Blogging seems like the perfect distraction to writing a
paper on Chinese Traditional Medicine so time to recap Chinese New Year. As
many know we were in America for a couple of months getting my brother, Beau,
set up stateside so returning to Asia without him was definitely bittersweet.
However, returning just in time for Chinese New Year was everything we needed
to heal and re-stumble upon our “us.” The past couple of years have definitely
set us back in terms of the desire to spawn a “little buddy” but I think we’ve
more than earned the extra time together! Here’s the recap on the beginning of
our new season of marriage and continued exploration into all the nooks and
crannies Earth has to offer.
Indonesia
Because I’d booked a shockingly cheap room through
hostelworld I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when arriving in Indonesia.
The only thing I really knew (thanks to the quick pre-arrival study-up) was
that it was a country that was comprised of 15,000+ islands and that we were
staying on a small one towards the north. When we got to our hostel we found it
to be far cleaner than many of our Asian experiences and even beyond that there
was a free shuttle to a sister resort which was far nicer than anything I’d be
willing to pay for. We took advantage of this a couple of our days and passed
some time leisurely reading our kindles on the beach. Dostoevsky took over my
life for those two days so it was well worth it.
Because I’m not one to enjoy being confined to a resort on a small island (no
matter how picturesque) one day we took to walking for miles and happened across some small
villages scattered along the east side of the island. This was by far my
favorite part of Indonesia for two reasons: it’s the first time I’ve ever seen
monkeys just doing their monkey business out in nature and conversing with the
people the best we could I found the friendliest and happiest communities I’ve
ever really come across. The more I travel the more I discover the direct
correlation between having less and smiling more. That’s not to say that hard
times don’t produce hard people but on the whole I’ve observed the irony that
simple living brings richness to life worth more than its weight in gold. I
WANT THIS.
With our remaining time we travelled to the main market
streets of the island to experience a busier part of the culture that the
village life simply doesn’t offer. Here we were met with a hodgepodge of
different ethnicities that I came to learn was pertinent to Indonesia as a whole
– as their national motto is "Bhinneka
Tunggal Ika" which literally means “many, yet one.” While there I
splurged (it really was splurging as we’ve learned that if you want to travel,
travelling light is the way to go)
and bough a tank top that said “free puk puk.” When I showed it to one of the
locals he laughed and said “ah, puk puk, haha.” I’m hoping it doesn’t mean
anything too scandalous but our new marriage talk has been to ask for some “puk
puk” when we want a kiss so that’s what it’ll mean for the Johnson’s.
Singapore
We were in Singapore the least amount of time so I’ll
probably have the least to say, but essentially I was the most surprised that
it was SO CLEAN. We’ve only been to dirty, chaotic and manic Asia. Singapore was
ordered, law-abiding, strict and clean. To top this off they spoke English so
nothing was lost in translation as par usual. We went to a small island the
first day and visited the amazing Singapore aquarium, and on the second we got
to do my favorite thing – walk around aimlessly and see what fate has in store.
We met with some locals who told us about the best dish (fish head curry) and
the best place to get it (Muthus Curry) so we made our way to the Indian side
of town and spent an hour meandering along until we found it. And dare I say,
it was more than worth it.
Malaysia
Malaysia excited me the most, largely because we were there
the longest and acrrued a plethora of random knowledge about its history and people. We’d been to Johor Bahru already,
which was right across the way from Singapore (it was worth it to go through
customs every day, staying in Singapore was far
too expensive for the budget we travel on), but Melaka had a far more charming
feel than Johor Bahru. We spent most of our time simply walking up and down the
streets, exploring unique and interesting graveyards (I found them quite fascinating in this city) and eating at local joints
for less than $1. The fact that we were eating off of banana leaves and being
served whatever goopy concoction they’d made for the day made it that much
better. We spent a lot of our time in Melaka with a couple we met (him from New Zealand, her from
Denmark) and also passed a full day riding bikes to wherever caught the eye.
Kuala Lumpur was the next and final stop, and here we met up
with a friend from China. He is Chinese and was born and raised in Malaysia, so
for the two days he was there he took us to experience as much of the local flavor as he
could. We went to a church which was marvelous, particularly when they worshipped in
Malay. We bought some squid for breakfast at a street vendor (and though I
tried to hide it the visceral response to my tongue's disgust was so intense that I almost
vomited on the spot), and we also went to a party to celebrate the last day of
Chinese New Year. This was probably my favorite because here I learned about
the substantial presence that the Chinese and Indian populations hold in
Malaysia. It wasn’t surprising to learn that most of the Chinese who came fled
in the days of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. Celebrating the new year
immersed in a Malaysian subculture was definitely different than the typical
Chinese celebration but still held some resemblances.
We finished up our time at the Batu Caves and then headed up
to glorious PRC. After a night spent in the Guangzhou train station (in which
we were actually disgusting enough to sleep on the floor) it was back to Wuhan!
Overall the travel was GREAT. Not quite as outdoor
adventure-filled as last year but everything we needed at the time.
