Having a visitor leave is bittersweet. It's amazing that people spend the time and money to come all the way out here to see us, and I absolutely love it (hint hint), but man is it nice when they leave and life returns to normal! It was soooo good to see my aunt and uncle and get a little piece of family and home, but it's nice to relax now and not have to worry about two other people constantly. Just like I did when Mitch came out, I'll give a day by day recap of my aunt and uncle's visit (12 days in total here). Here goes, it's gonna be a long one...oh and there's a TON of pictures that will go up in a link at the end!
(Monday, July 30th) Day 1 started for us with a trip to airport to pick up my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve bright and early Monday morning. Eric took the morning off to come with me to get them, they were supposed to land at 7:25, but ended up getting in at 8:05 (luckily we knew this and showed up just after 8 in the airport). We ended up waiting a hour because the customs line was super long, but worth the wait to see them walk through the gates! After big hugs and kisses we headed to car. This was their first out of country visit in 10 years! What a way to kick it off, start with the complete other side of the world. :) Eric dropped us off at home and then headed in to work, unfortunately he had to work the whole time they were here, except the Friday he took off for us to go to Phuket. After getting cleaned up and settled in I took them out to lunch, to a nice Japanese place, and then I took them to the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory to check that out. They seemed to enjoy the tour, and my uncle even took a crack at trying his skills with hammering indents into a stein, way harder than it looks he found out. The people that do that spend 6 months to a year in training, jeez! After the factory we went home to chill for bit and wait for Eric to come home for dinner. Dinner was nice and relaxed, we took them to a place that had a little bit of everything for them to try. Finally back to the house for the night to chat and keep them up a little longer before we could let them go to bed. Jet lag can be a real drag! They still woke up at 5am the next morning, but that's pretty good for the first morning!
Day 2 was my third trip to the Batu Caves and up the 272 stairs. Eric wanted me to take them during the week so he wouldn't have to deal with the stairs another time. We went earlier in the morning so it wasn't too bad outside. My uncle and I fared better on the stairs than my aunt, but she made it to the top and was able to marvel at the Hindu temple and caves. They really enjoyed the Batu Caves, like nothing they have seen before. Something new for me was touring the dark caves up top as well. I hadn't had a chance at this before, so it was nice to add a new aspect to the caves. The dark caves tour was pretty cool. It was the three of us plus another couple and our guide. It lasted about 45 minutes and took us deep into a couple different caves. There were bats, roaches, bugs, spiders, long legged millipedes (gross) and one cave dog. One of the rarest spiders in the world is also located in these caves. The guy of the other couple that was in our group was ridiculous, scared to death of the roaches and bugs. I dislike roaches as much as the next person, but he like screamed and ran away. He wouldn't even look at the pictures she was showing us of the bugs that were in the caves. When we were almost done with the tour our guide shined her flashlight onto a rock that was completely covered in roaches (about 20 ft away) and he freaking bolted ahead to get outta there, lol, too funny. His wife was telling him that she was proud of him and that he was doing such a good job at the beginning, while he's shaking in his boots, haha. At one point during the tour, once we were a good ways in our guide had us all turn our flash lights off and it was completely pitch black. Could not even see my hand in front of my face! The dark caves tour was definitely cool. After we walked down the 272 stairs and met up with our taxi driver Jeff, he's a driver I use around here and can be booked by the hour for a whopping 25 ringgit ($8) an hour, yep an hour. It's stupid sometimes how cheap some things are out here. Jeff took us to the Pavilion mall where we grabbed some delicious Lebanese food. mmmmm chicken schwarma mmmmm. Once again, we headed back home after walking around a little and waited for Eric to get home from work (this was a reoccurring theme while they were here) and went out to dinner.
