Short Vacation in Malaysia

Back in February we traveled to Malaysia for a conference. We stayed at hotel right on the beach! We’re thankful that we were able to be able to stay a few extra days for vacation. It was a little surreal to be sitting on the beach in the 90F heat in February, but we definitely enjoyed every minute.

The view from our hotel room

A few Highlights:

Travel was CHEAP! That is true, but we definitely got what we paid for. The flight itself is dirt cheap and they just charge extra for everything (meals, movies, blankets, pillows, even bottled water). Our wonderful budget airline did not actually hook up the plane to a gate. We actually got dropped off right on the tarmac and walked past other planes to get into the terminal. This was not big deal until the time another plane pulled in as we were walking about 50 feet away. Loved hearing the jet engines up close and personal!

Brennan LOVED the pool. He started out a little timid in the water, but once we got him some “swimmies” he was swimming like a fish!

Chinese New Year was celebrated several days before and after the official New Year (Feb 14th) with special performances. Here are some drummers we caught at the local mall and the dragon who came to our hotel. Brennan was very intrigued by the dragon, but when the dragon came close to give him an orange he trembled and screamed.

The biggest highlight for me was AMERICAN food! We got a small taste of home eating at Chili’s and Hard Rock Café. I did learn a valuable lesson though… always look closely at the menu because there may be a few surprises. One night my big surprise was when they brought my plate of ribs. Not the usual small pork ones, but the biggest bones I’ve ever seen! Needless to say I sent back the BEEF ribs and asked the manager to remove it from our bill. So big note for all you world travelers out there, PORK IS NOT SERVED AT MOST RESTAURANTS IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES!

On a side note, here was another surprise...

The standard Gideon Bible and a Quran???

Brennan really loves music and so he loved Hard Rock Café.
Here he is pretending that his balloon is a guitar.

One of the perks of our airline was that they serve Krispy Kreme on the flights. YES, REAL KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS ON AN AIRPLANE! I could not believe it when I read it in the flight menu, but here are the pictures to prove it.

So they were not the freshest doughnuts I ever eaten, but
they were certainly worth the $3 we paid for them.