down in da bharu

none of my new malaysian buddies understands why im here in this little city in ne kelantan, the poorest and most conservative state in peninsular malaysia. each mention of coming here elicited a polite 'why?' signs proclaiming 'kota bharu bandar raya islam' (kota bharu: the islamic city) areeverywhere, and inded there is far more arabic and much less english singage here. im self conscious about wearing shorts despite the stifling heat and humidity, tho the chinese community seems ok with baring a lil leg flesh and im chinee so i guess its ok.

honestly i cant say why im here either. perhaps another one of those strange lonely planet moments. waking up at 4:30 to get the taxi to catch the bus to take the plane wasnt awesome, but having accepted the fairly alarming condition of my hostel room and still giddy about 1.60 ringgit (40 cents) for an hour of moderately high speed internet, im glad i came... tho probably wont be back har har. all said, a few highlights thus far:

(1) oh so refreshing breezes pushing off the muddy orange sungai kelantan (kelantan river)

(2) watching a huge kelly green mantis doing a jerky walk on pieces of snapping charcoal.

(3) my tongue finding tiny reservoirs of sweet salt hidden in my so yummy nasi goreng.

(4) buying me a can of 'kickapoo joy juice' from a lady in an off-the-road shanty. (i promise i will also use 'shanty' to describe abodes back home too.)

(5) having a good size chunk of my neck scalded in my excited discovery of warm water.

ok, im ready to get back to KL.