It's Malaysia, Lah

Well it appears I've become a once a month blogger...I'll try to do a little better next time!

The last month has been a lot of fun, and there is much more fun to be had, but more on that later.

We started off after the last blog with a little event put on by our friends north of the border (in the US).  The people from C 'eh N 'eh D 'eh :D for those that don't get it, it's Canada. It was called Canada Rocks (although I beg to differ, hehe).  We went with our Canadian friends and had a wonderful time. To support Texas at this Canadian event I sported my Astros jersey and Eric wore his Texas tie over his Calgary Flames t-shirt. It's a casual event, nothing fancy like the ball, which was nice. Got to wear shorts and flip flops! They had a live band, good people, actually met another young couple there like us (no kids) and turns out they moved into another building on our street, so we have been hanging out with them as well. The drinks at this event were you could get a single beer or a bottle of wine, no glasses of wine, had to get the whole bottle, so I did :) 

Next event up, another rug auction. This time put on by the American Association, but done by the same rug company.  This one was nice, all you can drink and eat for $10 each!!  My theory is they lure you in with cheap booze and load you up so you feel really good about buying expensive rugs! We met up with a few friends there and had some fun.  This auction wasn't quite as entertaining though as the last one because the people at this one weren't spending money or bidding like they were at the last one, which is all the fun. We ended up with another hookah, (this one is way cooler looking) and a small rug for the guest room. Take a look...

While Eric was away at work one day I attended another cooking class. This one all about cooking with local vegetables.  The lady made some nice dishes. A soup, some greens, a dish with veggies and tofu, and a shrimp or pork dish. All pretty good food.  There were a couple things I didn't eat as I'm really not that fond of most veggies. So, not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to go in the first place, but turns out it was nice and I'm glad I went :)

We've made some new friends!! So let me introduce you, as previously mentioned we met a new young couple at the Canada Rocks event, Dave and Leah, and they are Canadian (but we don't hold that against them ;) ). They are getting married next year and are about the same age as us.  They live on the same street as us just down the road a bit.  Have spent a little bit of time with them in the last couple of weeks getting to know them better, I think we can keep them around, they seem nice enough :)  Next up is Liam and Jaime. We met them first time at the expat mingle we attended. They were here for a look see visit trying to find a place to live.  They are also currently not married, but tying the knot in July, congrats to them! Liam has moved here in the condo building next to ours, while Jaime unfortunately is still in Scotland wrapping up wedding planning and does not arrive back here until September.  She was here for a couple weeks and we all had a great time and will miss her until she returns to finally live here with her new hubby. One last new young couple is Jesse and Cynthia, who happen to be from Houston, Texas!!  I met Cynthia for the first time in Jan/Feb at the Chinatown walking tour I did, then again saw her at a coffee morning and struck up a conversation with her, and turns out her and her hubby don't have any kids either...so we switched digits and tried to make a plan.  We met her and Jesse at the rug auction, him and Eric hit off immediately finding out they both went to Texas Tech and through the mechanical engineering program. We've hung out with them a little as well.  We have found a really good group of friends here and I am so happy we have. Not sure I could have made it without them! Here's a picture of everyone but Jesse and Cynthia, don't have any with them yet.

(from left to right: Dave, Leah, Eric, me, Liam, Jaime, Chantal, and Scott)

We headed to Penang, Malaysia, a little island off the west coast a little north of here at the end of April.  Eric got Tuesday May 1st off work for Labor Day, so he took Monday off and we headed out for a long weekend. Left bright and early Saturday morning, took a flight out instead of driving the 4 hours, being it was a holiday weekend I was afraid we'd run into traffic like we did Chinese New Year weekend when it took us 5 hours to make a 2-1/2 hr journey.  My first time at an airport since we had arrived. We had a wonderful time. We stayed on the beach side of the island, Batu Ferringi.  Nice water, was bluer than the water at Pangkor Island, guess it gets nicer the farther north you go. Our hotel was great, good food, nice beach, nice pool, everything you need! 

