Pangkor Island

Our trip to Pangkor Island yesterday was hot, sweaty, and long. We started off in taxis from our hotel, and then took a train ride, a bus ride, a ferry ride, and another bus ride until we made it to the resort. When we got here, there were women dancing and singing and handing us dragon fruit juice, but I was really upset from being worn out on the trip over. When we got up to our rooms, I found that Amy and I had been given a room with only one bed, and we were going to have to sleep in the same bed. Well, if you know anything about how this trip has gone, you will understand why I freaked out and had a complete meltdown. Two boys in our group ended up switching rooms with me and Amy, and I felt really bad that they had to share a bed, but I think it was legitimate for me to be upset about sleeping with Amy.

Things have gotten much much better at the resort. Even though there isn't air conditioning except inside our rooms, everything is so breezy here it doesn't really matter much. After breakfast today, we went kayaking and then we just floated in the ocean for a long time. I've been laying out in the sun and swimming so much, I'm already starting to get sunburnt! Hopefully tonight I will try out the pool with the swim-up bar!

Kuala Lumpur

I admit, for the last few days in KL I was so busy, I forgot to blog! Our last company visit of the trip was to the United States Embassy, but it was very unimpressive. The people we met with had all worked there for less than a year, and one of them had only been there for 4 weeks! They showed us a powerpoint containing information from the CIA World Factbook website, which we all had read before the trip, so the presentation was basically just very boring. It was embarrassing that these people were living and working in Malaysia and had absolutely no excitement or passion for it. Our main host kept telling us that he didn't know anything about politics because he has a degree in music composition.

Aside from the US Embassy, we did a lot of other fun things in our last few days in KL. We went to the zoo, we saw the new X-men movie at a nearby theater, went shopping, and ate dinner at some really good places. We went to the Moroccan restaurant near our hotel at least 3 times for their hookah and their hummus and kebabs. And on our last night in KL, one of Dr. Karuppan's friends took us out for Indian food. The Indian food was so good, but so spicy!! We were all drinking tons of water the whole time to get rid of the burn!

The zoo seemed kind of similar in size to the Dickerson park zoo in Springfield, but I could be wrong. It was really dirty and there were a ton of bugs, but the animals were really active and really close to the walls so we could see almost every animal! We ended up watching a show at the zoo with seals and birds doing tricks, but the entire program was in Malay, so we didn't understand any of it. An interesting tidbit of Malaysian culture - sweet corn in a cup counts as a snack here, you can find it at movie theaters, the zoo, KFC, and tons of other places, right next to popcorn, sodas, and ice cream. They even gave us corn flavored ice cream one time, and it actually had real pieces of sweet corn in it!

Kuala Lumpur

Yesterday we started out the day by visiting BSA - the Business Software Alliance. BSA works to stop software piracy. It was a great meeting because it involved topics that interested everyone from every field in our group.

For lunch we went out to sushi, which I'm definitely still getting used to. I don't even like seafood normally, but I've found a few things that are really good. I ended up with some kind of softshell crab roll covered in shrimp roe, and edamame - which I have had before and it's one of my favorite foods!

Later we ended up in a Moroccan restaurant for dinner, but I ordered chicken nuggets, even though there were some really good looking kebab dishes. The first place I tried to get dinner was KFC, but I got fed up after waiting in a ridiculous line for more than 20 minutes. The lines in Malaysia are so much different than in the US for two reasons: 1) They move very slowly all the time, and 2) People randomly butt in front of you without any reason. All in all though, dinner ended up great because the Moroccan restaurant was breezy and pretty and super fun!

Back to KL!

Yesterday was our first real day back in Kuala Lumpur, and we are staying here for about 5 days until we go to Pangkor Island!

We visited two companies yesterday, HSBC and MDeC. HSBC is a bank that was originally started in Hong Kong and Shanghai by the Scottish, but now their competitive advantage is the global nature of the bank. There are HSBC banks in about 87 countries worldwide, and the bank has worldwide Centers of Excellence as well.

MDeC is in charge of the Multimedia Super Corridor, where Malaysia provides a tax break and other benefits for companies for up to 10 years. This is to encourage foreign as well as local investment and to improve the infrastructure in Malaysia. The MSC is in the Cyberjaya, or Cyber City, where companies such as Dell, Panasonic, and others have offices and call centers.

In the evening we went out to a hookah bar, and two of us girls went to the KFC nearby to use the bathroom. There was only one stall and it had a squatter toilet, but we tried it anyways and we were successful!!! Later that night we all went to China Town in KL for some knock-off shopping time.

Vietnam - Last Day!

Our last day in Vietnam we started the day with a tour of Hanoi. We saw the tomb of Ho Chi Minh, who led the Vietnamese people in a revolution, making the country communist. It was interesting that in Vietnam, the Vietnam War is called the American War. We also saw several places where Ho Chi Minh lived, as well as some government buildings. Then we went to a museum that had a lot of exhibits about the different cultures in Vietnam.

We also visited a Taoist temple, which was my favorite part of the day. There were Chinese characters everywhere, and Taoism is my favorite eastern religion.

Two of our group members got pickpocketed at the temple also, some lady just reached over and took their money!

Vietnam

Hey! This is my first blog since we have been in Vietnam! When we first got here, I had my doubts, but the past few days have been amazing!!

On our first day here, we went to lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant, and I ate "pho" the traditional noodles in Vietnam. Then we went to an amazing spa and got pedicures and manicures.

On our second day we visited a venture capitalist company called IDG, and another company that was an ICT firm. Then we girls went back to the spa for full body massages!!

