WOW

I don't really know what to say right now other than...wow. I have had the most amazing past few days...I should start at the beginning. On Friday we left Bangkok and flew to Kuala Lumpur, where we met a really funny cab driver who took us to our hotel. We chose him because he was the only one not completely harrassing us at the bus stop, and I made sure to tell him that loud enough so that the rest of them could hear! Seriuosly, they were like vultures! The next day we explored the city and just basically walked around. We tried to see the twin towers, but they were already sold out of tickets, so we didn't get to go up. That night we went out for MAlaysian food, which is absolutely amazing, and ordered by basically pointing at pictuers off of a menu.

Later that night, we were trying to find Krista a backpack, so we were standing outside of this store, when all of a sudden I felt something on my foot. It wasn't very heavy, so I didn't really look down right away, but when I did look down there was nothing there. The next thing I knew, the ladies in teh store were hitting all of the backpacks with big sticks and yelling something in Malaysian. I watched, wondering what was going on, when a big rat came running out of the backpacks...it was a rat that had run over my foot! I was really disgusted, but remained strangely calm throughout the whole ordeal. I felt really gross for a long time after though...I hate rats from a distance, and really don't enjoy them on my feet!!!!

After KL, we flew to the Perhentian Islands which can only be described as paradise! On the first day, we just lay on the white sand, swam in the turquoise waves and drank fruit shakes all day long. The next day, we went on a snorkelling trip with our hostel which was incredible. We saw three sharks, one stingray, one massive turtle (which I dove down and swam beside, it was really cool!) and millions of technicoloured fish. We were out for about six hours and it was incredible. If we hadn't left the next day, I would have done it again. It was also really nice because it is the low season, so there were barely any people on the island. By the end of the first night everyone knew us and we were having supper with our hostel owner and snorkelling instructor. The people were so friendly, it was great!

Unfortunately we had a flight booked and were only on the islands for two days, I could have stayed for two weeks! Right now we're in the very Muslim city of Khota Bharu where you need to have your knees and shoulders covered at all times to avoid stares, cat calls and disapproving looks. We're here for about eight hours, waiting for our flight (we thought we were smart and booked a 9 pm flight so that we could stay on the islands for as long as possible...little did we know that the last ferry during the low season is at noon! Oh well, we met a nice woman on the island who told us about a good restaurant here and a hostel that would hold our bags for free!)

Sorry this is kind of choppy, I'm writing really fast in an internet cafe, which is about to shut down because of prayer and fasting time (again, a very Muslim city), so I must go! I'll post tons of pictures when I get home and maybe write again in Kuching or Kota Kinabalu (next week). Hope you're all doing well!