The strip of beach area where all the hotels are host a night market, every night from about sun down to midnight. It's all knock off watches, clothes, bags, etc and crafts.  We ended up buying a few local crafts and some antique stuff from a store across the street from the market. I brought our travel book with for the trip so we could decide what we wanted to do, day 1 was pool, beach, dinner and night market. The island is well know for their food too, we ate pretty good while we were there! :)  Day 2 was a little more beach, lunch, and then we headed into George Town for a little culture.  First, on the beach we were warned that there was going to be a tsunami drill that morning.  It came, and lasted for like an hour with the horn and the message to evacuate and got a little annoying.  Eric took a walk down the beach and came upon a bloody body lying there, after a closer look discovered it was part of the drill. They we having a full on drill, bodies laying over the rocks covered in blood, bodies on the beach, people in the water 'drowning' and everything. They had the rescue boats and people all over the place, he said he was pretty funny.  We went and had lunch down the road and ate probably the best calamari I think I've ever had. So good!  Then we headed into to George Town.  Saw the Cheong Fat Tze Mansion first.  It's a big blue mansion that you can stay in, that's really old and very fine.  Was listed as one of the top 10 mansions to visit I believe.  Everything inside and outside is very detailed and intricate. The floors, walls, paintings, posts, everything is really nice. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, only outside, so I have those.  

Then stopped at the E&O Hotel, a nice old hotel on the water known for it's high tea.  We ended up just having a drink in the bar instead of tea since I don't really like tea.  Nice hotel, apparently Charlie Chaplin has stayed there.  Next stop in town, Fort Cornwallis.  A British Fort built in 1786, that was pretty cool to see.  Went through the rooms and read a bit of the history and got some good pictures. After that we just kind of walked around town a bit, through Chinatown and Little India until we decided to head back to the hotel.  On our way back about a minute from the hotel I noticed a couple people that looked familiar, and realized that some friends of ours from KL were walking down the street in Penang!  The couple that was actually on the flight we moved here on with their teenage daughter. We stopped and said hi and decided to meet them after dinner at the Hard Rock to watch some live music. Had a nice night with them there.  Next morning was Penang Hill.  Had to get out early for this one to beat the lines for the cable car.  Took a taxi ride past the town up to Penang Hill.  It's a really cool little spot with a cable car that takes you all the way up the hill and gives you a great view of the island and the bridge to mainland Malaysia.  On top of the hill is a hotel, bird park, Indian temple, Mosque, Owl Museum, restaurants, and a little buggy that takes you and shows you around a bit.  It was really nice up there, a little cooler being on a hill top. Got some great pics of the amazing views. Here's one pic I took that I absolutely love love love because it ended up looking like a heart framing the island.

After we came back down the hill we went to check out this massive Chinese Temple.  It was really cool.  The main temple had 3 main huge statues and had 10,000 little statues on the walls, surrounding the entire inside floor to ceiling.  You keep walking around the grounds and there are several other temple rooms beautifully decorated, then you take their little sky car up to the top where they have this massive statue of one of the gods.  It's the largest one in the world or this god. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of it because it was under a bit of construction.

There is also an air force base on the back side of Penang Hill, and while having lunch one day at the hotel we hear this deafening Whoosh come by and a jet that looks about like it's flying just over the water off the beach.  This thing was so close and so loud it was crazy and pretty cool.  Anyone napping by the pool or on the beach was rudely awoken!

Oh, and the first night we actually saw stars!! It was the first time we had seen stars since we got here.  For some reason, they just don't show up here, not sure why. Even on the clear nights. Actually saw a planet first at sunset, then later more stars came out.  Second night saw the big dipper, and it was upside down. 

Since then, back in KL we have seen stars like twice, but only a few.

Went home the next day and said goodbye to the beautiful island, fun shopping, and great food.

We had our first BBQ with friends here at the house. Eric used the Old Smokey on one of the side balconies and did a great job. There was 8 of us for dinner, cooked some chicken and lamb chops on it and they were all wonderful!

Lots more coming up in the next blog as our friend Mitch arrives from Houston and we go to Singapore and Bangkok!!

Here's the link to the picture album from Penang, enjoy :)

http://photo1.walgreens.com/walgreens/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=10058325001/a=4748092_4748092/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walgreens/

Ok, I've got my glass of wine and master chef Australia on the TV...I am ready to write!
Another busy few weeks at the KL Kjol Household. We had a wine dinner we attended with friends and the expat group towards the end of March at a restaurant called 1919, Asian Fusion food.  Food was ok, they started us off with an awful sour plum drink, blah, and then the free flow wine started which was nice. I think there were 4 courses, didn't get to eat the starter salad as it was insanely spicy, I'm not even sure Eric ate all his and he loves the spice.  Next was fried eggplant, I don't like eggplant and this was delish! The main course wasn't that great, again spicy and fishy flavor, not great. All together though it was a nice night with great friends.

