Opposites attract in Malaysia

What can I say, at the first time I had no expectations or much knowledge about a country before I crossed the border and found my little bed in a dorm room in Georgetown in the island of Penang. Malaysia wasn't on my to do list when I was planning my trip, but now I can't be more happier for my expired Thai visa and therefore the force to go to another country. 

I found Georgetown really cultural and interesting. Its streets were full of art, graffitis and little art galleries and museums. It had mosques, Hindu temples, Chinese temples and many more outstanding sightseens.

With amazing luck we ended up there just in time for big Hindu festivals, Thaipusam.
 It was more than I even had time to expect and I saw something the previous day of it what I never had been seen before; A holy man perforated three young men's cheeks with a stick and back with twenty hooks after which they begun a spiritual journey to the mountains as part of the next day's Thaipusam. One of the participants were a woman and she got a stick through her tongue too instead of back hooks. I was photographing and filming this and it turned quite difficult to watch at some points. The thing is that those participants have so much faith that they don't feel the pain as I would if someone put twenty hooks hanging from my back for couple of days. The strength of religion is fascinating. I don't belong in any (a bit of Buddhism) but it's interesting. At the next day we took a one hour bus to the area where Thaipusam were organized and I was amazed by the beauty of hundreds of sarees in different colours on Indian women. India is my next years top one destination but there I felt properly walking on a street in India instead of Malaysia. Indian dancing music were playing loud and I noticed just men were those who danced and women were standing a safe step away. I was wearing a long dress and part of sari draped over my shoulder and a bindi on my forehead like everyone else there. I'm glad my hair is black because I think me and my friends were the only western people there and when one of us were blonde she got lots of looks and words from the Indian men. Thaipusam was about praying, dancing and praying when dancing. Big pictures of Hindu gods and lots of food stalls and Indian clothes, music, jewellery and fun time.

In Malaysia I ate the best food so far since November. I'm so into Indian food that I ate it everyday.. twice, for one week. I don't really know anything better at the moment. Being so bored with Thai food with my gluten and lactose allergies (fried rice and rice noodle soup) Malaysian and Indian food were totally refreshing change. A lot more to choose from.

What I saw and learned were that Malaysia is mixed with Malaysians, Chinese and Indians. Muslims, Taoism and Hinduism. And four different local languages. Malaysia has a cities with skyscrapers, and jungle with over ten meters long trees and mountains. Don't forget Borneo, a part of an big jungle island that belogns to Malaysia. In this country opposites really attract. When I took the four hours bus journey from Georgetown to Cameron highlands I saw the same scenery as in north Thailand. Mountains and green bamboo tree forest. I started immediately feel like home. My journey started over 2 months ago from little villages in north Thailand and it's still a fresh memory in my head. Being a girl who cut bamboo trees with a jungle knife and drank water from them and built huts from leaves and little pieces of cut bamboo makes me feel proud of myself and the experience I had. I feel I may go back, at least I have seven weeks to go still.

Cameron highlands were located on beautiful green mountains and had big tea plantations and lots of to see as bee farm with fresh honey, rose and cactus houses, butterfly farm and many straberry farms. This town were perfect for trekking and discovering the hidden jungle spots and a rare one meter long flower blooming only this time in year.

I spent three nights on mountains and after that I escaped the coldness to the big capital, Kuala Lumpur. Everything were so huge, builings weren't just normal sized, they looked like kilometer long. The city got me excited but in couple of days a little bit stressed. It wasn't so safe and walking alone wasn't a good idea. Lots of men yelling after you while you walk and calling you names and to come to their shops which made walking without getting a bit annoyed impossible. Sometimes they were quite rude and trying to touch which I hate so much even I was properly dressed in long dress and scarf in muslim country. But immediately when I was walking with two guy friends nobody said a word. Thank god I had a great company.

I had a chance to visit Batu Caves during three days stay in the capital. Definately a local cultural site to be seen. But be prepared to climb all the steps, as there are nearly 275 steps in all to get to the top. The cave itself is quite big with Hindu temple inside, a lot of monkeys and their babies which tourists are keen to take photos of. We visited Batu caves just few days after Thaipusam (it is organized in every big city) so it was looking still like after festivals. You could see dead chicken and trash on the ground which weren't yet cleaned away. After those 275 steps back down we ended up strolling we ended up strolling all the little street stalls and I bought a locket with a picture of my favorite Hindu god Ganesha. I'm even thinking of getting a tattoo of it one day.

