Malaysia - Day 15

Day 15 - Sunday 30 September:

Our final day in Malaysia. We awoke, showered and packed our bags for the trip back home to Australia.

At 9.30am we took our luggage downstairs and pack it all into Terrance's car. Then we all got into the van and headed off for breakfast, leaving the Luther Centre for the last time. Zen was driving, as unfortunately Ps Calvin was unexpectedly tied up with other international guests.  We had our final Malaysia breakfast out (Dim Sum) and then went to the Damansar Utama Lutheran Church (from whom we were borrowing the van), and the youth who were Brazil the previous day/night.

I was slightly nodding off during the sermon (it was a guest pastor - from Zen & Terrance's church!) but I don't know if it was tiredness or my cold, but I just couldn't concentrate. After the service we stayed around briefly for a drink, photos (all of the girls got around Dan and Cameron!) before heading off to Times Square mall.  We had about 4.5 hours in which to buy last minute gifts and kill time. 

Jesse and I went off together and quick found a place to have ear-candling done again to try and reverse the effects from the previous time; to relieve the pressure and remove wax before he had to fly.  While he was in there I made my way around the whole third floor.  I didn't buy anything in that time. When Jesse was done we went to have lunch (Nandos!) and that killed quite a bit of time as the restaurant was quite busy.  As we were leaving the restaurant we ran into Chris, Vicki, Dan and Cameron who had all been at the theme park.

We did some more wandering, and then went over to the Digital Mall where we ran into Bradley. He had just played in some racing tournament (for which he actually came 2nd overall!) Jesse and I ended up buying a new digital SLR camera. The sales guy was good and sat and showed us 3 different cameras for about a half hour.  We ended up buying a Song, costing about $650AUD (RM2000). Not wanting to spend too much more money we went back to Times Square. We wandered around some more, and I bought a few things to use up my RM. The interesting thing about most clothes stores in Malaysia is that mostly they don't allow you to try things on. Luckily, I am average Asian size, and the 2x dresses and top that I bought fit!

At 6.15pm we all met up, swapped shopping stories, went to the car and started our journey to KLIA.  Zen only made one wrong turn (took the exit took early) but we made it. We all checked in our bags together (14kg to spare over all 9 of us), had a quick bite to eat at Burger King, gave our thank you bags to Terrance and Zen, and made our way towards the International Departures. We made a quick detour via the duty free store for alcohol (and spent the last of our RM, putting the balance on credit card) before getting to our gate and joining the long line through security to board the plane home!


 The plane food was good, and I watched the movie Brace.  By the time the lights were dimmed my movie was finished and I attempted sleep.  My strawberry pillow, despite how silly I look carrying it around the airport, was comfy for my head.  However my legs kept cramping up so I only managed about 3 hours of solid sleep, and more drifting in and out.  The lights came on around 5.15am for breakfast (I skipped that, it was far too early for food). We landed in Adelaide at 6.56am, and we all made it through immigration, customs and quarantine in record time: we met our families in the arrivals area by 7.30am.

After one final group photo we all went our separate ways, exhausted, but with this amazing experience in our minds.

Malaysia - Day 14

Day 14 - Saturday 29 September:

I was still quite tired when my alarm went off at 7.30am, so I lay in bed while others used the bathroom, and so I kind of missed breakfast. So at 10am when Vicki and Jesse went out to try and find more props for our Waltzing Matilda performance I tagged along and had Maccas for breakfast. I had an egg McMuffin with a chicken roll (no bacon). 

Our booth

While Vicki was in the newsagency grabbing a few supplies Jesse and I wandered through a small Tech Mall. We met up and then headed back to the Luther Centre. We all helped set up our booth for Australia and managed to recruit a couple of youths from 'Germany' to assist in our play - Rebecca and Henry. We had a couple of quick run throughs up on level 5 so they knew their cues. 

Shortly before 1pm our booth was ready, we had our Passports and were excited for the afternoon to begin!

We had an influx of people looking at our display, trying our vegemite (as a reward they got a chocolate) and Anzac biscuits, and playing a handball competition. About 1.45pm Jesse and I took a lunch break (Terrance had gotten some pork and rice for us). 

