With the weather worsening and the southwest monsoons moving in (may is supposedly the start), I figured it was time to move to Malaysia. So yesterday I took a van to get to Malaysia. The ticket I booked was to go to Alor Setar (pronounced allostar) and then east to Kuala Besut. There are 4 entries into malaysia from thailand. One by boat to langkawi island, and expensive resort island I didn't want to go to, one on the east coast which although it is not far from where I wanted to go in malaysia is considered extremely dangerous b/c of extremist muslim thais fighting and bombing buddhist thais for independance. So that left the 2 borders on the west and then I would just have to travel a ways east to get to where I'm going. You first go to hat yai thailand, which has been the sight of previous unrest and although the books say is not overly dangerous, that you should keep an eye out in the news for current events. It appeared safe so I headed there, b/c the other option is to go back to bangkok, fly to kuala lumpur and then go back north.
The day started out poorly b/c I was quite sick. Had a very high fever, chills, and muscle cramps, which although painful, maybe worse was hoping it was just a common flu and not yellow fever, malaria, dengue fever, SARS, bird flu, japanese encephalitis or whatever b/c in s. thailand the mosquitos no matter what you do are unavoidable (you can't put repllant on your bum as you use the squat toilets!). I met a nice teacher on the bus that helped me get to the right place in had yai. The bus restops were quite amusing b/c they had areas for buddhists and areas for muslims and muslim food and buddhist food. At hat yai I booked a van to alor setar and then on to khota bahru which is close to kuala besut. Well, after crossing the border (thankfully they didn't quarentine me as an north american for swine flu as they did to people who had been in thailand for less time than me) and several hours later and at 10pm, we arrived at Georgetown on penang island on the west coast...the complete opposite of where I wanted to be!!! I pleaded my case to the thai driver, but in typical thai fashion he just drove off. So there I was lost, not really knowing where I was (until I asked someone), feeling quite sick, in a completely new and foreign country and all by myself. In the end it didn't turn out too bad other than I lost a fair amount of money in bus tickets b/c georgetown is quite nice with a heavy trading influence if chinese, malay, british, indian, sri lankan, and baba nonya so the food is great and cheap and the town has a bit of charm to it. So I decided to stay a day here and gorge on good food (after taking lots of tylenol to feel better) after the fast in s. thailand and check out little india, chinatown, and the different malay areas and colonial areas. I also needed to do a few shopping things: toothpaste (yes its halal!), a new watch (I've tried filipino, thai, lets see how long malay lasts), and hit the internet big time. But the food is great here!! I LOVE indian food and lassis, and chai tea, and they have steamed cow's milk, and tasty mango lassis which are much better than the fruit shake which is just fruit and ice. And this guy makes a huge burger for 50 cents with a fried egg wrapped around it! Yum. I really like it here. It's of course mainly muslim here, and for some reason I've always like muslim cities (don't tell my father). Zanzibar and Marrakech are two of my favorite. They have a different smell and feel. Although this place doesn't have the narrow winding alleys of zanzibar and marrakech it still has a cool feeling. The run down place I'm staying with is right above a bakery so good smells come out of that, which I smelled early this morning as I couldn't sleep really with my fever.
Tonight I have plans to check out the little india bazaar as well as the baba nonya area.
So just a few random thoughts and not very detailed or anything on thailand, the philippines, burma, and malaysia.
The burmese were the nicest (though most shy) so far, but in my 2 days here, the malay people are a close second. The Malaysian people are so friendly and they don't do the touting and such that they do everywhere in thailand and some areas in the philippines. I loved the filipinos too. They were very nice as well, extremely outgoing and always up for fun. They also know english so well that they're easy to talk to and you're never lonely by yourself there. It has been quite refreshing to come to malaysia from thailand as the malays have been extremely nice (and example would be walking 5 minutes around the city by a security guard to show me what I was looking for as opposed to giving an annoyed look like the thais). It's almost japanesque in their friendliness and helpfulness. The people selling stuff on the streets don't yell at you to buy stuff, but instead strike up a normal conversation. Some taxi drivers (in thailand when you walk by them..."hey, you! you! where you go! and they follow you") I walked by politely asked if I needed a ride and then helped me figure out how to get to a place by bus for cheaper. Then one guy peered into my eyes and put his hand on my forehead and asked if I was sick. I was taken by surprise as I am actually sick, but when he started laughing, I realized it was a swine flu joke after telling him I was from america. So yes quite refreshing to be here.
I don't know if I was in thailand too long, or it truly is the people, but I had become increasingly annoyed by the thais. The truth is most of the thais are really nice. Like the teacher on the bus, or the girls on vacation I had some beers with, or the majority of the people I met in the north, or all the thais visiting the national park. The thais who I don't particularly care for are the ones that work directly with the tourists. Now that could very well be a reflection of the tourists themselves (and in my opinion the "springbreak" feel the europeans often bring to the beaches all full of boozing and sex isn't the best thing), but I have worked in tourism for a long time and I am still very friendly and although I may make jokes at home, I do genuinely like most tourists I meet (unless of course they are nebraskans). I found travelling in the north much better of thailand and I think that has a lot to do with it's more real thais up there. On these little islands, the only thais that really live there are related directly to tourism. Of course you do meet some nice guesthouse people and others, but overall you get an impression of being bothered, cheated, etc from them. The problem is the south is so gorgeous compared to the north, but the north is much more cultural and friendly. In the end in souther thailand i think I grew quite weary b/c I'd go see the sites, which were stunning, but then be frustrated by the rest.
In my opinion, tourism has ruined thailand, especially southern thailand. Because I think it's made the people there less friendly and only working for the baht, its caused heaps of trash everywhere, complete destruction of beach front areas where bungalows are overcrowded over everything. The economy relies completely on tourism, which takes a huge hit when say the airport is closed, there are riots in bangkok, the prime minister has an assassination attempt, or the world economy drops. They've also become too upclass, so instead of the more chill backpacker crowd, you're getting the crazy inebriated, do what I want party crowd. But...with that said, it is completely gorgeous, even when a thousand bodies lie on the sand (lots of the european women being topless which is in a highly muslim and conservative south is quite rude to the locals in my opinion, considering they usually wear full cover but are required to cover the knees and elbows, even when swimming), or hundreds of boats sit in the bays. The philippines is gorgeous, but not near so as thailand (el nido comes close), but in the philippines it is much easier to find beaches to yourself, or beaches with rainforest coming right up to the beach instead of bungalows, there's not techno blasting all night long. Things are much more pristine there. I can only imagine what thailand must have looked like a ways back when it was pristine b/c it is still quite incredible. Whey people haven't discovered the PI yet, I don't know. Maybe b/c you have to fly there from the mainland, or it's too american for the euros or whatever. Would I visit thailand again? Yes, b/c it is so gorgeous, but I think I would want to go with friends and partake in the parties a little more. I was there on a scenic journey, but I think half the fun of thailand is the wildness that has become of it. So yes, I did really enjoy thailand (and it's so long ago it's not much in my memory, but the north was very nice, friendly, and not so touristy, it's just that the south is fresh in my mind), and it's scenery, and most of its people, but it is good to move on now I think, I am ready, and I hope the malaysians are all like they are in georgetown penang.
Just a funny note I was thinking of about the filipinos. There hello is a nod up of the heads and raising of the eyebrows, not a wave. I figure this is because there hands are too occupied: either texting, driving a motorcycle, holding a baby, a stroking their rooster (I could have used their word, but at the risk of too much of a sexual iunendo), or a combination of it.
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