If you can believe it, fresh of the heels of my Myanmar trip it's off to Malaysia!

Malaysia is a new kind of trip for me. For one, I have a lot of time, more than I need. That's very strange, I'm usually full speed ahead, "gotta get everything done".

But the biggest one, is that Malaysia is a complete blank slate to me. Like, before I went to Myanmar, I had a picture in my mind of what the people, culture, food, cities were like, and some "must sees". In Malaysia, I have 0. It's just blank. Everything in the world I know about Malaysia is:
1) They speak English, Malay, and Chinese.
2) They kicked out Singapore.
3) My friend Sandra is from there.
4) The country has a peninsular section and an island section.
5) Islam is the state religion.

I think Malaysia needs to promote their culture more, or maybe I've just missed it. Anyway, lots of new discoveries. But they'll have to wait, because first I stopped at Had Yai. The 3rd largest city in Thailand, nobody goes there except Malaysians to enjoy cheap stuff. But also, there's really not too much here. Regardless, after a lovely 12 hour bus ride, I arrived and set off for the one sight of note - Had Yai Park, with all it's weird stuff and temples. It's actually probably the nicest park I've been in, and it was a good hike to the top. Also on the top was an observatory, which I thought was cool. Like the pic, they had a bench overlooking the city which was a perfect breakfast spot. Since it was only 830am and the observatory didn't open til 10, it was also a morning nap spot.

The observatory was small but nice, showing an English movie about how deadly the sun was. Then we went upstairs and they opened the dome. I got to see the sun, really see it, with all its fieryness. Pretty cool!

After a lot of beautiful photos there wasn't really anything else to appeal to me. There was a somewhat cool looking temple on the way back to town so I thought I'd see that. Apparently the tuk tuk driver thought otherwise because he definitely didn't take me there. After I realized he was going way the wrong way I stopped him and got out. Looking at the GPS he way missed the mark, and it was too far now anyway. Meh, whatever. I instead decided to walk about the city and saw a way better temple. So, screw you driver. Then it was back to the minibus station to press on to Penang. A city I didn't even know existed until recently, and I guess home to the Penang Curry I loved so much in Thailand.

At the minibus station, the ticket guy was super friendly and gave me peanuts while I waited. They also had this bird that said "Sawadee ka" (Thai for "hello"). Getting into Malaysia was super easy, especially because I was the only foreigner within 200 miles. While the Malaysian border pass line was huge, the general exit line was one very bored guy who, I am 100% sure didn't even look at my departure card. Boom, stamp, go away within 4 seconds. Malaysia was maybe even easier. No arrival card, just give the passport, "Oh, American? Have 90 days for free." I've heard Malaysia is trying to encourage retirees from the west to settle there, apparently they're really trying hard. 90 days on arrival? Sheesh. How do they not have a problem with people working illegally?

Apparently it's not all straightforward, the minibus waited almost an hour for some Chinese woman in our group to go through. Then when we got on the road she insisted we stop to use the toilet. Then talked on the phone, very loudly, for a long portion of the 4 hour bus ride. I mean, I like you China. Really. I'm especially happy you have tourists now because they have really taken the heat off Americans for being "the loud obnoxious ones." Anyway our driver was going warp factor 5 to apparently make up for lost time, which didn't work out well. The cops pulled him over and gave him a speeding ticket. I was thinking "Jeez. This guy has had a really shitty day." But we eventually arrived, and crossed the largest bridge I've ever seen to get to Penang. After a curry dinner, it was pouring down rain so I called it a night. Next, what does Penang have to offer? No, seriously, what does it? I have no idea.