Brazil's booth

From about 2pm I started my way around to see all of the booths. It was such a fascinating experience. I learned all about Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Napal, Philippines, Germany, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Japan, USA, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Zambia. I made origami in Japan,did calligraphy in China, tried on traditional outfits in Korea, and tried different foods from about half of the booths. I have notes of prayer points for various countries to keep in mind. I managed to get back and help out in our booth for the last hour & a half, and it went so quickly! Before we knew it it was almost 5pm and I was palming off the remainder of our food snacks.

Me in a traditional Korean outfit

We had a break for 2 hours, during which we dismantled our booth, and a couple of people went for dinner. I had eaten enough during the afternoon so I just went to level 5, got changed and relaxed by reading.

At 7pm everyone who was performing met down in the chapel for a technical run-through. We were all instructed on where to sit, the order we were in, and then did a quick run-through of what would happen before and after our performances. The actual run-through itself went for about 20 minutes. The Ps Calvin led us in a prayer and we all had about 10 minutes to relax while the audience was seated before the show began.

Indonesia began with a hilarious shadow puppet show. We were sixth in line for the night, and very glad we were following Germany, and not Korea. Korea did a traditional bow with the traditional outfits, and then a dance routine featuring Gangnam Style - everyone was very enthusiastic! India did a traditional dance, Cambodia did the story of Mr Richard Chong, an elderly man who decided to cycle in order to raise money for the starving children in Cambodia. His wife was in the audience to receive the thanks on his behalf.  Germany did a hip-hop breakdancing routine, it was pretty impressive. And then it was our turn. Our performance went flawlessly! And the audience was so very enthusiastic about singing with us in the chorus (we had a powerpoint presentation with all of the words and pictures of what the slang meant). And everyone laughed at our costumes. In my opinion, it couldn't have gone better!!


Other acts to follow were Egypt who sang as a choir (and part in Hebrew!), China who did a flag dance, USA sang a Jason Mraz and Justin Beiber song (I guess they don't understand Canada is different to the USA), Brazil danced (and the audience all joined in with them), Nepal did a song, and Japan sang as a choir.

The last performance of the night was Malaysia. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what it was about. I know part of it was about the 3 main races in Malaysia living in harmony, but after that the whole dialogue was in Malay. Apparently it was hilarious (the whole audience, save us Australians) were laughing quite hard.  It finished up with the Malaysia national anthem, and then a representative from each country took up a flag and held it up while Ps Calvin led a prayer.

Then the praise and worship began! It was such an invigorating experience. It was in both Chinese and English (and a bit of Malay) - sometimes both languages at the same time - and my throat became dry and sore from singing so much! The night ended on such a massive high and the most amazing joyful feeling (I'm still struggling to find words to describe it!).

The people were amazing and it was such a great experience to worship God with people from all over Malaysia (and a few from Nepal). Eventually, after we swapped Facebook details and email addresses, we headed up to level 5 for our final sleep in Malaysia.

I managed to get most of my packing done before I went to sleep, because after we left in the morning, we weren't coming back.

Malaysia - Day 13

Day 13 - Friday 28 September:

I slept like a log after taking a couple of cold & flu tablets, as Jesse & Chris were up for several hours trying to tire Jesse out so he could sleep through the pain from his ears.

We had breakfast at 9am - the boys had left some bread and peanut butter for us.  Then we started working on our presentation for the International Youth Mission Night - this had was set aside for our preparation.  We spoke to Clarice in the church office who unlocked the chapel for us to practice.  One of the security guards helped us set up the keyboard and a fold back speaker and I quickly learned Waltzing Matilda.  We organised who was playing what parts, what volunteers we still needed, and the powerpoint.  We did a couple of run-throughs and called it a day.

In the meantime Jesse went to the doctors and got his ears looked at. He had the consultation, got prescriptions for eardrops, antibiotics and painkillers for RM60 and was back in about 30-45 minutes!

For lunch we were in for a treat - we had lunch with the bishop of the LCM! We went to a Chinese Restaurant (a proper one). I didn't like most of the food but it was a wonderful experience. The bishop was remarkable at remembering our names and what we were getting up to.  Cameron, Jesse and Dan had a competition about eating the hot chillis. They were very hot by our standards, and Jesse and Dan managed 4 small slithers each. Then Terrance said his 7 year old daughter eats them. Haha!