A couple days later we headed out for a weekend at the water and the Formula 1 track.  We went with our KL besties and had a fun weekend.  First day was spent by the pool and a nice Chinese dinner at the hotel.  Next morning, breakfast and off to the races.  This was my first Formula 1 experience and holy crap was it LOUD! Eric and I spent the day watching the races and hanging out.  I left just before the last race as you can only watch a car go around a track so many times before it starts to blur together.  Eric stayed and met up with Scott to watch with him a couple other guys from their seats.  I went back to the hotel and got some much needed sun and hung out with the ladies.  The boys finally made it back later and we all headed for Steamboat Chinese food.  None of us had tried it before, it's interesting but not my favorite, not sure I'd try it again.  Next day we hung out for a bit and then I headed home and Eric headed back to the races for the finals.

A quick shout out to my mom and dad for the AWESOME care package!! Face wipes, gardettos, girl scout cookies, (peanut butter patties will always and have always been the best.cookie.ever) Rudy's BBQ sauce, and some Easter goodies :) Thanks guys!

Had a dinner out with friends at a Malaysian restaurant in town called Songket.  Nice little stage set up with tables around for the Malaysian/Asian themed dances they put on during dinner. Different food, the appetizers we had were all great, but the food ok.  I'm not a huge fan of the local cuisine. Dancing was enjoyable, something different to do going out rather than just dinner.

Next up...more monkeys! Yep, can't get enough of the monkeys here!! Our friends mother was in town and wanted to see some monkeys before she left, and we knew the perfect spot to take her for an up close and personal look. We got some great pictures this time. Eric was sitting on a log and a monkey came up next to him and decided he looked like a good perch, so got in his lap!  Another monkey took perch on top of a motorbike, looked like he was going somewhere fast :)  Eric and I got to pet a monkey again, very exciting. Also saw a poor little monkey dangling from a tree limb and trying his little monkey hardest to get back up to a level that he could climb back up, but unfortunately he couldn't do it...the little monkey fell on the ground.  He was ok, but he gave us a fright!  loving the monkeys!!

This little guy was just pooped I guess.

Notice anything hanging from the tree in the middle there...???

Next stop, (a couple days later) the Batu Caves on Eric's day off on this past Wednesday for the installation of the new King. Here's a little wikipedia synopsis...
Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples, located in Gombak district, 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill. Batu Caves is also the name of the nearby village.
The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan. It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia...
Now that that is out of the way I can tell you what we thought.  Very impressive to see the gold statue at the bottom of the cave steps.  It's the tallest statue of that specific god in the world.  Monkeys everywhere, tons of people, and beautiful temples and caves.  There are 272 steps you climb up to reach the temples.  It took a couple rest stops on the way and some monkey pictures of course, but we did make it to the top.  That's tough work in this heat and humidity! We did it though, and glad we did. The culture here is so rich it would be a shame to miss any of it. 

As I have decided that we need to start crossing local attractions off the list of things to do here, we went to Aquaria, the aquarium here this weekend. It was a nice aquarium, I've seen bigger and better, but this one was nice.  The main aquarium had some big sharks, a giant sting ray, big sea turtles...gorgeous animals.  It was something fun and different to do for a little bit.

Eric has spent the last couple days in Singapore, he left Sunday and comes back tonight.  The days are the same, but the nights are a little long and lonely, glad he's coming back tonight!  Happy I have the girls to keep me company though :)

A special congrats to my little brother-in-law and his new fiance. He proposed and she said yes!! So happy for you both!!!  Can't wait until we can celebrate with them later this year.

We have a trip planned for the end of the month, woohoo, it's to Penang.  Still in Malaysia, but we want to explore our new country as much as the ones surrounding it. I can't wait for this trip, the beach, the culture, and the food!

I had my first tennis lesson today, well half of one, I split time with a friend. It was fun, I enjoyed it.  Apparently, I have a good back hand, better than my forehand. Might even take another lesson. 

I also drove today!! It was my second time to drive, both times have been only about 10 minutes, but this time Eric was not in the car with me to help with the left side.  I took the car to the grocery store and didn't hit anything, not even in the parking garage!! I'm so proud of myself :D  It's a little difficult driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road, but I managed.  Just need to practice a bit more now when we find the time for me to.

One more bit of information I know you can't live without...I have won twice in a row in my desperate housewives of KL poker gome! YAY ME!

