BATU FERRENGHI, MALAYSIA

Here is a picture of Erin, Corey and Tien in Malaysia. I copied Tien's post on his blog for you to read about their time together.

Meet Corey and Erin, check into the room, head to the hotel bar/lounge, also known as the G-Spot. Yup. Amazing Jazz singer, Catherine Skyes, performing with her band. Played a little stevie wonder, a little louis Armstrong, a little norah, it was great. Talked until the bar closed at 2.Day 4Wake up later than planned, walk around Georgetown looking for a place to eat, end up eating decent Chinese. Head to Batu Ferrenghi beach, beautiful spot, hang out, have some Tiger beer and fried bananas. Mango smoothies. I’m stuffed. Go to Penang hill, take a cable car up, see the whole city, even the ship in the harbor. Chinese folks ask to take a picture with Erin, like she’s a movie star. Tall American girls, one in a million. Probably less. Take the cable car back down, there is a girl next to me sobbing the whole time. Corey infers that her boyfriend jilted her at the top. Oh to be jilted on Penang Hill, how tragic. Head back to the hotel, download my album on iTunes for Corey, freshen up a little, head out to the Hawker market (new to me, Corey and Erin go to them in Singapore), which is basically an area full of street vendors selling food, with lots of picnic tables. The food is awesome. Laksa (Malaysian soup) stands smell terrible though, really gets to Erin. Best Chicken Satay I’ve ever had. Clay pot chicken rice. Fried egg/shrimp dish is great. Something that tastes like Pad Thai was awesome.Go to another restaurant where people are singing karaoke. They are really serious about it, all dressed up, very focused. Sit down to have a few drinks. One thing we couldn’t figure out, there was a rack of fake flower bouquets to the side of the room, and someone would present them to certain karaoke singers, who would receive it nonchalantly, then hang it up on a hook on the stage after they were done. One guy was really into singing, jerking his head side to side and clenching his fists as he crooned. One girl sang a song with some English in it (“Oh my pretty pretty boy I love you”) and it was really catchy.Headed back to the G-spot and listened to Catherine sing a few songs. Went back to the room, skyped Clara, who was setting up for homecoming - can’t believe Bernadette is in high school, and they’re both wearing zebra print dresses - then video-skyped the Bonaventuras – Sara was spazzing out, and saw baby Joseph for the first time. Audio didn’t work for a while, really funny to watch Matt trying to fix the computer in pantomime.Day 5Breakfast in the G café...head towards the Snake Temple, a Buddhist temple where they have sheltered snakes for a really long time, and they have a snake exhibit now that it’s a tourist attraction. Took us forever to get there, we have a rental car but our maps are very limited.Finally get there, take a picture with a huge snake, watch a Chinese guy with a weird Chinese/Australian accent kiss a king cobra (“the most dangerous animal in the world is the ‘two legged snake’, not the king cobra”) Visit the temple area, head back to Georgetown, where the ship is. Had an AWESOME lunch, Chinese food with roast duck/chicken/pork, delicious rice. Best meal of the whole port stay I think. Walk around some of the textile markets. Back to the port, goodbye to Corey and Erin. I love them, it was immeasurably therapeutic and delightful to share the last two days with them. I can’t believe we were together all the way over here on the other side of the world. They are such wonderful people (and funny and hip too), I am so glad that I got to spend some time with them, doesn’t matter where we are, Malaysia, whatever, it’s always wonderful to spend time with family. Traveling with them is even cooler.