Malaysia

As we did on our '05 trip to Singapore, a major part of our journey was to meet all the relatives on both mom and dad's side of the family, who all live in Malaysia (mostly on the island city of Penang). And so this reunion also, we made our way and met all the uncles and aunts and cousins -- and of course grandparents, Ah Ma and Ah Gong.

A special trip was planned this time (which we did not have time to do in '05) to visit the village in which Ah Ma and Ah Gong live, and where Kelly's mom (and dad) grew up - Pantai Acheh. The journey to this tiny village was arduous, driving through steep mountain passageways, that are both narrow and extremely windy/curvy. Of course this made for some fantastic views of such steep mountain slopes, dressed in dense dense foliage that end only when the land dives into private coves of glassy water. But of course the reason the drive was made that much more difficult was not the mere route we took, but the fact we had a full car load - 7 adults, 3 toddlers. Fun!

And in time, we see the welcome sign to Pantai Acheh, and arrive at a humble home, decorated with lush vegetation and potted plants and flowering trees and shrubs and fruits -- Ah Gong's garden was indeed impressive, of which (no surprise) I admired greatly.

Outside this mountain village home were many fruit trees including one I recognized from my early childhood living in the Philippines -- water apples! The distinctive taste brought back long forgotten memories of the fruit (and climbing the trees) in our home in Cebu. Ah Ma and Kelly's aunts were busy collecting and cleaning the fruits, which were bagged while still on the tree, to prevent from being eaten by the many bugs and insects, but also to aid in their ripening (??).

Inside the home were family portraits and also individual portraits of Kelly's mom's siblings, parents and grandparents (Kelly's great grandparents, Ethan's great great grandparents!~). There was even a picture of Ethan on one cabinet! To think, from "far away" Blue Ridge, Georgia, USA to Pantai Acheh, Penang, Malaysia. I guess there are many evidences these days to show for the "smallness" of our world. But still amazes me.

And so compared to '05 where all I was concerned with was addressing the many relatives by their titles or family positions correctly (in Chinese!), this time around, I really enjoyed myself and evening taking initiative to have photos taken with Kelly's grandparents, and uncles and aunts. I even feel a lot closer to many of them now.

So the 5 day trip (within a trip) to Penang has been the jewel of this vacation. I am glad Ethan got to meet his great grandparents. We were unable though to have a meeting with Kelly's (paternal?) great grand aunt - Kelly's longest living relative, not necessarily by age but by generation. Had we found time to meet, Ethan would have met his great great grand aunt :-D (significant probably only in photo, as Kelly puts it, even she hardly knows her great grand aunt).