Our school was given a three week vacation this holiday season, so we were off beginning the the 16th of December and returning the 8th of January! Almost all the teachers at AISD travel or visit their families. Flying back to the states is pretty expensive, so us interns decided to stay in Southeast Asia where traveling is cheap. Konrad is spending all three weeks traveling in Thailand. Don't know where he is, but I hope he's having fun! Kajori and I decided to meet her friend, Sarah, who is teaching in South Korea, in Malaysia for about 10 days, and spend the rest of the vacation catching up and relaxing at home in Dhaka. Timing was perfect I thought.
We spent the first few days in Kuala Lumpur, but then flew north to the island of Langkawi where we spent about seven days! Kuala Lumpur is nice, a mixture of modern and culture. There are malls, public transportation, starbucks, etc... but also some really great markets, good food, etc... Normally when I travel, I'm more excited about the cultural aspects of the place, but after five months in Dhaka, I was ready for shopping, iced lattes, movie theaters, sushi, and metro trains. We toured KL, walking through endless markets, as well as the shopping malls, taste tested any street food we could get our hands on (literally, only eating with our right hand), and even going to see Sherlock Holmes 2 in theaters once we were tired of walking! We stayed in a hostel the first two nights ($5 a night and unlimited cockroaches!), but upgraded to a fancy shmancy hotel the next day as our Christmas present to ourselves! We continued to indulge ourselves at the Japanese food buffet at the hotel for Christmas dinner. I definitely ate my money's worth by mainly eating raw oysters and sushi! Delicious!
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| Hostel made us Malaysian food! Yum! |
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| Chinese Night Market... all the fake designer purses, watches, and sunglasses you could ask for! |
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| Sushi Train! |
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| All the malls were decked out for Christmas! Santa was even at this one! |
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| Patronas Towers, 2nd highest towers in the world! |
The day after Christmas, we flew to the island of Langkawi. We were over the city and ready for the beach! Langkawi came highly recommended and didn't disappoint! We frantically called around that morning before arriving to reserve a hostel, but most were full. When we finally found one, we figured it must be terrible and planned to switch the next day; however, The Rainbow Lodge was perfect! We got a private room for less that 1$ more each a night than the dorm room and the people we met there were so great! The night we arrived, it was already about 10pm, so we planned on a quick beer, some bananagrams and bed, but there was a group of people already gathered and they all introduced themselves and invited us to go to the bar with them. Glad we accepted! So much fun! So many interesting stories from people from all over the world (We only met one other American all week)! The whole week was like that. Some people would leave, others would show up, and we'd introduce ourselves and invite them out with us.
The first day, we just sat on the beach all day... so of course I had a
nasty burn on my shoulders/arms, back, lower back, and butt :( This is
all despite multiple applications of 50 spf.
This made the 28 mile bike ride we took around the island the next day a
little... uncomfortable. But still fun! We biked to the Cable Cars
that take you to the highest point of the island so you can see
everything! Great views! One night, we went to the night market for super cheap, super yummy, food. I think I ate chicken feet though :/ I thought it was squid... Another day, we got two British friends, Alan
and Andy, to help us rent scooters (nowhere would let us have them b/c
we didn't have licenses, or b/c we're girls, not sure...). That ended
up being our favorite day! Kajori and I hopped on the back of the boys' bikes and Sarah had her own (christened "Mario"). With Kajori
navigating, we scooted around the island looking for other beaches,
waterfalls, wildlife, mountain views, etc! We found a fish and chips
place right on the beach to sit, eat, and watch the sun set. Sooo much fun!
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| Our favorite bar, it was ON the beach :) |
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| Cable Car views |
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| Water buffalo crossing |
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| Fire Spinners |
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| Night market |
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| Juices |
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| The gang :) |
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| Andy and Kajori on the lead, navigating bike |
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| Fish and Chips break! Yum! |
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| Alan and I on bike #2 |
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| Top of the Mountain! (This is when we temporarily lost Sarah... oops.) |
And last, but not least, we spent New Years Eve on the beach! It was so nice! We sat and watched the sunset for the last time in 2011 and went for a swim in the ocean (I was safe from the sun by then). We went back, showered, and went to get some food to take with us back to the beach. Kajori, Koen(Dutch friend), and I stopped at a pizza place. While we were waiting, they started to sing Happy Birthday to someone, so we walked over and joined in... obviously! The guy ended up being really nice so we sat and chatted with him and his friend Dutch, ate some cake, and had a sing-a-long. Haha Dutch's first song was Country Roads! Next, we headed back to the beach, where more and more had gathered. We hung out there all night! There were fireworks, lanterns released into the sky, live music, dancing, bonfires, fire spinners, games, rogue skinny dippers (not me I assure you), lots of missing shoes, etc, etc... Such a good time! It was such a good way to start 2012! The next day it rained at least half the day, we pushed the 3 beds in our private room together and had a giant lounging and movie watching day only taking a break for dinner. Luckily I fell asleep during the horror film they started around 11pm. Whew. Overall it was a great vacation! We met so many great people and got to do and see so much!
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| Good-Bye 2011! |
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| There goes my floating lantern! Make a wish and let it fly! |
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| Ladyboy fire spinner..... interesting |
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| Candlelit Backgammon! |
