Surprise, Surprise

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving"

Lao-Tzu

It's amazing what a chance encounter can do to ones travel plans. While sitting on the beach in
Ko Samui, Mike met a British family and got to talking, big surprise, and by the end was convinced that the best beaches & snorkeling were in Malaysia. Although not on the route we decided to take a detour.... and boy are we glad we did.
- Kuala Lumpur, otherwise known as KL, is a very diverse, modern, spacious city. There is an excellent mix of new and old including the Petronas Towers (tallest twin towers in the world), world class shopping (Carin was devastated, no room left in the backpack), great public transportation, Chinatown & Little India with vendors and giant woks lining the streets, a bombardment of aromas, all surrounding a giant open air market.
- Melaka, the capital of Malaysia a port city settled by everybody and their uncle including the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Chinese and Indonesians. One side of the river is Euro and the other Asian. You know where we went for the food.
- Palua Redang, WOW!!!!!! This is fantasy island. We snorkeled with the turtles, sharks and moray eels plus a plethora of coral and a million tropical fish. It was like jumping into a salt water aquarium. There were fish everywhere. The white sandy beaches weren't too bad either.

Not only does this lovely country have great beaches and sights it also has kind and helpful people. In K.L. there was Jenny and Nicole, our sweet travel agents, that we "employed" while waiting out a torrential rain storm. Not only did they answer a million questions about the islands, they offered to come in on Saturday morning so we could get the tickets. The trishaw driver in Melaka pedaled Mike and I around the old city, no easy task in 98 degrees and 99% humidity. He was amazing with his historical knowledge of the city which he loved sharing and his offers to "take a picture" at every sight. Great guide if you're ever in Melaka. Then there was the nineteen year old bartender who gave us a glass of freshly squeezed watermelon juice and offered us the key to his room after listening to our sad hotel story. How sweet is that! Our last encounter was in a small town close to the airport. We went looking for something to eat around 7:30 at night and stumbled across a little Malay restaurant where there was no English, written or spoken. That's where we met the "Roti Nazi-no roti for you!" A small Malay man with an attitude, scowling at the waitresses, while whipping up the best roti (flat bread similar to naan) ever. Only when we offered to take his picture and conveyed how "delicious " the roti was did he break out into a big smile. Turned out to be a real sweetheart. P.S. we went back for breakfast.

Just a few shout outs....
* Congrats to Grandma Sue and the Gilady/Street family on the arrival of not so little baby Owen.
* Lisa & Dave so sorry to hear about Angie. You were fortunate to have each other for a brief, but sweet period of time.
* Jennifer & Alice, we took a meditation class from a Buddhist monk in Bangkok and had a little lesson in walking and sitting meditation. See you both in India (Feb/March). Let us know the exact dates.
* Ed, our most loyal blogger keep the comments coming. Let Nicole know the universal sign works in Asia too. P.S. No one has asked me about my soccer skills yet.
* Marcia, I'm still lugging around the 10 lbs of product. I feel it's doing a great job styling my frizz. This could be the start of something big, literally.
* To everyone else we love hearing from you.