negative part- food

Before I get to the negative part I will let you know that I am in Sylhet. I am sure I am one of the first people to ever say this: Sylhet has been heavenly. What I was seeking in Srimangal, I have found here in Sylhet: peace and calm. It is clean by Bangladeshi standards and it seems rather chill. No god-awful buses spewing smoke, nor taxis. Most of the vehichles are rickshaws. There is a lazy river that goes through town. Amazingly, they have a nice little waterfront area in one part of the city. They actually have nice sidewalks here too. But enough of that, let's get to the bad stuff!

You're probably thinking I don't like the food due to the subject heading. No, that is far from the case. Here is my issues with food here:

1. Variety and Bangla food will never be in the same sentence unless "no" or "lack of" come in front of variety. I have had curry nearly every day I've been here. All the food seems to have the same type of spices. While it does taste good (20 times better than Yemeni food), it just gets tedious after awhile. I'm bored with it all.

Now had I just eaten in restaurants, I would think, "hmm, the good stuff is at home" like it is in many poor countries. Yemen was like that. Alas, I have been to numerous homes and had meals in them. Quite good, but same food I've had in restaurants. Blah.

Oh, and they love fried chicken just like the rest of the world. Fried chicken is the one universal food of the world. You might not find any western food in a country but it'll have fried chicken. Well except Japan for some reason. I don't recall seeing much fried chicken there (minus KFC).

2. Eating with the hands. Honestly, I don't mind. In fact, in the privacy of my hotel room last night, I had silverware but I said screw this, I'm eating with my hands. seemed weird doing it other wise. What is the problem then? Apparently I don't know how to do it. My first meal here, a kid laughed, shook his head and told me to give up. I'm not joking. While others have been kinder, the results have been similar. Come on people, does it really matter?

Consequently, my meals usually go as thus: I start with my right hand. The above happens, so they bring out a spoon. I try that. Or the reverse happens: i start with a spoon, but pulling the meat or fish off the bone becomes a real pain in the ass, and I revert to my hand. Things get messy and people smile, etc. Fun times.

3. That leads me to: the stares. People stare at me while I eat. I'm like, "yes people, I look silly eating with my hands. I don't grip it right, I know." And if it is a restaurant, it isn't just the person I am with. It is the waiter, the bus boy, and the people sitting nearby. I just play it off and whatnot, but it gets tiresome after awhile.

4. The unhygenic practices. I will just provide an example. I had lunch with some men. They washed the dishes by pouring water over them, then scrubbing the dishes with their right hands. Soap? Yeah right. What had their right hands been up to that morning? i really don't want to know. And I know that is normal and not an exception. So it goes.

This post is dedicated to Chris H. He asked me before I left, "what are you going to eat there??" He was refering to India, but I think he was also wondering about Bangladesh. Well chris, I eat curry, rice, bread, and dal. Oh, and fried chicken of course.

After this, I am going to try a chinese restaurant. Chinese restaurants in Bangladesh cook some weird ass shit, I'll just leave it at that.

one last blurb about the family

In hindsight, i should have just copied what I wrote my last night in Dhaka and posted it on here. It is a little more articulate and I think does a slightly better job of describing my feelings about it all:

It is presently 2 AM. I will be leaving Dhaka in 8 hours or so. I have spent 10 days here, much longer than planned. The reasons why are long and boring. Right now I cannot sleep. Why not? Various emotions.

Basically I've had one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. In a span of less than a week, a family has basically adopted me' well, as best as one can adopt an adult. The generosity and kindness they have shown me is out of this world.

You know how many meals I have paid for the past 5 days? Zero. You know how many cups of tea I've been offered and drunk? 50? Bus rides? Two. Pretty much all I have paid for is water, phone cards, and my hotel. The rest has been provided by people who make in 1 year what I make in about a month. The man who has been at the center of it all lives in a room with his 2 daughters and wife. 4 people in a room smaller than my room. Above them is his nephew (the computer genius) in a decent sized room and below them is his mother. Now that I think about it, my hotel room is probably slightly bigger than any of those rooms.

Anyway... The looks they all had was so wonderful. They always had big smiles and were so polite. Shit, I really cannot describe what it was like. Right now I am crying just thinking of my time with them all. They warmth they exuded was just so powerful. Even though only 2 of them speak decent English, I feel like they all would do whatever they could to help me if need be. If I were to pop up at anytime, they would just be all excited and whatnot. And why? Why are they so kind to me? That's the confusing part. Why do they like me so much? What makes them put all this effort into doing things for me? What about me brings out those facial expressions? All I did was follow around one of them because I had plenty of time on my hands and he spoke English. well ok, he also is quite bright and interesting to talk to, but still...