We went back to the Luther Centre and discussed the extra props we would need for our presentation and wrote a shopping list. Chris & Vicki decided to try to local shops within walking distance while Zen took the rest of us to a shopping mall.  We walked to the train station and caught it into KLCC.  As it was an upmarket mall we didn't find anything we needed. As we were discussing alternate shopping centres Terrance appeared and came up with an idea. We walked about 115-20 minutes taking the sky bridge to the Pavillion shopping centre and we went to the mall the next building down.

After splitting up and wandering around for about 1.5 hours we met up again. In this time I only bought a paid of sandles. I was getting tired. For dinner we went to a food court. The own of the building restored the area and then paid several of the top food sellers to put their shops there to attract people - an ingenious idea!  After dinner Chloe & Erin still wanted to shop so Zen and Terrance stayed with them while the rest of us walked back to KLCC.  We stopped outside the shopping centre and took photos of the Petronas Towers at night, and the beautiful light and water display at the base.  We caught the train back to tour station (the busy one just after 10pm as all of the shops closed). By our station, though, we all had our own seats as the train was almost empty.  We were proud of making it back by ourselves.



The Luther Centre was busy with activity as several youth groups were already there setting up their booths ready for tomorrow.  The Sunway Youth were there and we chatted for a bit - it was nice to recognise people!

Malaysia - Day 12

Day 12 - Thursday 27 September:

Being awake at 5am is not natural. Along with my cold, the early start didn't make me feel very well. Our hot water didn't work so the shower wasn't really a shower, and our 5.30am pickup arrived at 6.10am. There were 2 other tourists on our tour - a young couple from Holland. We stopped at a lookout on the side of the road (not the mountain peak as it was too cloudy) to watch the sunrise. There were even wedding photos (or a wedding dress shoot) happening! The sunrise was a bit disappointing as it was too cloudy or the mountains too high to get the full effect of an amazing sunrise.

From there we went to the Mossy Forest boardwalk. It was very foggy and damp and cold, and the boardwalk was quite slippery. We didn't spend too long there and I was the first one back in the van in an attempt to stay warm. 

Afterwards we went to a tea plantation and watched as people harvested the tea leaves.  They are paid by the kilogram - $0.28c per kg! Their normal hours are 7am - 2pm, but it it's raining they'll work until 5pm (the leaves are heavier). Most of the workers are from Bangladesh or Indonesia, so while approx RM1200/month isn't enough to live comfortably on in Malaysia, it's a lot back in their home countries. From there we went to the BOH tea factory, had a light breakfast and a look around at the information and the gift shop. At 9.30am we headed back to the Bungalow.

We packed our bags and the car and went into town for last minute shopping. I bought a strawberry pillow (RM23). It's quite soft and comfy.  Our trip back towards KL was going to be long as we stopped at 2 small Orang Asli villages. I missed the first one as I was trying to help Jesse release the pressure in his ears with drops and squirty spray - he had a very short temper as the pain was getting to him.  

At the second village I got out and we pinned smiley face badges on all of the kids. They sang us a song, and we sang to them Jesus Loves Me. After leaving pencils and a few other things for the kids with their teacher we had a group photo and hit the road again.

We made one final stop on our way.  We stopped at a natural hot spring.  The river itself was lovely and cool but on the edge of the river was a small inlet where the water was close to boiling - there was steam coming off of it, and we put an orange in it to see what would happen: it cooked.

We were all quite tired when we got back to the Luther Centre.  Most of us just went to Pizza Hut and had dinner, and then called it an early night.

Malaysia - Day 11

Day 11 - Wednesday 26 September:

Our day began with a breakfast of both sweet and savoury rolls before packing into our 'bus' (12 seater van) and car for the trip to the Cameron Highlands.  It was such a beautiful trip into the mountains. Ps Calvin said we were taking the longer route because it was less windy, but we think it's because that's the way he could make a 5km detour to buy banana and sweet potato fritters!

