Chinese New Year 2013

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.