We have been looking forward to this visit for quite a long time.
Heather works for an airline company, so her family is able to fly free.
We are so thankful that they made the sacrifice to wait in airports for hours and fly for many more hours to be with us for a few days. We definitely made the most of our time together and are so grateful that they were able to come.
This is a "once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us."
Let the fun begin!!
First Stop the Largest Crocodile Farm in West Malaysia
Feeding whole chickens to the crocodiles.
Getting Up Close and Personal with this crocodile.
These cute Muslim girls were on a school outing
and wanted their picture with these little "white" kids.
From crocodiles to turtles and bunnies
Our next stop was Desaru Beach on the South China Sea,
which is the east coast of West Malaysia, where we live.
Heather is our adventurous one, so of course she wanted to taste Durian. This is the "stinky" fruit, that doesn't taste like fruit at all. She asked the man if she could taste it, so he opened it, which has to be done with a machete. He gave her a small portion and told her that would be 45 Ringgit for the Durian. She told him she just wanted a taste and he looked a little frustrated, but we just walked away. Only Heather would dare do that. We tasted it, and "No" it does not taste good like our friends here say. They all love it.
Durian is the favorite fruit of Malaysia.
Our next eating adventure was called Lemang. It is sold at many roadside stands. Personally I had never tried it so it was an adventure for all of us. This is made from glutenous rice & palm sugar, it is stuffed in small bamboo pieces and steamed. They take it out, push it out of the bamboo and roll it in fresh coconut. Actually, it was delicious.
We will have to try this again sometime, because it is sold everywhere.
These young men loved having their picture taken with us.
After spending most of the day driving around, the kids were excited to just swim in our pool. They had a blast, and it was a great way to wake them up from their jetlag.
Our friends the Taha family, had us all over for a Malaysian dinner. It was delicious and so fun for us to show off our family. They had invited another family from the branch to join us. We also had Family Home Evening, taught by the Elders.
This was such a fun evening! We are thankful for our wonderful friends here in Malaysia.
Palm Oil is a very big business here in Malaysia. Elder Lamb wanted to see what the seed pods look like up close, and so he stopped alongside the road and took a picture.
It looks like he is an old man with a cane, but actually it helps him a lot since his hip needs to be replaced, but we don't want to return home to do it, so he is just doing his best with the limitation he has. I am proud of him, because he is always in pain, but keeps going.
Our next destination was the Pulau Kukup National Park. This is a large mangrove island which is uninhabited, but is surrounded by many fishing villages.
We took a small boat to the island.
This is a very well maintained park and is very beautiful.
We didn't see any animals, but they are probably here someplace.
I haven't figured out the "selfie" thing yet.
You actually have to walk on these stumps to get across. It was quite interesting.
This makes you stop and think for a minute!
Welcome to Tanjung Piai National Park.
This is the southernmost tip of Mainland Asia.
It is interesting that their sayings are written in only English. That makes you wonder?
So here we are at the Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia.
Who would have ever dreamed that we would someday be here.
Quite a few monkeys call this home.
Next Up
It is called "Big Bowl Ice" and certainly is that. We didn't actually take the Big Bowl Challenge, so we enjoyed our small bowl of this flavored ice (which is sort of like snow) with fresh fruit and ice cream. We didn't try the Durian, red bean or other exotic flavors,
we stuck with chocolate, mango and oreo.
Next we had to give them the Malaysian grocery store experience.
Corban couldn't believe that they actually sell stingrays.
Our dinner is called Nasi Lemak which is one of the Malay favorites. This place is quite near our house and opens every night at 7. They just set up on the grass and parking lots of nearby shoplots. They layer the rice, meat, sauce, egg, cucumber and peanuts in a paper cone, and then you open it on the table and eat off of the paper.
Some places they serve it on banana leaves, but we haven't tried that yet.
Brighton found this gigantic snail, but she didn't want to hold it.
It came to a close so fast.
We are so thankful that they were able to come and spend some time with us.
We had such a great time and will cherish the memories.
We hope that they will always remember the experiences they had with us in Malaysia.
Thank you Mills Family We love you!!
'Til next year!!
