Monkey Beach

We made it to Monkey Beach. We got up Saturday morning and there was a 90% chance of rain. But the skies where pretty clear (relatively speaking, they are only really clear every once in a while.) So we decided to risk it. We drove out to Batu Ferringgi where the beach is that we went to last time. Then we drove to the National Park on the island. That's when we hired a boat to take us to monkey beach. You can walk there, but it is a two hour hike through the jungle.

The Hinton's who are another American family in the ward invited us to go with them. They have quadruplets (three girls and a boy) and have tried the hike before. The kids are seven almost eight. They said the hike was miserable and they only made it an hour up the trail. They never made it to Monkey Beach. So in lieu of carrying all the kids through the jungle, while being eaten by mosquito's, we paid 50 ringet, (which is like $16.00 US) and took a seven minute boat ride around the coast of the National Park. You could see the trail because it followed the coast line as well, and it was covered in a canopy of trees. I'm sure it's very beautiful, but probably not so much with two kids, hanging on your neck.

The view from the boat was incredible, and the boat ride was a little cooling! I am looking forward to Lake Powell!!! It made me anxious to go! The boat was just a flat bottom boat with about 8 seats and a bench in the back. Only 10 per boat, so we had to take two. Another family from our ward the Muilenburgs came with us as well. They have two kids, similar in age to Cannon and Mya, only their girl is older. Both families are from Eugene, Oregon and here working for Intel. The Muilenbergs are here until the end of July and the Hintons for another year. We also had the Hinton's helper (that is what they call someone here who helps with kids, housework, shopping, etc, I don't love the name, but...) with us, whose name is Tina from Cambodia. She is here for two years and was working for a Japanese family also in the ward. She joined the church while living with them, and when the Japanese family had to return to Japan, the Hinton hired her on. She has about six months of her contract here left, and then she will return back to Cambodia and hopes to be able to go on a mission. She is great with the kids and has such a happy face. I don't understand her very well, but her English is improving.

We got to the beach and they have some great picnic areas, and little shelters set up for you to use, which was great. The sand was white and soft and the water was warm. We saw a jelly fish pretty soon after we started swimming and Cannon was pretty freaked out. He found a spot where the the water was just starting to come inland because of high tide and the water was very shallow and fun to play in. There were tons of little fish and he spent an hour trying to catch one in his bucket. He wanted to show me the fish and when we got there Esa (one of the Quads was face to face with a monkey.) She very smartly stood up slowly and walked away, til she got past me when she started screaming and running. The monkeys were laying in the water and cooling off it looked like, and she hadn't noticed they were coming. All of a sudden the monkeys just started running in a line towards our picnic area, and Cannon and I were like what's going on. We walked back and realized Brian, Tony, and Rob were feeding the monkeys, and just like geese they don't go away when you are done feeding them. I have mentioned before that I'm not to crazy about the monkeys, even the cute little babies. But these one started to get a bit aggressive when they weren't getting any more food.

The men had to chase them off when they started stealing our stuff and getting into our coolers. They would growl right back at you when you yelled at them to go away. I would have let them have everything, cause I wouldn't have risked it. But the men were running right at the growling monkeys and having growling, staring contests to see who would back down. Rob was chasing them with a big stick, and growling and proving who was more fierce and bigger. They backed down after that. What's monkey beach without the monkeys right? Silly Men...

The boats came to get us about 2:30, after a big round of thunder, we thought we were going to get poured on, but the rain never came. We had a quick boat ride back and washed up and headed home. Mya was asleep in the car within minutes and Cannon kept asking if he had to take a nap. I told him he could skip it if he stayed awake all the way home. He said he wanted to be awake for the whole day and within minutes he too was out.

It was a super fun day at the beach, even with the crazy monkeys, and the hairy ones too.

Taking Buddha for a Walk

This last Friday was a Buddhist holiday. The office was closed. Brian, Joanne, and Cho still went to work. It made a long weekend for some people, those that took Saturday off as well. I really don't know anything about Buddhism except that they don't kill anything. I should probably do some research. I know that a few of the Chinese people in the Branch converted from Buddhism. I also know that you want to buy a Buddha with a happy face, so he will bring happiness into your house. If you buy one with a mad, or sad face he will bring those emotions into your home.

