Malaysia...Truly Asia

Malaysia was very interesting, I really enjoyed it. It is the only Muslim country we will visit this summer, which I never even knew it was Muslim. It basically is 3 different countries all living on one place. The Malays, Chinese and Indians. They all keep their own customs, have their own schools, and generally don’t hang out together. But somehow despite all this segregation they get along quite well. At least on the surface. Apparently this is a result of the controlling democratic government (oxymoron?) who makes sure to keep tensions down by restricting free speech. Doesn’t make sense to me, but apparently its still considered a democracy. The big question is, can you have a democracy without free speech? According to Malaysia you can. I would tend to say no.

Singapore has been interesting for the same reasons. The laws are so strict here it seems to us Americans that the people’s rights are being restricted, but they don’t see it that way. No chewing gum, no guns, there’s a fine for just about everything. I guess its all a tradeoff. If you want a society virtually without crime, you have to give up some freedoms to get it. It would never work in the US.

The food was awesome in Malaysia. I had some of the best fruit I’ve ever had in my life. Mangosteen. Delicious! I tried durian; the smelly fruit. It wasn’t good. Overall I really liked Malaysia. It was very different from everywhere else we have been.

Singapore to be honest is kind of lame. It would be a lovely place to live; very western. But I feel like i've already seen this. It’s like the states, or like Hong Kong. I don’t feel like i’ve gotten anything out of being here, whereas with all the other countries so far, whether I liked them or not, I learned something from them.

That’s all for now. Off to Vietnam in the morning. As Wesley told us today, we are now leaving the 1st world, and that’s pretty scary. Aside from Beijing, we haven’t had to deal with too much crazy stuff yet, but that’s about to change. Good thing I bought two boxes of granola bars today at the grocery store. I went to borders today and was looking at some books about the Vietnam War. This is going to be very interesting/depressing/moving. Apparently internet is super expensive there so don’t expect to hear from me for awhile.