A forced vacation.
That's right.
You see, there are upsides and downsides to any country. But sometimes there are downsides that can become upsides. It's all how you look at it.
Why, you may ask, do I get a "forced" vacation? For a complete answer, you'll have to ask Thai Immigration. To make a long story short, in applying for my 1-yr business visa, me and the company I work for were taken for a ride through a spool full of red tape. In the end, I had a day to leave the country before my visa expired. The easiest country to renew my visa was...
MALAYSIA!
Beautiful Malaysia: the southern bordering country to Thailand. An eclectic mix of Malaysian natives, Malay-Chinese emigrants and their progeny, fantastic Indian culture and a large Muslim religious influence replete with mosques, attire and tradition. The country runs the gamut.
The closest Thai embassy was on the island of Penang, which is just off the coast. The island is quite large and boasts malls, museums, national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site called Georgetown.
I was accompanied by the lovely Luise Neumann -- the best company I could ask for.
The bus ride from Bangkok to the island was about 20 hours. And sadly for the both of us, we simply cannot sleep on buses (or trains or planes, for that matter). Needlessly to say, when we arrived, we were completely wiped out. We spent the first day recovering.
After taking another day and a half (basically) to purchase a new camera, we were finally on our way to capturing some of the beauty of the Malaysian culture. Oh, and if you ever plan to come to Malaysia, just be careful with your credit cards. Malaysia is on the top 10 list of worst credit card fraud countries in the world. Don't ever let your card leave your site. And only trust reliable vendors.
Here are some shots we captured from one of our first nights there.
As we made our way toward another beach, we stumbled upon this eerie, abandoned Chinese school. There were trees growing through it and all kinds of other funky things about it that completely piqued our interest.
The following day we drove around Georgetown, made a few stops here and there, then made our way to the national park at the end of the island. Here are some shots from along the way.
I think one of the coolest encounters from the trip was the abandoned 1800s graveyard. Graves from 1864, 1859, even 1806!
We also stopped by a mosque, built over part of the ocean. They call it "The Floating Mosque."
Inside the mosque.
Our arrival to the national park and along the beach.
As we continued hiking, we noticed a sort of village of houses floating on the water about 500 meters or so from the shore. It was really interesting.
Here are some shots from the next day and our visit to the Little India area they had in Georgetown. The food was amaaaaazing.
Here are some miscellaneous shots from the trip.
Stayed tuned next time. I've gotten a little backlogged on all the blogging. Plenty more excitement to come!!
