My Oh My, Malaysia

Hi everyone! Our two weeks in Malaysia is coming to an end, and I’m going to miss this beautiful country. We had a lot of happy moments here.

We started with the big city, Kuala Lumpur. KL is such a cool city with a skyline is punctuated by the Kuala Lumpur Tower and the Petronus Towers. At the base of the towers are modern stores mixed with stalls of traditional street food and goods. Our wonderful friend Kristina flew us from Saigon to spend the weekend with us, and it was the best!

We loved our visit to the Batu Caves, a series of Hindu temples built inside enormous caves. We ascended the Rainbow Staircase, marveling at the gold statue of Murugan (the son of Shiva and brother of Ganesha) standing 42.7 meters.

The celebratory colors and vibrant golds combined with the astonishing natural beauty make this place very special.

The final cave was filled with life size replicas telling of the story of King Rama saving his wife Sita. We skipped that and climbed to the top of the cave.

There we found a rock room dedicated to some trippy laser hot yoga. (Megan—you would have LOVED it!) Naturally it became the kids’ playroom. They were so happy.

Too soon we had to say goodbye to KL and Kristina (again). We drove three hours to Taman Negara, a massive national park north of KL. (Taman Negara literally means “national park” in Malay.) We stayed at a super cool lodge inside the park on the bank of the Tahan River.

We loved boating upriver in long wooden boats with small outboard motors.  On one outing we pulled ashore and hiked to Lata Berkoh, a swimming hole in the otherwise shallow river.

The following day, Ryan and I ventured out early to scout that day’s planned hike and make a scavenger hunt for the kids. The scavenger hunt was a hit, and it made the extremely hot and humid hike so much more pleasant.

We hiked all around the park and river, keeping our eyes out for tapirs and, well, Malayan tigers. (We didn’t see either.)

On our last night we found a bunch of little worms crawling on our beds (ew), so it was time to go!

We left the hot jungle and drove 4 hours up to the much cooler Cameron Highlands. This part of the country is lush and green, sitting at 5,900 feet. We were there to visit the 1100-acre Boh Tea Plantation,

harvest fruit at the bountiful strawberry farms,

trek in the Mossy Forest,

and enjoy the views!

From the Cameron Highlands we drove 5 hours to Penang, an island in northwest Malaysia. When we arrived we dumped out our suitcases that had been packed for months. We aired out all our cold-weather gear, which smelled just terrible after months crammed under our daily-use items. It felt good to clean up a bit, especially before we head to the mountains of Western Asia.

Penang was a delight. The island is an ideal mix of culture and nature, with enough Western influence that we could find food for Baker to eat. We visited art Street, home to the mural “Little Children on a Bicycle,” which is called the “symbol of Penang.” It was beautiful.

We ferried to Orang Utan Island to see Borneo orangutans. Here’s a big guy swimming in the lake to cool down in the intense Malaysian heat.

We also made a trip to Penang National Park. It was the highlight of Malaysia for me. I practically begged the kids for one hike without complaining—and they did it! The big kids were afraid of tigers, so Lu took the lead and did great.

We hiked out to Turtle Beach, and visited the turtle sanctuary. It was beautiful!

We also just spent a lot of time just having fun--at Escape Penang themepark, Entopia Butterfly Park, and playing around at the hotel's kids' club. Turns out Lu is a very talented face painter!

Now we are officially en route to Bhutan via KL and Singapore. We will get to be with our friends Penny and Kalina for a whole week!! We are beyond excited to see them.

93 days to go! We miss home and all of you!!!

All my love,

Madeline