Day 3 we hit up central market and Chinatown. This is more or less shopping and taking in the culture, just something everyone should see that comes here. Central market is full of souvenirs and clothes and wood works. My aunt found a very nice wooden bowl to take home for them and something for someone else. We had a nice lunch just outside Chinatown, then we headed over to the towers to get some day time pics. Next was a trip home and a little chill time by the pool, ah so nice! Once Eric got home we went out to meet Dave and Leah and a couple of their friends for dinner. We all got delicious pork burgers and had a fun time. My aunt and uncle were happy to meet Dave and Leah finally since they have seen all sorts of pics of them with us. They felt like they knew them, but were meeting for the first time :)
Day 4 I took them to a restaurant called Din Tai Fung for a little dim sum. It's a lot of steamed dumpling type things that are quite tasty! They enjoyed that and we took a walk down the way to a row of little massage shops and found our way into a fish spa. You can't come to KL without trying the fish spa :) Since I had already gone down that road I declined this time. It's fun to see people's faces when they stick their feet in and get attacked by these little fish. HI-Larious! After the fish spa my uncle and I got a 30 minute foot massage for about $8. Man, was that nice, I wouldn't mind doing that every week! Next stop was Plaza Low Yat, a 5 story all electronics mall. This place has everything and I mean EVERYTHING you could want, electronics wise. I was in the market for a water proof camera to take to Phuket! I found a pretty nice one, negotiated my price a little bit and wound up with a camera :). We headed back to pavilion mall and then grabbed the sky bridge that connects pavilion to KLCC to go meet Eric for some dinner. We had a pub dinner to give our stomachs a break from all the different foods we had been eating and to prepare them for the Thai food we were about to start eating for the next couple days...
Day 5 was a long day. It started bright and early, we had to leave the house about 5:30am to get to the airport and catch our 7:30am flight to Phuket, Thailand. We booked a nice little resort on the beach of Kata Noi Bay, little did we know that it was an hour from the airport, that was a long drive. Thailand is an hour behind KL, so we arrived about 8:00am at the airport and once we made it out and the cab we arrived at our hotel about 9:30, unable to check in until about 10:00. Eric and my uncle had wandered into a tailor shop to browse their offerings. Eric ended up with 2 more custom button shirts and two ridiculous suits, one for him and one for his bf Jimmy back in Houston for this big golf tournament they are playing in together when we are home in October. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for you, I cannot show a picture of said suit before Jimmy gets to see it first hand. So, we get checked in and then head to grab some local Thai lunch, the food there is very good and dirt cheap. After lunch we had a little bit of time to lay out by the pool before we had to get picked up for our zip line through the jungle adventure!! The zip line was awesome. It took us FOREVER to get the spot for the zip line, but well worth the wait. It was us and another group of three and our guides up in the canopy's of the jungles of Phuket. We did 17 zips from treetops to treetops and to the ground and back down the hill all the way to where we started. I had never done a zip line before, it's amazing gliding through the air like that, you feel so free (minus the harness and the cable). Awesome experience and I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance. We would not have done it if it hadn't been on my aunt's bucket list to zip line through a jungle, I just would not have thought to look for something like that, but I am glad I did, thanks Nana! We finally arrived back at our hotel about 6, got cleaned up and went to grab a drink at the beach/pool bar and watch the beautiful sunset over the water. Absolutely beautiful. Once the sun had set we hopped in a tuk tuk and headed to a restaurant called Mom Tri's for a nice dinner. A nice place overlooking the water, but it was dark so you couldn't really see anything anyway, food was delicious. We were all pretty wiped after such a long day, I was pretty close to falling asleep at the dinner table. Whoops, I'm just resting my eyes, I promise ;)
(boys will be boys )
Day 6 was another extremely long day and another extremely awesome day. We had originally booked the Phi Phi Islands Tour package, but were notified Friday that it was being cancelled to due strong winds, which doesn't make for a nice boat ride or snorkeling, boo. I was a little upset, but they offered us instead the Phang Nga tour package and it sounded pretty good so we decided to go for it. Glad we did, it was awesome. We started the day with a 6:30am pick-up from the hotel. Sooo early. We picked up another group on the way and spent another hour or so in the car again getting to the jetty to head out on the water. Once we arrived at the jetty we had to wait about another 45 minutes or so for everyone to get there from the other pick-ups and then we finally set sail about 8:30. The boat was a nice little speed boat, there was 20 passengers plus 3 crew, good number