Blogging Pubbitch

Not got long right now, but a quick bit of blurb about Malysia would probably not go amiss....

Our first stop in Malaysia was Kota Bharu, a small-ish town on the north eastern edge of peninsular Malaysia. We planned to use it as a jumping off point for the Perhentian Islands, but found that after the surprisingly long journey from Thailand that a couple of days of rest were most needed. After a nice stagger around town in the blazing heat, we decided that the Lonely Planet really should take the time to visit the place again --- their recommendations, which were claimed to be "clean" and "nice" were, in reality, vile. After a little more trudging, I found the rather nice Zak's Guest House a 10 minute walk from the main town square. We rested there.

In any case, the reason for this blog entry was that evening, as we went to the famed night market for some food. As we stood there looking like the model tourists (confused, pointing in random directions, attempting not to look confused and not to point in random directions. Wearing shorts) a Malaysian lady appeared out of nowhere and asked if we needed any help.

Obiously, we did.

She took us to one of the stalls, muttering (in flawless English) that it looked popular, asked us what sort of food we were after, talked to the Malaysian serving the food, and generally made life very easy. As we turned to thank her we had paid we found that she had slipped into the crowd and couldn't be seen. Shrugging we were about to walk away with the surprisingly large amount of food that we had aquired when she reappeared.

"How rude of me!" she said, "I forgot to help you get pudding," she said, dragging a slightly bewildered Holly behind her. The puddings she found for us were bundles of sugary goodness --- delicious!

What struck us most about the entire encounter was that she not only spoke perfect English, but that she had decided that we were two people in need of help that she was able to offer, without expecting anything in return. Throughout our time in Malaysia, we found the same sort of attitude repeated time and again, and it made travelling there a delight.