Falling in love with fall in Korea

Ask me what my favourite season is and I will tell you it’s summer every single time.  I live for flip flops and sundresses and slurpees,  and long, lazy evenings.  I have even taken to perpetually chasing summer as much as I can, in the form of vacations during winter and life abroad in warmer countries (fortunately (!?) nearly everywhere qualifies as ‘warmer’ when you hail from Canada!).

But this year I am really, super digging fall.  Fall in Korea is unparalleled.  It’s picture-book-perfect fall.  Busan sees temperatures as high as the mid twenties through until early November, with the evenings pleasantly dropping to the mid teens.  You can wear a tee during the day and go for a splendid hike, then switch into jeans and a light sweater to get through the evenings (I know some of you crazy kids long for “sweater weather”!).  Furthermore, this slow descent into winter allows the leaves to lazily change colour.  They’ve been turning for weeks, now!  BIt by bit, golden hues into orange and red flames, against a still-green backdrop.

I’m surprised to admit that I am enjoying fall here in Korea so much more than I enjoyed the summer.  Summers with 80% and higher humidity most days really are just too hot.  Believe me, I am as shocked as you to hear myself utter (write) those words.  But it’s true.  It feels like you are slogging through a mud puddle everywhere you go.  Decidedly UNsexy and also a bit exhausting.  Fall, by contrast, is exhilarating!  For starters, it’s red wine season again!  (I’m kidding.  NO I’M NOT.)  The nature is beautifeous (I’d like to make that a word), the weather is resplendent, the days are not too short yet, baseball games abound (and they are FUN), I daresay the Koreans themselves are at their best – they love fall, too – and there are festivals nonstop.

Did I mention that?  Fall is festival season in Korea!  There’s a festival, big or small, every week (or at the very least, weekEND) from September through early November.  There’s the famous Jinju Lantern Festival that I wrote about last week, there was the Sea Art Festival before that, and there are countless other festivals big and small, dotted throughout the country.  Busan has one every weekend, somewhere!  Two weeks ago there was the Jagalchi Market festival and this weekend Book Alley is having one.  I’m not lying when I tell you there’s a festival for everyone.

To sum: I love fall in Korea, fall in Korea is fabulous, and if you plan to visit Korea, fall is the time to do it.  Trust me on this.  Spring is good, it’s true…but fall is the Korean season to fall in love with.

It doesn’t even look real!

Jinju Lantern Festival

This time last year, shortly after we had arrived in Korea, I found out about the infamous Jinju Lantern Festival.  It sounded awesome.  Lots of pretty lanterns, all lit up, and people can make their own and set them adrift on the river!?  Sign me up!  But as we had just missed it, I was resigned to waiting out the year to catch it the next time around.  And of course, I very nearly missed it again!  Thank goodness my students and I were brainstorming all the things I should fit in before I leave 🙂

The festival did not disappoint.  We headed up there just for an afternoon (it’s about a 1.5 hour bus ride from Busan – scroll to bottom for more details on getting there) and had checked our expectations ahead of time.  Since our history here has been to feel let down after making the trek to some town, sight, or festival, we did not plan to be blown away.  And I think it is for this reason, in large part, that we had such a nice time.  Which isn’t to say the festival itself wasn’t also great.  It was!  It was such a pleasant surprise.  It was organized, fun, charming, and enjoyable.

Potentially adding to all of this pleasure was the fact that it was a lot like a festival as we (Jon and I, westerners, Canadians) might expect when we hear the word ‘festival’.  There were booths selling goods and crafts and food, some fair games like balloon darts and the ring toss, there were people making lanterns (alas, the lines were a bit long), and there were A LOT of lanterns everywhere.  Everyone seemed in good spirits – even the vendors!  Just charming.  If you want a good festival experience in Korea, this is the one I recommend.  Go in the afternoon to check out the stalls and maybe make your own lantern (we didn’t, sadly), make a wish upon it,  and stay into the evening to see everything all lit up.  You won’t regret it.

Jon and I mostly wandered around sampling the food, drinking the beer, enjoying slurpees(!!) and hanging out.  It was a good time.  But we like that kinda thing.  Also, the river and surrounding area is really nice.  Even though it got quite busy towards the evening, it felt small-town and peaceful.