It was cold, wet and foggy when we arrived at our accommodation - the Lutheran Mission Bungalow.  We all had a quick light lunch (at 3pm) in the town before relaxing at the Bungalow, playing tennis, taking photos and chatting until it was 6.30pm and time for dinner.  

The Bungalow is a retreat for Pastors and missionaries when they need a break and time to recuperate, so it was beautiful and isolated.  Dinner, made by Auntie, was mushroom soup, pork schnitzels, potato, cauliflower, salad, and apple pie with icecream - dishes learned from previous guests. It was all amazing and delicious!

After dinner we all went back into town and most of us had massages. Jesse had an ear candling, which afterwards went a little wrong, and he suffered side effects for a couple of days.

But I had a foot massage and an upper body massage, for 75 minutes (all for just RM70!) and it was very relaxing. Feeling calm and happy we went back to the Bungalow and set our alarms for 5am to be ready for our sunrise tour pickup at 5.30am.  It was a cold night, and I did not sleep well.

Malaysia - Day 10

Day 10 - Tuesday 25 September:

Tuesday was our hike day, we all prepared ourselves for a 2 hour trek. However, Ps Calvin had a change of plans for us. After walking up about 800 stairs we reached a series of waterfalls and pools and were told to go swimming! I didn't end up swimming, but just standing in the water was nice and cool. Ps Calvin, Chris, Dan, Cameron and Vicki had fun using a makeshift waterslide - it kept them all busy for almost 2 hours!  

It was a little weird though, as at the base of one swimming pool was a group of 3 people - 2 guys and a (large) girl. The the guys were cutting/doing each others hair... Yeah...


Ps Calvin was going to take us to a restaurant for lunch, but as it turned out, the restaurant was closed. Instead we stopped on the side of the road in a nice spot and had a wonderful view out over KL.

Afterwards we went to Ikea and the 2 massive shopping centres that were all joined. We did a lot of walking, and Erin & Chloe each had 3 frozen yoghurts! About 5.30pm we all met up and headed back to the Luther Centre for a KFC dinner. (In true Asian style, it comes with sachets of chilli sauce). After dinner was a time to relax, and we started planning our International Youth Mission Night booth and Waltzing Matilda act.

Malaysia - Day 9

Day 9 - Monday 24 September:

For breakfast we all met up at a Chinese restaurant and had a variety of Dim Sum. I liked some of them, but others had a horrible texture. My favourite was BBQ pork inside a sweet dough (like this). From there we walked over to Joe's jewelery store where we had a look around, and he started telling us the history of Melaka as we began our historical tour around Melaka. We followed the ruins of the old fort around the edge of the city (well, what used to be the edge before they started reclaiming back so much land from the ocean). As I am not interested in history in the slightest, I got a bit bored, but everyone else seemed to find it interesting. 

After our tour we all met back at the Calathe Arts Cafe for lunch. From there us girls went back to Joe's jewelery store and a few of the boys went to the observation tower.  I sent about RM200 on 3 pieces of jewelery (all hand made) - 2 pairs of earrings for myself and a beautiful butterfly broach for my Nanna.  With our purchases we went back to the guest house to pack, and then started our journey back to the Luther Centre.

As we were waiting at the final major intersection before hitting the main highway we witnessed a severe car crash. Most of us were just drifting off to sleep and awoke to a loud bang. A truck coming from the other direction had lost control.  Involved were 3 trucks, 3 cars and 2 motorbikes. It was a traumatic sight to see and we were all a little bit in shock. We all prayed for those involved and their families, know yet knowing the outcome. We found out the following day there were 5 fatalities.

View from the observation tower

When we arrived back at the Luther Centre we were left to our own devices to get dinner.  We all walked in the direction we were told for Nandos, only to get a little lost. It took us 45 minutes to finally arrived at the restaurant, and as we were all annoyed, another 15 minutes of arguing to order, but it was delicious!  One the way back, we stopped at Maccas for icecream, and it was only a 20 min walk in total. (Also, if we were so inclined, for just RM3 Maccas would deliver - no minimum order!)