One week went so fast, as always when you are traveling and I have to say that Malaysia was totally worth of visit for a week. It has multiple attractions to see and things to do. I wish I could go to Borneo one day as well. I'm leaving Malaysia with a a big smile and already miss my favourite local Indian street food place in KL.

Of course the must visit sightseen in KL were the Petronas Towers. They are so majestic but so is the oil company who owns them. Malaysia is so much more developed than Thailand or Vietnam. It's more expensive but there's cheap transportation. Drinking is really expensive but I still don't have to worry about that. Keeping myself away from alcohol has been so nice and easy without hangovers plus saving so much money hih.
Im going to miss this country and its contraries maybe a little bit. Or the food ??!

An paradise island (?)

I try to write briefly about an island called Koh Phi Phi located in southern Thailand, between the large island of Phuket and Krabi on the mainland. This was my second time in this island and the first time was just weeks before the Indian Ocean tsunami vanished all most the whole island. Koh Phi Phi w

as devastated by the tsunami of December 2004, when nearly all of the island's infrastructure was destroyed. This time when I arrived in Phi Phi I remembered some places like the beach but could also really see how much they had started to build concrete houses instead of bamboo ones. I wasn't fascinated about these new buildings and how rugged-looking they were but I understand why they are building them.

What comes to the reputation of Phi Phi is quite funny; two weeks holiday travellers with suitcases come there to party from Pukhet or Krabi, heaps of westerns especially English and Swedish people (yes I hanged out with them mostly) gets fucked up by drinking rum or vodka buckets and fighting towards each other in reggae bar's Thai boxing stadium. It was so funny looking when both of the foreigner fighters didn't have any idea how to Thai box correctly. They were kind of hitting each other like little girls and running in a row. But yes, of course you got a free bucket from that.. !

I haven't been drinking anything after I got out from hospital while I'm still taking two different medicines for my liver because of dengue fever. I'm totally fine with that and save so much money for other things.

At night everyone goes to the beach to party, there they got maybe four nice places which of two are clubs and two chilling places (one of them is called Stoned and is really chilled you can lie on the beach and look at the starts and enjoy good vibes). Fire shows start at the evening and are pretty good but when these young Thai guys courage the drunk audience to go jumping on a fire rope it just keeps giving people burns until midnight when dancing begins. It's unbelievable that I have met several people with burns on my travels and when I ask them what happened they all say I got it from stepping on a fire rope or jumping through a fire circle. I secretly wanted to try fire limbo but either burning my face or hair weren't on my to do list, nor going to spend more days in hospital again.

I liked lots of things in Koh Phi Phi, but the most maybe its beautiful scenery I saw from beaches and viewpoints. One day there turned into a six in a blink of an eye. I enjoyed every day the sun, walking long tiny roads to little beaches and meeting wonderful and crazy people from all around the world. I got bunch of new places to go and stay when travelling. It was hard to leave but I knew that going next to Malaysia was something so cool and I couldn't be more excited.

 

I survived from the hectic, expensive and touristic party island by eating again with locals (good tip to keep in mind if you are a backpacker). I found this one plastic chair alley where with 1 euro you got better Thai meals than in "real" restaurants where you spend 4 to 10 euros for the same meals. At these little plastic chair places they cook much more delicious food as well. Of course I have a tight budget but I also love to do things inexpensively. I didn't buy anything else than one bracelet which I want to do in every place I travel. I went to stay in the cheapest dorm room but totally with the best people on the whole island called The Rock. It had graffiti and texts written by people who had stayed there all over from its walls to beds and ceiling. That place really had good vibes in it. After leaving Phi Phi I just got one thing in my mind.. will I visit the island again for the third time one pretty day ? Who knows, this girl has a wild heart and seeks for new adventures so let's see.

Phuket old town

Getting out from the hospital after 10 days was the happiest day for me for a long time. I was still quite dizzy and living in my own bubble so I decided to stay just close to my hostel. The place I stayed was situated in the old town of Phuket. Usually when tourists come to spend holiday in Phuket they go straight to one of its many famous and crowded beaches. I knew already I wasn't interested in going there but really keen to discover the beauty of the old town. I started to walk one street and ended up getting more and more further from any tourists. I spent one hour in some lovely local's home where they had all kinds of animals from budgies to rabbits. They wanted me to tell them everything about Finland because they were so fascinated about a country like that. I tried to explain once more that there isn't snow all year long and then I continued my wandering walking tour. 

I was so excited to see graffiti because it's quite rare here in Thailand

 As a person who loves markets founding this big and really cool one was great and I bought a big bag of exotic fruits and ate cheap noodle soup at my favourite spot; sitting on a little plastic chair among locals. 

