Langkawi Recap

Where do we go from here?

Part of our excitement for being on this side of the world is to take advantage of traveling and visiting as many places as we can.

Our first adventure was at the end of March. We visited a small tourist island called Langkawi which is about 45 mins away from Penang. Overall the trip was a great success and we got to relax by the pool, the beach, and some swings that Emily couldn't get enough of.

This small trip also helped us realize all the challenges of traveling with a toddler. The food, nap schedule, bed time routines, everything changes as much as we try not to. This obviously makes the little ones cranky which makes the whole experience a bit of a challenge some times. We enjoyed all the great moments and learned a lot for future trips to come.

My highlights were:
- Evening at an indian restaurant. The food was amazing and the sunset turned everything a beautiful orange tone. Emily did great and we all loved it.

- Wild life park. They have this mini zoo that allows you to pet and feed the animals. It was a bit of a drive from where we were staying but well worth it. Emily loved feeding the birds, parrots, but especially the white raccoons! This girl is fearless!
- Playing in the water

The beautiful frowny look that we often get from Emily.

Emily and Mami doing like a gorilla

Arves' Artistic Side. Gardens in our hotel

Waiting for my food people

Emily's favorite friend

Despite being a bit hesitant at first Emily LOVED playing in the sand. She just had to be reminded how fun it could be.

Lunch at an Iranian restaurant

 Mami and Emily running around the hotel grounds playing catch me.

My problem with having a good camera is that we end up taking way too many pictures and then I can't decide which ones to post. I have placed the rest of our Langkawi trip on Picasa so feel free to check them out.

Familia - Pegen todo lo que esta abajo para que puedan ver todas las otras fotos o pueden hacer click aqui
https://picasaweb.google.com/mundetica/JPGs?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPWr56G04a3m3wE&feat=directlink

18 Months

Emily just turned 18 months and every day is a new adventure. She is a very fun little girl with a lot of personality and definitely latin blood. There isn't a music playing she doesn't dance to and she is super feisty.

Favorite things

- Daddy. This one hasn't changed since she was about 5 months old. She simply ADORES her Daddy.

- Dora. Lately she has started this crazy obsession about Dora; every morning, I think before she even opens her eyes, her first word is "Dora!" We try to regulate it a bit but inevitably give in more than we should to this cute little request.

- Elmo. She's really starting to enjoy videos and characters and Elmo is at the top of her list. This started by her watching and singing Elmo's song. She can recognize him anywhere and loves a new stuffed Elmo that Shana, my sister in law, sent her.

- Balls. She continues to love playing with balls and constantly calls us so we go chase it around with her as she throws it all over the house.

- Swings. Sometimes we're driving in the car and she starts swinging from side to side saying "fwing fwang" over and over and asks us to take her to the "swings".

- Our doorbell. We have an interesting doorbell that she can turn on and change the sounds. It has about 10 different songs it plays through and she loves to turn it on and dance to them.

- Videos. She still likes youtube videos of Pocoyo, lizards, Sesame street, dogs, songs.

- Lizards. She gets super excited when she finds one and every time we go to the pool we spend about 15 mins looking for lizards around the area.

- Money. Coins to be exact; anytime we get coins back she asks for them and actually asks for us to place them between her toes.

- Pool. Although her usual requests for the pool has decreased due to Dora she still loves to go to the pool and play on the grounds and slides in our place.

- Airplanes. Since a recent trip to Langkawi where she got to walk to the plane to get in she is now very aware of what they are and loves them. She calls for them saying "airplane bye bye!"

Milestones

- Linking two words together. This actually started a few months back asking Daddy to go on the slide but she's getting better at it every day. In most cases she can tell us what she wants which I think it's pretty amazing.

- Words. I am very impressed by her ability to remember words especially considering she's getting them in 4 different languages. Spanish and English at home and Mandarin and Bahasa (Malaysian language) at school. Here are the ones in English and Spanish I can remember: pool, ball, agua, ice, juice, bobo, Elmo, Dora, lights, down, sit, Mama, Daddy, Emily, Miles, Hazel, Jia Jia, Aish, Rene, Nisha, Auni, backpack, map, Boots, rice, cheese, video, bubbles, hola, hello, hi, bye bye, night night, banana, apple, uvas, pulpo, octopus, lagarto, baby, money, abre, mas, more, done, pizza, uno, dos, tres, one, two, three, teeth, toes, hair, eyes, nose, knees, sunshine, airplane, shoes, piggy, paint pig, luna. These are the ones she knows how to use right but she can repeat pretty clearly most of the words we tell her.

