kuantan, malaysia

so far life in malaysia is pretty much stress-free...the weather's been great (it's the end of monsoon season but it hasn't in the past two weeks), the pool and sea are warm, and the food is awesome.

today was an interesting day- we went for a "drive" in the countryside, south of kuantan, along the beach...sometimes on the road, sometimes on the sand or sort of makeshift road. lots of malays having picnics, some fishing, a few swimming and tons of goats, sheep and cows. we stopped at a local market for a snack- there were incredible amounts of rice noodles, fried rice, chicken (ayam in malay...one of the few words i know!) and homemade sweets. i have to admit that the unrefridgerated uncooked chicken swarmming with flies did not look to fresh but aside from that everything else looked fairly safe.

driving in malaysia is a bit of an art, not only does one drive on the left hand side of the road, but you have to be aware of motorcycles (often with 3+ people on it), animals, appearing and disappearing lanes (often without notice), and overall wreakless drivers. never a dull moment on malaysian roads.

next weekend is Chinese New Year here- a huge deal for all the Chinese and non-Chinese. stores are full of decorations, red cards (you're supposed to put money in them and give them as gifts), mandarin oranges wrapped in little red bags, etc...
we're planning to head south for the long weekend to a small island off the east coast of malaysia, Tioman island so i can learn how to scuba dive!

enough for now...more about malaysian life later

s.