Welcome, 2022

The other day, I thought of another benefit of wearing Malaysian-style swim suits: you don’t have to shave. It just keeps getting better…

Our van arrived a couple weeks ago. We haven’t seen it for a year and a half – since we left Germany. I was just getting used to driving on the right side of the car, using the turn signal on the right of the steering wheel. Now I’m back to the left side of the car, and back to activating the windshield wipers when I want to make a turn.

That’s okay, I’ll get used to it again. With my orthodontic appointments across town and weekly vision appointments for one of my kids, I have lots of driving practice. You’d think with all this practice, I’d be able to stop missing so many turns by now. But nope. The i-phone map, Google map, my own GPS – Every one of them aren’t 100% in sync with the reality of what’s going on with the roads OR the signs on the roads. There’s so many discrepancies between what you hear and see on the map that’s guiding you, the signs you are reading, and the real-life roads in front of you, that many times you have to guess which road to take. And I’ve noticed something funny. I have about a 100% probability of choosing the wrong road. It’s like a special gift I have. About a week ago, I took one of those wrong roads that led me down an underground tunnel. I realized it was the wrong route the moment I entered. The tunnel seemed to go on forever – curve after curve, mile after mile, minute after minute with no exits in site. I had to take some serious deep breaths that day, trying to resist frustration.

Just before Christmas, we took a trip to a nearby resort island called Langkawi. It was beautiful, peaceful, and a great adventure. We took a mangrove tour where we walked through a cave full of bats and watched wild eagles feed. We visited two wildlife parks where we saw pretty birds, fed baby crocodiles and held a python. We all went kayaking in the ocean, swam in the pools, hunted for pretty shells, and enjoyed the beach in front of our hotel.

 One of the most exciting parts of the trip was a story I shared on Facebook – if you already heard it, you may want to skip ahead after the spider picture.

While at the Crocodile park, our son stopped to rest. Just as he was about to sit down, something fell on his neck/shoulder from the tree above and quickly crawled inside his shirt near the back of his shoulder. He was so scared that he froze for what he said was about a minute. He didn’t know what in the world was hiding in there! He tried to get our attention without moving but we were ahead of him with the other kids and didn’t realize what was happening. Slowly, he peaked inside his shirt but couldn’t see anything since it was behind his shoulder. He even gently put his hand on “the thing” over his shirt to feel what it might be. Well, the moment he took a step forward, “the thing” made itself known. This big, hairy guy shot out from the sleeve of his shirt, onto his arm, and then leaped onto a nearby wall.

“Mom! Mom! A giant tarantula just jumped out of my shirt! I was so scared! It fell from the tree and crawled in my shirt right here and then jumped on the wall. Do you believe me mom? I’m telling the truth!” I inspected the wall where my son said the spider jumped to and sure enough, there it was.

 So I guess big, hairy spiders can fall on you and hide out in your shirt here in Malaysia. Okay, that’s cool. 

We got home from Langkawi right before Christmas. The same night we arrived, our apartment held a Christmas caroling event. A few weeks prior, I had learned that every year, people in our apartment sang carols just before Christmas, but that this year, those who had been in charge previous years had moved. Someone asked if anybody knew how to sing or was good with music who could organize it this year and lead the choir. Now, I do love to sing, and I have been in a fair number of choirs, but I definitely didn’t feel qualified to lead one. Well, a couple weeks passed and after no one else said anything about it, I realized, something is better than nothing, right? So, I sent out an invitation for prospective carolers.

We had I think around four practices, down in the parking garage. The first night of practice, a few people showed up with their kids. The second night, more came. By the last practice, there were several adults and many kids excited to sing with their friends. There was a beautiful, magical Christmas spirit among us as we sang about Jesus and Santa and practiced simple dance moves while shaking jingle bells.

When it came time to “perform,” we all gathered outside, in front of the apartment swimming pool, where anyone could pop out of their balcony and listen. We sang 10 carols. People who didn’t plan on it, heard the music and were led out by their kids to participate. It was so much fun. And one of the sweetest Christmas experiences I think I’ve ever had. 