 I loved walking in the old town. Seeing so much different style of buildings and architecture were great and I ended up walking down to little alleys to wander and photograph. Two days in Phuket were nice and I was glad I had the opportunity to spend them here.. "thank you" for the dengue fever, otherwise I wouldn't even come here at the first place. Tomorrow I'm taking a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, an island famous for its expensive and touristic scene.. Oh Buddha, what am I doing ?

Ko Lanta, Christmas and dengue fever

Lots of things have happened. After flying back to Thailand from Vietnam I've been volunteering on an island in south Thailand near Krabi called Ko Lanta. Work included all things what has been done in a hostel and bar as being in the reception, taking care of customers, cleaning, being a bartender at the evenings, painting walls and sights, hosting open mic nights and parties, singing and playing or performing in any way in the bar, photographing and downloading them to hostel's Facebook page and promotion for the parties on the beach. First twelve days went really well I liked my job and the beach one minute away. We had quite much work so there was not much time to see other places on the island. The other volunteers were great and I bet I'm going to see them again one day. I loved our little crayzy family with dogs, cats, chicken and a rooster (they weren't so nice waking me up 5am in my room), frogs and one damn long black snake. I was quite used to spiders and snakes in the north Thailand, but this one really was long and scary because you couldn't see that at night because of the black colour. And how nice it would have been stepping on it while I always walked barefoot everywhere.. To the beach, shops, loundry, and it goes on. Speaking of which, I'm glad I haven't still step on any glass, just one little nail. Using shoes or even easy flip flops isn't for me. In Thailand you take them off anyway when you enter to a store. I turned out to be a hippie kid already in Pai so Ko Lanta is a safe place to continue that. Christmas went a little bit different than in Finland. We had really nice dinner but after that a huge parties on the beach and I had so much fun dancing the whole night long with my new Latino and French friends. And we had two Christmas days with Vera because when we celebrate it on 24th, the other volunteers were from countries where they celebrate it at the next day. So we continued partying, easy choice. What was really sweet and what I enjoyed a lot was our secret Santa game, where everyone picked one name and had to buy a gift for him/her. I got Max, and Alaskan nice boy who I made a seashell bracelet for. I got earnings and a secret gift from another alaskan, Grace. Christmas was great, of course I missed my family, but not the cold that much. + 30 was OK for me. ;)

So what happened next ? Well I somehow ended up getting a dengue fever from one bloody mosquito. I should have wore long pants and shirt but no, dresses were more nicer to put on and enjoy the sea breeze and sun, cause dengue mosquitoes bite on day time. Well, I should have, because now I've been in two hospitals for 7 days. It started on the 29th evening when I felt like my bones were going to crack and eyes just burn. I was working in a bar and all I could do was to say that I'm really sorry but I feel like dying. So I went to sleep, which wasn't that easy as two bars plus Thai boxing stadium were playing music all st the same time. No earplugs helped. I started to feel more and more sick in my muscles and bones, my skin was burning but I was freezing. I put all the clothes I had on and went inside of my sleeping bag and two blankets. It didn't help at all. I started to cry because I was hurt so much. It just made my fever rise and when I checked it it was 41 degrees. I knew I was not going to have an easy night.
I'm not going to explain what I did the whole night because it's unnecessary, the necessary thing is that when Vera woke up, or I woke her up by yelling I feel like somebody's cracking my bones and my brains and explaining to her if I don't go now I'm gonna die maybe, we left to hospital. There I got a drip in my hand again, they took a blood test to make sure it was dengue and put me to sleep in a room. I stayed there for one day and night, because on the next day I was transferred to a bigger and better hospital in Phuket with an ambulance. That was certainly my first ambulance ride and in Thailand !
I arrived to Phuket after 4 hours and they took another bloodtest (have to take everyday when dengue) and took me to my room. My platelets were really low from the normal ones which usually couses anemia and bleeding. So my days here went quite same, nurses checking on me and taking tests and giving about 25 medicine in a day. Dengue fever wasn't really my only worry because I somehow had got stomach infection to make things worse.

Now I'm laying here, taking my time to recover and hoping to get well soon. I want to get on the road again and travell. It's what I do best and it's what I love the most. I don't know how many days I need to stay still here but the most important thing is to stay positive and be strong. And I will.

last months' photographs

Halong Bay

Hoi An

Hanoi

Fruit seller man on the street of Hanoi 

Ko Lanta

My new hobby

Phuket (hospital view)

There was nobody than me on this beach in central Vietnam