of people. There was room for everyone without feeling crowded. Our first stop on the tour was a little beach in Krabi province. We are pulling up and stopping the boat near the beach to get off and we notice something going on on the beach. We find out they are filming a movie! Cool, we get off the boat and are walking by, quietly, the crew was making sure we were quiet and not taking pictures. The scene when we walk up is a guy in the sand (like in a hole with a wooden top and a hole in it where this guys head is sticking out from), an army type guy yelling at him then walk off and a girl in a swim suit comes up to him and they are talking/yelling and as the man in the hole is yelling his voice sounds familiar, then I take a better look. Holy Shit it's McLovin!! McLovin is from the movie Superbad for those that aren't familiar. He isn't in much, but he has a pretty distinctive voice when yelling. The girl hits him with a fake shovel, knocks him out and runs off, end scene. I have no idea what movie it was for, but look forward to seeing it some day and remembering that I was there for that scene on the beach :) The beach was very small, just a little island beach, but beautiful. The water was awesome, we hung out in the water for about 15-20 minutes swimming around and feeding the fishies. The current out there is ridiculously strong. If you aren't paying attention you could get sucked out and not be able to make it back, it's that strong. After the beach we took off into the sun and onto our next stop. Phuket and Krabi provinces are loaded with these huge limestone formations, and a group of them together is called a hong, like a cove surrounded by the rocks. There were cool Mangrove trees everywhere, the only trees that can grow in salt water. We made a stop at another little island to see this Body tree, it's a 1000 year old sacred Thai tree, another gorgeous walk around. We saw some cave paintings on the side of a limestone wall that were about 1500 years old, and cruised by a spot where sea gypsies lived. I couldn't imagine living like they do. It's basically a small cave by the water and a little beach area and that's it. These people have nothing. We stopped at a floating village, which is quite amazing to have lunch and walk around a bit. It's literally a wooden village on stilts in the middle of the water, a floating village. The way these people live is crazy, they don't have a lot at all, very basic, except I did notice a couple of the houses had big screen tv's, nice to see they have their priorities in order, lol. The lunch was really good, sat right out on the edge of this restaurant and enjoyed the scenery and a great Thai lunch. The shops were cool, we walked around saw the mosque, the houses, the school. All very interesting. Eric bought a little handmade glass fish for the shelf and I bought some little pearl sets. Our captain told us they were real pearls, not high class, but real. After lunch we left and went over to James Bond Island. This area was used in the movie the Man with the Golden Gun, it was the bad guys hideout. They had these two rocks that were leaning on each other, they say they represent a man and a woman supporting each other and if you and your partner put your hands on the wall together you will be together forever, and if you are single and do it you will find the love of your life. The island had a bunch of people there, a touristy spot, but cool to see. After James Bond Island we cruised over to a spot with some sea caves. We out of the boat and into some inflatable canoes, two to a canoe plus the guide, and they took us around into some sea caves, very cool. Some entrances were so low we had to duck to get in. The hongs we went into were so peaceful and absolutely breathtaking. We made one last stop at some more caves, we hopped off the boat and into the water to walk through a pitch black cave into the center of one of these limestone rock formations. If tide is in you can't really get back there, but with tide out we were able to walk around and check it out. We finally head back to shore, got in our van and headed back to the hotel. Made it back about 6:15, almost a 12 hour day, amazing but long. We got cleaned up and went to watch the sunset again over the water, stunning. There was a power outage around our area, so dinner was by candlelight, which was cozy. Eric got to pick up his and Jimmy's crazy suits and a couple shirts, and one shirt for my uncle. I wish I could show the pics, but unfortunately I can't, sorry! After dinner and the suit pick up, we went into Kata town and had a few drinks and enjoyed some live music. What a long day!!
(Eric and the Captain)
Day 7 started with breakfast at the hotel and hanging by the beach watching the waves come in for a bit before we had to head out to the airport and say goodbye to Phuket. We decided to grab some All-American food and grabbed a Subway at the airport. We got ripped on the price because we didn't have enough Baht to pay cash. We had our Malaysian Ringgit which we could use with the exchange rate, 4-6 inch subs and 3 drinks cost us about $50 USD, outrageous, we got ripped by Subway, horrible! Made the flight back and got to relax for a about an hour before we took off for dinner with Chantal and her daughter. It was the first time to see them in about 8 weeks! It was really good to get to see them again.
