So Long Malaysia, Hello Vietnam

After returning from Singapore, I spent a few days in Pulau Tioman and I'm now in Georgetown (Penang).

Tioman was relaxing. It wasn't really a white sands island. Beaches I visited were pebbly and since the jungle comes right up to the water, the beaches are pretty narrow.

I made my way through a short jungle trail to a semi-secluded beach where I pranced around with butterflies and frolicked in the calm and clear water. It was magical.

I realized then that maybe nature isn't so bad so I decided to venture furthur through the coastal jungle but I lost my bravery when I stood at the edge of the jungle. A giant monitor lizard stood in the barely visible trail ahead of me. Monkeys started screaming angrily and there was this weird rustling in the plants next to my foot. Suddenly images of snakes, Bigfoot and polar bears popped into my head. I was about to enter Land of the Lost. Alone.

Sooo... I turned back. Maybe that's just a little too much nature for me.

While I don't really regret my decision to travel alone it does have it's drawbacks. Being solo, I'm limited in being able to travel through jungles or taking snorkeling trips when everyone else on the island seems to have arrived as a couple.

In Georgetown, I had a pretty good experience meeting another traveler. We spent a day wandering the streets of Georgetown where after a while we realized that the heat and jadedness started to set in. It's unfortunate but I guess inevitable that each new mosque looks like the last and the next temple seems like something you've seen before. It's kind of weird considering that I just got here but I have been away for two years now. Maybe I'm at the point where home is now the novelty. We ended up at a mall where we played arcade games and watched Inception. It was probably the first time I've been in a movie theater in about five years since movie tickets are so exorbitant in the States so that was fun.

I spent the rest of my time exploring Penang island. I saw Kek Lok Si temple and made my way to the other side of the island to check out a butterfly farm. The butterflies there are so accustomed to humans that they don't flinch you stick a camera literally inches away from them. They are so accustomed that they can be bullies. I must have looked like I lost my mind when I flailing my arms around trying to bat away what seemed to be a giant winged cricket.

After spending the night at the airport (not fun) I flew into Hanoi this morning. The money here is quite confusing. I pulled out 2 million dong (about US$100) and the ATM pushed out a wad of bills that was probably about half an inch thick.

Hanoi is full of frenetic energy. The streets are full of motorcycles, bicyclists and cars ripping their way through the city. After recuperating from a long, sleepless night in the airport, I circled around Hoan Kiem Lake for a bit. The lake is like an attempt at a calm oasis in the middle of urban frenzy. It was actually a pretty enjoyable sight. The elderly practiced their tai chi, kids ran around with whirlers while joggers dodged them. My favorite scene was watching a pair of grandmothers having a friendly match of badminton. All the while, the roar of traffic is just feet away.

After heading back to the hostel, I ran into my new Spanish-speaking Japanese friend and we went out to a street corner for pho and talked in broken Spanglish with the random Japanese or Arabic word tossed in. Afterwards, we wandered to the market and played the night version of Human Frogger. 

I'm a little sad to have left Malaysia where I felt like I had an invisibility cloak on. While people on the street aren't menacing, it's quite obvious that I'm a foreigner and quite obvious that people notice.