We have just spent 5 days in Malaysia and were supposed to leave at around 2300 tonight but due to the tides; we won't be raising the anchors until early early morning. It should be before sunrise and won't affect our arrival in Vietnam in a few days.

I didn't really have any expectations about our visit to Malaysia but have been pleasantly surprised.It is a country that I didn't know very much about and I think I have learned quite a bit.The biggest thing is that it is a modern nation for the most-part and a true melting-pot of Asian cultures, mostly native Malay, Indian and Chinese.It's also an Islamic nation and something I wasn't quite ready for was the dress of the women.Not all women, but most wore full head coverings. We saw very few in full Burkas (the full face covering as well).I don't really know anything about Islam and fully own up to that, but I find it strange.There are women who are completely covered from head to toe walking down the street next to a man, presumably their husbands, who are wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals.And the other thing is that many of these head coverings are quite beautiful.They are embroidered, bedazzled and pinned with beautiful brooches, so if it is meant to create modesty and hide a woman's features, why is it Ok to them make them pretty?I'm curious and will have to spend some time on google looking it up.The other interesting piece was being Jewish.It wasn't a big deal at all for me, but I did think about it.No one in Malaysia knew I was Jewish and it never came up but because to them I was just an American. Either way…people with Israeli passports are not allowed to enter the country.

Speaking of being American...the Malaysians were usually very surprised to hear we were from the US.They apparently don't have a lot of travelers from the US; most are from Australia.My guess is that when Americans trek this far and it's not business related, they're going to go to Thailand, China and/or Japan…the more well-known destinations.Anyways…its been a good time.

The first three days here I went to Kuala Lumpur with Amanda, Noah, Mario and Carrie.We headed off of the ship just after noon and went to the bank to get some cash, get some lunch and go to the airport for our 4pm flight.There was even an HSBC, my bank, which was nice.Getting lunch was awesome.There are these food courts all over which are basically a bunch of food vendor stalls under a covering and we got lunch there.Nothing looked familiar and I didn't know what anything was at the stalls so we usually got by looking at the pictures and seeing what other people ordered.I found one stall and saw the guy working making something that looked good and told him "Can I have one of those please?"It was great…there are funny pics of me slurping noodles in the album.After a late lunch, we headed to the airport and had plenty of time to spare.We flew AirAsia for $60 round trip to KL.AirAsia kind of reminds me of Jet Blue but with less frills.It's a super new airline and flys a whole fleet of new AirBus airplane with all one class seating, leather seats, but no TV's in the seats and no snacks.It was a short flight, about 55 minutes, but then we found out that the airport in KL is an hour from the actual city.We got on a shuttle bus and headed to our hotel.We stayed in a 'mid-range' hotel in Chinatown in KL.The room was tiny and had no windows but it was a bed to sleep in and was just fine. There aren't any windows in my cabin on the ship so I'm pretty used to it by now.It's going to be strange when I get home and will wake up to the sunlight!

Our two plus days in KL were very nice.It's a big city and has a nice feel.We did a lot of what I would call 'power travelling' with Amanda as our fearless leader and the Lonely Planet book always in hand. We got up early to stand in line to get free tickets for the Skybridge at the Petronas towers (did you know the bridge isn't fully attached?), visited the KL Tower (which as a way better and panoramic view of the city), did a few walking tours of Colonial Kuala Lumpur, ChinaTown, Little India and some temples, both Chinese and Hindu and mosques.We also went out to the Batu Caves which was very cool.It's just outside of the city and houses Hindu shrines up in the caves.There is a massive golden statue of one of the Hindu gods and a 272 stair climb up in the cave.Both the Hindu and Chinese temples are very welcoming and very nice to visit.The mosques…not so much!

After all of our traveling, we were pretty exhausted, headed a little early back to the airport and even broke down and had McDonald's for dinner.

The next day, Saturday, we were back in Penang and I ended up going out with Amanda and Noah again for another full day of exploring.We went to the Snake Temple, Kek Lok Si, Little India, and a few other temples and shrines around the island.It is interesting to see a Hindu temple, a Chinese temple and a Mosque all on the same street. I was a little disappointed in the Snake Temple.I think I had expected to see snakes crawling all over the place but there were only a few around and then you could pay 15 Rinngit to have them put a snake around your shoulders and on your head and take a picture.That's no fun.There was another little area that you could pay to enter and they had monkeys there you could play with.The monkeys were really cute!It was weird to have them jumping and playing on you…they like to play with our hair.It's amazing how human-like their features are, their little hands and bodies.There is no question that we are related somehow.Kek Lok Si is the largest temple complex of any kind in Southeast Asia and we had a nice time wandering around there for a while as well and climbed to the top of the tall pagoda.

My last day in Malaysis was a little break from the serious sightseeing.Leigh Ellen, Mario and I managed to figure out the public bus system and took the bus to a mall instead of paying for another taxi.There are a lot of nice western malls in Malaysia so we just wandered around in the air conditioning and even saw a movie! We saw 27 Dresses for 10 Ringgit and they serve caramel popcorn at the movie theater like we serve regular butter popcorn. We didn't do too much else today…tried to go back to my noodle stand for a late lunch but it was closed because it was Sunday.O well.I settled for some fruit we passed at a stand walking back to the ship.I've been craving fresh fruit lately, the fruit on the ship usually isn't very good.

That's about it… its been good here and Malaysia has been very easy to travel in, especially compared to India. We were able to eat the food and drink the water here as well as walk down the street without seeing women digging for rocks barefoot and children begging without clothes.I don't think anything will ever compare to the craziness and chaos that is India. Next stop, Vietnam!

Thank you to everyone for your e-mails and messages.It's nice to know, especially on the tougher days, that you are out there. I would never be able to do this with out the love and support from my family and friends at home.