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Feb. 12-15 Whitten Journal
Written by Elisha:
I am thinking these people think we are a part of some famous bike team across the world …Tour De France (Malaysia) or something. On the 12th we were riding out from the village , outside of the city Garik…north/ west Malaysia…we were experiencing pure beauty! Curving paved roads through cocoanut trees that shaded our heads….a cool rushing stream beside…a nice breeze on our faces…we had just had an awesome time with the village folk on their vacation at their grandparent's house…a place that looked like a paradise campground site. Invited to stay at one house, than neighbors would come over and wish we would stay at their place. So we would go on down a couple houses and stay at the next welcoming home…good food, good laughs, good community swims in the shady river. So, after that awesome village stay, out we road with a song in our souls and a smile on our faces.Enjoying the scenery …all of the sudden an Indian man (from India) standing by his car on the side of the road , with the most sincere look on his face pleads…."Please miss, please kind sir….give me autograph please." You feel bad not stopping, but at the same time, you would feel quite bad for the dude after he gets his "famous" signatures and shows them around to all his friends, than finds out no one even knows the names of 4 silly, smelly Americans who simply decided to get up and go simplify their lives by touring Asia on bike. Ok…we don't always smell! We bath in oceans and streams and hotel sinksJ There was a lady by the name of Sarah, who was at the grandparents house in the village we stayed in. She was just on vacation there and invited us to come stay with her and her family on the Large Island of Penang since it was on our way of journey. Our plans were to take a ferry over to Penang and keep taking boats and ferries from Island to Island, heading north, and cross the boarder from Malaysia to Thailand this way. It took us two days to ride to the coast where we were to take the ferry…only several hours to a day for Sarah to drive her car there. Oh well! We are having fun!That evening riding, after day 1 (of the 2 it took to get to the coast) we attracted a group of young teenage guys on their motorbikes. They all rode slowly along side us, asking lots of questions like, "Where are you from?", "Oh my gosh! You have two babies with you! How old are they?" Several of them rode up beside me and began to flirt …"Where you stay tonight? You can come sleep with me. Come on my bike." So I just smiled and pointed to my husband I so love …shook my head "no" and rode up by Ryan. They found out we were planning on finding a place to camp so they said.."no, no! HomeStay, HomeStay! Free of charge! Shower there." We didn't exactly know what one was, but we thought …hey! A warm shower sounds GREAT! So we followed them, us on bikes, them on motorbikes, down small alley ways and between rows of housing until we came to the sign "HOMESTAY". Looked inviting. A roof, open walls and nice wood floor to set up our sleeping mats. They sent us to a large (for a Malaysian home), rich looking residence down the street, to talk to the owners. It was a family living there, and when they saw us, they became excited and curious and invited us into their home. Really nice furniture and royal red curtains, gold colored cabinets and nice tiled floors. They had us sit on the couches in their living room and they left to another room. We waited, we l looked at eachother, tired and dirty travellers…with delight in our eyes as we sat there patiently. We didn't say a word. Just waited. Then they came out with hot Milo (hot chocolate drinks) and coffee for us! They sat with us and asked all about our journey with welcoming voices. While we visited and enjoyed company, the wife was busy in her huge kitchen preparing a nice hot meal for us. They showed us the room we could stay in for the night…a real bed with a mattress for little Jade, and a flat mattress on the floor with blankets for Ryan and I and Eva. We had the wonderful choice of a hot shower or a big cold, refreshing bath! Had a good night sleep and awoke to a fruit plate and egg breakfast. Peanut Butter sandwich for Jade. It is truly hard to believe how generous a people can be all through an entire country….from south tip of Malaysia, to the north border next to Thailand. This HOMESTAY was completely free of charge! WOW! We cycled to the coast and road our bikes right onto the ferry. That was fun for Jade to look out of the trailer and find herself on the water. It was quite a short ride from main land to Penang Island. It was a shock to me, being that we are now use to enjoying the slow paced culture and beauty of Island life, now we found ourselves in the middle of a huge, busy and noisy city. A city Island. I kind of had to forget in my mind that we were on an island and just enjoy the city. Ryan tried calling from a pay phone at a bus station for it seemed like an hour….trying to call Sarah. She had wanted us to stay with her and we just couldn't get a hold of her. So we decided that instead of getting frustrated, we would take a walk down the street and we bought icecream and enjoyed eachother as a family. We tried calling again, I whispered to God…."Father…find us Sarah's home tonight." Just at that moment I heard Ryan speaking with excitement on the phone to our long lost friend Sarah.
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