(the hotel grounds)
(my aunt and uncle walking the beach)
Day 8 was a chill day. Monday, Eric went back to work while we were able to hang around the house all day and do nothing, which was nice after the busy weekend. Eric made it home and we took off for an easy dinner. On our way home from dinner we drove by the Baskin and Robbins down the road (after sitting in traffic for about 20 minutes because of the ridiculous amount of people out) we noticed there was about 200 people in line and around it for free ice cream since a Malaysian guy got a silver medal in ping pong in the Olympics. This was insane. A crap ton of people waiting an hour or so in line, I would guess, for one scoop of free ice cream. We weren't happy about it because it seriously slowed us down from getting home, but it was pretty funny to see. We grabbed a quick pic and took off.
Day 9 ended up being another chill day. Unfortunately, my poor aunt got sick from her dinner and was sick Tuesday. So, we laid around the house again so she could re-coop. About 5:30 we finally left the house to head into town for our tour of the towers. We made it just in time for our pre-booked tickets, traffic was really bad trying to get into town. Eric did not do this tour as he'd already done it before as well, so just me and my aunt and uncle. We went up to the 86th floor first this time and got to see the sunset from way up there which was pretty cool, then we went down to the 41st floor and got to see the view at night. Eric picked us up at the towers after our tour and whisked us away to dinner. Passage Thru India, Indian food if you couldn't tell, and enjoyed a delicious meal. After dinner we took them up to the Sky Bar at the Traders hotel for that great view of the towers and the fountains.
Day 10, I took my aunt and uncle to go feed the monkeys at our special secret spot. We stopped to pick up some bananas and then on to our spot. I think they enjoyed themselves. The monkeys there are pretty sweet, and the babies are adorable clinging on to their moms. After the monkeys I finally took them to try out some Malaysian food, not at one of the hakka stalls, but a nicer restaurant called Grandmamas. It was pretty good, huge portions, definitely should have shared here but I didn't know. Lunch was followed by a little more shopping. We went back to a shop we had gone into on our central market/Chinatown day to look around again. They picked up a couple souvenirs to bring home and I even picked up a little piece. It's made out of one piece of solid teak wood and it's about 100 years old, there's a picture below. Eric and I really like it and plan on hanging it up over our tv in the living room. Dinner was at our favorite Chinese place, Mei King Fatt (or as we like to joke, making me fat :D ). Chantal and Ashley joined as well as Eric's boss and his family. This place is a more the merrier type place so that you can order a lot more food and try everything!
(hi, don't mind me, just gonna chill on my log here)
Day 11 was our last long exhaustingly cool day. Eric couldn't join once again as he had to work, so just the three of us on another adventure. We started with a 10:30am pick up for our tour to the elephant sanctuary and the firefly park. We spent a lot of time in the car cruising around Malaysia to get to everywhere that we needed to get to. Our first stop was about 11:30-12:00 for lunch in a town called Karak. It was a very local Chinese establishment. Nothing nice about it except the food. I'm glad they got to experience this type of restaurant, since I didn't really get a chance to take them to one. After lunch we took off for the elephants. We made it to the sanctuary about 12:45 and were ushered in to watch a 30 minute film on how they try to place elephants in different parts of the country if they are caught messing with crops and such, they move them to the jungle where they can have more room to roam. It was actually kind of sad to watch. They have to tranq them, chain them and move them by truck and boat to get them across the country. I know it's for their own good, because if they don't (even though they are protected) someone may kill them to protect all their crops, but it was still sad to watch. Once the movie was over we headed over to the activities area to feed some of the elephants bread and bananas. So sweet, one of them was good at catching the food in his mouth. Instead of taking it with his trunk he would open his mouth for you to throw it in. The activities started at 2, and began with a little water show. They brought 3 elephants down to the water and showed how they get in and lay in the water. Each with a trainer and they would splash water on them to cover the half of their body facing up. The elephants would lay completely flat on one side of their body and they move so gracefully to get up and down, it's crazy. After the water show