Here are some of my pictures.  There are not a lot because the real beauty happens at night when the entire place is lit up, but my camera is horrible and does not do night pics (something I hope to remedy sooner rather than later).  As you can hopefully see, an entire section of the river was filled with giant lanterns of all shapes, sizes, and (yes!) cultural representations.  There was a whole Disney section with an Ariel, a Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, and more.  There were tons of Korean warriors and dragons and tigers.  There was a Statue of Liberty and an entire Canadian section with six Mounties on one, a huge maple leaf as another, two giant bear lanterns that were playing a little one-on-one, and even a Niagara Falls!  That was an exciting discovery, just as we were leaving, no less 🙂  There were also several loooooong lantern walkways – one with the ‘official’ lanterns that I think people made wishes on, and one with all the crazy, unique, personal lanterns that people made.

Check them out, but definitely go if you’re in Korea in October.  The festival usually runs through the beginning of October for about 10 days and the whole atmosphere was an upbeat one – festive, if you will 😉

Seriously, sorry for the lousy photos.  Hopefully you get the idea and understand that my camera is NOT doing it justice.  I know what my next purchase needs to be!

*To get to Jinju from Busan you need to grab a bus from the Seobu Terminal (Sasang where the green and brown line meet).  The buses leave every few minutes for the festival, cost is ￦7,700 and the ride is under 1.5 hours.  There were lines and a bit of a wait both ways because of the festival, so give yourself some buffer time.  But things moved pretty quickly.

 

I am you, you are me

This weekend’s temple stay at Beomeosa Temple was a pretty cool experience.  Jon found it quite spiritual.  I, basically lacking all spirituality (I do feel something akin to spiritual when I am in nature, but never as a connection to a higher being) found it less so.  That didn’t detract from the experience for me though, because it was still a very unique and illuminating two days.  And the surrounding nature was awesome.  I loved this tree.  I have about eight photos of this tree!

Buddhism was brought to Korea from China and India in the 3rd century.  Korea claims itself as the place where traditional Buddhism is still practiced in its’ purest form.  Knowing nothing of Buddhism, but a fair bit of Korea, I have reason to doubt this claim.  Regardless, it has been in Korea for a very long time and is a big part of Korean heritage.

The first thing we learned at the temple stay was proper ‘mindful’ hand placement and how to do prostrations (bows).  I tell you, those bows are not as easy as they look!  Especially once you start doing them in the hundreds…but I get ahead of myself.  The monks use either a bamboo clapper or a hand bell shaped like a fish to signify various timings in the bowing process such as when to start, when to come up, and when to do your final bow (which is slightly different).  The fish shaped wooden hand bell is a fish to represent the fact that fish’ eyes never close, even in rest, to remind us to keep our minds always open, always awake.

We took a tour of the temple’s museum, led by one of the monks and translated by a volunteer who spent the weekend with us, and it was one of the drier parts of the temple stay for me.  We learned about some of the famous Korean monks –  all male, in case you were wondering – and we saw a couple pieces of really old and enjoyable art on the Buddhist versions of hell.

Our first Su Nim

Though the monks normally eat in a specific four bowl ceremonial manner, we simply ate in a room from a sort of buffet.  The food was quite good, for the most part, and since it was vegan I especially enjoyed all of the choices.  Su nim (the Korean word for monk, and what we called ours) was very kind and told us to eat as much as we needed to feel satisfied, up to and including seconds, but was sure to repeat that we were expected to eat everything that touched our plate.  Nothing was to be left, and in fact, we would all happily sit and wait if someone needed additional time to finish.  I liked this because I think we should all be mindful of waste, and fortunately it never came down to waiting on someone to shove their last bites in. 😉

At 6:30 each night, just after dark at this time of year, a drum ceremony signals the start of the evening service.  Some of the monks go up to the drum area (I couldn’t get a great photo, unfortunately, because of the low light) and play the large, leather drum for at least ten minutes.  They switch off because it is intense.  In an awesome, awe-inspiring, really wonderful way.  Such a performance!   First, the leather drum to guide the sentient beings of the Earth.  Apparently in the morning the drum is played from softer to louder, to awaken the day.  In the evening it was played from louder to softer, to close the day.  Then the metal cloud shaped bell is played briefly to guide the sentient beings of the sky, then the wooden fish shaped bell to guide the sentient beings of the sea, and finally the large iron bell to guide the souls of all sentient beings in hell.  (I may have gotten some of those confused with their respective bell types…forgive me!  And let me know if you know better!)  But seriously, if you get a chance to go to Beomeosa Temple for any reason, plan to be there for the drum ceremony.  It blew us away.

