26 Malaysia Menlo Abroad

 We started the day just like yesterday with breakfast at 7:30 and then we took the train down Penang Hill. Once we got off we took a bus to the large famous Buddhist temple (Kek Lok Si temple). It was beautiful and was full of vibrant colors and statues. We had a treacherous ascent of the 10,000 Buddha building. After leaving  the temple, we drove to the Eastern & Oriental Hotel featured in the Crazy Rich Asians movie. Then we traveled to Little India and ate at multiple Michelin guide food stalls. Our amazing tour guide, Olivr with no E, claimed they were the best samosas in the world. We continued our trek to lunch at the Woodlands Restaurant which is a vegetarian Indian restaurant (in the Michelin guide). The rest of the afternoon was pretty calm, we started with an hour long tour of the Cheong Fatt Tze aka the Blue Mansion with a very nice British tour guide (who was one of Ms. Buxton's friends). Then we got dropped at Sam's Batik shop where some people went shopping ...

 After a late night that included watching Young Sheldon and gazing at the spectacular view from our perch on Penang Hill, we awoke to breakfast. After breakfast we packed our bags and set out for the tram station. We rode the tram down and then took Grabs (the Malaysian equivalent of Uber) to Georgetown. We arrived in front of the extremely famous (according to Ms Buxton) bike mural. We were then left to explore Georgetown. At 11:45 we all met up for lunch at a building with an impressive array of Michelin gourmand signs. After, we headed for the base of Penang Hill. We were met there by our tour guide and a jolly English chap who then began to lead us up the mountain. As warned (perhaps not adequately enough) we were met by a continuous ascent into the Malaysian jungle. After the initial 23% gradient, a bit of flat land was a welcome sight. Although the heat became increasingly tolerable, all shirts began to come off. We then stopped to enjoy the view of Penang (which is very bea...

 Today we started off with a rooftop breakfast with an amazing view before packing our bags. We left the hotel and began exploring Ipoh starting with a tour of the famous Tin Museum where we learned about the history of tin mining. After the museum we went to Concubine Lane where we looked around the shops and stalls. After we finished our exploration of the town, we boarded the bus. We stopped at a beautiful Buddhist cave temple, Perak cave temple, for a photo stop. After all children were accounted for and seated on the bus, we began our "short" drive (meant to be only 2 hours) that ended up taking more time as we were getting passed by other busses and large trucks. We took a quick lunch stop at Hulu Halfmoon Cafe in Taiping owned by the family of Menlo Student Claire Yao. Once we made it to Penang island by crossing the bridge from the mainland we loaded out bags into pickup trucks and drove up to the top of Penang hill where we found dinner at a food court. We then went ...

 Salamat pagi!  Today was definitely very bittersweet as we had to say goodbye to our homestay families who had become second family over the past 10 days. We started the morning off early since we had a long 6 hour drive from Kuala Tahan to Ipoh. We shared a heartfelt goodbye pretty much on the side of the road; nonetheless, the moment was super special. We all shed a few tears as we hugged our families goodbye and even Shadat (Emma and Linnea's homestay brother) tried to sneak onto the bus to follow us. After a final group photo we were off! We stopped in the Cameron Highlands (much cooler and where lots of agriculture is grown) for snacks at the 7-Eleven and lunch at a local restaurant. A short walk on the side of a busy road and a couple hours more on the bus later, we arrived at our hotel in Ipoh! After some down time in our rooms, many snacks from 7-Eleven, and watching a movie, we ventured out to find our dinner. Mr. Chang led us to a food street market where we all gra...

  Yesterday, we started by meeting at Fadhil’s (the M.B.) house to prepare for the night’s festivities. That’s my house by the way. We were separated into teams to work on skits, music, and photos. In addition, we made cards thanking all of our homestay parents to give to them later at the banquet dinner. Then, after eating lunch there with our whole group, we dispersed back to our own homestays. At home, we prepared traditional Malay foods with our families and hung out with them one last time.   The mayor of our village, gave a speech thanking us for being a part of their community and welcoming us back next year. Later, there was food such as satay, rice, noodles, gula melaka (made by Emma and Linnea), red bean rolls (by Emily and Tali), and chocolate cake (by Sophia). We also experienced a special treat of watching a traditional form of martial arts, performed by some of the community members. Teddy and Avery also gave a speech thanking the homestay parents for their acc...

 Hi all! Again, students will be updating on everything that happened tomorrow, but we had a lot of fun with our celebration with the homestays!