If you are interested, here's a link to the rest of the pictures I took at Batu Caves and Aquaria (there are some good ones)...
http://photo1.walgreens.com/walgreens/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=9644560001/a=4748092_4748092/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walgreens/

Bye for now! :)

Back in Green

I know it's been a little while, and no excuse except I'm a slacker. :)

Lots of fun stuff has gone on since my last blog. First off was the American Ball. I felt like Cinderella, and it felt like the prom all over again (but with drinking...more fun I think) I got all dressed up, new dress, new shoes, I did my hair and make-up. Haven't worn a long dress since my wedding.  It's really nice to get all gussied up every once in a while. Eric wore a tux and we had a fabulous time.  The theme MoTown, the drinks free flowing, and the night amazing. Things started off nice with drinks and checking out the silent auction and pictures. Then we sit down for dinner and they have these little boy scouts holding up American flags and our National Anthem starts playing...oh what a sweet sound it was! The speakers needed some serious help, not entertaining in the least and although dinner was very good it was drug out over like an hour and a half.  Wine was still flowing though, so it was all good :)  After dinner was more wine and dancing and laughs. I won a couple massages and a gift certificate to a hair salon in the silent auction, yay me!  Yet to use the massages but will soon.  Made it home who knows when and just had a great night with great friends!

I have done two more cooking classes, Indian and Vietnamese.  Both Awesome.  I have not attempted the Indian yet and it's a long and scary process and I don't have a wok yet. One day I will try it and one day I will get that wok! Tried the Vietnamese with a friend and it came out delicious. We made spring rolls, with marinated chicken and beef and rice noodles...soooo yum.  I have also spent some time in the kitchen making another homemade pizza, banana bread, breakfast cookies and Chuy's creamy jalapeno ranch dip...just a few of my favorite things :)



We have also had some lovely nights out with friends. A bunch of us went to a great restaurant nearby and had a blast, ended up walking back towards home and stopping at a bar where Eric decided on a flaming lamborghini shot with a one of the other guys.  Had dinners out and in and just getting to know everyone and everything around.

We joined the expat group over here and went to a mingle last week at a bar in town. Had a good time with some friends, mostly drank because the food situation was a little bit unorganized, by a little bit I mean terrible and by unorganized I mean non-existent. They had appetizers that started about an hour and a half after we got there, but they started at the front of the room and we were at the back and by the time the trays got anywhere near us the food was gone :( we were staving!! stomachs were def eating themselves. We got a few leftovers on the dessert trays that made it through, not enough. So, what did we do, we prevailed and filled our bellies with wine and beer. I think we got enough calories in that anyway ;)

I have joined a gym and been going the last couple weeks, been at it like a fiend! I have had some motivation from some ladies that get me up and going in the mornings and I thank them for that. It would be a lot harder to make it to the gym without them.  I have finally been enjoying some classes! My gym back home was tiny and had no classes, so it's nice to have a gym here with some classes I enjoy. I'm sure you love reading about my gym adventure, but it's my blog and I'll write what I want too :-P  I know I sound like a total lady of leisure, and it's probably because I am now. Cooking classes, language classes, the gym, lunches, coffee...I can hardly believe it myself.  But if it makes you feel better I did nothing today but walk the dogs, go the gym and watch tv all day. Spent quite a few hours planted on the couch catching up on some of my US shows. Watched the latest Desperate Housewives and cried like a baby! speaking of which...I have started a Desperate Housewives of KL poker game out here. Yep, you read right. Played two weeks in a row now, poker chips, money, Texas Hold-em, wine and snacks...what's not to love! True lady of leisure this one...

Eric and I hosted our first party this past weekend and it happened to be St. Patrick's Day..uh oh..things got a bit crazy. Our theme was Green Tie Affair. Everyone wore a green tie on their person (not everyone had one on their neck..) There was vodka, jim beam, jack, wine, champagne, jello shots, beer, and Irish car bombs.  The Irish car bombs got out of hand and got people in trouble. One guy was pretty toasted early, one guy passed out on the couch and one guy passed out in bed and then got his toes painted..cough..eric..cough...There was dancing to Eagles and ACDC and fireworks in the city and the the view from our place was amazing to watch them. All in all party was great and a good time had by all. 