Now, you may have picked up on the fact that the first drum is leather.  Yet Buddhism encourages all living things, including insects, to be treated with care and not to be intentionally harmed.  Soooo….didn’t a cow die for that drum and every other drum like it?  I asked the monk why this was tolerated, when we had just finished a vegan meal.  He basically, and honestly, told me that it was wrong but that it was done anyways.  The leather was from a female cow, hard working and at the end of her life.  Apparently the female cow piece is important, as they make better sounding drums…??  I wanted to ask more questions (as you can imagine) but just didn’t feel like getting into a translated argument with a monk 🙂

Immediately following the drums, we went to the Main Buddha Hall to join the monks for evening service.  Another incredible moment in our stay!  We bowed and chanted (more like sang) with the monks.  Well, we didn’t really chant, but we listened and felt the place rumble with it all.  It was a pretty neat experience to be there with them and feel their energy.  Jon especially felt this part of the stay resonated with him, because at the very least one could not escape the spirituality of the monks and the intensity of their devotion to their beliefs in that moment.  It was pretty neat that they let us be part of that and witness to it.  Not totally dissimilar to a church service, but more heartfelt than my experiences with most church services.  And of course, a lot more bowing!

Next came the hard part.  We made our 108 prayer beads, which meant 108 full prostrations.  All the way down and all the way back up.  After the down part, we would quickly string a bead, then rise all the way up and then back down again.  It was very fast paced and quite the workout!  We were all sweating and huffing by the end.  The idea with the prayer beads is actually quite nice – with each bead strung, you are to make a wish for your happiness.  I gathered that it could be specific or more general.  I tried to spend my praying time just pondering how we become, create, and maintain happiness (since I do not pray).  Unfortunately, they had us bowing and stringing at such a speed that a lot of the potential for deep thought and connection to the moment we were in was lost while trying to do everything quickly enough to keep up.  However, we do each have our very own prayer beads now.  And our legs are still sore from the workout!

I was curious to know why the 108 prayer beads – where did 108 come from?  So I asked Su Nim and this is what he said:  We sense the world with 6 organs – eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands (touch), and mind.  We can feel those in 3 ways – like, dislike or neutral.  That gives us 6 x 3 for 18.  Then that is multiplied by 3 again for the past, present, and future.  Now we have 54.  Times 2 for the choice we have to accept or deny everything.  And there is 108!  Phew, eh?  Also, at the end of our prayer beads are 4 beads of mercy.  The monks will pull off a bead of mercy and throw it over a dead animal, should they come across one, as a prayer that their soul finds a better life elsewhere (I think – translations can be hard).

All of the girls slept in a room together and all of the boys slept in a different room together.  This was easily the worst part of the entire experience.  People. Are. So. Inconsiderate.  AGH.  Suffice to say that if you decide to do a temple stay, bring a sleep mask and ear plugs and avoid caffeine after lunch that day.  Lights are out at 10pm and you’re up at 3 or 5am, depending on your stay.  Koreans seem to function on about 2 hours of cell-phone free sleep a night and will keep you awake without regard.   If you are not the same way and want some shuteye, go prepared!

At least the morning view was cheering 🙂

The next morning we had a short morning service and meditation, breakfast (very similar to dinner), and enjoyed a group walk up to a hermitage.  I didn’t know what that was, so don’t feel bad if you don’t either!  It turns out hermitages are like satellite temples spanning the area directly around the ‘mother’ temple.  They tend to just be more intimate, and sometimes more quiet.  This one was both of those things as it sat higher up in the mountain and saw way less visitors.  We sat for a while and chitter chattered a bit and just enjoyed the silence.

When we went back down, we had a two hour tea ceremony and that was our time to ask Su Nim questions.  He also asked us questions.  Mostly, people wanted to know how to find inner peace from our emotions.  Su Nim basically said that practice makes perfect.  He suggested treating your feelings as outside of yourself, acknowledging them, setting them apart from you, realizing they aren’t special from other people’s feelings (we all have struggles), and then actively letting them go.  There are pieces of that which make a lot of sense to me and the reminder was a good one.

Second Su Nim

Jon was our tea master.  He poured that tea like a champ!

After that, it was a short closing ceremony and reflection, and we were off.  We certainly learned a lot about Korean Buddhism and it was fun to learn how to do bows and make prayer beads.  I had personally hoped for just a touch more meditation time, maybe a little more quiet, but the experience was overall a good one and one of our better experiences in Korea.  I recommend you give it a try if you have never had a temple stay experience before!

