Cameo appearance: Marla in Malaysia

On 2/3/08 I landed in Kuala Lampur and got my arms around my lovely daughter after 6 months apart! I can't explain how wonderful it's been to be so welcomed and involved in Joe and Mia's amazing adventures. Following are some entries from the last few weeks:

02/05/08 hello from Kuala Lampur! An amazing city! Huge, beautiful, crowded, amazing architecture, sparkling clean and still so old in parts! I arrived safely around midnight on Sunday night after what seemed like an endless string of flights - I flew over the North Pole! At the arrival bay in KL, I walked out into a big corral lined with people waiting for arrivees. I was the only one in the corral, to my right was Mia in a small cafe behind the glass. She walked through the opening in the corral, I dropped my bags and we stood there mid-corral laughing, hugging, crying, a grand welcome indeed. Mia and Joe had couch-surfed with a wonderful family whose son taxi'd us all from KL airport clear to the middle of the city and a lovely, simple, clean (solar-heated water) guesthouse. Monday we traversed the city on foot, on bus, on underground train - saw the famous Batu Caves, and the Petronas Towers, ate sushi in the round and Haagen Daas and local vegetarian dishes in Chinatown. We ended the evening on a bench in a park at the base of Petronas Towers, next to a huge dancing fountain (Vegas style - really big), talking politics, immigration, Kenya - wonderful!!!

We stayed 2 days and nights in the jungle north of Kuala Lampur, outside the town of Serendah. Our KL taxi driver was shocked and uncertain about taking us into the jungle, then amazed that our eco-resort Sekeping was even back in there. We rented a "glass shed", which sounds creepy but the "shed" was 2-stories, all open, big decks and balcony, mosquito nets over the bed (my first time sleeping under one, very exotic). We had a kitchenette, and the bathroom was open to the sky. Very quiet except for birds and jungle noises. One most-memorable noise was made by 2 foot-long geckos wrestling on our wooden bedroom floor in the middle of the night - flop, pound, thump, squeal, until we figured out the source of the racket, my heart was definitely pounding. The grounds were beautifully kept and once in a while the caretaker dropped by to see if we needed anything from town, or to light the outdoor fireplace. All brick paths, hiking trails, a natural swimming pool, everything seemingly carved right into the jungle. We walked along the country road one day to a water falls on a river, and swam, but mostly we laid around, ate, cooked, read, and talked and talked and talked. Joe and Mia are both so great to just visit with, and they read books like crazy, so it's very relaxing.