Family Reunion - Day 4
What a great way to spend a Sunday, having brunch with YK and Alex. The brunch consisted of steamed buns, coffee, sweets, and a nice Riesling. It was the first time we had seen YK’s new place and I would have to say, if this was in another country, such as France or Scotland, I would have bought the place from him. Beautifully decorated in a Cape Cod sort of way. Instead it’s in Malaysia where it’s very hot and humid and my body cries for nice cool weather.
After brunch, and sneaking a small surprise in their tea box, we headed to the Hakka Tin museum. Detailed museum about how the Hakka’ s help shape and build Ipoh to what it is today. It’s free of charge, however, one needs to make an appointment to see the museum. It’s quite interesting and well worth the visit if you are in Ipoh (Hint to Alex).
After getting our history lesson of Ipoh, it was time for lunch. There was a lot of food consumption during this visit, which one should not complain about, however, whatever pounds I lost during Korea (walking up and down hills and steps) I gained while we were visiting with family.
After lunch, Mark and I needed spend some time online, making appointments with our respective consulates and filling out and printing off passport applications. With a lot of these countries we need visas to enter, and they require two blank passport pages, since we are running low we planned to apply for now passports when we are in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. We knew that not having time to do these little things would be the case while visiting with friends and family but as we don’t often see them, it was important for us to spend as much time as possible reconnecting.
Later dinner was at an outdoor casual Hakka restaurant where they served ice beer.
Tonight’s dinner was on Ying and Landis and even if we wanted to pay for the meal, it was confusing to figure it out. You had to pay for the beer upfront, and then dinner. There was a lot of chatting going on, so we stopped trying to fight it and enjoyed the meal with family. Again, having people who know the foods to eat helps tremendously. Ipoh is known for food throughout Malaysia and many come to Ipoh to eat. All I can say is we have never been disappointed in the food whether it’s a fancy restaurant or a street side restaurant.
This was our last night, and although Alex and YK were unable to attend, it was so good to have the time to visit with everyone, retell stories of the past, make new memories, and enjoy the time we had together.
We hope to be back in the next couple of years, pending our cash flow after our year of traveling. In the meantime there is always email and WhatsApp!
Oh, and about that surprise we snuck in Alex's tea box, we did WhatsApp him once we left and were far away in Kuala Lumpur. We mentioned that he should check his supply and he replied with this photo stating "What did you do?"
We paid for dinner, that's what we did.