Buddhism is, unsurprisingly, not for me.  At least not the Korean variety.  I saw worship to a deity (or dead person) and male importance similar to those I have found in other religions,  and which always leaves me cold.  Also, bits of hypocrisy (remember the animal skin drum?)  and a belief in heaven and hell, and subsequently an afterlife in which you are judged, are not for me.  Still so glad we did it.  Some of the people there were Hindu, others maybe a little Christian (though I don’t think practicing), some atheist or agnostic, some Buddhist, and some likely undecided.  There was a real mixture so whatever your faith (or lack of), I think there is probably something to be gained regardless.

Here is the English website for Beomeosa if you are interested in their programs.  We did the Resting Rest stay, which is apparently one of the calmer and less “full” options.  http://www.beomeo.kr/eng_templestay/idt.php

An art-full day

We left the house this weekend, so I’m gonna go ahead and put that in the ‘win’ category.  What with our impending departure and lack of plan after Korea, we’ve been laying low and stocking the coffers, so to speak.  Anyhoo, we left the house and ended up having  a wonderful, art-filled day.  The weather was fine and it also happened to be the opening weekend of Busan’s Sea Art Festival 2013 held at Songdo Beach (very near to us), so we hopped on the bike and set out to discover it.  As an added bonus, we also finally found Taegukdo, or the “art village in the hills”.  Major score!

The self-proclaimed art village is an area of Busan, up in the hills above Toseong-dong, offering a side of the city often missed.  (For more info on the area and how to get there, check out this link).  The streets are winding and narrow, and the boxy homes a variety of colours with meandering alleyways between them.  It’s fun and funky, with cute coffee houses and paintings on walls and the odd bit of sculptural art.  It’s also quite quiet and filled to the brim with old people.  Which is awesome.  It seems that it used to be more of an artists’ enclave but is less so nowadays.  No doubt because of the semi-tourist attraction it has become.  Regardless, the art is kept up and they offer you a decent amount of cutesy kitsch at no cost, so it’s a good time.  Here are some of my favourite photos from Taeguk Village:

It’s an illuuuuussiioon

Next, we headed to Songdo Beach to check out the art exhibit.  Apparently the Sea Art Festival is an annual Busan event, and the art was of the sculptural variety.  Sculptural art plus a walk on the beach?!  Suits me just fine!  I wasn’t expecting much, honestly, but it piqued my curiousity and man am I glad we went.  There were some really beautiful, thoughtful installations.  See some of my favourites (and/or better photos!) below.  Wherever possible, I have recounted a bit from the signs explaining each artists’ intent or vision for their piece (some are a bit paraphrased in the name of grammar).

This first piece “addresses the transformation which has taken place at Songdo over time…in the form of a rainbow-hued tornado…the work serves as a symbol of past devastation, change, and the hope that such devastations may ultimately lead to a brighter future”.

I did not catch the sign for this one…but I feel confident that it is a representation of Busan…

This was my favourite installation.  Dragonflies and bees, made with many shiny materials.  Difficult to capture the beauty in photos – they threw fractured light and looked as though they were glittering – and they made soft tinkling and whirring noises.  Per the artist’s plate: “Lee’s work aspires to create harmony between the natural and human environment and to unravel stories about the sound of nature and natural energies in the air.”

This is a cello.  I think. 🙂

“‘Choppy Castle’ collapses past and present in abstract form.  Giving shape to the past and to ephemeral memories in our present time and space, Cho uses the color blue to express a diversity of experiences, individual memories, and a multiplicity of lived lives.”

This was Jon’s favourite installation.  The picture didn’t capture how wonderful it really was.  “Resonating Forest invites viewers into a complex sensory environment.  Audiences hear not only various bell sounds, voices and the sound of wind, but also encounter a space filled with soft sand and the scents of the sea, creating an experience that activates multiple senses.”

“Sally” – a classic Korean animated robot character, popular from the ’70s to the ’90s. “It is an image of the future, rooted in the past, recreated and experienced in our present moment.”

A robot fist smashing into the ground.  They’re trying to tell us it’s to do with a child’s dreams…sounds terrifying to me.

“‘Wind horse’ refers to the fate of people, floating around like a wind.  It is conducive to convey and fulfill the desire of the god.  It is a banner of luck.”

A mechanical body builder.

“A sculpted tree hung with thousands of wind chimes.  The work offers a moving message, one that combines hope and melancholy, growth and loss.”

There were a lot more, but these were the ones I fancied the most 🙂  It’s definitely worth checking out if you happen to be in Busan.  The festival runs until October 13, 2014.

Which is your favourite from our day of art!?

