Langkawi

My heart was heavy this week with the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line.  For me, finish lines are empowering and inspiring.  They are where the impossible becomes reality.  I'm beyond heartbroken that I will not be joining all the family running in Oklahoma City next weekend, but you better believe I will be running with you all in mind.

It is easy to focus on the negative when bad things happens, so I'm making extra effort to count my blessings.  One of those blessings is the opportunity we have to travel.  Our trip to Malaysia was just scratching the travel surface.  Our final vacation destination in Malaysia was the island of Langkawi to enjoy the beach and wildlife.  We tend to underestimate the size of islands.  We first realized this problem after a three hour trek across Key West dragging our luggage.  Thankfully, this time we were smart enough to hop in a cab when we landed in Langkawi.  It was a 45 minute ride to the remote location of our hotel.  It was right on the beach, but also surround by trees.  We had many fury and slimy visitors.  We saw a flying squirrel next to the pool.  And you better believe that I screamed when I turned the corner in the staircase to see a monkey on the handrail five feet from me.  The hotel windows and doors had special locks because these monkeys had mastered door handles.

 

We took a boat ride to investigate what Langkawi has to offer. 

On the boat tour we did completely normal things, like:

 

Cave hopping 

 

 

Petting sting rays (When I say “we” here, I mean Jonathon made physical contact and I took pictures.  There was no way I was touching that evil force.)

Feeding eagles

We rode a gondola to get above the rainforest canopy and were able to see some of the 100 islands surrounding Langkawi.  The island count changes throughout the day as the tide swallows or exposes them. 

You can even test your fear of heights by walking on the Sky Bridge.

We had a great trip and wonderful introduction to Asia.  Thanks for checking up on us, and know we are sending extra love this week.

Cameron Highlands

The Malaysian adventure continued with a two day journey to Cameron Highlands.  Translated in Texan, Cameron Highlands would be the hill country but much greener.  The pace in Cameron Highlands was nice and slow.  Many native people wait for cars to pass by their roadside stands and purchase goods.  Others gather insects or plants from the rainforest to sell to collectors.  They live in simple homes, children run around barefoot, and they wear big smiles.  It is easy to make a fast judgment and feel the people live in poverty, but they are happy.  Proof that you don’t need video games, i-phones, and satellite dishes to be happy. 

  

Our quest included:

1. Discovering waterfalls. 

2. Taking in a tea plantation.  

3. Eating strawberries.  I excelled in this category.

 

 

 

4. Meeting new friends

 

 

5. Visiting Buddha

 

6. Cruising the rainforest in style

 

Have a great week.  We are thinking about you all lots.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We had a wonderful trip, but this was one sweaty vacation.  Malaysia was humid.  And don't you Kansas and Texas people think that you know what I'm taking about, because this was crazy humidity.  With that being said, I'm not apologizing for my hair in any photos.  Just focus on the smile.

You thought you were coming to the blog to simply look at photos of Malaysia, but I'm pulling a fast one on you and slipping in a history lesson. (Or you are outsmarting me and skipping to the next paragraph.)  The Malay peninsula was first settled by traders from India and China.  In the 18th century, the British Empire began ruling the area.  On December 1941 an hour and a half before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded Malaysia and took control of the region.  After World War II, the British regained command until 1957 when multiple territories came together to form what we know today as Malaysia.

Malaysia is a Muslim country, but there aren't wardrobe restrictions because only 60% of the population is Islamic.  Meaning 2.3 minutes after we landed I bolted for the bathroom and changed into some shorts.  Hello knees.

Our trip was spent at three different locations.  Kuala Lumpur (KL) acted as our home base throughout the vacation.

I’m obviously a pro on all topics regarding KL now, so I have provided you with some lifesaving tips to enjoy the capital city: 

1. First, relax with some exfoliation.  These fishes nibble off your dead skin.

2. Roam at the Bird Park (in shorts).

3. Purchase some counterfeit purses and sunglasses.  If this is illegal than I just borrowed them for the photo.  Here we are waiting to ride one of the many forms of public transportation. This would have been Meghan Vaglio's favorite part of the trip.

 

 

4. Go to Batu Caves (which is a Hindi cave temple) and dodge bats in a respectful manner.

 

  

5. Marvel at the Petronas Twin Towers.

 

6. Use phonetics to decipher your way through the streets of KL.

 

Study these tips.  There might be a pop quiz later.  Check back soon for photos from our other stops in Malaysia at Cameron Highlands and Langkawi.  Happy belated birthday to Madelyn and Greg.

Malaysia or Bust

Get excited.  We are going to Malaysia!  Thursday night Jonathon and I hop on a flight to Kuala Lumpur.  It is an eight hour flight, but we are hoping to get some zzzzz on the plane and be ready for an adventure when we arrive.

 

We will spend a couple days in Kuala Lumpur (the cool kids call it KL) and some time on the island Langkawi.  Locations marked with star on the below map. 

 

Hopefully I will be able to update you guys during our trip, but I might be having too much fun to blog.