Enjoy the pictures and catch up with everyone later, miss you guys like crazy. <3

Selamat Pagi

Selamt Pagi Houston (and other places)...means Good Morning Houston! I have begun my Bahasa Malay classes., woohoo! I've had 2 lessons, it's once a week for 2 hours. Going well so far, learning a little bit. It's mostly about conversational Bahasa, so it's nice.  Although, problem is that I don't use it much as English is widely spoken, but it gives me something to do with some friends I have made :)

Eric and I got to see a couple Lion Dances that were put on, one in our building and one on the street.  They are really interesting and done for Chinese New Year.  Chinese New Year lasts like 2 weeks and these were marking the end on Chinese New Year.  Some kids get a little scared of the massive Lion or Dragon coming after them...shooooot, I'd be scared too if I was a kid and saw this coming for me...

I have made a couple friends out here which has helped me out a lot.  I have had a few rough days where I break down and I'm sure there will be more, but it's better now.  Meeting people makes all the difference in the world, especially since I'm not working.  Someone I really like and happens to live in the building next to us is Chantal and she is from Canada, ay. hehe.  But seriously, we have done quite a few things together, shopping, Bahasa class, dinners, etc.  Eric likes her husband too, so it's worked out nicely and she has a great 9 year old daughter. We went together into to the city one day to buy a Valentines present for the hubby's, we each bought a bottle of Moet Rose Champagne that came in a pink bottle you could write on...SO CUTE!  And they let us sample the Champagne since we bought a bottle. DELISH! 

Valentines Day arrived and so did our sea freight, YAY!!!  Eric went to work as normal, but left at lunch to help me with the arrival our precious things.  He had a little surprise for me when he got home, beautiful flowers and yummy chocolates! mmmmm. The movers did a fantastic job and unpacked all of our stuff and set up our bedroom and everything by 4:00 so we still were able to enjoy a nice Valentines Day together.  The big items we brought over were our couch and bedroom suite.  OMG our couch and bed are wonderful!! It was like Christmas and we got all new things, very exciting :)  The couch we were using left here by the landlord quite frankly sucked. It was rough and scratchy and just not comfortable.  Eric was in heaven when he sat on our couch.  He almost didn't want to bring it because he was starting to not like it anymore, but he thanked God when he laid on it here, lol.  He has promised to never say another bad word about our couch.  And it's so nice having our bedroom set here, it actually fills our room very nicely and it's indescribable how wonderful it is to sleep on our comfortable bed. Eric also made me an awesome dinner for V-Day. Stuffed Chicken Parmesean! So good, he is quite a man.  Here's a few pics from the move and Valentines.

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(the kitchen looks a lot better now) :)

my beautiful flowers!

<3



I went to a grocery store last week that had a lot of expat items and you won't believe what I found! Cool Ranch Doritos!! I was so excited, I had only seen flavors we don't have in the states like Chili (the pepper not the dish) and other weird ones. Couldn't believe I found my favs, I bought two bags and then when I got home I proceeded to eat almost the entire bag (I think I left some crumbs)...whoops! Oh well, totally worth it, I have been portioning out the second bag I got :)

One of the big malls here had a huge bear statue display for a few months, it was bears painted for countries from around the world, US had a pretty nice looking bear, if I may say so.

We also went to a rug auction this weekend. That was very interesting and a lot of fun. It was a silent auction/rug auction fundraiser benefiting a village in the Philippines that was destroyed by a typhoon.  Eric had way too much fun with his little number card for bidding, I was worried about him. Luckily I was there to keep him in check a little and let him lose some of the items we were bidding on. We ended up with a runner rug, the small rug shown in the picture of our bedroom (it's a Persian), a small one for framing, a hookah, and two Balinese figurines he won in the silent auction. All in all, a lot of fun and we got nice things for relatively cheap! SUCCESS!

This is just a pic of the auction, not a rug we got.

This is our score, minus the Balinese figurines.

Just so you can get an idea of how cheap the food can be out here, listen to this.  We went to dinner Saturday night with two other couples and one of their children and a guy and his 16 yr old son, so 9 altogether.  2 bottles of wine, plenty of beer, 4 crabs, and other meats and veggies at a Chinese restaurant. Everything was awesome and we all got our fill, we were there about 3 hours...the grand total for our bill...RM 1000. That's it, a little over $300 USD for 9 people to eat and drink good Chinese food. Ridiculous!!

That's about it for now, have a wonderful day! :)

p.s. A special congrats to a dear friend of mine Nicki and her new fiance Tommy!! So happy for you guys!!

haha...little Lucy!

 Sunrise over the towers from our living room...pretty nice