Kickin’ it in Malaysia

How rad is my life that I can go for a quick jaunt to Malaysia?! I mean, really, that’s awesome. Jon and I knew we had a very small window when he would not yet be back at his University job and that still gave me enough time to give notice of holidays, so we booked the time and figured we’d grab a flight somewhere. Which is what we did. Six days before our scheduled departure. We have our reasons (sort of), but in the end we just picked the flight that was cheapest (outside of Korea and Japan – Korea because duh and Japan because costs are so high there that it’s not worth a slightly cheaper flight cost-wise) and Malaysia was the winner. Not by a lot. It just beat out the Philippines but because of our slacking, we were already in for a lot more for the flights than we had intended. Oops!

We grabbed a domestic fight from Kuala Lumpur and headed to the Perhentian Islands. According to our harried and totally incomplete research, that was the place to go for rest and relaxation if you are poor. And all told, it worked out quite well for all of those reasons. We *did* find ourselves in a slight accommodation pickle initially because, though high season was officially over, it was in fact not over. And most of the places on the islands don’t take advance bookings because they don’t have internet or reliable electricity. So that makes sense. And as such we assumed it would be no big deal. And it wasn’t. Really. Unless you count spending twice our approximate budget on a hovel. I mean shack. Ok, hovel.

Here’s the abode. Don’t let the sunshine trick you. It was pretty dire. We were not put off, though! Who needs nice wooden floorboards when broken floorboards will do!? Who needs doors without holes when you can certainly just utilize the cage doors over top!? Who needs a shower without spider webs!?! Not us! Not us!

It really was that bad, but actually, we kind of loved it. Once we got over the initial sticker shock (we paid RM 80 per night). It’s the kind of place you expect to be staying for free, after all. But it was fun. Electricity only came on after 5pm and we had no hot water. Not to worry, because the bathroom was so depressing we weren’t about to lounge around in it anyways. However…and this is a good however…THIS was our little balcony. See what’s just right there beyond, nearly beneath it? Crystal clear, turquoise waters. Aaahhhhhh. Give me a hovel and that view any day of the week.

One of our larger visitors

The next 3.5 days were spent doing nearly nothing. Or at least, the same things. Wake up with the sun and lollygag in bed until it was too hot and/or light out. Put on beach clothes and copious amounts of sunscreen. Head for food. Spend a long time waiting for food because “ya man, it’s Malaysia” (they sound Jamaican – no word of a lie). Head to the beach. Read in the rising sun until it’s hot and you’re thirsty. Get a beer and some chips. Lay in the sun and soak in the turqoise sea until you’re starting to feel crispy. Seek lunch in the shade. Head back to the sun or wander around aimlessly for a while. Grab a cold shower and a nap. Head for some beers and BBQ fish on the beach. Watch the sun go down over the water. Play some Uno. Read a bit. Bed by 10pm.

Jon’s happy place

My happy place

That was literally what we did. The only deviations from that schedule were the two afternoons of snorkelling. Yes, I snorkelled. I have snorkelled in the past (if you can call it that because I am a terrified baby and may have only been in the water for minutes) but never like this. Which, refer to the last comment, means I stayed in the water. FOR HOURS. Impressed!? I swam with fishies! Big and little ones. Zebra striped ones and neon purple and yellow ones and big mother of pearl ones and black ones! I saw regular coral reef and shark’s tooth coral reef! Jon saw a baby shark and I did not have a panic attack and die right there next to him in the water! (I froze and started swimming backwards while fishtailing hoping to catch a glimpse from a extreme reasonable distance.) I saw a ginormous turtle! Like, Discovery Channel enormous. It was amazing. The thing swam at me twice. Was he lured by my bright pink bikini bottoms or just trying to escape the hoards of jerky snorkellers trying to touch his shell? I’ll never tell…

So ya, it was wonderful. I read three books in as many days. The only downside, and not even a real one at that, was the lack of booze. Malaysia is largely Islamic and as such, the restaurants tend not to serve any alcohol. You can bring your own, but being on that little island didn’t afford a lot of choice. That’s fine though, you know? It was too relaxing to even care that I couldn’t get a glass of wine. And we had been somewhat prepared on that front and brought duty-free alcy so we sipped on that with our BBQ dinners or had a beer. I mean, ya. By the way, the Malaysians do a BBQ in a wonderful way. I don’t know the secret entirely but I think they build the fire up, make a hole, and stick the foiled fish (HA-HA!) inside the hole for like an hour or more. It comes out cooked to absolute BBQ-y perfection.