Friday evening as we were making dinner, I started to hear these bells ringing, and then I started to hear music. When you "live with the doors open" (as they call it here, when you don't live with AC on all the time,) you don't miss out on much. I started to look around and because the condo faces the ocean it's hard to see behind the building. Joanne and Cho also own another condo on the 16th floor that faces into the mountains. So we ran down there and there was this huge "parade" going on. Joanne said the holiday is "taking Buddha for a walk." Which is the maybe the literal translation. Probably not what the Buddhists call it. They take the Buddha from their temples walk them around town, on what I would call floats. The floats were lined with flowers and offerings. The parades that I am use to are joyous and loud, and they throw candy. This was way more subdued, but at the same time you could feel that it was a happy holiday. The holiday I think celebrates the day Buddha got his "enlightenment." But I could totally be wrong, hence why I should learn more.

There are temples everywhere!!! I am beginning to be able to tell them apart, but there are the mosques, then the Chinese temples. The Indian temple, which are so ornate and gotty. Then the Buddhist temples which are more subdued and beautiful. There is an Indian temple right next to the playground by the mall. Cannon thought it was a carousel. It has these plastic jumping horses on the outside, they look just like carousel horses, I will have to take a picture.

The parade was pretty interesting to watch. There were a lot of floats and tons of people march along. We watched for probably 20 minutes and went back up to finish dinner. But you could hear it going on for a long time afterwards.

It was super interesting to watch and I'm so glad that I am having this new experiences. I think I was a little to sheltered in my life back home. It's good to have my eyes opened to see how truly blessed I am.

The Tropical Fruit Farm

We got up on Saturday morning with the intention of going to a place called Monkey Beach with another American family from our ward. We planned to leave at 10 and as the morning progressed the clouds started rolling in and by 10:15 it was pouring rain. So beach plans got cancelled. We took advantage of the cooler weather and drove to the other side of the island to go to the Tropical Fruit Farm here. It is 25 acres of area where they grow everything you think of when you think of Tropical fruit. I have to say that I think I like the pineapple plant the best. I think it is so cool! I learned that Dragon Fruit is a blossom of a cactus. That Durian goes really high up in the trees, they have to climb them to harvest them. (still haven't got up the nerve to try it!!) The man that was giving the tour said this about Durian, "Smells like hell, tastes like Heaven." I have smelled it several times and it really stinks, like B.O. but everyone says it tastes delicious. One of these days!!!

The fruit farm was on the steep side of a mountain. They had carved out steppe of land to grow the fruit on. Surrounding the Farm was a Durian Plantation. We had a tour guide show us around and then when the tour was finished, we sat down to a giant fruit buffet, where you could eat as much as you wanted. We tried lots of new fruits yellow watermelon, a couple of different kids of guava, papaya, pineapple, the mangosteins again (yummy!), a water apple, a custard apple, rambutans, and I can remember the rest. We were also able to get some fresh juice. It was so good! After we left the Tropical Fruit Farm, we started to drive around towards the other side of the island. It was time for the kids to nap. So we were able to see the parts of Malaysia that are not so urban. We drove around a small fishing village and through this really windy, curvy two lane road. It was like driving in Atlanta where you can see through the trees, and at time the trees even covered the sky. We found a beautiful waterfall and right by it was this little market. They had two monkeys in a cage, we took Cannon to see them and when we walked up to the cage one of the monkeys started peeing and almost sprayed all of us. I felt sad for them, they just stared out into the jungle like, let us out of here!

We cut through the center of the island to get back and we drove by this absolutely giant statue of the Chinese God of Mercy. It was huge! It looks like they are just building it. We didn't realize we can see it for our Condo til we got back. You can't tell what it is from far away. I would like to go and walk around it. I am not sure if we are allowed, but it would be cool to see up close! I also put a pistue in of the traffic. The Malaysians can always turn a two lane road into a four land road, with the scooters going in between. :) Crazy! It was a really fun day, not too sad the beach got rained out!

This is Brian, not sure I feel comfortable posting on here as this page is covered in pink flowers but I do own a pink tie... maybe I am somewhat partial to pink. Anyways Julie will never say this so I will. What an amazing wife, friend, and mother she is. Julie consistently amazes me every day. She has the natural ability to give of herself without seeking praise or looking for anything in return. Julie truly looks at the good in all things. This trip to Malaysia has not been an exception. She continues to push through the daily challenge of being in a strange land with two highly active kids, no car, and a crazy husband who is very needy. I love you babe. Thanks for an amazing 7 years. Who would of thought our little family would travel the world.

Thanks to all those who have helped us along the way friends and family both. A special thanks to our parents we sure love you guys. Your example of love, hard work faith and sacrifice drives us to be better.

It been a long strange trip...but we would not have it any other way.

Time to jump ON THE TEBOW BANDWAGON!!!!! PS Julie loves his legs;)

Brian

Funny!

