This year we celebrated Christmas and brought in the New Year in a special way; we took a family trip to Penang, Malaysia. In the end, this was a blessed family time of relaxing, re-connecting and enjoying a culture quite different than any other our family has experienced thus far.
Beautiful Beaches
The first thing we all enjoyed was the beaches and clean air. Here are the kids standing on a small beach near the National Park. It was their first time to see the ocean, which Asa declared was "Awesome!".
The second beach we visited was Monkey Beach, which is inside the National Park. As you can see each of the kids - including little Silas - greatly enjoyed playing on the beach.
Here are the older two kids enjoying a beach-side swing.
The younger two kids enjoyed this "baby pool" type section of the beach.
No beach trip is complete without a sand castle and digging for shells.
Hiking
At the end of the beach was a trail to a light house we heard had a beautiful view of the surrounding area. Our guide told us it would take 30 minutes to hike (each way), but I guess he didn't calculate hiking with a 14 month Silas and 4 year old Salome. In the end, the hard work was worth it as the view from the top of the light house was amazing!
Here are Emily and the older three kids while our guide patiently waits at the top of the hill.
This is the light house at the top of the hill, which was built in the late 1800's.
Here is the breath taking vista from atop the light house.
Food
Besides the view another thing that kept us going on the hike was the incredible lunch we ate before hand. The new types of food we were able to try in Penang was certainly a highlight, especially for Emily and I.
This is our spread from Monkey Beach, which included grilled chicken, fish, shrimp and satay.
Another local treat is shaved ice with flavors and sweet veggies on top. While the kids didn't go for the sweet canned corn, they loved the shaved ice.
Cool drinks were also a big hit. Miriam typically stuck with her old standard - Sprite - while Asa discovered milk tea and Salome enjoyed pineapple or mango juice.
We also enjoyed the easy access to Indian food - even if Asa didn't like the Tandoori chicken
I ordered in the "Little India" section of the historic Georgetown neighborhood.
Local Culture
Penang has a fascinating history that mixes influences from the majority Malay communities as well as ethnic Chinese, Indians and European settlers. We explored Fort Cornwallis near Georgetown to get a sense of the European influences and also had an opportunity to interact with the local Malay Muslim community near where we stayed.
The kids enjoyed climbing on the old cannons at Fort Cornwallis.
It was also fun to see how much they enjoyed being together - especially the older three kids.
Everyday we were awaken by a call to prayer from this mosque in the neighborhood where we were staying. The few Malay Muslims we had the opportunity to interact with were very hospitable to outsiders and at the same time earnest about their faith. We have much to learn about this faith held by many people across the world and here in Asia.
This is a picture of our entire family squeezing with all of our luggage into a single taxi for the last leg of our trip in Penang. I love seeing the joy on the kids faces - something common throughout the trip. Not only from the amazing sites and food, but most importantly time together as a family and the opportunity to interact with and learn from many different kinds of people.