His younger daughter is so, so cute. I was so tempted to give her a big hug tonight. I wanted to just kidnap her and bring her home with me. I think she had a crush on me. 6 yr oldsgenerally dig me for some reason. Her older sister made a shirt to give to a future girlfriend. Lynn and Min are their names. Mother is Leena. Those are some of the easiest names to remember around here. The father is Shaffiullah.

Not sure if I wrote this in the previous entry, and blogger is super slow here, so too lazy to check if I did but my last night there, I met Shaffiullah's nephew, aka the computer genius.

The nephew goes to American Intl. University in the rich part of Dhaka. Takes him an hour or so to go from home to the university. He is a computer science major, so he needs to use his computer a lot. He has a desktop. Well on occasion, he would forget something on his computer back home. Obviously it was a big pain to go back home and get it. He thought, "if only I could access the info on my mobile phone." So what did he do? He invented a program to do it.

I asked him, "isn't there software already out there to do this type of thing?"
"Just windows. Mine also works for Linux, Apple, etc. It is universal."

So how does it work? I have no idea. All i know is I could see his computer screen on his mobile phone, and use the phone like a mouse. I could open up his media player on his computer and play songs on his phone. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.

That wasn't all. He developed a program where you can set up a webcam and get the images from the cam on your phone.

Not bad for a 22 yr old college student in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Oh, he was meeting with some Aussies earlier this week to discuss development of his software. A friend of mine has also strongly recommended he patent it abroad. I have passed along the info.

I've been adopted

Here is something I believe falls under the category of irony: so many more events and happenings have occurred here in Bangladesh than anywhere else in my travels yet I find it so hard to write. Before arriving here, I could daily write 2-3 pages about my travels in my journal. Now? If I write more than 1, I've done one hell of a job. On a couple of occassions I have forced myself to write down notes so I do not forget about some of what has happened to me here.

Now why is this the case? I think I am just overwhelmed. That is the easiest explanation. My mind is just dead after a day out and about. when I return to my room, i need to decompress and have my brain shut down for the remainder of the evening. Writing simply takes more energy than I have in myself.

So what have I been up to? Kicking it in Dhaka. Had you told me at the beginning of my trip, or even while I was on my flight here that I would spend 10 full days in Dhaka, I would have either said, "get off the crack rock" or "who am I going to fall in love with?"

Alas, it was neither, although the 2nd answer has a bit of truth in it. There are a variety of reasons, but they're boring and tedious, so I won't go into it. Now what is this love I've hinted at? well you could say I now have relatives in Dhaka. perhaps love is too strong a word, but the bond I have developed with this family has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

who is this family? A (lower?) middle class (by Dhaka standards) family that owns a little- and I do mean LITTLE- store around the corner from the infamous hotel yeameni. I went there to buy water about 3 days after arriving in Dhaka. the shopkeeper spoke a bit of english, which totally shocked me. The hotel employees barely spoke english, a dude going for his master's in english lit spoke rather poorly, yet here was this random shop owner who spoke clear english.

Anyway, 2 days later I returned to once again buy water. This time he was more out-going and asked if I would sit down with him and have some tea. I did. By the end of the night (it was only about an hour later), he told me that he didn't work the next day since it was Friday, and was wondering if we could hang out. i said sure, why not. so we did.

We wandered around old dhaka. We checked out a couple churches and the asitra (star) mosque. He then asked if i would like to stop by his sister's place to meet his wife and two daughters. once again: sure, why not, so we did. His daughters were quite shy but very cute (I think 8 and 11 yrs old).

from that point on, I would stop by his shop on a daily basis and go walk with him when he wasn't at his store. I met all 4 of his sisters, 2 of his brothers, who knows how many nieces and nephews. He bought me at least 25 cups of tea. It might as even be as high as 50, I really can't say.

The last 5-6 days in dhaka, I don't believe I bought a single meal. All my money went towards my hotel and phone cards. Transportation costs? I walked everywhere with this man except for an excursion to his friend's house in the suburb of Mirpur. His friend was as generous as he was and insisted on paying for our bus fares to and from his place.