At church the man who was asked to say the prayer said this, "We are thankful to be in church today. Especially me, cause I am so sleepy today." It is so the culture to say what ever you are feeling in your prayers!!! I leaned over to Brian and asked him if I had heard the man right. We both just sat there giggling!

Odds and Ends

Mya loves to play in the shower in our room. She goes in and closes the door and plays and plays and plays. We are all missing having our own space, and I think that she thinks that Cannon won't take her toys if she goes in there, Notice the feety pajamas, the kids have to wear them at night, so we can run the AC in our room. The only time we are cool. The kids are extra cool, cause neither one will sleep with blankets on. It is usually between 85 and 95 here in the day and usually about 80% to 100% humidity, so it feels like its 101- 114. The nights do cool down to about 82 and its usually breezy which is a nice break.

Mya as a Mus-a -lum. She pulled the arm of my shirt over her head and Cannon said, "Hey, Mom, Look Mya's one of those Mus-a-lums." He thinks that Muslim as an A in it.

We had a 2 (with the antennae it's about 4 inches) GROSS!!! inch cockroach in our bedroom. Lyn the house keeper caught it for us. Thanks Lyn! Cannon insisted on keeping him as a pet. He crawled around in a bottle for 2 days, before we convinced Cannon to "let him go." He ate holes in 2 of Cannon's shirts and a pair of Mya's shorts before we caught him. He was in the kids clothes drawer. I wasn't aware that they ate clothes, but Lyn said they do. :(

Rambutan another local fruit. Not so fantastic, But at least I tried it!!

The space on the island is so limited that they are "reclaiming" the land. Meaning they are piling sand over rocks and more sand over rocks and pushing the land out further into the Sea, making the coastline of the island bigger. There is not much room where we are, although the east and south sides of the island are not as developed. They are still jungle and not really inhabited. But there is a chance that your ocean side condo will not always be an ocean side condo! The hotel next to us has a beach volley ball court above their parking garage. Another building has two tennis courts on top of it! Pretty good use of space!

For My Mom, these are the guards that check every person that comes into the building. The whole area around our building is fenced in, and the only way through is past these guards. They have guards there 24, 7. They are very friendly and the kids love waving to them as we leave and come back to the building. We also have key cards that are only programmed to work to the floor we're on. So we stay on the 19th floor and that is the only floor we can go to. If we want to go to another floor to meet someone else, we have to go down to the first floor and meet them and go back up in the elevator together. Lots of security measures, so I feel very safe here!

Pictures of the Church Building

Here are some pictures of the Church Building here in Penang. It is a cool little building. I think it use to be a home. It has a pretty good size chapel and about 7 rooms in the upstairs. It has a second building which houses the Relief Society room and the Young Men's room. I taught Mya's nursery class last week, cause the teacher didn't come. And when Priesthood starts in the Chapel downstairs you can hear the hymn the men sing so loud and clear. It is so cool, because everyone is singing so loudly! The nursery toys consist of a set of big Lego's and a box of McDonald's toys that you get in Happy Meals. Just another thing that reminds me how lucky we are in the US. They would die if they saw all the toys in the nursery at home! Mya had fun and being the only Nursery kid she gets them all to herself, until Sunday School lets out and all the kids from Senior Primary come in and play, (all the kids means two!) Junior primary has a few more because there is an American set of quads, three girls and a boy. Otherwise there would just be three kids in Junior Primary.

Cannon made his teacher laugh so hard this week because she gave him an Oreo, and he licked the frosting out and gave her back the cookie. She thought that was the funniest thing ever! They call cookies here biscuits. There are not very many children here, not only in the church, but period. It is very rare to see a pregnant woman, or children.

Brian was talking to one of the men here he is working closely with this week, and found out he has a son. Brian suggested that he and Cannon could play together, and the man say, "Yea, can, but on the weekend." (Malaysians use the word can here, like we say Yes. So everything is can, can, can if they are saying yes to something.) Brian asked him a little bit more and found out, that it is common here to drop your child off at Daycare Monday morning and pick them up Saturday afternoon. The child stays in the daycare overnight, all through the week. It is very, very common here that both parents work. The man asked Brian if I was retired and Brian said no, she works in our home, and takes care of the children. He said, "Wow, that's weird!" I can't even imagine! My heart would break if I only saw Cannon and Mya on the weekend. I am sooo BLESSED!! I am so grateful to live in a country where it is acceptable for a woman to stay home and take care of her children. That I don't feel looked down upon because I don't have a career outside of the home. I am grateful for a husband that works hard to make this possible.