Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginnings End

After thousands upon thousands of miles traveled, hours upon hours spent on buses, and trains, and airplanes, feelings of sheer wonder and awe, bouts of homesickness, friendships made and others tested, spiritual insights revealed, questioned and then affirmed, hours spent pondering the glory of the universe and what it all holds in store for me, new dreams formed while realizing that some things really don't matter as much as I once thought they might have, seeing things that I never imagined I would, gaining a better understanding of different cultures and religions and how much we all really have in common, and perhaps most importantly being reminded of the abundant blessings in my life and all I have to be grateful for ---after all that, I have finally come home.

The flight home was entirely too long and honestly I would be ok if I didn't step foot inside another airport for a long, long time--Except to go see Candace and April in DC in a couple of weeks of course, for them I will make an exception.

My little brother Thomas was there to pick me up from the airport when I got home. Although we have always been super close, being the only two single people left in my family, we have grown abundantly closer in the past year. The 2 hour drive back to St George was filled with excited chatter as we shared insights about the things we have learned and experienced in the past few months as we have each had our own crazy adventures. I was grateful for the time alone with him as we talked about things than neither of us ever talks about with anyone else.

It's good be home and surrounded by those I love, I only wish my sisters were here to partake in it all with us. As it is, it might be a couple weeks yet before I see any of them.

I can't wait for my job to start in about a month. I am definitely ready to move forward with my life. I want to find a place to live where I can finally put some roots in, something I haven't had or experienced since before my family moved to California my junior year of high school almost 10 year ago. Somewhere where I can truly call home with all the feelings of love and warmth that the word implies.

I'm excited to be a career woman and I'm determined to give it everything I have. At the same time I hope I'm able to maintain a well balanced life filled not only with a career but with family, church, friends, and of course boys.

So many hopes, so many dreams, aspirations, doubts and fears. They all remind me that so much of my life is

Yet To Be Determined

And yet I am determined to live every day to its fullest. As Elder Uchtdorf put it in last nights women's conference, life is not to be spent looking for our "golden ticket," so focused on our dreams and future goals that we are too blind to see the small and simple gifts that a loving Heavenly Father gives us on a daily basis.

Pictures of KL and Teman Negara

The market right next to my hostel. Probably the most colorful market I have ever seen--and that says a lot considering I have been living in Asia for the past 4 months.

The streets of Kuala Lumpur

Patronas towers

Traveling buddies. Don't ask me what I'm wearing, I needed to do laundry desperately!

Entrance to the rain forest

The canopy bridge. 40 meters above the forest floor.

Making Fire

Making a poison dart for his blow dart gun

I could use some practice

Manis was the nickname our guide gave me. It meant something like calm, happy one

I don't know why but for some reason this spider makes me think of Buckley

It's out of focus because I forgot to switch on the Auto Focus

Peninsular Malaysia: KL and Taman Negara

(I'll post pictures as soon as I get to Phuket and have a decent internet connection again)


I arrived in Kuala Lumpur via flight from Brunei on Wednesday afternoon. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing here. The original plan was to go to Taman Negara which is the oldest rain forest in the world, primary rainforest, unlike the ones I had visited in Borneo which were mostly secondary. Upon arrival though I was still debating if that was really what I wanted to do--Let's be honest, after months of traveling through the jungles of Southeast Asia, especially Borneo, trekking through yet one more tree infested landscape didn't sound all that appealing. I mean yeah it's cool, but is it cool enough to spend a lot of money (by Southeast Asian standards) and a lot more effort getting there? In the end I decided it was--mostly just because going to Taman Negara has been on my bucket list for years and I couldn't be so close and not go just because I was feeling lazy. To be honest, I don't even really remember why it was on my bucket list, I think I read some book years ago of things to do before you die and it was in there so I wrote it down.

So, I arrived wednesday, spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the city aimlessly, went to bed early so that I could catch a bus early the next morning. I wasn't even really sure if there was a bus to catch, I had only heard rumors, but the only way I could know for sure was to go to the alleged pick up spot. Bright and early the next morning I hoped in a taxi and told him to take me to the Malaya hotel. Upon arrival my heart dropped to my stomach--closed for renovation--it was completely abandoned. Not knowing what else to do I got out of the taxi and looked for any other hotels in the area that might be able to provide me with some tourist information. They all told me the same thing, the only way to go to Taman Negara was to do a packaged tour. I continually insisted they were wrong. Finally I found a company that would let me tag along on their packaged tour bus without actually having to partake in the tour. It still cost me an arm and a leg but much cheaper than paying someone to tell me where to go and what to do when I could just as easily figure that out on my own. It took 8 hours to get there including a 3 hour boat ride up the river in a tiny little boat. That was actually my favorite part.

