Hard Rock Cafe

We took a evening this week and left the kids with Joanne and Cho for the night. We went with Damian who works with Brian and is from England to the Hard Rock Cafe. It is up the crazy windy road by the beach. We had a great time, ate a lot and got to look at a lot of cool memorabilia. They have a big statue of Michael Jackson sitting in a throne in the front, so of course we had to have our picture with him. It was pretty cool. We stopped at a night market on the way home and looked at all of the stalls of things to buy. Lots of watches and purses with famous labels, but I'm pretty sure they are all fake! All the sellers yell, "Look at this, pretty cheap!" We didn't stay long, Damian really struggled with the heat. He said he has never been anywhere where you walk outside and take a breath and it is the same temperature the air coming out of your body. I would like to go back they had some pretty cool costume jewelry and some great dresses for Mya. Sorry a lot of the pictures look blurry, but when you take the camera out of the AC the lens fogs up! :)

At the Beach!

We finally made it to the Beach! We have been wanting to go and Brian starts to itch when he's around water and he's not wet. The Malaysians do not use their beaches. Period. End of story. When we said we were going to the beach the people we are staying with just said, "Umm, Okay." Almost like why would you do that? We drove out to Batu Feringgi, which is the very Northern section of the island. The coast line is rocky and the Beaches are few. The road driving out here is just two lanes and very curvy. Almost like driving out to Corb and Michelle's old house, without the drop off. We found a long stretch of Beach and a place to park. So we stopped.

We got out there about 9:30, which in America if you wait until 9:30, you miss out on the good spots. The beach was deserted and I almost started wondering if there is a reason, health wise that they don't go to the beach. Although I did see a man the other day as we were walking to the mall drinking the water from the sea. Just scooping it up and drinking it in his hand. Gross!! The water along Gurney is very dirty and very littered with trash. Which is amazing to me, because they pay men here to sweep the streets. Every morning we wake up to the sound of sweeping everywhere. They have the craziest brooms too, I will take a picture so you can see them. Almost a cross between and broom and a rake. They even have men that sweep the side of the road to the beach, skinny road, two lanes of traffic and the scooters and motorcycles weaving in and out going by. I think they take their lives in their hands to sweep the side of the roads.

The beach was beautiful! The beach was clean, free from trash and so was the water. Cannon ran right in and jumped right in the water and then got out, and asked what kind of animals live in there. They had a big sign posted to watch out for Jellyfish, so we told Cannon to watch out for the Jellies. Good thing for Finding Nemo, he knew exactly what we were talking about. He was a little hesitant about going back in. But about 10 seconds later he was right back in. He loves laying down and letting the waves push his body around. He thought it was great.

I really thought Mya would eat the beach up. But she cried when we took off her shoes to get in the water. She didn't want anything to do with the water, or the sand. She got some sand on her hand, held it up to me and said, "See, See. " and then tried to shake it off, and then started crying cause it wouldn't come off. She was very happy to sit in Brian's lap out of the water and out of the sand. She wanted her shoes back on, and would not take them off, thank goodness for Keen's that can get wet. She and Brian started to experiment with a little sand just pushing it around with their hands, and she was soon okay with that. Pretty soon she was walking around and playing in the sand and finding shells with Cannon. She helped bury Brian in the sand and then realized she was all sandy and just said, "Oh, no no no no no no no" I took her in the water to wash her off and she started to think that was okay too. I think she will have more fun the next time we go.

We were able to find some crabs, mussels, and a GIANT grasshopper. Some pretty cool shells with the animals still in them, and lots of cool rocks. We had some fishing boats come and were our audience for a while. Strange, but I think they thought the same of us, playing in the water. We were there for a couple of hours and alone most of the time. We are looking forward to going again!

The Floating Mosque

When Brian got home from Saudi this week, we decided to hit the town and see some sites. We went to dinner at Chili's, even in Malaysia you can't get away from them. It looks exactly the same on the inside. The menus are the same and the servers uniforms are the same. The chips and salsa taste the same except the chips were stale, as are most of them here if they are an American brand. The burgers were huge!!! Much bigger then the ones in the States. We couldn't believe the size. At McDonald's the burgers cost more then the chicken and Chili's is pretty expensive (comparatively). I guess beef is harder to get here then chicken. We see chickens on the side of the road all the time and a rooster wakes us up every morning. It's strange because it's like living in Downtown Denver and seeing chickens like stray cats.

After dinner we decided to drive around to see what we could see. We thought we might try to find some real ice cream. As we were driving we saw what they call the Floating Mosque. Brian was very intrigued by the Muslims (or as Cannon calls them the Mus-a-lums.) and their Mosques during his visit to Saudi. There are a lot here and it is extremely common to see the women here with the scarves over their hair, not as common to see the all black with the scarves over their hair and faces. Although we have see some and Brian said that is how all the women are required to dress in Saudi. They are extremely friendly, and they are the ones who want their pictures with the children the most.

