Malaysia trip Part I

Dad and Kostas left on January 26 from Detroit. May was kind to take us to the airport and take the pic below:


Dad is Platinum Elite on Northwest which means Sky Team Plus Elite which means free NW lounge access when flying internationally. So we made the obligatory stop in the NW WorldClub lounge:


This is the water fountain in the middle of the main terminal...The camera sometimes has a mind of its own so excuse the lighting (or lack thereof):


Nice 11 hour flight to Narita Tokyo and brief stop at the smaller lounge:



This is the much nicer and much bigger NW lounge in Narita airport:

Planes lined up in Narita:


After another 7 hour nice flight to Singapore's Changi airport we landed around 12.30 am with our next flight to Kuala Lumpur not leaving until 6.30 am so we have some time to explore this awesome airport!




We visited the Skyview Lounge which is open 24 hrs. Dim sum, sandwiches, noodles, soup, all kinds of drinks, desktop PCs with internet, big screen TVs, plenty of reading material and comfortable chairs....and of course great showers....Dad took one and felt so good after two long flights!


We had some time to explore the airport, many things to do even in the middle of the night. They even have a swimming pool upstairs! Kostas liked the free Xbox machine games in Terminal 2 and he wants to come back here and spend all our time in the airport, hmm that's an idea, a vacation at an airport!
Plenty of free computers around the airport to check email, massage chairs and all kinds of food of course.

We had a short 45 minute flight on Malaysia airlines to Kuala Lumpur. Somewhere around here our digital camera decided to suddenly kill its battery...so it took a while to get it charged up again...

We met Lee's two brothers in the KL airport, Hee Hang from New York and his wife Ellie along with their two kids Sam and Rachel who landed an hour earlier. We also met brother Hee Hong and his wife Yvonne and their two kids Xuan Joo and Jun Joo who live in KL and brought both of their cars to drive us to Sitiawan in NW Malaysia to the grandparents family home where a huge family reunion will take place for the Chinese New Year and Lee's dad's 70th birthday.

This is the first time Dad experiences Chinese New Year in Malaysia...It's quite something. Huge traffic jams as most city residents take the roads to visit family back in villages. And fireworks and firecrackers everywhere! If you just took the sounds only you may think you were in Iraq:-)


We went out to these open market stores frequently where we eat these very tasty local dishes which cost the super low price 2 to 3 ringgit (1 US dollar= 3.8 ringgit). If Greece was very expensive everything here is very cheap! With less than $2 dollars you were full!


More firecrackers/fireworks, Kostas and Sam going at it:


Dad's and Kosta's favorite dish, the Indian Roti Chanai, yummy:


Las Vegas central back in the Sitiawan house...


We attended the banquet for Lee's 3rd brother's Hee Hook wedding with Fong who is from Indonesia. Again, our digital camera refused to work. We will post some pics otherfamily members took that we have in two CDs some time over the next two weeks, quite busy now, so stay tuned.

The second night it was the banquet for grandpa's 70th birthday. Every 10th birthday is a very big deal here. The love among families and high respect for the elders is quite something, something quite different compared to Greek and american societies. Dad experienced a bit of culture shock again:-)
There were 18 full tables of guests present at the banquet:

Whole lot of Karaoke going on, here is Simon's sister at the back pretending to be the chinese Britney Spears?:-)


Sam and Kosta's turn....is it the Pet shop boys, Back Street boys or, heaven forbid, the Beastie Boys? LOL


Jun Joo can't take it anymore:-)


Simon's sister about to give autographs to fans Xuan Joo and Jun Joo:


While performing Kostas needs to take a call from his agent?


Party On!


Miss Malaysia?


Mommy and Sophia, aren't they cute?


The four sisters with parents:


Going all out with a humongous seven story cake:


Lee with mommy and daddy:


Now some obligatory pics with the grandparents

Hee Hong and Yvonne with the their two boys:


Us:


Hee Hook and Fong...yes she is pregnant:


The three brothers:


The Lee family:


Fifteen grankids with one more coming:


After three nights in Sitiawan everyone started leaving to go back to their homes. Below is Simon's family going to Johor:


I am not sure whose kid this one was...but he reminded me of one of the cartoon characters on TV:-)


Fong with her mom and sister visiting from Indonesia...her grandpa was also there.


We then traveled to the next big town in Ipoh where we attended another banquet for the 70th birthday of Annie's grandpa, who is a high school buddie with Lee's dad (Annie is the girl who recently finished her bachelor's degree in Northwood University). This one was way more extravagant!
Chinese dragon dance troupe, you see them a lot everywhere these days:

Kids fascinated by them:

The banquet hall:

Sam, Rachel, Kostas and Sophia doing what they do best, being silly:

This is the grand entrance of the honorees party...they had hired these, hmm, shall we say, nice looking dancers:

who then proceeded to sing and dance with a very loud band:

getting down, their ever changing costumes were, hmm, nice to put it mildly:-)

The 70 year old dude with all his family on stage:


Left very late Tuesday night. We then drove 4 hours to Lee's family home in Raub. We had to cut through the mountains on a road with an amazing number of turns. If we did this during the day the scenery would have been amazing, oh well, maybe next time.

Out to the open market area in "downtown" Raub...more roti chanai please:




Sam and Kostas doing their "homework" back in the Raub family home:

View from the front of the family home:

The family home:

We spent two nights in Raub. Lee met some high school friends and we went out to eat and visit them. Raub is even smaller than Sitiawan but the area has grown a lot since Dad's last visit in 1997!

Off to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to Hee Hong and Yvonne's house:


We celebrated Xuan Joo's birtday in a MacDonald's...They do a very good job here celebrating the kids bdays:





musical chairs, Kostas won: