merdeka day!

august was full of holidays. aside from my self-imposed pangkor holiday, there was also hari raya (celebrating the end of ramadan) and malaysia's independence (merdeka) day. the last one was on august 31, and paired with u.s. labor day on the following monday, made the final of three four-day weekends in august. pure shenanigans.

i went with a friend to watch the merdeka day parade. it was way super early, and way super crowded. still, it was interesting to see how malaysians celebrate their independence. the parade was quite unlike anything we had ever seen. in addition to usual school bands, there was a stream of taxi cabs and buses, different characters from local kid shows, the police, and some other interesting things i'm sure except for we left after the police went through. it was really too crowded. and hot, but that's typical malaysia.


on the left, merdeka square, filled with people. on the right, a flyover for the armed forces.


the children were adorable.

happy merdeka day!

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a little island called pangkor

a couple of weeks ago i went to my second malaysian island, pangkor, to celebrate a very special birthday. pangkor has lots to do on it, but we stayed at a slightly secluded resort, pangkor island beach resort, which made it difficult to want to leave the little slice of paradise.





the water was not quite as clear as tioman, but it was still clear enough that we could walk out to chest level and see the bottom. which is just about perfect enough for me. the resort also had a lot of activities, such as the kayaks. it was just cute and fun. but my favorite part was the hornbills. they hung out at breakfast looking for scraps.



overall, it was a delightful weekend. getting to pangkor was relatively easy as well. the bus ride was about 3 hours, then a 30 minute ferry ride. much easier than getting to tioman! i think this will be the island i choose to take my family and friends to when they visit.

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a little hop down south to jakarta!

jakarta is a place (like bangkok and singapore) that is so close to KL that it's way easy to just go down. paired with super cheap airfare, it's crazy dumb to not go if you have the time. for me, i had two main reasons to go down that happened to be two people very dear to me! everyone told me before i went down that i wouldn't like it as much as KL. i can say that is absolutely true. KL is such an easy place to live. you can get a taxi almost anywhere, you can go out to eat cheaply and there's so much to choose from, and plenty to do to keep you occupied. maybe jakarta is the same, but i didn't see that. then again, i was there during ramadan and only for two days. still, i had plenty of fun.

we went to taman mini, a park which has lots of things to explore. part of it is an outdoor museum, with life-size replicas of each of indonesia's large cities. but the best part, the BEST part, was the reptile zoo. why? because there is a crazy 23-year-old komodo dragon named bima, who you can pet and sit next to and totally feel like you're going to die at any second if just a little bit of his saliva gets into your body. or maybe that's just me.



when we arrived at the komodo's area, he was fast asleep. i was amazed to see they could push him around to wake him up and he wasn't bothered by it at all. because. you know. this is a komodo in real life.



but then that wasn't all for the animals. there is also a large lizard section. and snakes. like this python. named jared. again. no problem. at all. not scared.



in the new guinea section, we got to meet a carving man. and he let us carve.



it was pretty crazy. but fun. i really enjoyed it. for the rest, i'll just continue to speak in pictures.


on the left, a silly little castle in taman mini. probably the only castle in indonesia. on the right, monas, or monumen nasional.


on the left, the view from my friend's hotel room. on the right, bargaining to buy a vehicle. for forever.


and then i was able to meet up with a friend from KL! so not only did i get to see two people i adore from the states, but another person i adore from malaysia. the world is crazy small you know. and then i ate delicious cake. really delicious.

and that was all of jakarta for me! there was some shopping (good shopping, too), but i do that everywhere. so. i maybe would go back to be able to explore more and experience it outside of ramadan, but this was a good time for now.

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