and the rain came tumbling down down....

so. we left KL for the east coast. four hour bus ride. walk to a bus stop. bus doesn't come. stay in a cheap and not so cheerful chinese hotel. get up early to get on a bus. bus is full. wait an hour and a half- are buses going? where? when? different answers. a lot of waving us to different bus stalls. an hour and a half later we leave for a few hours. we loiter. post office is closed. we eat. back to the bus. the bus is late. 45 minutes later we're on the bus. 4 hours later we're here in kuala terrengannu. a short odyssey in public transit. glorious. eben gets to practise his "technique" several times. ask him if you want details on that.

here we are. flood warnings have prompted me to look for info on the internet. it's wet here but not like the pictures we've seen of elsewhere. this may change our itinierary. don't worry though, we're safe!

for now... dun dun dun!!!! (ominously)

we were afraid that the last bus we took would get stuck in the flood and a pod of dolphins would push it out to sea. dolphins are jerks.

kuala terrengannu is nice, although i can't say specifically why. it just feels nice. i can imagine that it's quite lovely when it's not monsoon season. we are stupid, perhaps. although it may be nicer now than in high season when all the package toursists swarm like piranhas hungry for sun, white sand and handicrafts.

we bought a pineapple for RM 1! and a papaya the size of a small bebe for RM2!!!! simply amazing. there is a massive and labyrinthine marketplace here- the bottom floor filled with food stuff and the top filled with clothing and fabric. the markets in malaysia are truly fantastic. you think it would get boring but every time there is something new and the regional differences are quite interesting.

terrengannu- and the northeast in general- is substantially more muslim than the other areas we have been to. i am one of the few women here who doesn't have a covered head and i feel a little conspicuous, although i guess my white skin and dirty clothes would do a fine job of that anyway. the muslim women here look so beautiful- like delicate, brightly coloured flowers. most of them are immaculate and have perfect outfits. their head scarfs are fashioned in innumerable styles and pinned with rhinestone brooches. perhaps i am just jealous. i miss my clothes. i miss looking nice occaisionally... but i digress. what we see here is very different from my former conception of muslim women, as the only images you usually see are of the burka. i have not seen any here, although eben has seen one or two. i guess that i did not know much about islam before coming here and i have found it quite eye opening. the practise that we have seen here is very beautiful, very noble... it is hard to reconcile this with all the bad things you normally hear. hard to reconcile with some of their beliefs that are so different than what we are used to.