they put on a little land show. They had 5 elephants for this part and they each do a little trick. One bowed, one went to lay down like he was sleeping, one stood on front 2 legs, one sprayed water from his trunk, and one showed his working capabilities by moving a chain across the ground. We got to feed these guys one more time, a little papaya this time. We stuck it right in their mouth and got some nice elephant slobber on our hands. Next was a brief ride on an elephant around a quick circle track. After that was when we 'bathed' the elephant. Some people went ahead and got in the water before the elephant went in, luckily we waited a few minutes because the first thing he did when he got in was poop a big ole elephant poop that floated down the river. Everyone got into the water in a circle around this one adolescent elephant (about 10-11 yrs old) and took turns sitting on him while he was submerged in the water and then everyone else in the circle would splash water on you and the elephant. It was pretty cool. A lot of people go swimming with the dolphins, not very many help 'bathe' an elephant :) That was the last of the activities, so we showered and headed back to the car. After another 2 1/2 hours in the car we stop to feed and play with the silverleaf monkeys. These were cool monkeys, very tame too. They were gray/silver colored monkeys but their babies were like a golden color, so pretty. They eventually lose that color and the gray comes in but it's pretty cool when they are babies. We had some little peanuts to feed them and our guide told us to hide the bag after we put some in our hands. I had the bag hidden under my shirt and luckily they didn't seem to notice. These monkeys were nuts for the food. They would stand and just keep reaching into your hand and grabbing the nuts, I even had one stick his mouth directly into my hand and eat the nuts that way. My uncle and I both had one jump on our shoulders and just chill there and eat out of our hands. Once our bag of nuts was almost gone I had pulled it out to get more with the monkey on my shoulder and he was all over that bag trying to grab it, I handed it off to my uncle and the monkey jumped from me to my uncle and snatched the bag right from his hand! He took off running on top of a car and ended up spilling the rest of the bag on the hood of this car and then like 15 monkeys jumped on this car trying to get at all the nuts. It was a sight to see, so funny. The owner of the car came over and was like why are all these monkeys on my car, we were like I don't have a clue... After we finished with the monkeys we went to a Chinese restaurant for some dinner at a place on the water. We got to watch the sunset while we enjoyed some nice seafood, chili crab, butter prawns, and sweet and sour fish. During dinner they had some people going up and singing karaoke. I mean legitimate karaoke, Asians singing in Chinese karaoke. It was terrible! After dinner we had a short ride over the the firefly park to get ready for the boat tour there. This river has the highest concentration of fireflies in the world!! Once it got completely dark, we took a 30 minute ride out on the river. I was actually expecting the entire river to be swarmed with fireflies, what it actually was was all the fireflies were in the trees. It looked like Christmas twinkle lights in the trees, which was pretty cool. After the tour was over we headed home and finally made it back about 10. What a day!
(Friday, August 10th) Day 12, finally... I mean already?...danggit! ;) We let my aunt and uncle choose their last meals for their last day and for lunch they decided to go back to the Lebanese place and get another awesome chicken schwarma, mmmm. Eric was going to join us, wasn't able to get away from work. Back at home we took it easy and watched a movie and they packed up their bags. Eric was able to leave work a little early and come home with some time to hang out with them before they left. For dinner they decided on something easy and safe since they were getting ready to spend 24 hours on a plane, they picked burgers at Las Vacas. It was nice to just walk there and eat and walk back. They showered up and packed their last items and we headed to the airport about 9pm. We said our goodbyes and see you soons and they were off on their way. Back to real life.
There's about 1400 pictures, I know I'm ridiculous with a camera, forgive me. The pictures jump around a little bit because I used 3 different cameras and I have taken some of my uncle's pictures as well. But if you feel like taking a Reallllyyy Loooonnggg peek, here's the link to all of them...
Finally finished this blog, it took me FOR-EV-ER! Such a long one, so you better enjoy it, or else! ;) Sorry I didn't make it in for August, I know I missed a month, but on the bright side there will probably be 2 in September to make up for it :D