Malaysia - Day 8

Day 8 - Sunday 23 September:

Our group with Ps Thomas

The morning started with church at our partner congregation - Luther House Congregation. We arrived a bit late - 9am for an 8.30 service (we only arrived at the restaurant for breakfast at 8.30) - but there were still people who arrived after us, including the man who was being baptised that day (he arrived about 2 minutes before they called him up to be baptised). The sermon lasted about 45 minutes, but the time went quickly as it was quite interesting. It used the analogy of being stuck in a traffic jam to use godly wisdom. Pastor Thomas was very friendly and we had a chat with him after the service. We even got a special welcome as visitors.

After church we left for Melaka. We stopped at the Melaka Lutheran Church - Pastor Calvin's first congregation - mostly made up of university students, so it is very youth orientated. From there we went on to lunch (about 2.30pm by this point), and then to our accommodation: House of Kititto. It was a guest house, so it had a shared common area and bathrooms.  Chloe, Erin, Jesse and I shared 2 double beds in one room. After a quick rest and toilet break we walked into Jonker Street which is where Melaka's night markets are held.

Our group with some of the Melaka youth group

The night markets were very busy, and had lots of fascinating items. There were souvenirs, bags, clothes, gadgets, food and craft items. We wandered the streets for a couple of hours before meeting up at the Calanthe Arts Cafe, where our tour guide for Monday owned the cafe and jewelery shop.  We had a late dinner, sat and chatted for a while, and eventually started back to our accommodation. It was about 10.30pm by now and the stalls were starting to pack up, but we stopped so many times that it took us almost 45 minutes to walk the 15 minute journey back to the guest house.  I fell asleep quite quickly.

Malaysia - Day 7

Day 7 - Saturday 22 September:

Our day started with a sleep-in (8am!) and a warm shower - wonderful! A bit after 9am Michael took us to one of his favourite restaurants for breakfast, and we had eggs and hashbrown and toast! I was so glad to have normal food, and it was very cheap; quite popular with students. From there we all met up at Annie's house and started our tour of KL. 

The Petronas Towers - 88 storeys

We went to a very upmarket shopping centre - KLCC - at the base of the Petronas towers. They had Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Dior and Versace stores - stuff I could never afford! From there we had lunch in a western restaurant near China Town; minestrone and salad had never tasted so good! The prices were a lot more than we were used to seeing here and it made us think about the difference between the rich and the poor.

Then we went to China Town and learned to bargain.  Jesse and Bradley saw it as a game, but Vicki hated it as she is not a fan of high pressure sales. Thankfully we had Annie and Lily to assist us in choosing the better quality products and step in to assist us in our haggling. I bought a genuine imitation Chanel wallet (RM20), a Jimmy Choo wallet (RM20) and a Coach evening bag (RM40).  We also bought gifts/souvenirs from the indoor Malay Central Market.

Group photo with the Sunway Youth!

We were then running on Malaysian time to go to the Sunway Youth group (30 minutes late). We had a pot luck dinner (yellow watermelon tastes delicious!) and a worship service, which was conducted in both Chinese and English. It was quite weird slipping from one language to another in a single song. We had a few games - human bingo, Chinese whispers charades, and a puzzle - and then the night was over. We had a few group photos and chatted to the youth a bit more before we were all dropped back at the Luther Centre, all tired and ready for bed.

Malaysia - Day 6

Day 6 - Friday 21 September:



Friday was a 'play' day for us - we went to the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park, and it was amazing!! For RM80 we had access to 3 of the 5 different parks inside. The boys paid the additional RM20 to have access to all 5, as they wanted to go on the go karts and ATV's. In the morning us girls went around the wildlife park and saw all of the animals, and checked out a couple of the rides while the boys went and did their Extreme Park activities.

We all met up for lunch and got changed for the Water Park. Vicki, Jesse and I had our feet cleaned by fish as we waited for lunch to settle. It was the most bizzare feeling - like little electric shocks all over my feet - and then it was time for the water slides and the wave pool! We were at the theme park from 10.30am until the rides started closing at 6pm. 

We met up with Annie, a leader from the Sunway Youth, around 6.30pm who took us into the Pyramid Shopping Centre next to the theme park. We did a quick bit of shopping before meeting the Sunway Youth Group at an outdoor food court for dinner. I had lasagne for dinner, as I needed a change of Asian food for a day. After dinner we went to Par Tea Time for supper and to sit and relax and chat with the other youth.  Jesse had a Heineken tea, which was actually quite delicious! The youth were very friendly and interesting and chatty, and most importantly, they all spoke very good English! 