I'll end this entry with this: I have never, and i mean NEVER encountered such warmth and hospitality. this family treated me like I was a relative while I have only known them for about a week now. Words cannot describe the looks in their faces and the genuine smiles they gave me while I was with them. I am a bit bewildered by it all since the only one I could really communicate with was the shop owner. that being said, I was touched by the fact that when I first met them, none of the women or girls would try to speak english (minus his wife, who tried a little) but my last night there they were much more "daring" for a lack of a better word.

If any of you happen to go to Dhaka (which I highly doubt, but you never know) please tell me and I will give you the phone number of Shafiullah. He would love to meet other foreigners and I guarantee you will have an experience like no other.

Anyway, I'm now in srimangal, the first place I've gone outside the dhaka area. It isn't as nice as Lonely Planet made it out to be. C'est la vie. Not to end this entry on a down-note or anything.

Dhaka baby dhaka

so I'm in Dhaka. Been here now for 4 whole days. 4 days plus an extra evening. It has been quite an experience.

First evening: arrive at Dhaka Airport (zia intl). Stairway up to immigration is crumbling. Not even sanaa airport had that lovely feature. Quite impressive.

Alas, immigration hall was remodeled and quite clean and well-lit. Sanaa can't claim to have that. the score is even between the two at this point.

Zia scores another point: funny ass immigration dudes. Guy looks at my immigration card, looks up at me and says, "First time to Dhaka?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, Hotel Yeameni, not good. Don't stay there."
"reallly? Zero stars?"
immigration guy next to him: "No [motions below zero]"
Me: "Negative stars?"
Him (laughing): "yes, yes"

Negative stars for dhaka. sounds like i'm in for quite an evening. Someone set me up with hotel room though, so I think i should be ok. Nevertheless, I ask for dude's recommendations. He writes out 4 hotels. I figure if Yeameni (it is yemeni so hey, it has to be good!) really is as bad as these two say, I will go to one of those 4 the next day.

I have been told to walk outside the airport, walk out to the main road, flag down a taxi or bus. Now I'm thinking it will be like a highway and quite big. Uh no. It is about as wide as Lakeside Dr, I am not kidding. The airport is basically surrounded by suburbs. It would be like walking out of Oakland airport and seeing the montclair shopping area across the street. I should have figured that when we were flying into the airport we went right over roofs before landing.

Flagged down taxi. dude used meter, YES! Dude only knew about 5 words of English: boss, drive, USA, love, hope. He kept on calling me boss and saying he hoped to go to USA and drive someday. Over and over- for an hour. Yeah, time really flew let me tell you. Actually my heart did beat pretty quickly due to the insane traffic. I won't even try to describe it right now. you haven't experienced crazy driving until you have been to Bangladesh.

Got to the hotel. tipped the guy BIG time. Not sure why. Because he was nice and didn't take advantage of the fact that I speak no Bangla and had never been here before. And hey, he loved america, so why not right? Ha...

Walked into hotel lobby. Well those immigration dudes must have high standards cause that was the nicest lobby I've seen since Japan, no joke. I have a/c and my own bathroom. For me, that is luxury. And it is cheaper than some places I stayed in Malaysia that were a lot worse. so dhaka immigration, fyi, some of us aren't high rollers like you are.

2nd day: Went to get phone # for here in bangladesh. Long story short: shop keeper showed me around the 'hood, took me to his family's house for lunch. WONDERFUL lamb curry, was fantastic. 11 people crammed into a 6 room apartment. Welecome to bangladesh sean.

It was also the first time on this trip a chick has asked me for my number. Yes, in dhaka of all places, a gal asks for my #. I thought that was supposed to happen in Japan, not in the land of muslims. We have since exchanged text messages.

The last couple days I have gone here, there, and everywhere in the Dhaka area. right now I am writing this from the largest mall in south asia. One hell of a view from the top.

And I will leave it at that for now.

Adios and Farewell- for now

Tonight is my last night in Southeast Asia. Since I am off to an Islamic country, I did what any intelligent person from the west does when embarking on a trip to a 90%+ Muslim country: DRINK! Yes, I had 1 big bottle and one small bottle of Tiger Beer in a span of an hour or so. I figured I won't be having a beer in a LONG time (ie 3 weeks minimum, probably longer) so I should take advantage and drink up. So I did.

Of course I didn't just drink today. I went to a really cool Chinese mansion. If ever in Penang (I doubt any of you will be, but oh well, who cares) I strongly recommend it. The guide really knew her stuff, I was quite impressed. For the remainder of the day, I pretty much just wandered around chinatown, which is an odd mix of ghettoness and coolness. Basically most of the buildings are in really bad shape, but they have character, and the ones that have been fixed up are very pretty. If they could do that to all the buildings, this place would be pretty amazing. Then again, the rundown part gives this area a bit of "character."