- Understanding. She understands EVERYTHING Mami and Daddy tell her, both in English and Spanish. A lot of times, especially when we're calling her name she chooses to ignore us :)

- Self. Emily finally understands the fact that she IS Emily so when we're doing something and it's her turn she says Emily.

- Singing. This is one of my favorites and one of the ones that surprises me the most. Although she doesn't know all the words she knows the right sounds that go next or how to finish a lot of the songs we sign to her. You are my sunshine, Twinkle Twinkle, Go to sleep little baby, Estrellita, Barquito, Dora's theme song, Arroz con leche, Dormir un elefante, Bingo (both languages).

- Play pretend. She can pretend to be asleep and actually snores. Pretends to cry.

- Eating by herself, or wanting to. I'm not sure I can call this a success yet since she gets more on her than in her but she fights on every meal to be the one holding the fork. She refuses to eat from us if she doesn't have a fork on her hand. She's getting better every day though and considering how big she's getting it looks like her system is working really well.

Some Night Views

Since arriving in Penang I have been aching to take some shots of Penang at night. Unfortunately, my tripod didn't make the cut at the last minute for the first trip over, so I had to wait until either Tica or I went back to Austin. So when Tica went home for work last month I begged her to find room in her heart, and our luggage for my tripod. And also mentioned that if she had additional room in her heart and our luggage, I could really use a new camera. And boy did she come through in a really big way. Not only did I get the much anticipated tripod, but also a ridiculously nice camera!

Here are some night shots with the new camera and tripod.

This first shot is from our balcony that looks south over Pulau Tikus. This shot was relatively easy to get as all I had to do was walk out the back door, jump a safety rail, ooch along a ledge with camera and tripod in hand and hope that a gust of wind didn't blow me or the camera off.

These next shots are of Gurney drive, the street out in front of our place. The Gurney area is an eclectic mix of both modern commercialism and traditional Malaysian shops. Offerings here range from high rise apartments with built in shopping malls (or vice-versa), and day spas, 4-star hotels, and movie megaplexes to small street stalls (hawker stalls) that sell local cuisine and small souvenirs. Getting these shots were a little more difficult.

I was too scared to brave the wilds of Penang alone at night, so I convinced a friend from work to meet up with me for some night photography. To get these shots, we had to jump a few fences, navigate a rocky sea wall, convince a pack of wild dogs that we weren't as tasty as we looked, trudge through some mud (I hope that is what it was anyway) all in about a mile or so. In the end we were pretty sweaty, but the obstacle course was worth it as we both came away with some pretty nice shots. Here are two of my favorites.

Mommy's Home!

Tica came home yesterday and with her came lots and lots of loot - including a new camera for Arves. To celebrate, we headed just up the street to the Penang Youth Park so Mommy and Emily could play in the park and Arves could play with his new camera.

The park is amazing and includes an obstacle course, a hindu temple, swings, slides, and pools and fountains to splash and cool off in. We'll be spending a good bit of time there in the future. Here are some photos from our day . . .

The reflexology path looks benign enough. That is until you take your shoes off and try to take a stroll along it! I think the only reason it makes you feel better is the endorphins that get released due to the pain.

This gentleman appeared to be cleaning the small shrine that sits next to the play park.

What's that? A poorly snapped photo? Nothing an overly cute little model and some creative license can't fix.

"Mommy-Daddy", is what Emily calls Tica these days, so you can actually see all 4 of us in this photo, I guess . . .

They have monkeys in the park as well . . .

And fountains

After the park we got hungry and headed up to Tree Monkey again for lunch. I love the views from this place!




We also found some ROCKS!!!!

It's good to have Tica back and to be out and about as a family again. Now if we can only get some of you to come and join us! We'll treat you nice, we promise.

What happened to all the updates?

Well . . . Tica is in Austin leaving Emily and Arves to their own devices . . . This little piece of destruction only took about 30 seconds to create.

We partied a little . . .


Played with money . . .

And did our best to get Daddy to let her do what ever she wanted - this look was particularly successful.

A Chess Battle for the Record Books

And it went a little something like this . . .

The scene: It was 30 minutes past nap time, in a hotel in Langkawi. And our little queen was hungry. Hungry for victory.

The queen shouted her challenge.

This one was personal. Something she had to take care of herself - out of the way pawns! I can see my prey.