It only took me a few minutes to find a place to stay once we arrived. Granted it was probably the worst hostel I've ever stayed in in my life but it was cheap and it had a bed.

Dinner time--I met up with some kids who were on the bus with me from KL--two guys from Austria and one from Germany. They ended up being my traveling buddies the rest of the trip. Hanging out with them was a refreshing break from previous traveling buddies--They were nice and polite and they kept their opinions about the USA and religion to themselves. It was very refreshing to not have to watch every word coming out of my mouth in fear of it being used against me. As an added bonus they were even gentlemen--opening doors, giving me their chairs if there weren't any others available--I tell you what guys, it makes all the difference. Just because I prefer to hang out with guys doesn't mean I want to be treated like "one of the guys."

Friday morning we woke up and went for a hike through the rain forest up to the canopy walkway which consists of the longest network of suspension foot bridges in the world--almost sounds cooler than it really is--but at 40 meters above the forest floor it was still pretty awesome.  Hiking there and back took up a good portion of our day and by the time we got back none of us were very keen on doing much else. With so much to do and so little time there wasn't a moment to rest. After a quick break I headed down river to meet up with some of my local friends I had made the day before who were going to take me up river to shoot some rapids and see a local aboriginal tribe (apparently native Australians aren't the only native groups referred to as aborigines). There were supposed to be more people coming but they dropped out last minute so in the end it ended up just being me and my guide. Since it was just the two of us he decided to teach me how to drive the boat, I gotta tell you it's harder than it looks. The boat is basically a long canoe maybe 30 feet in length with a tiny outboard engine attached to the back. Not exactly the same as driving a speed boat.

Eventually we ended up picking up some trekkers so I wasn't the only one. That made it less awkward. It was pretty cool to see the Orang-ali village. They really did look like the aborigines with their black skin and frou-ish hair, some of them even had their faces all painted white.

At their village they taught us how to shoot blow dart guns which they use for hunting monkeys and squirrels, as well as how to make a fire using materials only found in the forest. Yeah, I pretty much failed at that one. Knowing me if I were stuck in the forest over night I'd probably freeze to death if it dropped below 65 degrees. To top it all off our guide gave me a blow dart gun to take home to remember him by. I think he had a little crush on me which made me just a little bit uncomfortable--the blow dart gun is pretty sweet though. I can add it to my collection of weapons from around the world.

After we finished at the village we went to a spot where a rope swing hung over the river. After playing on that for a while we swam further down river to a spot where the river was joined by a small creek. Here my friend mashed up small pebbles from the creek turning them into paint to paint our faces the same way to tribes do when they are to get married. Too bad it was raining, it would have looked really cool if the paint hadn't formed small streams down my face.

It was a pretty fun afternoon, definitely worth all the hassle it had taken to get there. When we got back to the village where we were staying I stuck around and hung out with my local friends a little longer. They spent the whole time trying to convince me to stay there a few months and work with them. They would give me free room and board plus I would get to go on all the guided jungle trekking trips I could ever want to for free. Tempting but I declined. All the same it was fun to hang out with them and get a taste for the local culture.

Saturday (yesterday) my Austrian friends and I came back to KL. We hung out for a few hours seeing the sights around town before they had to head to the train station to catch their train to Singapore. KL really is a pretty city, possible my favorite city in Southeast Asia other than Bangkok.

