Caroline and I arrived in Malaysia about mid-day on Friday. Way Joe and his mama picked us up from the airport and took us out to lunch. We ate real Malaysian food at a place called Kayu. We had Nasi Kandar, which was curry chicken with rice. yum! We also had some Teh Peng to drink, which is tea with ice and condensed milk. sooooo good and refreshing!! Afterwards, Way Joe's mom took us downtown to another place to eat! We had some pastries and iced coffee and Fried Koay Teow, which was a noodle dish and definitely one of my favorites! Then we went to another place to eat- a little vendor that sold Chendul, which is a dessert. It's very hard to describe, but it was coconut milk in a bowl with red beans, brown sugar, ice, and this green gummy string stuff that was kind of like gummy worms. No worries, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!
I LOVED being in a Malaysia with Way Joe and his mom because they knew all of the best food spots. We didn't go to any touristy areas or over-priced restaurants. We went to the little hole-in-the-wall local family vendors, and it was perfect and delicious! These are places that Way Joe has been going to since he was a little kid! Oh also, Way Joe and his mom laughed at me and Caroline because we eat with a fork. They eat everything with spoons!!! They use forks to push their food onto the spoon and then eat from the spoon, and no one uses knives, instead you cut your food with a fork and spoon. It was crazy and lots of fun to eat in this different way!
After we were so stuffed from two lunches and dessert, we arrived at Way Joe's house, which was absolutely gorgeous and nothing that I ever could have imagined! They live on the 8th floor of an apartment complex, and their apartment has two floors. The first floor opens up into the family room and dining room with beautiful marble floors and an awesome view of the beach. There is a big kitchen with a back balcony that has another incredible view of a mountain. There is a spiral staircase that leads upstairs where there is a living room and the three bedrooms. They have such a beautiful home :)
Later in the day, Way Joe took Caroline and I to Botanical Gardens where Way Joe often goes to run. We saw wild monkeys!! Way Joe says they are like the squirrels of Malaysia. That's so crazy! There are dozens of gardens with orchids, crysanthiums, and the like, and there is a river that runs through the park where Way Joe used to catch tad poles when he was little. I enjoyed seeing and hearing about the things that Way Joe did when he was growing up. It made me so happy to see this part of his life.
Then, Way Joe took us to Youth Park where we literally climbed up a mountain. The stairs were practically vertical, I almost climbed up them on all fours! What's insane is that Way Joe said he runs up the mountain for training, and he would mountain bike up and down it with friends growing up. Insane! At the end of the trail is an awesome lookout with a breathtaking view of the city and the ocean! One of Way Joe's childhood friends named Belvin joined us at the lookout, and after descending the mountain, we all enjoyed some Fruit Ice, which is a bowl of cut up fruit topped with shaved ice and a mango sauce. Yummy and so refreshing after our hike!
That night, we went with Way Joe to the swimming pool where he trains and also plays water polo. We met more of his friends that are on his water polo team, and we watched them practice. Their dry land workout included more push-ups than I have ever seen in my life! I'm pretty sure they did 5 sets of 50 pushups in a row, and then ended with a push up duel where everyone ended up doing over 100 additional pushups. Absolutely insane, but get this, their water polo scrimmage afterward was even more intense! Caroline and I were invited to join in and play, but it was so intimidating and hardcore. I've never played a real game of water polo, so instead Caroline and I had a great time watching them play a 50 meter water polo game. So insane!
We capped off the day with an awesome time at the club Mois. We stayed out all night, hanging out with Way Joe and his friends that he's known his entire life! He's got such great friends, they are all so much fun and such exciting and happy people. We met Belvin and Kah Hoong, who play water polo with Way Joe, and they both work as fashion models. So fun! We also met Gloria and Jinny, who swam with Way Joe growing up, and Jinny goes to Cornell. I'm hoping to visit her in New York sometime next year. We spent the entire night at Mois, and when it closed we went to eat some roti, which was probably my favorite food! I had a Roti Bomb, which was bread filled with cheese and condensed milk. Yum! Yum! We also shared Roti Tissue, which was really crispy roti, kind of like a tortilla chip, but sweet because it was drizzled in condensed milk. It was delicious!
On Saturday morning, Way Joe and his mom took Caroline and I out to breakfast. We ate Wan Than Mee (a noodle dish), Mee Goreng (another noodle dish, one of my favorites), and drank Pat Poh Gu Leng Peng (an AMAZING herbal tea with ice and milk that kind of tasted like an iced chai, but better). It was a perfect breakfast! Then, we visited some of Penang's temples, which were absolutely beautiful! We went to the Sleeping Buddha temple and the Standing Buddha temple. At the Sleeping Buddha temple there was the four-faced Buddha, and at each face you pray for something different. The faces were Prosperity, Happiness, Relationships, Education. At the Standing Buddha Temple, there is a pond, and in the center there is revolving apparatus with bowls. Each bowl is labeled, like one for Happiness, one for Success, one for Good Luck, etc., and you throw a coin into which ever bowl you like. I thought that was very nice and clever. Also, there is a Buddha for education where students go pray and take their school schedules and leave them with the Buddha, which I thought was neat.
