a few things i've learned about Malaysia, by my beau Daniel

1. "Hello" is the same in English and Malay so everyone likes to say "hello" when you walk by.

2. A 'Country Pub' in Malaysia is not the same as back home. The country pub here was a small room with blacklight paintings on the walls of naked women, Satan, and Donald Duck. Malay karaoke and a strobe light were included free of charge.

3. Everyone likes wrestling. Many of the cafes and street vendors have TVs and it is more likely than not that you will find American (or Canadian) wrestling on several on them.

4. If there's no wrestling on TV at that particular time, you can watch wrestling on DVD.

5. The difference between Business class and Economy class is that Business class gets to watch wrestling in the front part of the boat while those in the Economy class only get to listen to the wrestling over the speakers that even my MP3 player way too loud couldn't drown out.

6. The perceived cleanliness of a hotel room can be determined by the number of sandals left in the room. For example: clean room with clean private bathroom in Semporna = no sandals. Moldy room in Batu Niah with a single red light bulb hanging haphazardly in a broken wall fixture = 4 sandals. Mostly clean room in Kapit but with semi sketchy shared bathroom = 1 sandal.

7. Everyone loves fried rice. If you don't like fried rice, you love fried noodles. If you get tired of fried noodles, you can eat fried rice. If you get sick of fried rice AND fried noodles, at least you can watch wrestling while you force it down.

8. "Gas is so expensive" is why a taxi driver won't drive 4km for less than US$4.

9. "Internet cafe" actually means "Room with many computers and just as many kids playing games and music without headphones and walking around to see what everyone else is doing on their computer".

10. If you ask the bus driver to take you to the "ferry terminal" he will say, "I don't go to the ferry terminal but I will take you to the boat terminal for Kapit." He will then take you to the ferry terminal and tell you you need to go to the boat terminal (300 meters away) where you will then learn that your boat leaves from the ferry terminal and you were in the right place to begin with.

11. Overall, the Malayasian people are very warm and friendly. They are very proud of their country, they are glad that you have chosen to visit their town, they are curious to know where you are from and how long you will be in Malaysia, and they are glad to have met you and proud that they were able to make your stay in their country just a little better. That's the part of Malaysia that will stick with me the most.