine. So, with nothing but a half sheet of paper with scribbled, hopeful, flight numbers, Luke and I entered Communist China with no visa. Not easy, my friends. We endured many lines, many repeated explanations, and many laughs.
Luke, me, and a mosque.
Malaysia is a Muslim country and our hotel room came with a complimentary Mecca arrow!
In front of a big, new mall. We were just happy to not be wearing our winter coats.
Luke and I found a whole hall of Korean pop music paraphernalia. Wonder Girls, Girls Generation, 2NE1- they had it all! Way to get out there, Korea!
Our first time trying Dragon Fruit. Tastes like a big, semi-bland kiwi. What it lacks in taste it makes up for in its color.
Still getting used to the sun.
The best looking beach in Penang that we discovered when the sun was going down...
Eating some very hard to find local food.
Me and my jellyfish sting. This picture doesn't do it justice. You can't tell how red it really was.
Dinner at our hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Some real Italian food- nothing like the kimchi inspired pasta I get in Daejeon.
Luke and the ridiculous looking paper that somehow got us through Chinese customs. Check out this paper! It's got the perforated edges from 1990's and everything. Imagine handing this paper to a very serious looking immigration officer when they ask for your official boarding pass!
We get to go home and don't have to live in China!
First-Class!
The best part of this story is that we did get on the flight (we prayed hard). In fact, we rode first class home! We have decided that it was by far the worst vacation ever and nicknamed it "stress-cation"- but, it has been making a fantastic story ever since.