So tomorrow morning I am off to Bangladesh. A bit surreal, hard to believe I will be there in about 24 hours. Shall be an experience, that is for sure. Culture shock, here we come. And with that, I bid adieu.

Seinfeld time!

Ok, so the place I chose to stay at tonight was described by Lonely Planet as having "modern bathrooms." I assumed that meant they were sparkling clean, great shower heads, etc... Sounded like an ideal place to spend my last night in Malaysia. It is also located in Little india (and it is VERY little, let me tell you), so I figured it would be a good warm-up for the real thing (j/k there). Anyhoo, the place gave me Seinfeld flashbacks this morning. How so?

I think I might be (or was) the only person staying there. Flashbacks of the Abu/Seinfeld episode came flooding back. Jerry convinces Abu to change his restaurant to Pakistani food since his western-style restaurant only has Jerry as a customer. Abu takes up his idea and says how great Jerry is. Well I didn't have any suggestions for the owner of the hostel (although I do have a couple ideas, which I will share in a second), I did feel good about myself. I thought, "Yes, I am good. I am helping this place survive [just like Jerry and the restaurant]." yes Sean, 20 ringgit (6 bucks) really will keep the place afloat. How great I am!

So what are my ideas? Well the hostel's reception shares the same space as a mobile phone store. In the back is the reception, in the front is the mobile phone section. I figured that the mobile phone angle should be played up to the max. For instance if you stay 2+ nights, you get free airtime minutes on your cellphone. If you stay a week? FREE PHONE! My other idea was playing up the India theme by blasting Indian music, having a tout outside trying to convince you to stay here (cheap price! very comfy!), and a cow in the lobby. Ok, so maybe those ideas are a little stupid.. But hey, looks like their business couldn't get any worse, so what harm would it do?

Hello brothers and sisters!

Since arriving in Malaysia and seeing all these muslims, I've wanted to walk into a shop, restaurant, hotel, etc. and loudly pronounce, "Asalam Wulakium brothers/sisters" so I could hear them respond "Wulakium asalam." Alas, Malays don't seem to greet each other like that. Pretty disappointing to us Arab speakers.

Why am I mentioning this? Well yesterday in KL I got to do something about that urge of mine. I found an internet place that had Arabic on its sign. I decided to check it out. I walked in and who was behind the front desk? An Arab dude. Giddy up, time to step up: "Aslaam Wulakium!" I bellowed. The Arab looked up from the computer and mumbled, "Wulakium asalam" as did a fellow Arab nearby. So they didn't match my enthusiasm; c'est la vie. Mr. Moustache (dude behind the counter) told me to wait a second. When he told me I was good to go, I replied, "Shukrun [thanks in arabic]". He muttered, "Affon [welcome]."

After spending an hour doing my internet thing, I got up to pay. While Mr. Moustache handed my money back I asked, "Min ain anta?" (where are you from?). He blinked and said, "Iraq. Wa anta?"
"Amerika"
"Muslim?"

It literally took me 5-10 seconds to come up with the word for "no." Finally, that real tongue twister of a word popped into my head: "La. Atakulum arabi- shoya" (I speak Arabic- a little). I then asked the other Arab where he was from. "Phillistine" he told me. Shit, two places us Americans haven't treated so well. Guilt came over me. Mr. Philistine made some comment, laughed, and stuck his hand out to shake my hand. After doing so, I jokingly said, "I'm sorry." Mr. Moustache replied, "Welcome." Welcome for what, I have no idea. Nevertheless, I smiled and said, "Masalama" and went on my way.

While that interaction helped alleviate my urge a little, it still is there. Watch out Bangladesh!

And now I'm off to check out some Chinese mansion. I will be posting later about the place I am presently staying. Let's just say I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode this morning.

A ho hum day and why I'm going to Bangladesh

Today has been rather uneventful but pleasant. Due to the "all-nighter" i pulled the previous night, compliments of that night bus ride, I slept for quite awhile last night: crashed around 11 pm, didn't get up until 10 this morning. When does my hotel stop serving breakfast? 10. Whoops. It was no problem though: I walked a block and got a much better breakfast for about 75 cents: roti canai and an iced tea. the tea cost as much as the two servings of the roti (which was a whopping 20 cents/serving) I got.