Today was Sunday. After staying up way too late last night texting back and forth with Candace it was all I could do this morning to convince myself to get up and find my way to the chapel. Finally I asked myself where my priorities were and dragged myself out of bed. With nothing more than an address and an attempt at memorizing the google map from my computer I headed out almost an hour and a half early determined to make it in time for sacrament. I could only take the subway so far, from there I would have to walk. I had no idea how far it was but I figured it couldn't be more than a kilometer or two. I was wrong. Fourty five minutes after getting off the subway I was ready to give up and find a quite corner somewhere where I could sleep--I continued on. I did finally find it eventually. Turns out I had passed the street the first time because the lettering on the sign had been worn off so the g looked like a c. I arrived just in time for the deacons to be excused to be seated with their families--Blast! I had just barely missed sacrament. Oh well, the rest of church was nice. This may sound weird but it reminded me that I'M NOT CRAZY OR WEIRD! That's kinda the way people (other backpackers) tend to treat me when they find out that I'm a deeply religious person (for lack of a better term) and a Mormon at that (if they even know what Mormons are). It just felt really good to be reminded that there are millions of other people with my same beliefs around the world. Sometimes that's easy to forget when you haven't met another member for almost a month.

Now I'm just waiting to head to the train station to catch my train back to Thailand. It almost feels like I'm going home. Unfortunately I just realized that my train isn't exactly taking me where I thought it was. I thought it would be perfect because I can sleep all night on the train (there are bunk beds) and in the morning when we arrive and I wake up all I would have to do is take a quick ferry ride over to Phuket and spend the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. Wrong! Turns out where the train stop is still 8 hours from Phuket so, I'll spend all night tonight on a train and all day tomorrow on a bus :( I hope my back can handle it. Oh well, it's all about the adventure right?

Brunei Darussalam

Bright and early Monday morning my traveling buddy "S" and I checked out of hostel and hopped on a boat heading to Brunei (another country). 

Brunei is a tiny country on the northern coast of Borneo that is surrounded on all sides (other than the ocean of course) by Malaysia in fact it's actually split in two by another little sliver of land that is also owned my Malaysia. With about 2/3 of it's inhabitants being Muslim their influence here is felt much stronger here than even in Malaysia. Brunei is also a very wealthy country due to it's abundance of natural oil deposits. As we made the 45 minute drive from the port to where we are staying in the capital of Bander Seri Begawan (BSB) I was surprised by the very large houses we passed along the freeway, the likes of which I haven't seen since leaving the US (Both in style and size). The city itself is very clean (other than the river) and organized. I refreshing break after the hectic chaos that I have experienced through out the rest of Southeast Asia. And, unlike KK, BSB has lots and lots of culture :) 

The first thing we did when we got here was go and see the two biggest mosques in the country. 

Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

This Mosque is right next to our hostel so it was pretty easy to get to. 

  

Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque
The guidebook said this mosque was only 3 kilometers from the center of town. Our hostel is pretty close to the center of town so we figured it wouldn't be that bad of a walk. Two hours later we finally found the place. That's ok though, the sight was well worth it. On our way back we tried to find a taxi (I've yet to see a taxi in this city) and instead found a nice man how gave us a ride back to our hostel. Word on the street is that the spires are made out of real 24 kt gold whereas the spires on the previous mosque are only made out of 17 kt gold. 

Today we woke up and got a boat taxi to give us a tour through 

Kampung Ayer

Basically a series of villages on stilts that are only accessible from the river. Some explorer dude named it the Venice of the east. The villages are all pretty self contained, the even have their own schools and several different mosques. My favorite part was the bright colorful way the houses were painted. 

From the river you can also see the 

Sultan's Palace

AKA the largest habitation on the face of the planet. I've also heard from my lil bro (who know's if he's actually a reliable resource or not) that the Sultan drives around in some fancy car that is made out of pure platinum. Anyway, the palace is pretty hard to see from the river since it's surrounded by forest but it's the best view you can get. Once a year, at the end of Ramadan (which actually was just last week) they allow any visitors who want to to come inside the palace where they are greeted by the royal family and presented with a gift. Man that would have been cool, I should have come last week. 

Since the above picture is the best I could get I went online and stole some more to give you an idea of just how massive it is. This is the garage....

The sultan also owns a 747 worth 111 million dollars. The inside has been completely redone to make it more homey--complete with pure gold bathtubs, sinks, bed frames and who know's what else. 

A few miles up river and we were in the mangrove swamps complete with Probiscus Monkeys! I was finally able to see one in the legit wild. 

This one is a probiscus monkey

This one is not

FOOD
For lunch a stopped at the local market and got some street food. I have to say it was probably THE BEST food I've had since leaving Thailand (Other than this amazing coconut, pumpkin, sweetcorn soup I had last week but that doesn't count because that was a western restaurant) .