Sunday after church, we decided to take a drive to some neighborhoods on the edge of the forest. “I see a monkey!” Shouted our son. We stopped and all got out to watch a gorgeous troop of dusky leaf monkeys chomp on leaves overhead. These are my favorite species of monkeys here because of their mild manner and their beautiful white spots decorating their faces in the cutest way.
(obviously not my photo)
As we continued our drive down the narrow road lined with beautiful, Malaysian-style houses, looking at the jungle trees and bright-colored flowers that grew into every free space available, I couldn’t help but feel so grateful to have experienced living here the lasts 15 months. I love Malaysia so much.
I love how we can take a drive and STILL spot a new variety of butterfly that we’ve never seen before. Today it was a vivid auburn one with dark markings that fluttered frantically. Last weekend on a hike with a friend it was a cloud-like butterfly I spotted floating dreamily from the highest treetops. It was pure white with round fluffy wings that lazily flapped once or twice as it glided down to a branch. Was that real?
I love the snake-like vines here that constrict every tree and hang down like curly ribbons, the delicious Plumeria flowers that are blooming all year round, the air that is forever an all-encompassing heat hug.
I love sitting on my balcony watching thunder storms rush in, loud and abrupt, throwing palm trees back and forth, the way waterfalls appear from highways overhead as I’m driving, and the sound of bull frogs that croak from the deep dark drain tunnels on rainy nights.
The nature here is fierce. It’s very defensive. At a resort we stayed at last Spring, I took the kids on a little walk around the hotel gardens. I picked up a stick from the bushes and was instantly ambushed by a group of aggressive hornets. They struck like lightening they were so fast!
Outside in our apartment courtyard, if you lean against the wrong tree, red ants will board your body in alarming numbers. If you set foot off the paved path where the brush grows, red ants will vigorously attack any bare skin showing through your sandals. One time we went to the KLCC park at the Petronas towers with the kids’ friend. The friend left crying after about an hour when a red ant attacked the bottom of his foot. I guess what I’m trying to say is, red ants have really made an impact on me.
But seriously, there is so much life, so much nature, that’s right in your face here. On hikes, weird bugs come flying at you. I took a muddy hike with a friend a couple weeks ago and this weird stick-like green bug flew at me from the jungle. As it flew it revealed the inside of its wings which were the most vivid shade of red. When it landed, it was a green stick again. Like, what the heck was that thing? This is why I love Malaysia. It’s full of little surprises. Like this brown butterfly I see all the time in the jungle here. It looks exactly like a leaf until it flies. Then the most gorgeous shiny royal blue flashes before your eyes. It’s magic!
There’s other surprises that aren’t so magic. For instance, a 13-foot python was found at the US embassy a couple months ago. If you think that’s scary, imagine this: A nest of baby cobras was found in the ambassador’s yard not too long ago. YIKES! Both of those places are a little over a mile away from where we live, but thankfully, we’ve never encountered a snake in our apartment complex. It makes you wonder if the guards here do find them on occasion but just don’t tell the residents about them.
On a related note, there really is an eerie feeling wherever wild things grow. Knowing how many venomous, dangerous creatures live here, I really watch where I step. While hiking, my eyes are darting around the ground, up in the trees, all around me. I’m listening for sounds and watching for movement. It really is a different feeling than when I hiked in the states. That’s not to say it isn’t safe to hike here. It IS safe. There are so many amazing trails filled with lots of fellow hikers. It’s just that I always feel a sense of caution when I’m walking against a wall of jungle so thick I can’t see what’s inside. You just never know what you might encounter, from giant ants and flying stick bugs to monkeys and wild boars.
Speaking of boars, my niece and nephew came to visit a couple months ago (we loved having them!) and on their last day here, I took them on one of my favorite hikes, to a place called Ketumber Hill, and on our way up, we ran into a whole family of wild boars coming down the trail. We backed way up and watched as three large adults led 3 baby boars with fuzzy heads and brown stripes down the hill. It was amazing to see!
