More Malaysia adventures...

I figured since it has been a little while since I wrote anything here, it was my turn :-) We have had quite a few adventures over the last few weeks that we havn't posted yet. One of our first big events was Isabel losing another tooth. I told her if she loses any more, we will have to put her on a bread-and-water diet - She doesn't have any front teeth left!


Unfortunately our main adventure did not get well documented.
We went to a park call Bukit Merah (Red hill) it is a wildlife park and a waterpark all rolled into one. Kirsten put brand new batteries in the camera before we left and I grabbed an extra set just in case. The ones she grabbed died after about two pictures. The ones I grabbed died after about two more. so I bought some brand new ones at a store in the park. They lasted for about 5 minutes and then died. I think the problem is that the batteries here come it two types - the local ones which are dirt cheap (less than 1 dollar for a set) and the american-made ones which are fairly expensive (~4$ for a set) The local ones aren't worth the metal it took to make them :-) So now we have new, expensive rechargable batteries. But we didn't get many good pictures at Bukit Merah.

We had a lot of fun though. The animal park was kind of cool - they had monkie, alligators, otters, bear-cats, fish, parrots, snakes (a huge, ~200lb Python) butterflys, beatles, deer, peacocks, and tons of other animals. The kids had a blast. For 5 RM (~$1.50) you can buy a bag of food and feed all the animals as you go through. The kids had a blast with this. Their favorite part was the squirel monkeys. They let us into the cage with them (big cage with trees - kind of like a small version of the portland zoo) The monkeys would come and take food out of your hands. Aerin and Isa put sunflower seeds on their heads and got monkeys to jump onto their shoulders to eat them off. Really cool! We also saw a bird show featuring some parrots that coudl ride bikes, play soccer, and play basketball. Here is Ethan with the star of the show on his head.

One of the neat animals they had there was the largest type of freshwater fish in the world. This one is quite small - only about 8 feet long. The longest grow up to 18 ft. Matt, Tony, Malcomb, grab you fishing poles, you are coming to Malaysia! (better get some really strong line though...

Here are our monkeys in front of the park. This was the first pic we took so the batteries were still working...

After visiting the animals, we ate lunch and went to the water park - This was a lot of fun too. I was a little afraid that the kids wouldn't like it since our last water park adventure was to a much bigger and better park in Kuala Lumpur. I shouldn't have worried. Our kids have no long-term memories. The park in KL was called Sunway Lagoon and it was ok - no where near Disneyland or anything like that - I asked the kids, what was better, Disneyland or Sunway - they said Sunway! Why? because it was more recent in their memories. Bukit Merah can't hold a candle to Sunway Lagoon, yet after being there for ~20 minutes the kids said "this is way better than Lagoon!" No long-term memories. I must enjoy this while it lasts. I can take them pretty much anywhere and it is immediately the most fun and exciting thing they have ever done. I love it :-)

Their favorite part of Bukit Merah was, for Ethan, the tube waterslides. They were a lot of fun. Aerin's favorite was a big 1/2 ball. It was about 10 feet high and had a water fountain on time. You climbed the sides using a rope and then bounced around on top like a trampoline. and then slid down the side like a giant water slide into a pool about 3 ft deep at the bottom. Very fun. I think Isa and Lea's favorite was the giant tube ride (Kirsten told me not to take them, but I snuck them up anyway. I am still in trouble...) You sit in a tube and the push you over the edge of this giant slide. You fall almost straight down to the bottom and then go straight up the other side (just as steep as the side you just came down. And then go all the way back down going backwards. Awsome! Kir climbed the ladder to the top ~30-40 ft) but didn't dare go down. I had to pull Lea away kicking and screaming...

Anyway, we had a great time and, thanks to the bad batteries, we will have to go back again so I can get some good pictures!

Today (sunday, May 2) we had district conference. We all (the Penang Branch) piled in a tour bus for the 2.5 hour ride to Ipoh where the conference was. We had a great conference, ate lunch at the Ipoh chapel and then drove home. We learned that the mission president here (President Clark) and his wife are from Oregon! They live in the west lin area. Small world...

Anyway, that is it for now, we are getting excited for our trip to Borneo next month. I will be sure to have batteries...