to malaysia and back again.

Today we crossed the causeway into Malaysia, specifically Johor Bahru. To be honest, Malaysia is a little scary, but that's mostly because it's actually Asia and Singapore is really kind of like Asia Light -- the Diet Coke of Asia. It's extremely westernized, and then all of the sudden you cross into Malaysia and it's like -- right! This is a totally different place far away from everything you know! Certainly parts of Singapore are like that, like when you get lost in Chinatown and nobody will speak English to you except to offer you their very pretty jewelry for the very pretty lady -- but then you turn a corner and there are white dudes wearing collared shirts sipping Heinekens and it's like: huh? There were no white dudes in collared shirts in Malaysia, but I did see a billboard advertising the arrival of Ghostrider the movie in February of 2011. That was odd.

Malaysia is interesting, though. First of all, their currency is called the ringgit, which means "jagged" in Malay, and is totally fun to say. Malay is a very bizarre language, but then again, I'm kind of surrounded by bizarre languages over here. Though I suspect Mandarin would be more useful in the grand scheme of things, the nutjob in me would kind of love to learn Malay. Anyway.

Their government is also neat. They have a monarchy that has basically nothing at all to do with the government, but is instead the country's spiritual leader. By Malaysian law, all Malay are Muslim, but also by Malaysian law, all foreign Malaysians are allowed to practice whatever religion they like. The King of Malaysia is essentially the highest imam and governs the people's spirituality, and beneath him are nine sultans. The King is elected every five years from amongst the sultans, and the sultan...ance...ish...whatever, is hereditery and follows the male line. So the sultan of Johor Bahru (Mr. Harry, for short, because his name is nine million letters long) has his own zoo and his own army, and the biggest house in town, and I'd kind of like to shake his hand. Right on, Harry. Rock your zoo.

We visited the city's most famous mosque, which is gorgeous, but of course we were not allowed inside. Architectually it's kind of funky, because it's all Victorian and not Moorish, but the grounds are beautiful and you can look out across the Johor Straights and see...whatever is on the other side.



We also visited a Malaysian village where they have a garden that grows palm oil, pineapples, peppers, coconuts, mangoes, cocoa and all manner of other things, and that was very pretty, if not a little disconcerting to be touristing through.


So this was all finished by about 1:30. Just in time for the sun in Singapore to disappear behind a thick veil of gray clouds. I'm coming to understand that the weather here has a psychic, sentient sense of when all I want is to lie by the hotel pool, because that's when the clouds roll in. So long as I am fully dressed and walking around, the sun is out and bearing down upon me. The minute I get near a source of swimming water, it plays coy. That being said, I've still managed to cultivate the beginnings of a bitchin' tan (as Jenny would say), so all is not lost.

We woke up today at 6:00 for our Malaysian adventure, so I'm really really tired. Jenny is napping by the pool in the overcast, but I think I'm going to seek out the extremely uncomfortable hotel bed, and see if I can catch a few winks.

Tomorrow, I move into my new apartment! The building is PINK!


So that's a Thursday in Singapore, ladies and gentlemen. Over and out.