After that, I headed to KL Sentral to buy a train ticket to Butterworth, which is right across the water from Penang, my departure point from Malaysia. Now you would think there would be more than one train/day between Malaysia's two biggest cities. Well you would be thinking wrong. Not only that, but the one train leaves KL at 9 PM. Logically I wouldn't choose that, and would take the bus instead. Well logic goes out the window sometimes. See, I have this fault: when I get an idea in my head to do something, I HAVE to do it, regardless of how illogical it might turn out to be. This is a perfect example, as was the kuala besut-KL bus ride. There is only one "good" reason for me to take this train. Scratch that, two reasons. #1: it is very cheap: 5-6 bucks (yet it only saves me about 4 bucks, so not a huge gain). #2: I have never taken a train in Malaysia before, so it is a good way for me to check out the train system. Plus I enjoyed all my train rides in Thailand (a whopping 2 in my life), so I am sure I will get at least a little pleasure from this ride. Well that's what I keep telling myself.

Following that, I stopped by the Malaysia post office (much cleaner and nicer than the one I went to in Bangkok), then headed to the Islamic Art Museum, on the edge of the Lake Gardens. I was there back in 2002, and both times I've been there, the place has been dead. I realize it was mid-day on a Wednesday this time, but still, rather sad. It is a really nice museum too, I wish more people would visit it. Oh well. Part of the reason I went back is the first time I went, I was with a g/friend who had no interest in Islamic culture and was mad at me for taking a rather long way to get to the musuem, including falling down a small grass hill. Fun times.. Anyway, I spent about 2.5 hours there today and really enjoyed the two special exhibits. One was on the spice trade (do you know the difference between an herb and spice? I do now, woo woo!), and another on a dude named Lafayette and his photos of Indian and Malay royalty in the late 19th/early 20th century.

After that, I wandered around the Lake Gardens, a rather pleasant park on the edge of central KL. Highly recommend a stroll through them. And by the time I got back to the Golden Triangle (my hood here in KL) it was 5:45. How time flies when you're having fun...

So why am I going to Bangladesh: this dude's blog (the first part at least) is why.

I gotta get burned sometime

A trip of mine would not be complete if I did not get sunburned at least once. Well now I have that part of my trip covered.

My trip to the Perhentian Islands went rather well, even with the sunburn. As the previous entry mentioned, I stayed at Zeck's Traveler's Inn in Kota Bahru. Well mr. zeck was kind enough to give myself and a German a ride to Kuala Besut, where you catch a boat to take you to the Islands. Well he wasn't being super generous. For one, he charged us both 10 ringgit (vs. 30-40 ringgit for a taxi ride) and he was going to the the small island too, so he was going there anyway.

Regardless, we rode with him and his friends on a big speed boat. It was big enough that there was a storage area for our baggage. Apparently that was a good thing because I later found out that other travelers had their baggage soaked due to waves coming in and dumping on both the passengers and the baggage. Fun times.

I stayed on Coral Bay along with Zeck. Since he actually makes a decent living and isn't on a strict budget, he stayed in the nicest place on the beach (about 50 bucks/night). I, on the other hand, chose the one place that wasn't full and still had a decent rate (about 15 bucks/night). It was all right. Had my own bathroom, place was clean, couldn't complain except for one thing: the sporadic power.

Yes, the Islands brought back memories of Philo. Why? Everything runs on generators there. On the other hand, the power company is actually connecting the islands to the mainland power grid, and the generators will be adios by July, insha'allah. But we all know how rare utility companies actually follow the schedule. Anyway, back to my times on the beach...

First day: Zeck was kind enough to invite me to his bbq that evening. Before that, a 19 yr old Brit named Jeff convinced me that I should jump off a 12 ft. rock into the sea. I let him have the honors of jumping first. After we both jumped one time, he decided to dive; I decided my first dive in over a decade shouldn't be from a 12 ft. tall rock.
That evening the BBQ turned out pretty well. I stuffed myself on fish, squid, and "mutton" as the locals call it. Actually they might call it something else, but that is what they said to me. I was expecting really dry, tough lamb that one gets in the M.East all the time. Thankfully I was wrong- it was very tasty. Overall, a very good meal.

At the beginning, none of them really talked to me other than encouraging me to eat. As the night went on, they got more "daring" and asked me some questions. We conversed until 9 or so. At that point, I bid them good-bye.