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Shopping is another thing I love about Malaysia. Every week my son goes to vision therapy at a mall in the middle of the city. It’s a very “local” mall, meaning it’s not geared toward tourists - it’s more for the average Malaysian citizen. Every week while I’m waiting for my son, I explore the corners of this mall. It is filled with so many strange, cheap treasures. To be more specific, for a lover of zany, over-the-top jewelry and sequined clothing, this would be heaven to them. So many stores with sparkly, low-quality ball gowns, feathery costume dresses, and the coolest jewelry you’ve ever seen – All at dirt cheap prices. I don’t know what I’d use them for, but I seriously want to buy a boat load of these items and bring them back to the USA. Maybe one day I’ll be the owner of a community theater and I could use them as props and costumes for the actors?
Anyway, there are more than just faux-fancy accessories at the mall. There’s a store called “Mr. DIY” that’s filled with loads of party supplies, kitchen supplies, crafts, and toys for super cheap as well. It’s akin to the dollar store in the states, but bigger and better in my opinion. I’ve found the coolest things in that store: decorative (real) coconut plant holders, Halloween table covers, fuzzy kitty notebooks for the kids, mermaid stickers, birthday party curtains, balloons, craft beads, and more. It’s dangerous. I really have to keep myself in check because buying cheap household goods can become addicting pretty quickly.
Every free weekend, every chance we get, we try to go somewhere new. Living here for only two years means we need to take every opportunity to travel while we can, even if it’s walking through a new part of the neighborhood.
Since the last time I wrote, here’s some of the places we’ve visited and highlights from each trip:
- TIOMAN ISLAND: Grandma N came with us. It was so great being able to show her around Malaysia and wonderful to go on this beautiful trip with her! We stayed in a quaint family-owned hotel right on the beach. The view of the ocean was so peaceful. The resort housed a dog we'll call Benji, and lots of cats which the kids enjoyed snuggling. (Side story: One of the days I accidentally stepped on Benji who was sitting quietly near our breakfast table. He whimpered loudly and everyone stopped to look at me. I felt sooo bad. I literally did not see him. My kids made me feel worse. For all of breakfast, they kept staring at me like I murdered him. “Mom, why did you hurt Benji?” “Why would you step on him Mom?” Benji was okay and even wandered back to receive some apology snuggles later, but in the moment, I wanted to hide under a stack of pancakes.)
Snorkeling gear was included in our resort and we saw so many beautiful fish including a small black-tip reef shark that lived close to shore. At night, we heard rats fighting inside our ceiling and ants were infesting one of the living rooms. There was a giant garden in the back of the hotel attracting gorgeous butterflies – so colorful. A path led from our little resort through the jungle to another beach about a mile away. Along the path was an area the kids and I named “Spider Kingdom” because the trees, telephone lines, and bridges were overtaken by giant gold orb weaver spiders. It was so fun to walk past them and see their beautiful body designs and webs.
One of the days we took a walk clear to the end of the neighboring beach and found 3 trees filled with flying foxes – those big bats with red fox-like heads. I couldn’t believe it!
Near our hotel room, down the shore a little ways were tons of boulders perfect for climbing. One of the boulders made a long cave that the kids loved to walk in. Some mornings, me and the kids went on one-on-one walks to a particularly tall boulder and watched the sunrise from treetop height. It was beautiful.
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- KUANTAN: A beach town a couple hours away. We’ve been there twice and love the beach because it’s relatively clean and full of wildlife! I’d never seen a fiddler crab before going there – crabs with one giant claw that they twirl around in the air. The beach was also filled with large hermit crabs, interesting sea slugs, pretty shells, and thousands of sand dollars – never seen so many in my life. We visited the zoo there that not only had real animals, but also life-sized dinosaurs that moved and roared, entertaining the kids. We went to a Chinese Temple in Kuantan and walked through one of the longest man-made dragons in the world, leading to a Chinese garden with many neat sculptures of Buddhist Gods. Last but not least, we cooled off at a popular series of waterfalls where locals go to swim.
