Pirates of the South China Sea

Today Mark and I made our way to the Snake Temple in Penang while Vanessa decided to keep sleeping in her hammock as she is extremely terrified of snakes!
The smell of incense was overwhelming as we entered the temple, we learned that the smoke from the burning incense is supposed to make the snakes harmless as it is believed that it paralizes them, I was still a little worried to find out that the snakes were extremely venomous and still had their fangs! We were assured that no one had ever been bit by one of the snakes... not yet at least!
The temple was built in 1850 in memory of healer Chor Soo Kong, a buddhist monk who made his home in Penang and is said to have given shelter to snakes of the jungle.(1) Once the temple was completed snakes from nearby hills began to swamp the temple and made it their home. Mark and I both thought it was interesting to learn that the temple was originally called "Temple of the Azure Cloud" after the beautiful sky over Penang(2),if it was still named that we figured Vanessa may have actually come with us to check it out!
On our way out we paid a photographer to take pictures of us with the snakes wraped around our necks, it was definately a unique experience!

This morning we woke up early to line up to check the Skybridge at the Petronas Twin Towers. We arrived at the start of the line at 7am as we heard there could be a few hour wait to get a time to check it out. Tickets were free but availability is on a first come first serve basis and only 1700 passes are given out daily.
We were lucky and were able to get a time to cross the skybridge at 11:30am; it was a really incredible experience as it is the highest 2 story bridge in the world crossing the 41st and 42nd floors of the twin towers, as visitors we crossed on the 41st floor as the 42nd floor crossing is only used by tenants!(1)
The three of us had to finish our coffees quickly before making our way onto the bridge as no food or drinks were allowed, our personal items were then scanned as a safety precaution. Prior to making our way to the skybridge we were shown a documentary in the waiting lounge about the towers, after that it only took us about 10 minutes to take a tour across the bridge. It was pretty cool though the view of Kuala Lumpur wasn't all that we had hoped it would be due to the way that the towers are situated, we did have a great view of the KLCC park though.
We then made our way down to the Suria KLCC the major shopping center that takes up the first 6 levels of the towers(2), we were overwhelmed by the amount of shops and things to do like the art gallery and science center, I was most excited to see my favorite store Tiffany and Co. had made it's way into this impressive shopping center!
There were many things theat we didn't have the time or energy to check out in the towers that can all be found at the Petronas Towers website http://www.petronas.com.my/internet/pett/pettweb.nsf/frm_home_hi?OpenFrameset
After an extremely long day we said "Selamat Tinggal" to the Petronas Twin Towers which means Goodbye in Malay, Malaysia's official language, and made our way back to our hotel!

Today we finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur tired and exhausted from our 30 hours of traveling! We needed our Canadain passports to enter into Malaysia and they needed to be valid for 6 months after our planned date of exit, which had to be no longer than 3 months becuase we didn't bother to get visa's to stay longer than that. To enter into Malaysia we needed our proof of exit out of the country as well as proof of adequate funds for our stay, but that was no problem becuase we definatly had more than enough Malyasian Rigggits (MYR) to travel lavishly for at least 6 months!
We were so tired when we arrived so we hired a rickshaw to get to the Red Dragon Hostel,which is based in an old cinema, located in Chinatown. Before we went to bed we tested out 1 of the essentail local dishes called Hainanese chicken rice, which is fragrantly poached chicken served with chicken flavoured rice, a clear soup and a chilli and ginger sambal(relish) it was delicious, a defiate must have by all. We also had a glass of Tuak which is rice wine, a tribal specialty!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/malaysia/

Click here to see some neat pictures of Malaysia!