It's a small world

So, the Internet is a little scarce here. We thought we would have access to Internet, but... we don't. We have done a lot since the last time I posted.

We left Singapore on May 16 and headed to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. We stayed at the University of Malaysia for two nights. The first night we were there we went to Petaling St. which is a huge night market. We learned how to haggle the prices. I bought a pair of "Ray Ban" sunglasses for 10 Ringet, which is about $3 American. The vendor started out asking 25 Ringet, but my haggling skills knocked him down to 10. It was quite an experience. The space to walk through he market was about 3 feet wide. You would walk by and the vendors would start calling out to you, "Hey pretty lady, you want purse" or "Miss, you want sunglasses." It was fun for a while, but I did get frustrated toward the end because they wouldn't leave you alone.

The second day we meet with Dr. Kennan's friend, Lucy, who teaches at University of Malaysia. She is very nice. After meeting with her and some of her colleagues she and her friend Siken drove us around Kuala Lumpur to see some of the major sights. She was so helpful and nice to us. The first place we went was the Batu Caves. We climbed 270 steps to reach this huge cave which has a Hindu Temple inside. There are actually three caves, but we could only go in one. The best part of the Batu Caves was the monkeys. There were monkeys everywhere! These monkeys were ferocious too. They would come up to you and try to grab your bag, water bottle, or what ever you had. I caught one monkey on video leaping toward a woman and tugging her skirt. These monkeys must have been the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. They were not cute and cuddly! I really wish I could post pictures, but the computers won't let me. After the Batu Caves we went to Putrajaya where the Prime Minister's palace is located. It was huge and beautiful!

We are now in Teman Negara, the largest and oldest rain forrest. We took a 2 hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur and a 3 hour boat ride up a river to get here. The boat ride was great. It wasn't on a boat that you think of when I say boat. It was more of a long, narrow, wooden, sit-right-on-the-water type of boat. It was a very relaxing ride! We are staying in a hostel in the National Park and the bugs here are super sized and everywhere. The first night we were here we saw a lady wearing a Virginia Tech shirt. Someone from our group went over and asked if they were from Tech. They weren't, but they were from Longwood. It was a small group with their professor traveling for 12 days in Malaysia. Isn't that crazy? We are sitting on this local floating restaurant in the middle of the rain forrest thousands of miles from the U.S. and meet a group of students from Longwood. It is a small world. They were going to travel in Bangkok, but their Provost stepped in a few days before the trip and said they couldn't go.

I don't know if the US is covering the news in Bangkok, but there are some major protests going on there. The protests have been going on for a while, but we hoped that things would be okay now. Malaysia issued a statement warning Malaysians not to travel to Bangkok, but other parts of Thailand are okay. Bangkok is the last stop on our trip, but we aren't going to be able to go. The whole group is bummed, but it isn't worth risking our safety. We are going to go somewhere else, we just don't know where yet. I will let you all know when we decide where we are going.

Yesterday we did some hiking to overlooks in the park, we road a boat through some rapids and visited a native village. The people in the village showed us how they start fire and make blow dart guns for hunting. I felt like I was invading their home by walking through their village. They sold us handmade blow dart guns. They money helps support the village. Last night we took a night jungle walk. I wanted to see some animals, but we only saw some bugs and insects. It was a little disappointing. It was still cool to go on a night jungle walk in a rain forrest in Malaysia. This morning we did a canopy walk through the rainforrest. If you know me, you know I'm not too fond of bridges. The canopy walk was just rope brides high in the tops of the trees in rain forrest. At first I was really nervous, but I think I did really well.

Tomorrow we leave Teman Negara and head back to Kuala Lumpur for the night. We fly to Siem Riep, Cambodia around 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. I'm not sure when or how long I will have internet access, but I will try to post something when I can.