The change up.

Internet has been a bit scarse the past few weeks as we've moved on from Malaysia and into southern Thailand -- and here we are in Krabi, just across the penisula from Phuket. But first, our final thoughts on the six weeks we spent in Malaysia --

1. A lot of great food -- fish head curry, mangos, papayas and coconut rice were among our favs.
2. Never, ever, ever let someone talk you into eating durian fruit. Consider yourself warned. From our experiecne, it was most likely the forbidden fruit in Eden -- and for good reason.
3. Good communication is the key to life.
4. While they may still suffer from some government corruption, Malaysia has found a way to put a Hindu temple next to a mosque, next to a Buddhist temple, next to a Catholic church next to a Gospel Hall and live peacefully. We should take notes.
5. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ [Colassians 3:24] At times, this was a really difficult/frustrating experience but we were blessed with the opportunity to serve others -- and really God -- whether enjoyable or otherwise.

And with that, we left Harvest Haven and rode the train back to the capital city where we dropped off our extra bags at a friends' and strolled around a few of the world's largest shopping malls. Our flight to Phuket, Thailand was delayed for three hours -- we ended up arriving on the other side in the middle of the night, just missing the last bus to Phuket town.

Lucky for us a hard-hustling British backpacker and his wife negotiated us into their taxi deal and we were off. Basically had no idea where we were dropped off... it was late... no place to stay... is this the Christmas story? Ha. We ended up crashing in a less than wonderful guest house on the outskirts of Phuket town. Just happy to be done wandering for the night, we slept soundly... kind of... and were off again in the morning to get our barrings. Banana pancakes and fresh OJ for breakfast helped. Bussed accross the peninsual to Krabi, took a "mini bus" to town and checked into Chan Cha Lay hostel. It's a great find -- looks like a beachouse fromt the 70s and is running us about $5/night. I think we'll take it. Been trolling around here the last few days, enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner of shrimp pad thai and mango smoothies.

Oh and by the way, this morning we rode elephants. Casually speaking. It was amazing -- no waivers, no safety instruction, not really even very much English... walked down a dirt road, up the bamboo stairs and onto an elephant. Trekked through the jungle for a bit and then escaped death when our elephant slipped in the river and (almost) down we went. Don't worry, Brian's camera didn't go under. Our tiny Thai guide had a good laugh but we were shaking... and close to bailing. Well, elephants are lucky here -- and luckily we survived being squashed/drowned. A few more days in Krabi to make it to the night market, eat more pad thai and climb the limestone cliffs -- and it's off to Ko Samui. Stay tuned -- as long as the internet can reach us...

Penang-a-lang

We had four glorious days of freedom and a little taste of the backpacker life we'll be living once we get to Thailand -- headed North a few hours to Puala Penang, an island off the West coast of Malaysia. We covered a lot of ground in four days, so this is our attempt to give you the short and sweet version of it... just keep in mind I write for a living. So it isn't that short, but it is sweet.

Night one, stayed at the Red Heritage Inn hostel on Love Lane -- ate stir fry and mushroom pizza at Micke's Place. If you're around the area, go there. Now. We bummed around Georgetown's historical district -- Fort Cornwallis, Town Hall, saw some gorgeous Chinese temples, Little India and Chinatown. Oh, and shout out to Sarah & Alex (as a unit), we stopped by a little gem on Chulia Street, the Reggae Bar. The beers were pricey, but the Rasta colors were bright!

Tuesday -- train ride up, straight up, Penang Hill in the pouring rain. Explored around the top for a bit, got lost in town on the way back down and ended up eating some questionable "vegetarian" lunch. Wasn't meat. Wasn't good. Wasn't sure what it was. Bus to Batu Ferringgi... couldn't find any of the places we had planned to stay at or eat at. Neither could any of the locals... still undecided if these places exist. Ended up splurging on an air-conditioned room with a bathroom IN it. Big news of the day. Cost us each $17 US -- the big buy of the trip so far. Stellar location, though -- just one block from the beach. Ate dinner in a giant wooden ship, called The Ship, and a bunch of Malaysians dressed like sailors watched us eat... we were the only patrons. 

We spent the next few hours trolling up and down the biggest night market to be seen. Literally miles of stands popped up out of nowhere and were gone again the next morning. It was like the boardwalk on steroids, on wheels, on a budget. Snagged some bargains for sure. So when you get a nice Prada handbag from me for Christmas... it's fake. And it cost me roughly $10. You're welcome. 

