The Farther North, The Better

I don't have any picture of Malaysia uploaded yet, so I'll post my favorite picture yet. This was taken at the Singapore Zoo. Nothing I hate more than Tourist Attractions and Ed Hardy.

I don't want to make Singapore sound all bad. I really liked Little India, where there were a ton of neat looking hostels and some good local food and bars. I especially liked one guy starting a conversation with me at a stop light about how there are too many immigrants in Singapore now (despite he, himself being Indian), and how much the American dollar sucks now. My apology didn't seem to make up for the money he lost.

But we made it into Malaysia despite quite the cluster at the boarder (a lot of passport stamping, line waiting, and getting off and on of buses), and into Jahor Bahru. When I asked the cab to drop me off at the city center from our hotel (which was a few kilometers outside the town), he dropped me off at giant mall (only when I later got lost while driving into Malaka did I realize that the word Senter in Malaysia meant the bus depot more or less). I immediately thought, this is no better than Singapore. But then I purposefully got lost, ran into hawker center and a few cool looking buildings (the Sultan Ibrahim Building and the Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque), stumbled around a bazaar while trusting my good friend's advice of spending my money in Thailand and not in Malaysia (my response, how can it possibly be cheaper?), and had a much better feeling about the city then when I was first plopped down a few hours before.

As I was having my second meal that night (I try to have two dinners, as I want to take advantage of the food here as much as possible), I heard this loud singing, which resembled more of a moan, coming from somewhere nearby. I have never been to a Muslim country before, so I had no idea that the sound was in fact the Adhan (Islamic call to prayer usually played from loud speakers adorning the mosque and surrounding minarets). I found it somewhat soothing, despite the sound quality of the speaker hanging from the minaret which neighbored the restaurant where I was eating.

I can't go on much further, as it's late (technically it's Christmas already in Malaysia), I'm tired, and I have more traveling to do tomorrow. But the point of this post is to say that Malaysia is much better than Singapore, as I've yet to see a Hooters. Malaka (the city I am currently in) is awesome and reminds me of Charleston with it's history and proximity to the ocean and water way. I guess you could say the same thing about Singapore, but they haven't ruined it here as they did in Singapore. Okay, that's enough Singapore bashing for now.

Also, I haven't killed anyone on the roads yet, despite me being a virgin left-sider (no more!). I would say that observing Georgians maneuver on two lane highways definitely helped me while meandering up the coast today, although it did leave my Mother breathless a few separate times. I blame that on Georgia, though.