Malaysia truly Asia

"Come and spread your wings. There's so much to see, there's so many colours right before your eyes................"

In Korea, I typically devoted my "home-time" in the evenings to watching CNN. Of course in Korea I was also fortunate enough to receive the world version of CNN as opposed to the CNN that only reports on countries besides America once every second blue moon. The 'Malaysia - truly Asia' commercial came on all the time, and it had the catchiest little tune. The kind of tune that made you just wanna jump up and take off to Malaysia. So, that's what Craig and I did.

We stayed 2 nights in Kuala Lumpur, which was a surprisingly nice city. I'm not even sure why that was surprising- my preconceived notions just prompted me to expect something a little shadier. Fortunately preconceived notions are preconceived and frequently false.

The bulk of our short time there, though, was spent on a beautiful Island: Pulau Perhentian Besar. As much as we talk about Thailand as being the gem of Asia, Malaysia is very similar to Thailand and also has a lot to offer. It was a beautiful spot and we had such a relaxing tropical getaway there.

The boat ride to the Island was about 1/2 hour to 40 minutes. Unfortunately, the ride back was less than pleasant. Well- it started off great:

Shortly after the above photo was taken and we left the dock, our little speed boat started getting tossed around on the waves like a rubber ball on a trampoline. For awhile we were content with that- we do enjoy a good adventure. But then the sky turned black, the rain started to pour, the waves got higher, and the lightning started. Pretty soon the waves were crashing over the boat and we could see lightning striking the water all around us. We were on the boat with a bunch of people from Singapore, and it was entertaining to watch the expressions on their faces change from: "WHOA THIS IS AWESOME DUDE!" As we bounced around on the waves, to: "HOLY CRAP WHY DID I EVER WANT TO COME TO MALAYSIA?!" I'm sure they watched my expression do the same.

But we made it back to the pier in one piece. And once we found shelter, the torrential rain seemed much more peaceful and beautiful.

And hey, the kids enjoyed it. I love innovation. This is the homemade slip-n-slide.

Someday soon I'm going to go back to this underrated country. There really is so much to see.