Hail to the King!

On Thursday, April 26th, Terengganu (the state in which we reside in Malaysia) celebrated the Sultan of Terengganu's inauguration as the new Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia). The election of the King of Malaysia is a very unique process (not to mention the fact that it's unique just to elect a King). In Malaysia there are nine Rulers, known as the Conference of Rulers, who are essentially the leaders of nine Malay States. Though there are 13 states, the governors of four of those states are excluded from participating in the election of the King (for more information on why, read the link above for the Conference of Rulers). Every five years the Conference elects a new King, but not on an arbitrary basis. Basically the Kingship is passed from state to state every five years, and the new King is the Ruler in power when it is his state's turn for the throne. This is a very abbreviated version of the process, and if you click on the link above you can get more detailed information. 2006 was Terengganu's turn in the schedule, so in November the Sultan of Terengganu, Mizan Zainal Abidin, was elected as the new King. He officially took the throne on Thursday, so there was much celebration in Terengganu and the day was declared a state holiday.

Selamat Datang ke Malaysia

"Selamat Datang ke Malaysia" means "Welcome to Malaysia" in Malay, the native language here in Malaysia (though English is widely spoke as Malaysia used to be a British colony). The phrase is seen everywhere, and honestly, its just a lot of fun to say.

We are staying on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. For those of you who don't know about the geography of Malaysia (and I know there are a lot of you out there based on questions I have received), let me give you a quick lesson. First, Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia, not too far north of the Equator. It consists of two main parts: first the peninsula, which is shared with Thailand, and second, the Borneo part, which as you may guess is on the island of Borneo, and is shared with the countries of Brunei and Indonesia. Malaysia itself is divided into 13 states, two on Borneo, and the rest of the peninsula. We are staying in the state of Terengganu in the town of Kijal.

The hotel we are staying at, the five star Awana Kijal Golf, Beach and Spa Resort, is incredible. They have tennis, golf, a fitness center, a pool, a mile of beach, nine restaurants, a really helpful business office, and one of the coolest lobbies I have ever seen. As far as entertainment and amenities go, this is by far the best hotel we have stayed at yet. Here are just a few pictures we snapped from around the hotel:

Part of the open air lobby.

Path along the top of the beach

The beach (the body of water is the South China Sea)

View of the pool from our floor

Giant chess anyone (I will leave out the Harry Potter reference)?

No Giant Chess? Okay, how about Giant Chutes and Ladders?

In addition to the great hotel, this job is a lot of fun because there is an entire crew of six employees here. Plus, one of the other employees is traveling with his wife, so I have had someone to hang out with while the boys are hard at work. It has really been a nice change of pace to have people to hang out with and to be social with. Just being able to go to dinner with someone else really makes a difference!

All and all, I am really enjoying my time here. Jeff has been working really long hours, so I think he appreciates being able to come back to such a nice hotel!

Malaysia Truly Asia . . .

. . . the mountains and the sea. Malaysia Truly Asia. We are guessing that many of you have never heard this little ditty, but for at least the past 9 months this jingle has been a highlight of a commercial promoting tourism in Malaysia and has aired regularly on CNN World. When Jeff returned from Saudi Arabia before our wedding he sang this song non-stop, and I had no clue why he was singing about Malaysia. He told me about the commercial and about how it was on all the time and also about how it was just one of those jingles that sticks in your head. After hearing Jeff sing it all through our honeymoon I was curious if I would ever hear the actual version (as opposed to Jeff's rendition). Well luck would have it that as soon as we arrived in South Korea I too got to join in on the Malaysia Truly Asia fun. And let me tell you I started singing the song just as often as Jeff had been! Since then we have seen the commercial on a regular basis in both South Korea and Russia. In case you are interested in seeing it, you can access it here. Just select "TVC - Malaysia(30's)" from the drop-down menu under the "Europe/America Campaign." Disclaimer: Jeff and I take no responsibility if the song gets stuck in your head!