Our view each evening while we waited for our BBQ

Friday morn we grabbed the early boat back to the mainland, grabbed a taxi to the airport, grabbed a plane to Kuala Lumpur, and grabbed a shuttle bus to the actual city, and a measly 8 hours later (owing to some nasty traffic into KL) we were there :). Our hotel in KL was really nice and Jon had done an excellent job of getting us set up right in the heart of the action. We were minutes from the square, Little India, and Chinatown.

As is becoming our travel trademark, however, we were unprepared and did not realize that it was Malaysia’s Independence Day. No we did not. And as such, being downtown in the midst of the fray, we had not bargained for masses of people and fireworks and parades. And all of this would have been fine, too, if not for the NOISE MAKERS. Like the kind of horns at hockey games, type noise makers. Noise makers from hell. Outside of our hotel. For HOURS, literal hours, nonstop, ear-deafening noise for hours. It’s funny now. A little. Because we are always so unprepared and unaware these days. But at the time, it was horrifying. There was no reprieve! Honk-honk-ho-ho-ho-hooooonk. Over and over. Without end. Did I mention that part yet? They did eventually, blissfully stop at about 1am and we were able to finally catch some shuteye.

1Malaysia Day. Flags everywhere.

Of interesting note (to me), Malaysia is our first mostly Islamic country. As Wikipedia so helpfully supplies…“The constitution declares Islam the state religion while protecting freedom of religion.” We didn’t make it into a mosque (we weren’t dressed appropriately and our plans to return failed us), but we did see some and they were beautiful. And it was interesting to hear the calls for prayer. Also, about 80% of Malaysian women (that’s my own estimation) wear hijab and a much smaller percent (maybe 2%) wear full burka. So that was really strange for us to see. As Jon remarked once, “it’s weird to see some young dude all decked out in name brands with a sideways hat and then, it must be his wife or maybe his sister, wearing a burka next to him”. Weird indeed. There’s also a huge Indian population in Malaysia and it was extremely common to see women dressed in wonderful, colourful saris. Actually, all of the women, regardless of ethnicity or religion (with the exception of the black burkas) were dressed really colourfully. I loved it. The people in general struck us both as apathetic. No one smiled much or went out of their way to be friendly, but everyone was quite kind. Things were generally quite organized, reliable, and very consistent. We could bargain but we never felt we were being swindled. Cabs charged set fees that were spelled out ahead of time and consistent time and again. I mention it because it can make a huge difference when travelling to not feel swindled somewhere. Go to Malaysia, if you need a break from all that.

Mosque

The next day we kicked around and had a nice time. We checked out Little India and enjoyed some street Indian food (heavenly!). We puttered through Chinatown and tried durian and jackfruit (awful!). Durian, in case you didn’t know, is a Malaysian fruit that is renowned as the stinkiest food out there. It’s hard to even describe the smell. It took me a bit to even recognize what I was smelling repeatedly. It’s kind of like smelly feet, with a whiff of restaurant garbage. But not as pungent, more like a wafting yucky. And it’s banned from tons of Asian airports and hotels for that very reason. The Malaysians swear it tastes good (they eat it on its own and as fruit juice) but we don’t see how. It was plain disgusting, with a warm, soft, sickly texture. The jackfruit was barely any better. We also hung out in the Central Market and shopped and got massages. We bought pashminas and checked out some Batik art and found some neat wooden postcards, of all things.

Little India

Shiskabob, anyone?

That was it! We finished our last night in Malaysia with a ginormous Indian feast – vegetarian and for less than 20 bucks. It was a fabulous break and while I would have liked more time there, it’s the kind of place (small, basically) that leaves me feeling I still got a pretty good sense of it in a week. Recommended, if not the first place I might suggest.

* To get to the Perhentian Islands seems tricky from trolling the webosphere, but it’s actually really simple. If you fly into Kota Bharu, find the taxi stands inside the airport. Tell them you are going to the islands and they will help you sort everything out. You pay Malaysian Ringgit(RM)78 for the taxi each way. And you pay RM35 for the boat trip each way. Pay for the return boat trip ahead of time, but not the taxi. They will just assume this. The taxi ride is one hour to the boat jetty, then a 30 minute speedboat ride from there. And voila! Enjoy. Your hotel can help schedule a boat to pick you up when you’re ready to leave the islands.

* Some general costs in Malaysia are as follows: Beer for RM7-10, hotel for RM80+ (can be lower in low season), 30 minute taxi ride for RM55, one hour taxi ride for RM80, street food for RM1-2, restaurant meal for RM10+