The pitiful defense was crushed . . .

The female protector of the opposition was next to feel her wrath!

At last, the focus of her wrath was within her hands and he was dispatched as quickly as the rest.


The bigger they are, the harder they fall!


Checkmate! Good night sweet prince. Maybe next time you can make for a more interesting challenge.


What? You lookin' at me? Don't make me destroy you all over again.

Penang Fruit Farm

We started the day like most here. Emily wakes us up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM, which is a bit of a blessing and a curse. It means that we have to wake up before the sun, but also that we get views like this to start our day with. It also means that we have a lot of time to spend during the day and can get out and get back to the pool to stay cool before it gets too hot.

This morning after enjoying the sunrise, we made our way over to Mr. Pot a place that we have been contemplating for a few weeks now. It's the marker we've been using to know when to turn to get home, and advertises that it's open 24 hours, so we've been curious but not brave enough until today. While the food wasn't out of this world, we enjoyed the experience and left pleasantly surprised.

Here's Tica and Em standing on Gurney Drive right outside of Mr. Pot.

After breakfast we went out to a local furniture store to see if we could find a few things we've been wanting for the house. People have been recommending this store to us for a while and today was the day we chose to venture out and find it. Like many things here, it wasn't exactly easy to find. Google maps couldn't find the address at all, just showed us the entire street the store was on, and the GPS we were using told us it was on the other side of the road from where it actually was. So after driving past the store and around again a few times we discovered the problem. There was a Canon camera store directly across the street that kept distracting the driver/navigator. We eventually found the store, but didn't find much for us within. Emily managed to have a good time though rearranging the display upstairs.

After the store we decided to head up to the Penang Tropical Fruit Farm. I have to say that it was difficult for me to sign up for this one. We drove for over half an hour to look at and sample fruit. Not exactly the acme of excitement if you ask me. But as has become as common as getting lost, the fruit farm was surprisingly enjoyable. The experience starts with an extremely rapid ride in a van along narrow roads with steep drop offs on either side. I had to remind myself more than once in the 5 minute trip that the driver has done this before and that I shouldn't worry. The ride ends in an orchard of sorts with views of the surrounding mountains and jungle we just drove through to get here.

As soon as we arrived our guide began telling us about the various tree species, their origins, and their natural properties. For example:

• Macadamia nuts - two shells, will kill you if you eat too many due to high cholesterol (but it will take decades)
• Avocados - come in all shapes and sizes, pear shape, orange shape, etc. Apparently these counteract the effects of Macadamia nuts
• Cinnamon - cures arthritis when taken with honey. I know what you're thinking, and it doesn't work with just any crappy honey off the street. You must make sure you get a good quality honey (like the one they sell in their giftshop for $60 per bottle).
• Durian - (The smelly fruit) is very good for you, but if you drink beer after eating it your stomach will explode and you will die.

He also told us that people who named fruit aren't really very creative, so everything that is round is pretty much named "apple". He then proceded to show us about 10 different types of "apple" fruit. Here is Emily having a bite of the most expensive one, a "rose apple". They had a very interesting flavor of sweet rose that we all really liked.

I think the highlight for me was his explanation of how the passion fruit got its name in English -the Passion of Jesus Christ.

• The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
• The tendrils represent the whips used in the flogging of Christ.
• The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (excluding St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
• The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.
• The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail
• The 3 stigmas represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
• The blue and white colors flowers represent Heaven and Purity.

And all this time I thought it was because the flavor of the fruit was so passionate. Here's a picture of part of the flower with the crown of thorns and a few apostles as it were . . .

We also came across this "little" (5 inch long body) friend along our journey through the fruit trees who had just finished his breakfast (poor dragonfly). This little encounter reminded me that it is probably okay that I left my camping gear back in Austin.


Just as it started to get too hot to be in the sun, we arrived at the buffet. It was almost as if they had given this tour before or something. Anyhow, here we were able to sample some of the other fruit we didn't get to sample in the orchard: mangos, papaya, pink guava, pineapple, figs, jack fruit, sapote, honey dew, watermelon, yellow watermelon, star fruit, fresh bananas, water apples, and a few others I can't remember the names of.

Here's a picture of Emily enjoying a few of the tropical fruit. She was particularly excited about the banana, but with all the other options didn't even try a bite. After drinking our fresh juice, we packed back into the van for the return trip along the bumpy, narrow road feeling quite happy with our weekend adventures. We got home with just enough time to get in the pool to cool off before nap time.