Then we visited Kek Lok Si, which is lots of Buddhist temples built into the hillside. At the top of the hill is a beautiful pagoda. We toured through the temples and saw amazing views of the city. One of the temples near the top had pillars carved from stone, and these pillars had 3-D stone figures coming out of them. It is hard to describe, but it was absolutely beautiful and very ornate. We also saw the Liberation Pond where people release their pet turtles. Caroline and I got to feed the turtles, just like Way Joe did when he was little. How fun! Kek Lok Si was certainly my favorite place that we visited. It was just so beautiful and peaceful. I even bought a mantra CD to listen to when I do school work. It's very relaxing and calming and makes me happy. It reminds me of the Catholic Gregorian chants that I really like :)
After visiting temples, we went to Way Joe's grandparents' house, and his grandmother cooked us a home-made lunch!!!! She made rice, curry chicken, vegetables, steamed fish, and Tau Iu Bak, which is pork with soy sauce. It was all so good! We sat around a big marble table with a lazy susan in the middle, and all shared the bowls of yummy food! Way Joe says that this is how they always eats at his grandmother's house with all of his family sitting around the table and sharing the meal. It was wonderful. I met Way Joe's grandfather, and some of his aunts and cousins too. There are actually seven of his family members that live in his grandparents' house- his grandmother and grandfather, as well as their oldest son and his family. One thing that I found just spectacular was that Way Joe's grandmother had beautiful Chinese artwork and antiques all throughout her house! It reminded me of the stores that Hannah and I visited earlier in Singapore that had the Chinese paintings, tea sets, and painted wooden chests, except that these antiques were in Way Joe's grandmother's house- big landscape paintings with the Chinese characters inscribed on them, porcelain figurines... it was all just so beautiful.
After lunch, Way Joe took Caroline and I to the mall where we watched Belvin and Kah Hoong model in a fashion show. It was a promotion called "Switch" put on by Apple, so of course I was very interested! Apple is trying to set up a base in Asia, so they put on this fashion show promote their products. Basically, Belvin and Kah Hoong got to model in front of a hundred photographers with ipods and lap tops and awesome clothes. It was so fun to watch! After the show, Way Joe took Caroline and I to Sushi King!!! Yes, it is called Sushi King, like Burger King, but with sushi! They had a conveyer belt that revolved around the restaurant filled with different plates of sushi. All you do is see something you like and reach up and grab it. The color of the plate tells you the price of your particular sushi. You save all of your plates and pay at the end. Very clever. Later, we met up with Belvin, Kah Hoong, Johnny, Gloria, Jinny, and Jinny's brother and saw the Incredible Hulk for only 10 Ringgit, which is about $3!!!! So inexpensive compared to the US!
After the movie, we were all ready for dinner, so we walked over to a big outdoor food court on Gurney Drive. I kid you not, this place was huge and packed with people!! There must have been more than fifty stalls of various food! Haha, how do you choose?? Our group snagged a table, and then we split off to order. The way it worked was that everyone ordered whatever they liked, and then shared it with the whole table. How fun is that?! Way Joe and I brought back to the table some Satay pork with peanut sauce, Laksa noodles, and Rojak (a bowl of mixed fruit with a fruity paste drizzled over it). I also tried some fried tofu, mango juice, and Muar Chee, which is little gooey balls of flour rolled in sugar and peanuts. Yum! It was so sweet!
After dinner, we all headed to Batu Feringghi where there over a mile long flea market notorious for selling knock-offs, yay! We shopped around for a bit, and I bought a T-shirt and a lantern for my dorm room. The lantern has a painting of cherry blossoms! Caroline got herself a T-shirt too, and a Gucci purse. After shopping, we went to one of Way Joe's favorite places- a karaoke bar called Red. We relaxed for the remainder of the night, playing cards, eating these really good addicting chips, and singing karaoke!!! haha I'm not much of a singer, but I had such a great time! Most of the songs that other tables sang were in Chinese, and one was even in Tamil, the Indian language, but some of the favorite songs that we sang were It's My Life by Bon Jovi and I'll Never Let You Go by Westlife. The grand finale was I Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, hahaha and it was incredibly fun! This song holds a whole new meaning in my life!
This morning, we slept in a bit and reminisced about our fun-filled and non-stop, action-packed weekend. Way Joe told Caroline and I that we are marathoners for going on all these weekend trips and doing so much in such a short amount of time. I'm going to look back at this summer and wonder how I did it. Four days of class, papers, projects, and learning two weeks worth of material in one day, and then three days of traveling and sight-seeing and staying up late to experience it all!
On the way to the airport, Way Joe and his mom took us to eat Dim Sum for breakfast. Again, this place was packed with people, and it was delicious! We grabbed about a dozen plates of different foods to try- wan than, egg rolls, minced meat, shrimp rolls, fish meatballs, and custard for something sweet. Yum! I think food has definitely defined this trip! I am so sad to be back in Singapore. I had such an amazing time in Malaysia, and I did not want to leave. It was sad having to say goodbye to Way Joe's friends, who I'd only met 48 hours before, but felt like I had known them for a lifetime! I miss Malaysia so much, and it was hard to say goodbye to Way Joe and his mama who treated us so well. They made our stay in Malaysia truly wonderful and I am so happy :)
1 comment:
awww malaysia sounds awesome!! and i went to eat dim sum with my family today too :)
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