That night went all went on a home stay.  Jesse and I stayed with a guy called Michael, who is an architect.  It was very good for us, as Jesse was able to get answered all of the questions he had about the construction industry in Malaysia - it's very different to home! Their standards are a lot lower than out - speed and price are the most important factors in constructing buildings here.  He is currently staying in his brother's townhouse while his house is being renovated and his brother is living in Shanghai. It was very nicely furnished (though still sparse), but I would quite comfortably live there.  It was a stark contrast to my other home stay, which was an obviously poor family. I'm glad we did that first, as it made us appreciate the luxuries (like proper beds!) and was less of a shock to the system.  Jesse and I stayed in the kids room (the walls were pick & purple).

I was glad to go to bed, as my feet were quite sore and a little swollen from all of the walking, and probably tender after the fish foot spa. I slept like a log, being in an actual bed was amazing!

Malaysia - Day 5

Day 5 - Thursday 20 September:

I woke up to my alarm at 7.15am to have a shower. Sadly the water was not hot, but I was desperate. I washed my hair in the cold water, and afterwards I felt so refreshed. We all met at the Indian restaurant for breakfast at 8am. We all just had toast, as none of us were particularly hungry after the previous night's dinner & supper.

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and went to the church. We saw a group of children using the library! Ps Daniel's wife showed us some handmade souvineers, beaded necklaces, purses made from recycled chip packets, and wall hangings. We bought a few things, knowing the money was going to good cause.


Afterwards, we took a trip to the Malaysia/Thailand border. We had a look around at the duty free shop, but Zen said the prices would be the same at the airport, so we should wait until then to buy alcohol. We picked up some fruit - a waterlily mango - which was delicious. We left the border around 11am and started our long journey home. We stopped in Ipoh for lunch around 2.30 - 3pm and then caught rush hour traffic coming back into KL. We finally arrived back at the Luther Centre at 7pm.  We convinced Zen to get us pizza for dinner - we wanted something non-Asian - and yet the pizzas still had an Asian flavour to them.

The remainder of the night was just spent relaxing after a busy few days.

Malaysia - Day 4

Day 4 - Wednesday 19 September:

I managed to sleep for 5 solid hours, but until my alarm went off at 7am it was interrupted as my body rejected the hard sleeping surface. I got up and went to have a shower, and they didn't have any hot water at all, so it was a very quick shower. It wasn't pleasant as the room was not humid or warm in any way.  I got dressed and greeted my host mum. She made me a sweet coffee and bread for breakfast.  Just as we were saying grace Chloe and her host family arrived to give us the meeting place and time. I quickly ate and drank a little of the coffee (it was still very hot) and packed my bag. We walked to the next block where Erin was waiting with her host family.  From there we drove back to the hotel to join the others.

We had breakfast at an Indian restaurant. It was fried noodles and deep fried batter (like savoury donuts), so I didn't eat much, knowing we'd be on a boat. We had bought and packed snacks in a couple bags to take with us as it would be a long day and there would be no food on the islands.



It was about an hour & a half hour drive to the jetty where we loaded 50 bags of groceries and 15 people into 2 long speed boats. The local church do a grocery run every 2 weeks, which we were lucky to be along for.  The journey out to the first island took about 45 minutes. We carried 20 bags of groceries up to the village and left them on a bamboo platform/meeting place. We all gathered there with the local families.  Ps Martin spoke and we sang songs in the locan Orang tongue (words had been provided for everyone). Then our group sang Jesus Loves Me to the people. There were small snack bags given to each of the children. Most of the people there seemed disinterested and Ps Daniel's wife was there translating from Malay into Orang (as Ps Martin only spoke in Malay). After a quick look around the village it was back to the boats and on to the next island.

