Magnificient Malaysia

Malaysia turned out to be another favorite of ours and a country that really intrigued us. Since this country was not on our original itinerary, we didn't really know what to expect. We found a nice airport, no requirement to purchase a visa, and beautiful landscape with lush trees and forests everywhere. The country definitely has a strong Muslim presence, but again we were treated kindly by everyone. Many people went out of their way to give us directions, show us how to do something or ask us if we needed any help. Almost everyone here speaks English and it appears to be their official business language, which was nice. I think the kids and Kristin and I have all gotten well over any negative stereotyping we might have had regarding people that cover themselves from head to foot in public.

Our hotel was very modern and located in the downtown area which was only about 15 minutes from the airport. The currency here is the "RM" or the Ringet. It's been interesting to use so many different forms of currency on this trip. The nice thing is that it doesn't matter the currency in southeast Asia - you will almost always find that things are cheaper than in the US.

So, what does a person do while in the capital city of Maylasia - called Kuala Lumper? Well, our recommendation is to walk to the nearest bus station where you can purchase a $2 ticket for an hour long bus ride to the "Genting Highlands". It's a great ride as you drive up into the mountains which are also a tropical rain forest. When you arrive, you can buy a ticket to take the longest cable car ride in southeast Asia to an elevation of 6,100 feet. As we were riding to the top, we opened the windows and couldn't believe the sounds of the birds, insects and many "mystery" animals we couldn't see. We did see some monkeys in one of the rivers below. The rain forest is so thick you really can't see the ground when riding over in a cable car. At the top, we exited from our cable car and found a very modern amusement park. Picture "Lagoon" or a six flags at the top of Ben Lomond peak and you will get the idea (for those of you in Utah). We decided to buy tickets and enjoy the amusement park....not something we ever thought we would do in Malaysia.

The rides at the park were fun and it was interesting to have "clouds" move in and out of the park. One minute it was sunny and then the next minute you were literally in a cloud. It even rained once for about 40 minutes. We could tell the local Muslim population thought we were an interesting site. Many of them would smile at us or the parents would point us out to their kids with sidebar conversations. We also caught a handful of people trying to take pictures of us in the park. Kristin and the girls had more pictures taken of them than Adam and I. Kristin and I commented that being a minority has been a great experience for the kids. They are very comfortable now in cities or countries where they are the ones who are different. It was great for us to be on the rides with so many local people all having fun together. It makes you realize how similar we are as people - we all like to get away from our daily routines or the stress of life once in a while to have some fun! Hopefully some of this came through in the pictures posted above.

The next day we took a taxi to the Petronas Towers. I remember hearing about this twin tower building when it was built years ago because it took the title of the worlds tallest building away from the Sears Tower in Chicago. At the time, I remember thinking where in the *&^^(&%! is Kuala Lumper, Malaysia. Now I know! (Apparently Taiwan has the largest building now, but Dubai will take over the record in the next year or two.....) The Petronas building was fun to see as it contains a world class mall inside on the bottom 5 floors. Outside is a large park with a pond and an impressive water feature which reminded me of the Belagio fountains in Las Vegas. We were actually surprised again at how modern the mall was....incredible. Unfortunately, they had signs posted saying no photography allowed inside the building.

The last thing we did was to visit a children's science museum inside the towers. It was an impressive museum with more hands on exhibits than I have ever seen in a museum. We all thought it would take "days" to go through the entire exhibit. The kids could have spent all day inside the museum, but we had to leave after a couple of hours to catch our flight. Of course, the museum was sponsored by who else - Petronas Petroleum. A lot of the museum was explaining all about oil - its importance, many uses, and why they must protect it. Malaysia is so modern and has a nice infrastructure because oil is big business here and oil is money. Petronas is a large corporation which has many oil platforms in the ocean and they also pull oil out of the rock beds found inland. I even noticed a Kuwait bank downtown. It's obvious there is money here...

We wondered why more Americans don't visit Malaysia. Maybe it has something to do with the oil, or maybe the Muslim community. I don't think the Malaysian government does a lot of tourism advertising because they probably don't need tourism revenue like other countries. It probably has more to do with the long flight to get here. I know a couple of locals asked us about the economy in the US, what we thought of Obama and why more Americans don't come to Malaysia. Whatever the case, it is a place we would like to come back and do some "beach" research. We spoke to a couple of locals who said the beaches are absolutely phenomenal.

This was our shortest visit to a country during our trip as we were there less than 48 hours. It will be very memorable and we all said we were glad we added this stop to our itinerary.

DEAL OF THE WEEK: All votes are in and we all agreed that the deal of the week in Malaysia was our trip to the amusement park. We bought five full day passes for the park at a total cost of $40. It was also fun to eat lunch at the amusement park, stop for periodic snacks, water and soda for about $15 that day...a total of $55 for our entire family for the day.

FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK: I thought since I was taking the time to write this blog that I could avoid contributing again to funny story of the week. I was out voted again. The story this week took place at the amusement park in Maylasia. We were having a great time, walking or running from ride to ride. After a couple of hours the kids saw a ride that resembled the alpine slide in Park City. We waited about 5 minutes in line and when we were about to get on, they had Anna get on a scale. It was really sad when the guy working the ride shook his head "no" because she didn't make the weight requirement. I felt bad for her because we all know what it is like to be too "small" for a ride. Kristin decided she would wait with Anna and then maybe go on the ride after I took Adam and Lexi. As I was standing there, the guy motioned for "me" to get on the scale. I got on the amusement park "scale" and imagine how I felt when he started shaking his head in a way that said "NO WAY" or "NOT A CHANCE" big guy. He told me I was too "large" for the ride. This has never happened to me in an amusement park. I guess there is a first for everything. You have to remember that the Asian population is much smaller than we are, and the rides are designed for the locals. At least that is what I told myself. Kristin then took Adam and Lexi on the slide as Anna and I went on another ride more suitable for small and large people. I am sure I will be hitting the gym hard when we are home......