Spring Fling

Hello Friends,

Happy spring!  It doesn’t really feel like we entered a new season here.  The desert sand didn’t change colors.  The sand is still brown.  I’ll post if that changes.  The weather is getting warmer though.  The AC went out in the office for a day and a half this week.  It was so warm and uncomfortable in the office and I was so incredibly crabby because of it.  At least I wasn’t the sweatiest at the office, but I just kept thinking over and over, “I’m going to die this summer.”  Maybe a little dramatic, but I’m now officially terrified for the summer heat and humidity.

Qatar doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time, so the sun is starting to come up super early.  After my morning run the sun was really high even though it was only 8am.  The sun was higher than my photographer skills depict.

 

BREAKING NEWS: Cue the band please, we are producing oil people.  Thank heavens.

Some of our friends are moving back to Houston.  People are always coming and going here, so I better get used to it but I’m still sad to see our friends leave.  Most of the American’s that live in Qatar are roughly here for a three year rotation.  (I used the word roughly so I don’t jinx anything.)  The majority of the expats in our office are from Scotland or England.  They tend to stick around longer than the Americans for tax breaks.  Americans still pay taxes outside of the US.  We pay taxes to continue to be considered an American citizen.  In England and Scotland, you are only taxed on money earned in the country.  There are lots of people from the U.K. working in the Middle East, because they don’t have to pay taxes.

 March madness is continuing on without us.  I feel so left out.  Poor Jonathon only watches 10 minutes of basketball while eating his breakfast before work.  My boss claims that watching basketball isn’t a reason to skip work.  He also thinks that cricket and rugby are superior sports.  People’s morals are messed up here.  Messed up.

I realized after last weeks post that we haven't discussed the glamorous topic of toilets in the Middle East.  So here we go, at least for the women.  It is a little like being on a game show.  "What's behind door number two?"  When you go into a public restroom (think the mall or grocery stores) and open a stall door you will see one of two options.  There will be a toilet or a hole in the ground.

 

Most public buildings have both options, so if you open the stall door and don't like what you see then you can try the next stall.  You might have also noticed the hose with the shower head in the photos.  Some people use this instead of toilet paper.  Most bathrooms will have a hose and toilet paper.  That is all about that topic for now.

I hope you are all enjoying spring so far.  We are soaking up the nice weather before the heat rolls in.

 

Old Balls

The American School of Doha sponsored a softball tournament this weekend.  The school's girls JV and varsity softball teams played as well as the varsity boys baseball team.  That means that we spent our weekend being beat by 9th graders.  Jonathon hit a double and when he got to 2nd base, the 2nd baseman said, "Good hit sir."  Nothing like feeling old for three straight days in a row.

This is big news people.  Doha has been talking about Ikea coming to town since we moved here six months ago.  It just opened and you better believe we found time between softball games to stuff our faces with Swedish meat balls and meat Shawarma.  Amazing.



We might have purchased a few items too.  That store is tricky.  I challenge you to enter Ikea and not spend a cent.  Impossible.  When we have children we will be visiting Ikea daily to drop them off for some free daycare.  Parents of the year right here.

Don't give up on us yet.  We are working on getting more exciting in the coming weeks.

Jokes and Shiny Metal

Last week was a short post because I did some Insanity video workouts with Jonathon and my arms were too sore to type.  That is also why there weren’t any pictures of me.  If my arms were too sore to type, then you better believe I wasn’t brushing my hair.  You should be thankful that you didn’t have to see me in person.

 

 

 

 

Work = Crazy.  Our platform is currently in a planned shutdown.  Facilities need to take shutdowns to complete maintenance, but that means we aren’t making any oil.  We want to complete the maintenance as quickly as possible so we can start producing oil again.  That really means that work is crazy busy.  You can expect more grammatical errors and typos than normal for the next couple of posts.  Sleep is lacking.

 

Before shutdown craziness, we enjoyed some Chris Tucker’s humor. It was interesting to observe what jokes were funny to different nationalities.  Chris did some jokes about dating and being broke that didn’t get many laughs from the Qataris.  (In Qatar, typically your family picks your husband/wife.)  But, apparently cop jokes are universal.

 

Trouble

 

We also visited the immigration department to get our magical e-gate passes.  These passes allow us to bypass the normal immigration process when exiting and entering Qatar.  Now, we just get our fingerprints scanned by a shiny machine instead of speaking to real people.  Three cheers for less time spent in lines.  Getting the passes was interested.  I pretty much got my fingerprints scanned and then was told to sit in the ladies waiting section while Jonathon filled out the paperwork and paid.  I actually got in trouble for waiting in line with Jonathon and was redirected to the ladies waiting section until all business was final.  Trouble maker right here.

 

 

 

 

I got to unwind with a run in the park this weekend, which lead me to discovering some spaceship restrooms.  After you used the bathroom it automatically cleaned itself.  I need one of these at my house.  Jealous.

That's all for now folks.