Today was our trip to Halong Bay, and we had an amazing time kayaking and swimming in the ocean. We all got tan laying out on top of the boat! The only bad part was the 4 hour bus ride each way.

KL Day 3

Today was an exciting day in Malaysia - we took a tour of the countryside area surrounding Kuala Lumpur, and visited a Hindu Temple where we climbed 200 stairs. There were monkeys everywhere on the stairs, waiting to steal food from unsuspecting tourists. The view from above was amazing, and I'm sure I took at least 50 pictures just of the stairs!

Lunch was a nice break from asian cuisine - we went to Outback Steakhouse. I got an amazing sirloin and a margarita!! This was the first time I have had a margarita or beef since leaving home!! It was so nice to have familiar foods.

We spent the evening in a mall in KL's "Time Square." We bought tickets for the Imax theatre there and explored the stores while we shopped. We ended up seeing Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. By the end of the movie, I had forgotten that I was in another country! I was half expecting to walk out of the Hollywood theatre into downtown Springfield, and was really surprised to hear someone speaking Malay (or some other language) behind me!

Another interesting thing from today - watching a woman in a burka eat at McDonald's. Nicole mentioned that she wondered how the women eat in public when they need to keep their mouths covered. It turns out they move the cloth aside for a second, take a bite with their hand under the fabric, and then pull their hand out. It seems very secretive! I have to admit, with the way people stare at you here, there are times I wouldn't mind having a burka to wear!

KL Day 2

Day 2 in KL started out with our trip to AMCHAM, the American Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia. The speaker had a ton to say about Malaysia and America both, especially about things like education, economics, healthcare, and others.

We had a couple hours free for lunch and I think every one of us ended up eating at the nearby sushi restaurant. I'm not really a fan of sushi, and I have to admit that a couple of times I almost lost everything that was in me. But there were a couple of sushis that were really good! I loved the one with fried softshell crab, but the california roll was terrible. Even the tuna nigri wasn't too bad, but I will have to try it again to make a better decision. We even got desert there, and I really hope we go back because I want to try the green tea ice cream when we go back!

After lunch we went to Microsoft, which is in the Petronas Twin Towers (tower number 2 I think?) on the 29th floor! That's probably the highest I have even been in a building! Microsoft was really interesting, especially because the speaker was our first female speaker at any of the companies we have visited.

Dinner time was amazing tonight, we ate at a super fancy restaurant owned by our hotel. Everything was served buffet style, and even though it was almost completely Malaysian food, it was still really good! I ended up trying some duck, miso soup, lemon chicken, and fried fish. Dinner was amazing, but the dessert was even better. We all looked like fat Americans because I think almost all of us got two plates of dessert!

Kuala Lumpur

Yesterday was our first day in Malaysia. We took an amazing first class bus to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore and our hotel in Malaysia is much nicer than the one in Singapore. We have a pool, a spa, and really nice bathrooms! Bathrooms are so important.

Dinner in Malaysia was a fail; the seafood and veggies were not my thing, but there was plenty of rice, so that was good! After dinner we tried some Malaysian fruits, like mangosteen - which is the best fruit ever! It tasted like a plum, but it was much easier to eat.

After dinner we explored KL and got harassed by all the crazy street vendors trying to sell their fake products. I bargained for a watch and got it for 10 ringgits! Then we spent some time sitting and smoking at a hookah bar, and we had ice cream and fruity drinks like dragon fruit, watermelon, and a ton of other crazy drinks.

Sentosa Island

While we were in Singapore, we had a free day, and three of us girls and a couple of the guys went off to Sentosa Island for some beach time! Just getting there was an adventure in and of itself. We ended up taking the MRT (metro subway train thing) and then another train over to the island itself. We ate lunch at a sit down beach restaurant and I had fish and chips for the first time ever! It was absolutely delicious. They had margaritas that sounded good, but none of us wanted to pay $15 for one drink!

We decided to go to Tanjong beach on the island because we were told that it was much less crowded and mostly visited by local residents. Once we got there, we had the beach pretty much to ourselves except for one or two other couples. We spent a couple hours on the beach, laying in the sun and swimming, and then we swam out to a little island with lots of rocks and sat around there for a while.

Even though we wore sunscreen, I still ended up getting burnt on my shoulders! It was well worth it though, by far the most relaxing and fun day I have had on this trip so far!

Playing Catch-Up

Welcome to my blog! I'm a little behind, having already been overseas for about 4-5 days now. We flew out from Kansas City on the 16th, and have been exploring Singapore (beautiful!) ever since, with today being our first day in Malaysia.

Singapore was absolutely beautiful, and at times it was easy to forget that I was in another country. A lot of things are very westernized and very modern and even cutting edge, but the rich cultural background of Singapore's people is evident everywhere you go. You can see old shop-houses (stores with apartments above them) and beautiful mosques and temples, all with skyscrapers in the background. Most often, we ate at open air food courts, in which food vendors had hygiene grades posted on the front of their stalls (A, B, C, D).

We visited Positronics as well as Food Empire in Singapore. Positronics is a Springfield, Missouri based company that makes connectors for everything from satellites to airplanes. We visited the Singapore branch, called Positronics, Asia.

We also visited Food Empire, a company that sells instant beverages, such as coffee and tea. It's main product is MacCoffee 3 in 1 coffee packets. These packets contain a premixed amount of instant coffee, creamer, and sugar, so the consumer can just add hot water to have an instant cup of coffee. Food Empire gathers these three ingredients and mixes them to make MacCoffee.

Here in Malaysia, I'm missing Singapore already! The good news is that Malaysia is going to be every bit as exciting, maybe even better. Let's hope so!