Day three -- enjoyed our "free" breakfast at the guesthouse. Warm milk and coco puffs? Maybe it's a cultural thing? Strolled across the street onto the beach - finally! Got offered "special price for you" from about nine different guys renting jet skis and parasailing trips. Thanks, we're good. We may or may not have spent a little time in the Holiday Inn beachfront resort. Only to be politely asked to leave as we obviously weren't dressed the part of rich, white, retired British folks. A.k.a all other guests. The pool did feel nice for that first five minutes. Oh, also -- sights you think you'll never see (but we did) -- multiple Muslim women in full burkas dangling from a parasail over the ocean. And on jet skis. Literally, only their eyes are showing, their husbands are shirtless and wearing swim trucks and their buzzing around the waves together. We were alarmed, let's get serious. Puts a whole new spin on things, really.

May or may not have gotten less politely asked to leave a few other resorts we wandered as well. We plead the fifth. Ate an absurd amount of fresh fruit for lunch and got our feet cleaned by fish at a spa. Google it, it's the new hot thing. Plus, it only cost a buck. Got a little sun on the poor-peoples' area of the beach and bused back to Love Lane. Red Inn again, Micke's again.

Woke up to a better breakfast Thursday morning... our $7 hostel tab proved much tastier than those coco puffs by the sea. Packed up and headed to Komplex Komtar to buy a bus ticket back to Ipoh. Arrival time on the ticket read 12 p.m. Arrival time in reality -- 1 p.m. Must have been that stop we made at the gas station (yeah, in our charter bus) to fuel up? Gas is cheaper here but it doesn't pump any faster. Anyway, made it back to Harvest Haven. 

Counting the days til we're back on the sweet, sweaty freedom trail to Thailand. Stay tuned. B+S

Spelunked.

To set the record straight, while volunteering in Malaysia has been an adventure, it’s no pleasure cruise on most days. Don’t feel sorry for us, we signed up for this and we are happy as clams to be here, but you’d laugh at the absurdity of some of the work we’ve been asked to do – And we are learning patience and tolerance and laughing along the way too. So believe you me when I say we truly treasure, we cherish, we bask in the glory of the lovely days we get to take a break from our chores and explore this beautiful country. Our little expeditions out are a drink of water at high noon in July, you know [Shout-out to Rachel Reppert, my dear Ugandan adventure queen]. Anyway, we know you’re not here to read about how many toilets we've cleaned, curtains we’ve hung, blades of grass we've mowed, weeds we have pulled or bugs that have bitten us. You’re here for the goods. So let’s get to it. Our caving trip.

Brian and I are roughly half-way through our volunteer work in Malaysia. We’ve been here for just over three weeks and soon we’ll be flying into Thailand for a little more adventure, a little less scrubbing. Harvest Haven is really starting to get busy – a revolving door of guests. We’ve started to see how fast time is passing here and feel an urgency to take advantage of our surroundings before we leave. Yesterday we had the opportunity to travel into the mountains in nearby Gopeng to explore the Gua Tempurung caves – the largest in peninsular Malaysia. For the extra lovely price of $22 ringgits, or $8 U.S., we paid for two tickets for the Level Three tour.

We followed our Chinese speaking guide into the side of the mountains on a raised catwalk that traversed up and back into the caves. We got grouped in with a class field trip… about 45 Malaysian pre-teens in front of us, all in matching uniforms. One of the first times I have felt significantly out of place in Malaysia… not to mention I was wearing a giant pink headlamp that I picked up at the market. May have left my real one at home, but this $2 wonder got the job done. As we wound up and down, back and forth over a mile of cat walk through the cave we ended up a sandstone slide that we had to “ride” down to get to the beginning of the true cave exploration – and luckily we were able to jump in front of the huge group of students. Essentially, there was a sandy floor at the bottom of the slide with a person-size hole right in the middle. Down we went. 

For the remainder of the tour we ducked and rolled and army crawled through a river that flowed through the caves. At times we could stand up completely, but other times I was genuinely worried my butt was going to get deflated by a stalactite as I shimmied my way under and through some tight spaces. About two and half hours and a few miles later, we emerged back into the daylight in the middle of the jungle. The end was surreal, the way it feels like you were definitely the first person to explore that cave and POP you’re back up top again to continue your rugged trek through the wild and untamed jungles of southern Asia… right to the parking lot. And so the adventure continues -- stay tuned.