Malaysia

After Singapore, we traveled to Penang island which is a part of Malaysia.  What a beautiful place and a big melting pot of cultures.  Penang has immigrants from India, China, the middle east, Thailand, and the list goes on and on.  While we were there we met up with some friends that were in our small group here in Beijing.  Now, they have moved to Penang so they showed us so local dishes.

Really good dishes

Trying fresh coconut juice

Dinner with Phil and Maggie

Group of people enjoying afternoon tea together

We stayed at a great beach resort, once again thanks to Jeff's hotel points!  It was totally relaxing.

Jack took this picture.  He enjoyed taking some photographs.

While we ate our meals at the tables, Grace and Jack would play in the sand and run around

Like Daddy.....Like Mommy

 

 

 

 

 Before we left for our trip we realized, this was probably our last trip as a family of four.  We now are awaiting the arrival of Will!!!!  We have been matched in our adoption to a 2 1/2 year old boy.  Praise the Lord, He has moved quickly and we pray that He continues to do so.  We have been approved to adopt this little boy, so now, more paperwork and waiting to hear when we can go and pick him up.  Waiting to be matched is hard enough, but now when you can see his face in pictures and know that he is not so far away, it's almost painful.  I know that the many families who also have adopted can empathize.  More info to come as God leads us down a new path! 



Singapore

This year for Chinese New Year, we decided to join the millions of other Chinese travelers and "get out of Dodge", meaning, get out of Beijing.  We left a few days before everyone else so we didn't face horrible lines, etc.  I know there were tons of Chinese people leaving Beijing by plane, train, and bus to go to their hometowns to be with family.  Due to work schedules, most people leave around the same time and travel back to the major cities in China around the same time.  Needless to say, when we return to the Beijing airport this Friday, we are expecting large crowds and long lines for taxis.  But, until then, we are enjoying our vacation!!

Our first destination was Singapore.  What a great well kept secret from the western world.  I think because it is so far away from the U.S., we really didn't know much about Singapore before moving here.  But it is gorgeous, clean, hot, English speaking, convenient, expensive (for western food and products), and I have to say clean and gorgeous one more time.  Before I begin telling you details and showing you pictures, I want to tell you how we were able to go on our vacation.  Remember when my husband was traveling back and forth from the U.S. to China before we actually moved here?  Well, he acquired a LOT of hotel points and frequent flyer miles!!  That's how we were able to go on this vacation. 

Singapore and Malaysia are a blend of cultures:  Chinese, Malay, Indian, etc.

Our hotel balcony

It rained everyday, but only briefly, and we still had hot swimming weather.

Singapore is known for it's Night Safari and Zoo.  They were fantastic!!  This was the "Creature of the Night" show.

This zoo has animals in their natural habitats, up close and personal, sometimes with just a big ditch in between you and the animals.

There is also a water park in the zoo.

We came across a Hershey's store in the mall

 

This is so true of Grace

We wanted to eat at a Hawker (I hope I spelled that correctly) Center while we were in Singapore.  Basically, it's a food quart with all kinds of food from Indian, to Chinese, to Japanese, to Malaysian, to "Western".  Everything has a little mixture of all cultures.  Very good and very cheap.  Our taxi driver gave us this recommendation in the "little India" part of the city.

I had Pad Thai from this couple's shop

 

Neither of us braved the turtle soup

Jeff is excited to try a Malaysia favorite called Laksa

Singapore was fantastic.  There was many more things that we did while we were there, but these are a few tidbits.  Next on the agenda.....Penang, Malaysia!!  More pictures and stories to come folks!