Clingy Cat, Caves, Climbing, CRAZINESS

Malaysia continues to be one giant adventure after the next! Just so everyone knows, Marlee, Sarah, and I adopted a stray kitten: his name is Lasak, which means energetic in Aceh. We took him to the vet: correction the veterinarian met us in the middle of the street and gave him a super thorough exam (NOT!!!) and an “injection”. Thank goodness Sarah and I have experience with animals to make sure the vet wasn’t completely crazy. Lasak is the CLINGIEST animal ever!!! He never leaves you alone and if you don’t let him sit on your shoulders, in your lap, or carry him around, he tries to climb up your clothes. Needless to say, I have quite a few scratches from him trying to be too cuddly. The world is out to get Lasak though: the other cats try to attack him, he was almost eaten by a pack of dogs last night, and someone at the apartment burned his whiskers off! I was an unhappy person but I just think that everyone is jealous that Lasak has a great life now.

Lasak!!!!

Some of us also went to KL to see traditional Malay dance! The costumes were intricate, extremely colorful, and it was a blast to see! Of course I got yelled at for taking pictures but at least I got some good snaps. 

Malay traditional dance!

The sky I get to look at every day!

After our crazy beach weekend and a long week of classes, six of us Americans left for the Batu Caves. After waking up at 5am to take train, riding on the polar express for over 2 hours (the train was COLD), and chasing after what turned out to be the wrong train, we arrived at a beautiful Indian inspired location. We ate some of the yummiest Indian cuisine ever and Erin even got her mango stolen by a monkey. Once we arrived we walked to the backside of the caves to rock climb. Yes, REAL rock climbing! We also met a guy that unlocked a gate for us and let us walk up to a base-jumping location. Of course hank split her head open on a rock and cut herself on the barbwire. 

Monkey that stole Erin's mango

Statue in front of the caves

The little bird that accompanied me before I climbed 

On the rocks :)

Climbed up to the location where the base jumpers leap off into the air

Climbing up the stairs to the Batu Caves 

Oppa's Birthday Celebration!

All the Americans and Koreans :)

After another week of classes, we were off to SINGAPORE! But first, on Thursday night, the American's came in my room at midnight and sing me happy birthday and gave me an ice-cream: I am certainly blessed to have great friends here to celebrate my bday with. Back to the story-let me throw a cliffhanger at ya, we came with 9 people to Singapore and left with 6 people…We were told it would take 6 hours to get there- NOPE, I forget sometimes that we are on Malay time. After a 2 hour train to KL, we boarded a train to Singapore=another 7 hours (which turned out to be 9). When we arrived to the Singapore border it was already near midnight. As we went through immigration, we lost the first person. Poor Naz is from Kazakhstan and didn’t know that she needed a visa to enter Singapore.  The officials sent her straight back on a bus to Tanjong Malim (NOT COOL!). 

After much help from locals, two journeys on the MRT, a long bus ride, and some walking, we made it to our hostel for the night. We were starved!! I hadn’t eaten a real meal all day and it was 2am already. No restaurants were open: I thought I was going to have to eat my birthday dinner at the 7/11. Nope, we meet some nice Indian men at a restaurant and even though they were closed, they made us all noodles with fish and shrimp. They even gave me a piece of chocolate cake! Singapore had some of the nicest people ever! I even got a free shot of baileys at an Australian bar. Of course this whole process occurred on my birthday but I live for adventure and I sure did get one!

The next morning we woke up and explored Little India and then after hours of public transport around Singapore and a trip to the other side of the city, we made it to Pulau Ubin: an island off of the coast of Singapore. After the ferry, we went on our way to hike to a place to set up our hammocks for the night. Like always, we bummed a ride with a guy with a big truck (yep that’s right-six Americans and a Korean in the back of a truck). It sure is nice being able to get rides lots of places we want to go! 

That night we made a fire, cooked some noodles in a pot, and told ghost stories. The island is supposedly haunted and the locals told us that there is a tree with a red ribbon around it somewhere in the island and that if you get within 20m to it, you will be possessed. While we didn’t get possessed or see the tree, CRAZY THINGS HAPPENDED!! For starters everyone fell out of their hammocks at least once, well except Carson. I thought it would be cool to set mine up high so I had to jump high to get in: bad idea! I fell smack on my back; again…some of the other Americans tied their hammocks to the trees with thin rope. The ties they made weren’t quite suitable for the weight of a person and bam, three people on their butts. We also went trekking through the woods to get firewood and lucky Erin got stung by a scorpion. She started feeling the venom going up her arm and I am not gonna lie, I freaked out a bit (on the inside). The locals even got a bit scared, but she ended up being fine. Hank also had her passport, camera, money, and credit card lost/stolen. Lets just say, the weekend didn’t go as planned!

The flowers in Singapore were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

The spiders in some areas were also quite large

The next day we biked throughout the island and saw some beautiful scenery! The beaches had great species!

The most endangered species known to man! THE SEA SNEAKER!!!

I LOVE BIRDS!

Hiking through the island with my pals

Trip to the police station with Hank 

 Before long, it was time to make the LONG journey home! It took 16 hours of a ferry, 3 buses, a trip on the MRT, a 7+ hour train trip, 2 more hours on the metro, and a taxi, to get back home! In the process, Hank was not allowed to leave the country because she didn't have a passport (and Carson stayed with her). So there is goes, we came with 9 and left with 6. 

Even though crazy things happened, it was a great and MEMORABLE weekend :)