Brian said that in Saudi the call to pray (I do not know the correct name) happens five times a day is so loud that you could hear it everywhere. It starts at 4 in the morning and continues all day. He was tired of being awoken at four in the morning, so I think he was glad to leave Saudi, for that reason. They were being a pray when we arrived the the Mosque and there were people hurrying to get inside. Just like at the temple when everyone is hurrying to catch the next session. They wash their feet before they go in and they have separate rooms for the men and women to go into. The prayers I think are beautiful and are all live, never recorded. Joanne says they have contests here to see who can hold their breath the longest and they do this while they are singing the prayers. There is a small Mosque down the road from us and we can hear them every once in a while.

The Mosque itself was beautiful and sits right over the water. It has a viewing deck you can walk on and see the water below. I love the moons, where Moroni would be on our Temples. They are such a great shape! All Cannon wanted to do was go inside and see, just like our Temples, if you are not of the Faith you cannot go in. It was definitely a reverent place and a place of worship.

The Swimming Pool

We have a great swimming and playground area on the fourth floor in the building we are staying in. Actually it is on the 3A floor, because the Chinese do not like the number four. I guess it looks like the symbol for death. Kind of like how Americans don't like the number 13. So all the floors that should have four, all are 3A, 13A, 23A etc...

The baby pool is only two feet deep, Perfect! The big pool is 4 feet deep all the way across, which is great as well. They have a law in Malaysia that if the pool is more then 4 feet deep, you have to employ a lifeguard. We have been spending a great deal of time in the swimming pool trying to waste energy and stay cool at the same time. They have a small playground next to the baby pool and when the kids are wet they can actually slide down the slides. The building is so tall that it blocks out the sun until 11:30, so we are in the shade. No good for sun tanning, but perfect for keeping the kids from getting sun burns. Cannon and Mya both have discovered back floats. They love them, Cannon can almost do one on his own. He isn't scared cause if he sits up, he's right on the bottom of the baby pool. Mya won't put her legs flat down, she likes to keep them up against her chest, so it will be a while for her.

Cho found us some great floats and the kids are having a great time with those. Mya just likes to throw every one's shoes in and then gets in to get them out. She walks around saying, "shoes, shoes." She is starting to talk so much!! This evening as I was putting her into bed, she said,"Ba-ba PEEEEES." It is so much fun went they start to put words together! She is also starting to put "I" in front of everything. Like "I go." Love it!

Brian gets back from Saudi Arabia tomorrow, We are very excited to have him home. The pictures of him and the kids were taken right before he left. The Board of Directors for Brian's company are all coming to Malaysia tomorrow for their annual meeting. It has been a flurry of activity around here getting everything ready. They are coming in from all over and it will be nice to meet everyone Brian talks about. He knows them all and has spent time in all of their facilities, so I will be glad to put faces with names! It will be a busy week for Brian, Joanne, and Cho, I hope we get to see them a little this coming week. :)

Our first trip to the Emergency Room

Well, leave it to Mya to make sure we visited the hospital before we left Malaysia. I took the kids to McDonald's this week to get them out of the house. I am alone this week, Brian had to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for a business trip. He is safe and the trip has been successful thus far. I was trying to find a place for Cannon to play that was air conditioned, so that he wasn't so hot. We have a small play area in the building we are staying in, but it is outdoors and the kids just sweat, and stick to the slides.

The play area in McDonald's is nothing like what I am use to in Parker. It consisted of 5 steps up to a platform, and two slides down. Needless to say, Cannon was a little disappointed. He and Mya were going up the steps and trying to figure out how to slide down without sticking to the slide. Anyway, Mya was going down the steps to climb off, and on the last step she stood up and stepped off instead of going on her butt like she usually does. She fell, and hit her head on the edging that separates the soft flooring from the hard wood. When she looked up at me, screaming of course, she had a giantantic goose egg on her forehead.

I was worried because it had swelled up so fast, so I had Cho take us to the emergency room. They wanted Mya to see a specialist, so we had to wait for him to come to the hospital. I thought I would be filling out paperwork the whole time like in America, so I settled in for the long haul. In Malaysia, they want your name, birth date, your address, and that's about it. One half sheet of paper later, we were done and left to wait.

The Doctor came about an hour and a half later and Mya was fine! Except for the goose egg on her forehead. She was playing, eating, running around, and wanting to ride the escalators in the lobby. The doctor wanted to admit her over night for observation, and I said, "Can't I just observe her at home?" He said, "Oh, okay, you don't want to stay here." and I said do we need to, and he said, "umm, what ever you want." Asians are very brisk. So I took her home.

About a hour later I was in tears on the phone with my Mom asking her if I had done the right thing. I am brave in the moment and then second guess myself for hours afterwards. My Mom calmed me down and I checked on Mya every two hours in the night and all is well! The pictures were taken when we got home from the hospital and they seriously don't do the lump justice!