Returned to my place, and who was right in front? Jeff. Was he looking for me? No. I would have been a little worried if he had been. He had been looking for a Swedish friend of his, and he wasn't having any success. He knocked on the door next to mine and he "discovered" a Dutch woman. She is by far the hottest neighbor I've had on this trip. While I should note that means VERY little (I think the # of women in rooms next to mine or sharing a dorm room with me is like 2), she was quite attractive. I thought, 'whoa, what are the odds of that?' So the 3 of us went out to search for others. We ended up spending the evening with a bunch of french people. Yes, more french people. I have a knack for meeting them, I swear.

Side note (french presidential election): I've asked every French person I've met (uh, so far about 15) who they voted for President. All but 3 said Sarkozy. The 3 were all French-Tunisian. Interesting that the French-tunisians voted for someone (royal) who more than likely would keep the status quo and change little in France. Also, one french woman asked me what Americans thought of the French election. I told her Americans didn't care at all, and probably few knew there was a Presidential election in France going on. She wasn't too happy to hear that, judging by her facial expression, but hey, I'm pretty sure I was accurate with my assessment. Anyway, back to beach time!

Day #2: i didn't do much. i checked out long beach. Walked around the small island a bit. Not much to report. A blah day.

Day #3: I went on a snorkling trip with 3 French-tunisian women (yup, more french people, woo woo). The highlight was being within about 5 feet of a big sea turtle as it reached the surface of the water. I followed it from the time it was at the very bottom of the sea bed until the point it came up for air. It was great watching it swim and glide upwards. Besides that, saw a couple small reef sharks.

overall, I'd say the Red Sea was better. More colorful fish and water was clearer. The perhentian islands were quite nice but didn't blow me away. Most hotels were full, not sure why exactly.

So now I'm in KL. I took a night bus from Kuala Besut to here. Arrived at the bus station at around 4:30 in the morning. Since public transportation doesn't start going until 6 am, I killed 90 minutes in the bus station reading a book and people-watching. Even at 4:30 in the morning, there was quite a bit of activity going. And unlike the states, it was perfectly safe hanging out at a bus station in the wee hours of the morning.

I really like KL. The newer part is very clean and pleasant. That's where I am staying this time (golden triangle to be slightly more precise). Back in 2002, I stayed in Chinatown, where I briefly walked through today. Much more of a dump. So glad I decided not to stay there again. Ok, this has gone on long enough. Cheers.

Hanging in the "Islamic City"

I'm presently in Kota Bahru, which calls itself the "Islamic City." Well I will tell you this much: outside Yemen, I have never seen so many women in hijab. Yes, I saw more women w/out head-coverings in Egypt, Jordan, syria, Morroco, etc than here in Northeastern Malaysia. I can in fact tell you how many Malay women I have seen w/out hijab: one. Yes, just one. And she was a teenager with her boyfriend- I think. Ah yes.. Already sick of seeing hijab. And where will I be going in a couple weeks? To another Muslim country. smart move bowman.

Besides that, I have no complaints. I am really happy at how easy it is to communicate here. Lot more English speakers. Hostel I'm staying is quite chill and the owner is nice. Zeck's traveler's Inn I believe is the name.

Bought a SIM card this evening as well. i now have had 3 phone #s in less than a week (my t-mobile #, my thai #, and now a Malaysian one). How much did it cost me to get a # here in Malaysia? about 3 bucks. Thailand? about 6 bucks. That includes about $1.50 in credit to use my phone for both countries. Question: why the hell is it so much more expensive and dificult to do this in the states? I got my SIM card and # from a freaking 7-11 in Thailand, and just a random cellphone kiosk here in Malaysia. Did I have to register? No. sign a contract? Ha ha, you're kidding right? Ok that's my rant for the day.

Anyway, my 22 hr train ride went all right. I was the only foreigner I saw on the train. I was in a train car with about 50 other people. It was amazingly silent during the night. Not one person snored; I was impressed.

For the last 1/4 of the trip we had soldiers with machine guns on board, and every station we went through had 4-5 soldiers with the same type of weapon. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have known we were going through a "hot spot." After the train, did about a mile walk crossing the border, then going to the bus station to catch a bus to kota bahru.

Tomorrow off to the Perhentian Islands. Don't think I'll be online at all there, supposed to be quite pricey. Adios for now.

Random postal charges

I have sent 3 letters to the exact same address while here in Bangkok.

First time: 28 Baht
Second time: 19 Baht
Third: 38 baht

Bizarre. And with that I'm off to Malaysia.