Malayniacs

Selamat Datang!

Our beloved Kelsey was finally able to break free from Hong Kong after a year of being held hostage by her English teaching job, so the Brown-Hazy-Hughes clan settled on Malaysia as our escape destination of choice with plans of visiting our adopted Asian family the McKinleys, soaking in some SE Asian adventure travel, and celebrating the final days of the triumvirate's reign before Kelsey's repatriation to the US.

Day 1 in Kuala Lumpur consisted of a quick visit to the famous Batu Caves, taste testing all the local specialties, filling in as T's personal souvenir price negotiator at the Central Market, and lounging around the swanky Dua Residency with all 8 of the McKinleys. With Karen at the wheel of the rental car trying her best to successfully navigate us through the daunting Malaysian road system, the rest of us children were in the back convinced we could all read and understand Bahasa Malay - for a moment there it was almost like we were back in HK en route to our old Shouson Hill Headquarters. I miss my Asian family.

The melange of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cultures made for captivating sites, fabulous food, and plenty of fascinating anthropological observations noted by the social science nerd in me. Other Asian countries might want to investigate the Malaysian secrets that allow for this symbiotic co-existence of such vastly different ethnic groups. But enough of that jargon - we capped off our day with an Indian feast and a visit to our hotel's rooftop lounge to marvel at views of the Petronas Towers (deemed the "patronize towers" by the end of the trip).

Our original plans of weekending in Singapore were scrapped when we all concurred that most cities would pale under our Hong Kong lenses....and Pangkor Palau sounded much more exotic. So we bought last minute tickets on the classy Berjaya Air, and headed 30 minutes west to Pangkor Island for a weekend of Malaysian sun.

After being scared off by Pangkor town which looked suspiciously similar to a Hong Kong fishing village, we settled on stationing ourselves in the quaint Nipah Bay where we received a hefty 20 ringgit discount at the Flora Beach Resort for "2 pretty ladies." Direct beach access, 24 hour availability of fresh mangoes and coconuts, and a scooter on call when we needed it - we were happy campers. And camp we did, once we realized that questionable microorganisms may have been nesting in the mattresses, thank goodness for sarongs that can double as bed sheets.

Nipah bay was gorgeous and pleasantly devoid of too many tourists. The water temperature could not have been more perfect, the sand grains could not have been softer (I'm becoming quite the beach snob lately). I think we spent half of our time in the ocean and the other half developing sun poisoning rashes. T decided that it wasn't enough to live like locals, but we needed to live off the land too, so he became our resident coconut hunter-gatherer and still has the scars to prove it. I bet you didn't know a rock could be used to crack open a coconut...nothing is sweeter than tasting success in the form of coconut water.

During an evening stroll on the beach we stumbled across Daddy's Cafe run by the daddy of all good food on Pangkor. We were immediately romanced by the ocean front tables, fresh seafood, classy international clientele, and mosquito repelling coils. Soon we found ourselves enjoying every meal at our new favorite seaside eatery...and subconsciously learning all the words to the American pop songs on repeat in the background. Tonight's gonna be a good night.

We should have brought our burkinis and headscarves - Kels and I received our fair share of unprovoked male attention while out and about, but we liked to think a little bit of scandal could be healthy for the Pangkor residents.

After one last swim, one last coconut, and one last breath of fresh island air, we were back on Berjaya headed for KL, then before I knew it back in the Kong. All good things must come to an end, and not only did our blissful Malaysian getaway have to end, but tragically so did the Kels-Kariss Asian era. Good thing we'll always have Malaysia.