For those of you who don’t know, Tesco is a British grocery store… and once we rolled into Malaysia, that’s exactly what I saw… a giant Tesco.
In general, Malaysia just kind of blew my mind… as most things in SE Asia have. Malaysia is a Muslim nation that has managed to integrate western lifestyle… not something you would ever hear about on the news at home… and it would really make an incredible place to base a research paper on the subject. When we got there I was kinda shocked… it looked a lot like being somewhere in the states… scratch that… it looked like Florida… or what I imagine California to look like… Palm trees, well planned, clean, modern… not really anything like the rest of SE Asia. It wasn’t catered to western tourists… in fact we went a couple days without seeing any other westerners… which was a little odd. But there didn’t seem to be any conflict between religion and development that we hear about all the time in other Islamic countries.
One of my favorite parts about being here is reminiscent to the time I spent in Egypt. Several times a day, the loud speakers go on throughout every city and call people to prayer… It is incredibly beautiful… and sets a certain atmosphere.
The first stop was the island of Penang. Penang reminds me of Pittsburgh… it even had the golden glow that Pitt had the first time I came to visit.
We checked out a museum, a fort, and up above is Selat Utara
The Chinese families here live in clans… that own whole streets. Or in this case… they owned whole piers.
We then headed to the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. As you can see, its pretty big, beautiful… and has a fantastic view.
This here is the giant Goddess of Mercy statue
And I don’t know who this guy is supposed to be… but I think he’s awesome.
We then headed to the snake temple on the other side of the island. The story has it that the monks built the temple and the snakes came down from the mountain and made it their home… which the monks took to be a good sign… so they just let them stay… and then started a snake farm in the back…
First up we have an albino boa
Then there was this lizard, which the guy thought would just be great to put on my head
And then there was the giant python… so cool
And lastly we have a nice view from my room…
In general, Malaysia just kind of blew my mind… as most things in SE Asia have. Malaysia is a Muslim nation that has managed to integrate western lifestyle… not something you would ever hear about on the news at home… and it would really make an incredible place to base a research paper on the subject. When we got there I was kinda shocked… it looked a lot like being somewhere in the states… scratch that… it looked like Florida… or what I imagine California to look like… Palm trees, well planned, clean, modern… not really anything like the rest of SE Asia. It wasn’t catered to western tourists… in fact we went a couple days without seeing any other westerners… which was a little odd. But there didn’t seem to be any conflict between religion and development that we hear about all the time in other Islamic countries.
One of my favorite parts about being here is reminiscent to the time I spent in Egypt. Several times a day, the loud speakers go on throughout every city and call people to prayer… It is incredibly beautiful… and sets a certain atmosphere.
The first stop was the island of Penang. Penang reminds me of Pittsburgh… it even had the golden glow that Pitt had the first time I came to visit.
We checked out a museum, a fort, and up above is Selat Utara
The Chinese families here live in clans… that own whole streets. Or in this case… they owned whole piers.
We then headed to the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. As you can see, its pretty big, beautiful… and has a fantastic view.
This here is the giant Goddess of Mercy statue
And I don’t know who this guy is supposed to be… but I think he’s awesome.
We then headed to the snake temple on the other side of the island. The story has it that the monks built the temple and the snakes came down from the mountain and made it their home… which the monks took to be a good sign… so they just let them stay… and then started a snake farm in the back…
First up we have an albino boa
Then there was this lizard, which the guy thought would just be great to put on my head
And then there was the giant python… so cool
And lastly we have a nice view from my room…
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