A Week With Leong and His Family

Visiting with Leong, Michelle, and Nick was fun right from the start…except Vaughn suffered from “Montezuma’s Revenge” so our week’s activities were curtailed.  Add to that Sandy’s inability to handle the heat and humidity in the afternoons, and you have an abbreviated agenda.  Leong had planned several sites for us to see, but we just did some minimal things: parks, more monkeys, and the War Memorial. 

We did go to the Symphony Hall to see a most extraordinary cast of musicians – all percussionists. Led by a woman we later learned was from Iowa, a group of about 15-18 people pounded on drums, played marimbas of various sizes, pecked away at a piano, and rather imaginatively beat a box covered with silk with their fists.  They later played the floor using what looked like the top part of a tambourine.  It will certainly go down as the most unusual concert I have ever attended, but the fact that it was in the Symphony Hall, supported by the National Government, and available to the common man for a mere 10 Ringetts (approximately $3.50), made it even more appealing.  All the programs of the full symphony were priced similarly.  It was an effort on the part of the government to get the citizens “in touch” with the classical arts.

But Friday, we packed up the entire family and went to Penang for the weekend.  It was the end of mid-term exams for Nick, our last weekend in Malaysia, and just a good reason to vacation.  Penang is an island off the coast of northern Malaysia, near the border with Thailand. The drive up was so beautiful – what with the mountains, the palm oil trees, and the banana trees seemingly everywhere – almost in the same manner as dandelions in lawns in summer. Our hotel was on the north side of the Island – so we drove through several of the beachfront communities on the way to and from there.  Georgetown, the town where one enters the island from the mainland, is another World Heritage City. Historical architecture there is mostly from the colonial period, and English.  The buildings are painted in beautiful colors, and against the turquoise sea and the sky blue - - they stand out as nothing short of awesome.  One in particular caught our imagination:  the Eastern and Oriental Hotel.  Built in the late 1800’s, this building could have been in any number of movies – in fact, the island itself made me feel I had reverted to some 1950’s romantic films.

Anyway, the E & O sported attendants in pith helmets, extraordinary Chinese antiques – often with the abalone inlaid designs, and big, circular couches with lots of long fringes.  In two of the showcases, they had photos of famous people who have stayed there:  Rudyard Kipling was the one who fascinated me – Orson Wells, Joseph Conrad, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Noel Coward – clearly it was a place for the elite of the elite…

We saw many of the most elaborate Buddhist Temples, and ate Chinese food most of the time, until we ate at the Ship Restaurant, that specialized in steaks…a nod to the westerners who vacation there in great numbers. Nick is a steak lover.

The hotel was unbelievable.  I will insert some pictures from there – once again, I felt like I was in a movie. The eating area was outside under a roof, next to the swimming pool and a stone’s throw from the Straits of Melacca.  Saturday night we had one of the most magical evenings I have ever spent in just sitting in a white chaise lounge on the grass watching the crashing waves and folks paragliding.

Sunday dawned, and we paid the bill for two nights in this wonderland: $75/night.  Can you imagine??? And while we are talking costs – where can you get your laundry for two people washed, dried and folded nicely for $4? Complete breakfast for three was a little over $2. 

So we drove back to KL, and spent Monday getting haircuts (I have never seen a person cut that way in my life…scissors perpendicular to the comb!) at the mall.  This mall, and others like it could be easily lifted and put into any American city with no difference at all.  We packed the bags and prepared for a 7:00 am wakeup call.

And, even before then, we were up.  We were off to the airport with all family members present – except for Olivia and Jai Wei.  Ben, Kee Yen, Leong, Michelle, Nick and the two of us gathered up all the luggage and headed to check in. 

Saying goodbye was not easy. This trip took 20 years to happen…and we may not have 20 years left.  So saying goodbye was hard, though we all promised it would not take that long for us to be in the same space again.  We passed the security, and headed down the corridor, our much-anticipated trip to Malaysia now “in the history books”.  I kept looking back, and there they stood, on the balcony – all five of them – waving, and blowing kisses.  That will always be etched in my memory: a family farewell – better yet, “Til we meet again.”