Gong Xi Fa Cai = Lovely Long Weekend

The Chinese New Year provided a great opportunity to head to the east coast of Malaysia for a relaxing get-a-way. I chose Kuantan because Google Maps led me to believe it is closest city that we could drive to that has both a beach and a reputable hotel. The estimated travel time was 5 1/2 hours so we guessed it would be closer to 8 with traffic and inadequate roads. We prepared ourselves with good-luck mandarin oranges, a read aloud book, prayers for safety, and lots of patience.

I should mention that Eric and I are getting a lot more comfortable driving here in Malaysia. We've figured out that the maximum time behind the wheel either of us can handle before we change drivers is two hours. The roads are extremely rough, the shoulders are narrow, and the drivers consider a distance between cars of 18 inches more than sufficient to make snap decisions at 110 km/hour.(70 mph). When Eric drives we do better if I read a book out loud so I'm not constantly gripping the door handle or slamming on my imaginary brake as he makes two lanes into three and makes sure nobody can cut him off. When I drive, Eric takes a nap and I take the slow lane rigidly adhering to the  one-car-length-for-every-10-miles-per-hour-of-speed (as prescribed in the Colorado Driver's Training Manual I used to pass my first writing exam) distance between me and the vehicle in front. As you can imagine, I always have to keep adjusting my distance because lots of cars see the empty space in front, pull in  light a cigarette, roll down the window, throw the empty pack outside, and blow gentle smoke rings of contentment as we lollygag in the slow lane no longer able to garner enough speed to reenter the race track.

But I digress..back to Kuantan...We arrived just under our estimated drive time of 8 hours and in time to walk along the clean, fine sand beach, stroll along a jungle path among monkeys enjoying their 5 star dinner from happy tourists, and sip several adult beverages at a cute sea-side bar built in the ruins of a Vietnamese refugee sampan. We enjoyed a delicious rib-eye steak and beef lasagna (my first here in Malaysia) at La Casa, a cute, bustling newer Mediterranean restaurant near our hotel.

We awoke early, grabbed a coffee and a muffin and biked north about 40 km along the South China Sea to Cherating. We found a Malaysian hotel/restaurant located on the beach and ordered some local specialties: char kway teow which is similar to Phad Thai, and Tom Yam Soup but with more Malay flavor rather than Thai/lemongrass spice. There was even a cute tiger-stripped cat who thoroughly enjoyed the heads of our shrimp. We had a little difficulty with language here. I ordered a fresh orange juice and Eric ordered a fresh orange and mango juice. He got two glasses of juice - one orange and one mango - not mixed.

In our typical vacation style we squeezed as much as we would into the remainder of the afternoon: a swim, a trip to the spa, a game of tennis (6 - 0 me!), and a bike ride back to the same restaurant - it was THAT good.

After a good night's sleep, and an Egg McMuffin (yes, we've gotten a little tired of the hotel buffets of fish porridge, spicy fish rice, spicy fish noodles) and a coffee, we biked about 20 km south along the same sea. We even found some tiny kampung (village) roads through the thick jungle vegetation to shelter us from the blazing sun.

Our drive home was uneventful and even a little quicker because the holiday actually doesn't end until tomorrow afternoon. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Fireworks for Chinese New Year

For the past few evenings we've been rocketed out of sleep by the explosions of fireworks between about 11:00 pm and  2:00 am. As a matter of fact, one night the noise was so loud that we pulled open the curtains and watched a colorful display from a neighbor's yard that rivaled any small town 4th of July show we'd paid money to watch in America.

My husband, a giant boy at heart,  mentioned that he would like to light off some fireworks, too. "That'd be kind of fun. I'd like to light off some big ones." I told him I'd see what I could do and made a mental note to ask my Chinese "contacts" where I could purchase some explosive fun. Unfortunately, like most of my "mental" notes, I promptly "lost it" forgot what I was going to do.

This morning, while helping a student write vocabulary sentences with the words she'd missed on the last exam, I was startled out of my concentration by the unannounced visit of three local police officers decked out in their official looking hi-vis yellow net safety vests with the words "Polis" emblazoned on the back. These official looking guys strolled though the school building, peeking into bathrooms, opening cupboards, and scanning the perimeter of the building's interior. The primary school teacher saw this as a good opportunity to practice greetings and led her students in a "Good morning, Police Officers!" That caught them a little off-guard and they smiled back, waved a sheepish hello, and headed out the door. Again, like my "mental note" to find fireworks, I completely forgot this short interlude and my curiosity as to the purpose of their visit.

It wasn't until the end of the day when I was told about the police officers' visit. Apparently the restaurant downstairs was selling fireworks(crackers - more probably - I mean we're pretty darn close to China) and apparently selling fireworks/crackers in Malaysia is illegal. (Apparently the police are not so concerned about arresting those "lighting" the fireworks - only those "selling" them.) So the police confiscated the contraband and took the owners to jail. The police were checking out our school just in case additional fireworks were being hidden among books, students and computers.

When I expressed  my regret at having missed the ability to make good on my promise to my husband - "Darn! I missed buying them by one day" -, again I was reassured..

"No problem. The owner will probably only spend one night in jail and he probably has contacts in the police department so he will probably get his supply returned and he'll be back in business tomorrow."

Note to self - "Buy fireworks tomorrow!"

Saturday Surprises

Last evening my husband and I were talking about Saturday plans. His is always predictable: work. Mine is always different but includes some type of physical activity: gym, jogging or biking. This week's plans included new twist; five students joining me on a bike ride. And, to be quite honest,  I was a little nervous about the responsibility.

In preparation for the excursion,  I'd driven around town to plan a route with mostly village roads, very few dangerous intersections, and an interesting destination. I'd reminded the students on several occasions to bring water. I'd packed a spare tube, rubber patches and cement, a pump, and basic bike repair tools. There'd been no notes to parents, no permission slips signed, no waivers of responsibility, nothing. Instead I'd gotten a verbal "thumbs up" from the principal - "What a great idea! No problem at all!"

After relating my American-based-too-much-media-hype-teachers-liability- litigation concerns my husband smiled and said,  "I hope your day is filled with surprises. Everything will be just fine."

Still not convinced, I replied,  "I hope it's only filled with good surprises. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

As it turned out, my husband was right, and the day was filled with many good surprises. Here are three that stood out:

1. Met the Manjung Cycling Team (MCT) en-route to school. I saw a group of men decked out in tight, colorful  biker shorts assembling together with road bikes several blocks from our house. I'd heard there was a local bike club but had been unable to locate them. As a result of this morning's ride, I knew their staging location and time and got a Facebook address for future reference.

2. Enjoyed a 25 km ride - the students' longest ride ever with stops at a Chinese temple near the sea and McDonalds for breakfast and ice cream- with delightful, eager, friendly, positive, optimistic kids riding anything from older,slightly rusty mountain bikes, to newer  "fixes" and everything in between. They were respectful of riding single file, watching for cars and keeping track of each other. After few seat adjustments (I explained how they are growing and probably needed to raise their seats) and a little air in a couple of tires, we had smooth spinning. My worries had been unfounded.

3. Found the registration page for the 120 km JMFR (Jalan Manjung Friendship Ride) in April. I'd seen the billboard for this ride but couldn't read it or locate any further information, so the search for the bicycle club also yielded the April ride for which my husband and I are both now registered.

As it turned out, the surprises were all good so I have a lot to be thankful for.