So I am sure you are wondering why I am writing about a commercial (or you are wondering why I won't just state the obvious), but Jeff and I are heading out to Malaysia. Actually that is not true, Jeff is already in Malaysia, and I am heading out there tomorrow. When we left Russia we thought we were heading back to Ulsan, South Korea at the end of April, but when Jeff went back to work we learned that in fact we were heading out to Malaysia . . . in four days. Unfortunately, those who know my legal side know that I have been trying to schedule a time to get officially sworn in as an attorney since I was in Korea during the mass admission ceremony. After nearly six months of trying to get the swearing in scheduled I was slated to get sworn in at the exact time we were slated to leave for Malaysia. Obviously I couldn't miss this meeting, and unfortunately Jeff couldn't delay his departure, so Jeff flew out without me last Tuesday. Since I knew there was no immediate reason for me to leave I decided to book a flight to visit my parents in South Carolina for a week and then fly out to Malaysia. I returned from South Carolina last night and leave for Malaysia tomorrow morning.

I haven't been able to talk to Jeff much since he left, but if Malaysia is anything like the commercials I think we are in for one heck of a good time!

Oh, and as a side note, we promise a Moscow blog soon, but as you can imagine things have been a little chaotic around here!

London Calling

I know this is post is incredibly delayed, but hey, better late than never :) While on my quick visa trip to Guildford, England I was able to spend a day in Central London. Now anyone who has ever been to London (and I am guessing there are quite a few of you out there) knows that there is no way to see London in just one day, but I did my best to see as much as I could.

After taking an early train into Waterloo Station I started my day by heading over towards Westminster Abbey. The weather was as I would expect it to be in London . . . rainy and chilly. But I wasn't letting the weather slow me down - I was on a mission to see as much of London as possible before my afternoon train back. On the way to Westminster Abbey I saw my first big sight: the London Eye (note that this picture was taken later in the day when the rain cleared up).

The Eye wasn't open yet, so I kept on moving towards Westminster Abbey. On the walk across the bridge I saw probably the most iconic London sight, Big Ben and Parliament.

After stopping for a few pictures I walked another block or two and ended up at Westminster Abbey.

I went inside and took a tour, which was incredible, but unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures. After a quick stop in the gift shop I headed out towards Buckingham Palace. The route brought me across the British Horse Guards, which I hadn't actually intended to see. However, I saw a huge group of people staring at something, so I figured I would cross the street and check it out. I got there just in time to see the changing of the guard, which was a pleasant surprise!

I then headed through St. James's Park and followed the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walkway, where I caught my first glance of Buckingham Palace.

I had hoped to take a tour of the palace or catch the changing of the guard in front of the palace, but unfortunately the palace was closed and the guard changes every other day and I was there on the wrong day.

However, this opened up some more time in my day, so I was able to walk around and see more sites. I stopped by Trafalgar Square next . . .

. . . where they were taking down the Lion's Scarves. I didn't know what that was all about, but I did some research when I got home and learned that knitters from all over the country knit the scarves as a major charity project.

After seeing Picadilly Circus and Downing Street I decided to get off my feet and return to the Eye for a relaxing ride. The views were amazing and I posted a ton of pictures on our Yahoo Photo Site. I then started to ride the Tube to see a few far lying sights. I am sure that many of you know that I love the Harry Potter books and movies, so I had to take a train into King's Cross Station.

Though no trains were loading at the time I was determined to get on the platform and take a picture of the wall all Hogwarts students must run through to ride the Hogwarts Express. I was promptly yelled at for being on the platform, but I got my picture :) A few interesting facts for Harry Potter fans. First, the wall they run through is actually between platforms four and five. Second, the station only has 8 platforms, so there is no platform nine and three quarters. I also took the Tube to London Bridge so I could take a picture of Tower Bridge.

I think many foreigners believe that Tower Bridge is London Bridge (or at least I always thought it was), so I learned something! After Tower Bridge I was exhausted and had to head back to Guildford to make sure I could get my passport so I could return to Russia! However, I left London feeling like I packed in as much as I could. I can't wait until I get to return to see so much more!

Back from the USSR ... errr ... Russian Federation

We are back home! Jeff was released from the job in Ryazan on Friday and Saturday we headed to Moscow for a little bit of work and a little bit of sight seeing. We will definitely be posting pictures and a blog about the trip soon. We left Moscow on Wednesday afternoon and got back here on Wednesday evening.

We're not sure how long we'll be back or where we are off to next, but we will let you know as soon as we find out!

PS - Watch out for Mia's London post with pictures ... coming soon!