The theme of this trip so far has been to stay flexible and nimble. A week ago, I was in Bangkok, and fully intended to spend a few more weeks in Thailand. Instead, I’ve just spent 9 days in Malaysia, instead.

On a whim, I booked a flight to Kuala Lumpur and decided I needed to do some proper diving.

But first I wanted to spend a few days in my favorite city ever. I know there is so much of the world that I haven’t seen, but from the parts of it that I have, Kuala Lumpur is my favorite city I have ever visited. I have a whole weeks worth of posts about it, but yeah. I don’t know what it is, but it love it.

Malaysia has pretty amazing food, and I visited a cafe that claimed to have the best nasi lemak, which is a pretty bold claim. This is nasi lemak:

It looks simple, and it is so delicious. It was every bit as good as I remember. After lunch, I found a beautiful park in the city that had all kinds of gardens, bird gardens, butterfly gardens, orchid gardens, but those all cost money, and I’m cheap, so I opted for the deer garden, which was free. Although the deer were all far off in the shade, escaping the midday heat, and I don’t blame them. It was hot. But that means I have no cute pictures of deer to share.

How about lush park scenery instead?
These are the pictures we get when I’m all alone. Hooray for selfies.

The city absolutely comes alive at night, and it was just as much fun exploring after the sun set.

After a few days mooning over KL, I bussed and ferried myself to Tioman Island, a small island off the coast off peninsular Malaysia. And I think I’ve found paradise.

The island is lush and beautiful from all angles, the sea is calm and inviting, and the diving is wonderful! And these posts wouldn’t be complete without pancakes. I found someone who makes chocolate peanut butter pancakes and they are HEAVEN.

My week on this island has been incredible. It’s been relaxed, I’ve eaten such good food, and I’ve been scuba diving every day. This is the life!

And I finally have some diving photos to share! The highlights of these dives, for me, are the cuttlefish that hide and camouflage with the reef. (also the huge clams, but I don’t have photos of those, but those are also cool!) There are two cuttlefish in the photo below, can you find them both?

They think they’re all sneaky sneaky

And there was so much else to explore too. Everything under the water was new and different for me, so I spent 5 glorious days trying to see everything. Everything is so cool and pretty, and only half of it could kill you, so you avoid that half.

This is not the half that wants to kills you
A feather star. I had never seen these before!

I’ve got to come back here someday. But for now, it will do.

I think this has been my favorite part of my trip so far. I’m sure I keep saying that, but this trip does keep getting better and better, and I am loving it. Thank you to everyone reading, you guys are the best, I love you all!