Doing crafts with the children

The next island was only 5-10 minutes boat journey away. The reception we received there was a lot more grateful. A few of the children ran down to help us carry the bags of groceries up to their main hut.  The people here spoke Malay so the translation into their language wasn't necessary.  We had prayers, singing and we sang Jesus Loves Me again. As we had lots of time we ran a few craft activities with the children. They were very enthusiastic, and although they didn't speak English, communication didn't seem to be much of a problem. One boy in particular had a lot of fun with Chris as they made and played with paper airplanes. After a quick look around this village we got back into the boats for our journey back to the jetty.  Without the groceries, the return journey was only 30 minutes. We even got back before Ps Calvin, Terrance and Zen, who had used this time to head off and go fishing (they didn't catch anything).

We drove back to the hotel where we washed up before walking to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner we met back at the church where we split up into 3 groups of 3 to join the local church small groups.  Chris, Cameron and I were together (with Ps Calvin to assist translating). W were all in different apartments in the police housing complex, which was I told we would not normally have access to as a regular tourist - we had special permission as it was arranged before we arrived. My host family from the previous night was in my small group. The night consisted of singing, prayers, and then it was our turn. We each introduced ourselves and opened the floor for people to ask us questions. They asked about the Lutheran Church in Australia, and our indigenous people, and we tried to give them perspective about how big Australia is.  

My small group

As the night came to a close, supper was served, and it was like a second dinner! Everyone was given a bowl of rice and once grace was said we all helped ourselves to portions of curry, beef, vegetables and what Ps Calvin said looked like pork - it was an Orang delicacy. After I had eaten, Ps Calvin ate a small egg, and when I enquired as to what kind of egg he revealed it was turtle, and they had purposely hidden the obvious turtle bits so I would try some. To be honest, it didn't taste distinctive, so it was kind of like chicken. To drink they served tea or sweet coffee.  I tried some of the coffee and it was quite nice, but very sweet! I didn't drink very much as I was quite full by this point.

We arrived back at the hotel around 10.30 where the guys surprised us by announcing we were off to the hot springs!  After changing, we left the hotel around 11pm, and it was a 45 minute drive. I was quite tired by the time we got there, but for only RM10 we spent a relaxing hour at the hot springs.  We were all relaxed and exhausted, so when we arrived back at the hotel a bit after 1.30am I fell straight to sleep.  It was a very long day.

Malaysia - Day 3

Day 3 - Tuesday 18 September:

Ps Calvin arrived at 8.30am for an 8am breakfast. We quickly ate sandwiches and then packed the car with all of the books and our bags for our trip to Pengkalan Hulu. After a quick introduction, prayer and group photo with the Bishop of the LCM we were ready to leave by around 9.30. It was approximately a 5 hour drive. We stopped in Ipoh for lunch and reached our destination around 3.30pm. 

We met with Pastors Daniel and Martin at the church where the new library is.  We put together the Ikea shelves, tables and chairs, and did it in an impressive time. We then sorted all of the books and put them on the shelves. 

Dinner was at 6.30pm, after which we had a quick rest at Hotel Hiltowne where everyone except Chloe, Erin and myself would be staying the night. Back to the church at 8pm where we watched the local church group rehearse for the Orang Asli production being held at the Luther Centre on 20 October. For a rehearsal, the performance was very good (as Chloe would say: "totes awes"). There were traditional Orang dances and costumes, then a play. It was all in the local Orang language so even Zen, Terrance and Ps Calvin wouldn't translate, but we got the gist. It was about a tribe who were seeing a witch doctor for their issues, but it didn't seem to help. Then a missionary came and comforted them and shared the Gospel with them. Some followed, others did not. The witch doctor had an argument with the missionary and they battled. Of course, the missionary and his faith in God prevailed, and the final scene was a worship service in the village.  The witch doctor snuck in at the back and as the service ended he went to the missionary and they hugged - a happy ending!


Afterwards, I went home with my home stay family - they hand picked me; "the small cute one". It was the most nervous I think I have ever been. I felt so very far out of my comfort zone. The family spoke very little English, so the ride to their apartment in the police housing complex was mostly quiet.  Their daughter (Amela) spoke a little English learned in school, and we were able to have a bit of a conversation using a Malay/English dictionary. It was frustrating and confusing for both parties. We tried to talk for about an hour, by then it was around midnight. We had prayers and then it was time for bed.  Bed was a mat on the floor, and I was quite uncomfortable. There was only a ceiling fan in the room, so I used the thin sleeping bag I had brought with as a little bit of extra padding to sleep on.