Christmas with the kids was really wonderful (My favorite part was watching them act out the nativity). One thing I have noticed about toys here in Malaysia however…They are cheap, but boy are they cheap, ya know what I mean? Let’s just say there are already more broken toys from Christmas than I care to think about. 

 

The kids had a 4 week break from school for Christmas. Four weeks is a LONG time when husbands go back to work after a week and a half, but we had fun reading books, going to parks, playing with the Christmas toys that survived, and swimming in our pool.

Speaking of swimming, we also visited our first waterpark here in Malaysia, called Sunway Lagoon. It was so big! There were tons of pools, waterslides, and attractions. I had a realization there about how my kids are growing up fast – they are big enough to ride their own tube down a waterslide now and we can enjoy these kinds of things together…I’m loving this stage of parenthood! A cool part of the waterpark was how the slides were built among the jungle, with trees and twisty vines hanging down them.

Last week, a friend and I went for a little walk around a golf course famous for its monkey sightings. Toward the end of the walk, after seeing lots of monkeys, a bunch of turtles, and two big monitor lizards lurking in the river, we saw a tree bearing fruit that looked like mangos.  We found one on the ground, took a picture and looked up what it was. The tree was nicknamed “suicide tree” because of the potent poison found in its fruit – so potent that it’s famously been used to murder people and commit suicide. Holy MOLY. Malaysia does NOT play around. 

 

 

Yesterday, we spent the day with friends at Cunang beach, about 1 ½ hours away. It’s a small beach, but we love it because it’s not well known and never very busy. It’s also more wild than other beaches, which means more creatures to discover. The tide was very low, so we dropped off our food and supplies at an empty beach canopy, and walked the loooong trek towards the sea. After crab and critter hunting along the wet sand, and swimming in the waves, we headed back to our stuff for a snack. As we approached, a bag of goldfish crackers crashed from the treetops spilling crackers all over the ground. Uh oh. What was going—MONKEYS! They had discovered our food and were pilfering shamelessly. We chased them off and took inventory of what was left. Apparently, they liked our friend’s food, because they ate most of it. Luckily, there were still snacks in their cooler left untouched – good thing we came back when we did!

After snacking on the remaining food, the men stayed to guard our stuff while my friend and I took the kids exploring among the muddy mangrove trees. Last time we came, that’s where we found a tangle of dog-faced water snakes, so we ventured out to see if there were any there now.

Right away, we found another dog-faced snake slithering in an inlet among an abandoned net. We changed course and decided to trudge through the mud for awhile, which was so deep that it slurped us up to our knees in some places. We found a nice spot in the tangle of mangrove roots where the kids could chase colorful crabs (bright blue and yellow) to their hearts’ content.

After digging deep holes, the kids found lots of interesting creatures, like a giant-sized mud guppy (I didn’t know they came that big!) a shrimp, a big ‘ol lobster, and of course, countless crabs of all varieties. 

Eventually, everyone had come to see what the kids had discovered except for Mike and our youngest daughter. They were happy to hold down the fort, playing in the sand, snuggling in the beach towels (and keeping the monkeys away). Well, as the rest of us were busy thwonking through the mud, I got a call from Mike. The reception was bad, but I did hear something along the lines of “The monkeys are getting more aggressive,” so we headed back toward the camp. Mike was sure happy to see us. Before we arrived the monkeys were apparently closing in, starting to grab things, and not seeming to care when Mike tried to chase them away. Now that all of us were together, the monkeys stayed away for good.

After the beach, we got what I consider the best coconut shakes in the country  – thick ice cream milkshakes with ground up coconut pieces from a shop called “Morib Coconut Shake”– crazy delicious.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on here the last few weeks. It’s a new year with lots of adventures to look forward to. We just signed the kids up for karate classes once a week. I just signed up for tennis lessons once a month. Mike is busy with work and enjoying being able to spend time with family in between. Life is good and we are happy!