Sweet Times

Happy Birthday, Violet! We had sweet times celebrating Violet turning 8 last week. Our little get together on her birthday eve was complete with friends, pizza, and a very large chocolate cake. Yes, yes. Violet did accompany me to the bakery and selected that huge chocolate cake! For Violet's in class celebration, we made the messiest, fudge filled brownies with butter cream swirls. Again, yes, designed totally by my sugar-craving little lady, Vi.

On Friday, we whisked the kids into the car after school and headed up to Penang, an island off Malaysia's northwest coast. After about a 3 1/2 hour drive up Malaysia's North-South Highway (white knuckle at times with the unfortunate combination of mountain roads and monsoons), we crossed from mainland Malaysia to Penang via the Penang Bridge, an 8 mile long suspension bridge. I only mention the bridge because that was the entire impetus for the trip. Brian's been planning since February to run in the Penang Bridge Marathon. Coming off his Charleston Marathon high in January, he set out to log another 26.2 this year. I, however, was not looking forward to the inevitable hours of training. Upon arriving in KL, it became clear that training here would be difficult (we live on a steep hill, unsafe sidewalks, mad traffic, it's really hot, Brian's work hours are long), so Brian gracefully downgraded expectations and signed up for the 1/2 marathon instead (Brian here - what Mary may not realize is that I signed up too late and the marathon was already booked. But I'm glad my laziness gets me points for being conscientious!)

Because it's so darn hot in Malaysia, long running races are held either late at night or early in the morning. So we arrived in Penang on Friday night with Brian's race start time not until 3:30 am on Sunday.

So in asking people around KL, "What do you do in FILL IN THE BLANK WITH ANY MALAYSIAN CITY OR TOWN NAME" -- the response is always the same, "Eat!" Then he or she will tell you all the regional favorite dishes and the best hawker stall area to check out. So we drove directly into Penang and straight to the Gurney Street hawker stalls. Char (meaning fried) Kway Teow, a stir-fried noodle dish, was the first dish I ate in Malaysia. And I now rate all hawker stall areas by the Kway Teow. Pegang's Kway Teow was excellent. Different from the dish down south in KL, but excellent. We sampled a bunch of other things, too. But honestly the food in Malaysia is so, so good everywhere, that it's becoming difficult to appreciate traveling 3 1/2 hours for good food alone. So for the Penang trip I charged Brian with finding things to do there -- in addition to eating.

Violet getting over car sickness with a little Kick-a-poo Joy Juice.

Based on Brian's research (thank you Trip Advisor!), we bypassed the typical Penang beach visit and, instead, headed to Escape, an "adventure park" up in the jungle. Awesome! The park is basically a huge high ropes course. We climbed trees, rode on tubes, zip-lined, platform jumped, and just had an incredible time! Violet monkeyed her way across the high ropes course in lightning speed (Brian honestly could not keep up). And Tyler, too short to go on the big ropes course, conquered the kid-sized obstacles and zip lines. Then ran the circuit about 20 more times. I'm pretty sure this place could not exist in the U.S. - we didn't even sign a waiver.

Yes, it's snow tubing without snow. And you go OMG fast!

Panning for "gold"

Tyler went off the platform jump with Brian. Later, I went back with him and Vi. Tyler suited up first and he started heading up the stairs to the platform. I said, "Ty, you want to wait for me?" Tyler replied, "No Mom. I got this. See you up top." I was pretty darn proud of him

Grandma freak-out picture of the week! (Don't worry - it's only about 20 feet off the ground...)

Once again in Penang we had great success in finding accommodations through the short term rental website ibilik. Georgetown, the major city in Penang, is a UNESCO World Heritage site with an amazing blend of British, Indian, and Chinese architecture. For this visit, we went historic and rented out a renovated flat in the heart of Chinatown. The folks that did the renovation attempted to retain or re-purpose almost everything in the place - including the wooden door latches. The outdoor kitchen and bath were a nice touch, as well. Funky and fun.

After a long day at the Adventure Park, one of Brian's students, Soon, picked us up for dinner. Soon is from Penang and travels back many weekends to spend time with his delightful girlfriend. We've heard a lot about Steamboat, but had yet to try it, so we were very glad when Soon suggested this dinner spot. At Steamboat, the server brings out a pot with broth, heated by a fire underneath. A smokestack runs through the pot. Then they bring out all this stuff to cook like raw fish, seafood, veggies, fishballs, tofu, and chicken. You plop it in the pot and let it cook up. The broth starts as pretty bland, but after an hour long dinner it is delightfully rich and tasty. And, yes, it was one of those dinner experiences that I was very glad to do with someone who knew what to order and how to cook the food.

After dinner, and after Soon's excellent driving tour of Georgetown, we tucked in Brian at 8:30 so he could get a few hours of sleep. He was up at 1:30 am and out the door by 2:00 am to catch the bus to the race. Brian learned a few things about running races in Malaysia. #1: Everyone wears the race t-shirt to the race. We've always felt that wearing the race tee to the race was like going to a concert and wearing the band's t-shirt. You just don't do it. Here, you do it. This worked in Brian's favor as he had to walk about a mile to the nearest bus-stop to grab a shuttle to the race. Most of you probably know that Brian does not have a good sense of direction. Luckily he saw a middle-aged man in a yellow shirt wearing compression stockings and a fanny pack and Brian figured it best to follow him. Best case he would lead Brian to the marathon; worst case he would probably be going somewhere interesting dressed like that at 2 am. #2: Despite Brian's goal to see the sun rise over the bridge, if you start at 3:30 and run a 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours, it is still dark when you finish (Violet was kind enough to point that out after the race...). #3: The solar powered shower at the funky eco-reno might be scalding hot after a long, hot day; but it's just a cold shower in the wee morning hours, like after the race. 

Brian ran the race in 1:55:24 (a little off his marathon pace - he blames it on the humidity and lack of sleep), made it back to the flat before the rest of us were awake, took that cold shower, and then we headed to breakfast. When in Chinatown, you must do as the Chinese Malaysians do... Eat dim sum for breakfast. (The table next to us were all in their marathon shirts.) We then spent our morning exploring the streets of Georgetown. Many of the coolest sites in Georgetown are the Chinese "Secret Society" buildings. Back in the day when Chinese immigrants arrived in Malaysia as laborers, they brought along cultural fraternities from their home countries. These collectives supported new arrivals and provided protection and political strength to liaison with the colonial rulers. They also built temples. And by trying to one-up the society next door, they expanded these temples into lavish, elaborate showpieces. The kids broke down after not too long on the foot tour, so there was still much to see that we didn't see. We're going to need to return to Penang to spend more time wandering the streets.

Tyler: Dad, I'm tired. Carry me.
Brian: You know I just ran 13.1 miles?
Tyler: Yeah. You're okay. But I'm really tired.

Kids found the tri-wizard cup at the Penang museum.

Last stop before the drive back to KL: Penang's version of sno balls. Yum - and cooling!

On the way home we stopped in Ipoh. Our original plan was to go back to 1919, the awesome Vietnamese place we went to our last night in Ipoh but instead we took Tyler out for pancakes in a mall.

Last view for today's post: It's Christmas time at Ikea in Kuala Lumpur.