Malaysia - Day 2

Day 2 - Monday 17 September:

After a night of broken sleep eventually it was time to get up. I had a shower, which was almost cold, but given the temperature and humidity in the bathroom (no exhaust fans) it was just what I needed.  However, trying to dry off and get dressed was another problem.
The bathrooms in Malaysia are called wet bathrooms. Their showers do not have screens or curtains around them, and so the floor/sink/toilet all get wet.



We had breakfast of sandwiches and yoghurt before beginning on our library project preparation.  We spent about 30-45 minutes going through all of the donated books to check for writing in them, damage and language, before commencing on covering them all in plastic. We had about an hour break for lunch (barbeque pork with rice, yum!) and it was about 3.30pm by the time we finished.  A few of the youth from the Luther House Church were around to help us with our tasks.  We then packed all of the books into boxes ready to take with us to Pengkalan Hulu on Tuesday, where the library is situated.

At about 5.30pm we headed off to go shopping and have dinner.  We went to Times Square Mall, which is huge (well, by our standards). It's an 11-storey building, with the majority of the stores on levels 1 - 5. It also includes a theme park and a bowling alley.  I ended up buying a new bag (RM40), sunglasses (RM10) and a Guess (totally real =P) watch (RM45). While Chloe & Erin were taking their time choosing glasses one of the salesmen tried to pick me up - he asked for my Facebook!! It was hilarious. And he didn't even ask me himself, he did it via a friend. 


We all met up at 8.30pm and went for dinner.  We didn't stay out very late after that and were mostly asleep by around 10.30 - 11pm (this is considered early for Malaysia - they work on different times here), as we were getting up relatively early Wednesday morning for our long drive north.

Malaysia - Day 1

As some of you might be aware, Jesse and I went went 7 other members from our youth group to Malaysia as part of outreach to the Orang Asli (indigenous people), in conjunction with the LCMS (Lutheran Church Malaysia Singapore). Here is my journal (slightly abridged) from the 2 weeks we were there.

Day 1 - Sunday 16 September:



Day 1 started very abruptly, with my alarm failing to go off at 5am as planned (yep, set the time but forgot to switch it to 'on' as opposed to 'weekday'). Instead we jumped out of bed at 6am, showered, dressed and completed packing, leaving home by 6.20 and making it to the airport by 7am! Checking in was a long process (well, the wait time really) and then it was time for a quick coffee and goodbyes before going through customs and arriving at our gate.

The flight was long - about 7.45 - but the time went reasonably smoothly, with reading and a comprehensive entertainment system to keep us all occupied. And the plane food was quite yummy (I recommend Malaysia Airways).

We landed at KLIA (Kuala Lumpar International Airport) at 2.30pm local time. Unfortunately Vicki was still feeling the effects of air sickness and so it took us about an hour to travel to the other terminal, go through immigration and collect our bags. We were met by Ps Calvin, Zen and Terrance, who made us feel welcome straight away.  We had 2 cars to take us, and I went in the car with Ps Calvin, and it was a bit crazy. For the Sunday of a long weekend, the roads were quiet, yet the average speed was around 110km/h (in 70 and 100 zones) and no one used indicators to change lanes. We arrived at our accommodation - the Luther Centre - and got ourselves organised and rested. The Luther Centre is the head office for the LMC (Lutheran Church of Malaysia), situated on the 6th floor. The guest rooms and seminar rooms are on level 5. 

Around 6pm we got together and went over our itinerary for the next 2 weeks. This was good to know, as the itinerary we were given before we left was slightly different, and definitely not very detailed. Even this meeting didn't really give us the full details of what we were actually going to get up to.

For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant.  Parking was a bit wherever you can find one (and try not to fall into the 6-foot drain on the side of the road), and the restaurant was open, with about 20 ceiling fans on high to circulate the air. We had a large variety of mild meals to share, and we all had to use chopsticks. The satay sticks were definitely our favourite dish from this meal.  With full tummies we all went back to the Luther Centre for bed.