- MALACCA: A town of the straits of Malacca about 2 hours away. This is such a fun night town. With colorful, musical rickshaws to ride with the kids, a night river tour watching the painted murals on buildings and lights in the trees and along the shore float by. I went there a second time with my niece and nephew visited and had a great time with them!
PHUKET, THAILAND: This trip was amazing. Mike and I have always wanted to visit Thailand and I’m so so grateful we got the chance while living in Southeast Asia. We enjoyed walking in and out of the endless shops, playing on the beach, riding and bathing elephants at an elephant sanctuary, visiting with tigers, getting messages beside the ocean, seeing different temples, splashing down our hotel waterslide, dancing to the hotel’s live band, and more. Phuket was one of the coolest trips of my life.
More about the Tigers: At a place called
Tiger Kingdom, you can pay to walk amongst real tigers. They are
domesticated and trained from birth to be around humans. Of course it isn’t
risk-free, but after seeing several groups of tourists go into the cage, I
didn’t feel worried at all. Mike had no desire to go, haha, so I went alone. It
was amazing to pet the tigers, even scratch their belly and back. My heart beat
a little faster than normal, but otherwise it felt okay. There were handlers in
the pen with me, telling me what to do and making sure I was safe. It was the
neatest experience ever! The only sad
thing was that the kids were going to play with baby tigers but it wasn't open that day.
Of course there are things I WON’T miss from Malaysia and it’s useful, I think, to dedicate a paragraph or two to those as well. The list includes:
- Bugs constantly infesting the kitchen and bathrooms.
- Bugs inside my pasta and cereal (You have to keep everything sealed up VERY securely.
- Mosquitoes inside and outside.
- How difficult it is to find tampons, bobby pins and clothing that fits.
- Sun-baked playground equipment covered in mold from the constant rains.
While I’m at it, what the heck, here are a few things I miss from the USA:
- Sidewalks! I miss taking walks with the stroller and riding bikes around the neighborhood. Here the sidewalks are either crumbling apart, full of holes, incomplete or nonexistent, and riding on the roads is generally a bad idea in my opinion – dangerous!)
- The abundance of parks and grassy fields that you can run through barefoot.
- A cool breeze that makes you take a deep, refreshing breath and think “Ah!! This is nice!”
Halloween just passed here and the US embassy put on an amazing party. They have a competition among the different departments of who has the best decorated office. Every room in the embassy was a new theme: Nightmare before Christmas, underwater, Mario, Zootopia, just to name a few. It was so creative and the kids had a great time. We also had a trunk or treat at the church and trick-or-treating at our apartment. We had the best time running around with friends and neighbors. Needless to say, after 3 different activities, our kids now have way too much candy that I keep wanting to either gorge on secretly in my closet or throw away completely.
I’m happy to say that after a year of living here, I finally feel like I’ve gotten the hang of driving and don’t miss exits near as often as I did before. It feels so good to get to a point of feeling comfortable. The trick in Malaysia is being aggressive and making room for yourself. The great thing is, people let you in, whereas if you tried similar things in the states, you’d get the bird and probably be run over by road rage maniacs.
Anyway, that’s a bit of our last 8 months here. It’s so hard to believe that we only have about 7 or 8 more months left in Malaysia (we leave this summer). It has been such a good experience. You always get filled with fears and doubts going into the unknown, especially if it’s something so different and foreign than what you’re used to, but I really believe that if you have an opportunity to experience something new, you’ve got to go for it! Even though there are sure to be unforeseen challenges, it's almost always less scary than you thought it would be and your worries weren’t even necessary.
As summer draws a little closer each month, we will continue to prepare for the next move, while also doing our very best to explore, discover, and enjoy Malaysia while we have it.
A few pics from my latest hike to Kanching Falls:
