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!