She saw the doctor the next morning and He said she was fine, all that worry for nothing. The next afternoon she did the exact same thing on the other side of her head, climbing into a Lego tub. This time I didn't even flinch. I brushed her off, kissed it better, and on we went. She has two matching yellowy, green bruises on either side of her forehead. Beautiful! :)

The Wet Market

The other morning Joanne (the lady we are staying with) took me to the Wet Market. What a busy, Crazy place. It is similar to a farmers market at home. With fish, beef, chicken mongers thrown in. I think you might be able to buy what ever you want there. They have a lot of different stands selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Most of with I have never seen before. So many crazy fruits that I have never even hear of. My favorite so far is called a mangostein. It is purple on the outside and on the inside it has a bunch of, well, I don't know but it seriously looks like garlic. Like six cloves all turned together in the middle. It's juice from the purple outside is used to stain cloth, and if you get it on your clothes it never comes out. The inside is soft and very sweet, and it doesn't taste anything like mangos. I have discovered that I am allergic to dragonfuit. They also have two fruits here called Jack fruit and Durian fruit, both are extremely smelly. Almost like B.O. I haven't have the opportunity to taste either one, but I have heard they are both very delicious, once you get past the smell. :)
I was very taken back by the fact that you can come to the Wet Market and pick a live chicken from a crate, they slaughter, de feather, and cut it up right in front of you. GROSS! I can't even imagine, I like going to the grocery store and picking out a package of chicken and being very unaware that until recently it had a head. It was very, very smelly too. They have all these people standing around with cleavers ready to serve you.












Another thing that has really been weird for me it that they do not refrigerate their eggs. Even in the grocery store they just sit out on a shelf, by the bread. You take them home and put them in the fridge. It is so hot here, I just don't want to think about it. I can say though that my egg consumption has seriously decreased. I tell you what too, we have not idea what Soy Sauce is suppose to taste like either. I am not sure what I am going to do when the stash I am bringing home runs out. It is soooo good here. They have a truck at the Wet Market where you can make your own Soy Sauce to your own taste. What ever your own special recipe is. So cool!












The beef hangs from hooks and the fish are still flipping around, but they are so happy to cut you what ever you desire. I think I walked around with my mouth hanging open the entire time. The apples come from the US and are expensive. Its extremely hard to find strawberries and grapes that you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. I have yet to even see a peach or nectarines.



Here something else, at the grocery store, well the mall even, you can not get plastic bags Monday through Thursday. You have to bring your own. So everyone waits to do their shopping until the weekend and boy, is the supermarket and mall busy. Its hard to find a trolley (shopping cart) those days. I think I have mentioned as well that the grocery store is in the bottom of the mall. So you take your trolley out into the parking garage to load up your car. If there are no trolleys in the store it is because the men who are paid to collect them are on break. :)

I am so enjoying these experiences so much and giggle a little in my head when I learn about these crazy things!

The Butterfly Farm

Last Saturday morning we drove to the Butterfly Farm on the other side of the island. To drive the entire island it would take you about two to two and half hours. We drove North and then East. The airport is on the south east part of the island, so I have seen most of it but the south west. The middle of the island is very hilly and all jungle. We might take a hike there sometime, but after some of the bugs I saw at the Butterfly Farm I might stay to the edges! Saturday was also a holiday here so there were a lot of people out and about. It was Malaysia's Labor Day. The work week here includes Saturday so it was considered a long weekend, (they work until one on Saturdays.)

In front of the Butterfly Farm there was a huge row of all different kind of Bonsai Trees for sale. They were huge! Corbin, if I could bring you one home, that would be my present to you. You would have loved see them. Cause there is no way I'm bring you a monkey! So this picture is for you. It is not dead I guess they are hibernating. The farm was a jungle inside, not a huge area, but has the most amazing Butterflies. I assume it is like the Butterfly Pavilion at home, but I have never been. They had these wire tables set out with hibiscus flowers all over them so the butterflies would just swarm them. I have never seen so many different kinds in my life. They also had a lot of different kinds of "bugs" and reptiles. They had a live scorpion pit and a couple iguanas and a kimono dragon. They also had a lot of bugs that were dead and pinned in a display area. I would not like to run into the spiders they have here, alive and in real life. Yuck! They are huge! They also had a lot of the native vegetation in the Farm as well, including a tiny pineapple growing on it plant. I've never seen one growing in really life.

Cannon's greatest wish was to have a butterfly land on his finger. But every time one got close he would scream and shake his hands. I kept telling him to hold still, but he just couldn't quite do so. I finally found a butterfly that had just hatched and was still gaining his wing strength and put it on Cannon's shirt, he was thrilled. He walked around with "his" butterfly on the rest of the time we were there. Mya was running around all over saying, "see, see" and pointing to everything. They had a waterfall and a fish pond inside as well. Mya loved the fish! She would have watched them all day. See, See! The man holding Mya is Cho, (pronounced Joe, but with a Ch.) our host here in Malaysia. He has been showing us the all the sites, and has been a great tour guide.

We arrived right in front of a bus of High School kids and they all wanted their pictures taken with Cannon and Mya. Cannon got a little fed up and told them to let him alone. (He was busy chasing Butterflies.) Mya loved the attention and even let a couple of the girls hold her. I felt like a famous person being followed by the paparazzi, every time I looked up someone was taking our picture. SO CRAZY! I'm glad its Mya and Cannon's picture they want and not mine!