PENANGGGGG

I know, I know, these are going to be hella backlogged but its the best I got. Luckily for you, Its rainy in Saigon so I'm stranded with my computer. UNluckily for you, the card with all of my pictures from Bma, Singapore and Malaysia has been screwed with so until I can see whether or not I can get it recovered, NO PHOTOS FOR YOU (but contain your excitment, I have all the pics from Vietnam on a different card so when I get there you'll get a visual FEAST unlike anything you've seen before.
When I last left you, Tina and I were off to Penang, malaysia with a new friend from the hostel who will be reffered to as "Tour guide Tom-TGT" for the remander of this post. Air Asia screwed me over and made me check a bag and that made me angry-GET WITH THE CUSTOMOER SERVICE people!!!! But we got to the hostel which wasn't great, but in a nice enough location with some nice guy running it. And it was across the street from the beach. We played in the water, which wasn't clean but okay. Wewandered to the market to get delicious cheap food, and I ended up eating sting ray, which was actually solid in a weird typpa way. That night there was some extreme chillage and it was all around swell. The next morning at the crack of dawn a mosque started screaming at us, which lead me to believe there was Jihad in my room. Note to Muslims: Maybe thered be less extremists if you prayed at reasonable hours! (THis is a joke people, I <3 all religions!) After a little more sleep we went to the post office where my math degree came in handy (Ask Tina) and then onto Georgetown. I am not a fan of georgetown, but TGT pointed out all the sites. Dear Unesco...stop putting your name on everything!!! It was just a port town. We ended up walking aroudn and playing Hot or Not with the ninjas (think of a group of people who may look like ninjas)because "you never really can tell" Thanks TGT. We went to a museum, and learned a little about it. malaysias cool cause all types of people live here, of all religions and are okay with eachother. I think thats awesome, and rare to see in a place. We hung out in the city, drank a starbucks before heading home and going back to the market for super cheap and super yummy food. After that we decided we have had enough and book and all day journey to KOh Tao, Thailand for the next day....Goodbye Malaysia!!!

Suwon Fortress CRAZINESS

SO today Kimberly and I went to Suwon for an adventure and OH WHAT AN ADVENTURE IT WAS. We took the subway, and then spent what seemed to be ages trying to figure out the bus situation. We finally got on a bus, which was grand, but due to the festival we couldn't go all of the way and had to walk. How were we to know when we were there? Maybe the Koreans dancing in the street to MJ's Thriller. But you never know. We saw this huge gate (Here the term "gate" is much different then CT), so assumed we were at least close. We lurked around a bit until the we realized what was going to have to happen. Climbing a mountain. Now, (especially if my Father reads this) everybodys saying, don't be overdramatic. But this was legit, a 60 degree incline followed by stairs as means of climbing said mountain. It was hardcore. We finally got up to this hill of glory and saw what they call the secret fortress, but as Kimberly put it, I don't see whats so secret about it, Its huge and right there. Which was true, the thing was sizeable, on top of a mountain and not secret at all. But Ooooh Korea. We did some more wandering, then went through said secret fortress along the wall to some random temple on top of the hill. There were no Koreans, or anybody for that matter, which I didn't realize I missed, but it was so nice just relaxing. THe view was stellar, and we hung out, got into a little bit of mischief which included me getting a slammin' souvier (my first of my trip to Korea)
After some lurking we got to the ACTUAL fortress (Read: around 3:30, so a solid few hours after getting to Suwon) where we paid 1,000 won to ring a bell a few times, which with the size of the bell, was actually pretty neat.
We walked around, saw where the archers ripped shit up, and wandered back down the mountain to the cultural festival, which was not overly cultural at all, although they did have fruits with carvings on them.
As we were trying to get back to the Subway station (Suwon Yuk?) we ended up in a market. This was my first WHAT ARE THEY EATING WHAT THE HELL IS THAT WHERE ARE WE type of market. It ended with me sucking the milk out of a coconut through a straw and a lot of "looking up" as to not see whatever was around me, which more often then not included food with heads still on it. This was one of the markets James Bond chases the bad guys in. It was all sorts of special.

We eventually made it back home, and I had a whole long thing about something, but it got deleated. So the moral of this story is life is crazy sometimes, but it always turns into an adventure.

ALSO, for those waiting for pictures (especially my grandmother, Hi Oma!) once I stop stealing internetz and get it fo' real, there will be more picture then you can shake a stick at!

Patience and Faith,
ErinJ