*There are pictures of most of these things on my facebook page, so feel free to friend me if you want to see them….it takes super long to upload a single photo on this blog!*
I have a really obnoxiously long, detailed, ever-growing, and largely unrealistic bucket list at home that I began about two years ago. Pardon the unoriginal idea, but if you have never made one, you definitely should. Take the pressure off of yourself to add items that you feel like “should” be on it….if you have never had a desire to see the Great Wall of China, go skydiving, eat escargot, or paint a picture, then don’t include them. My bucket list has everything from places I want to see, recipes I want to try/create, books I want to read, events I want to attend….and about 100 other random personal desires.
I had originally thought about making a bucket list for this trip, but given the unpredictability of the whole year, I feared it would become impossible to actually do anything on it.
So here is the next installment of my “Reverse Bucket List”: crazy, random things I experienced in any given country that I never could have known or predicted.
I want to go to Malaysia and..
-land in Kuala Lumpur with no idea where to stay or go, and conquer this issue within an hour…thanks to Jesus and my right hand girl, Tasha!
-eat at an A & W burger place and have a root beer float for the first time to celebrate Caitlin’s birthday!
-go to the top of KL tower to see the sites, and then enjoy the “scary reptile and insect” exhibit included in our ticket. (so random)
-take the scariest bus ride of my life to Gua Musang…it is seriously a wonder that thing didn’t crash and kill us all.
-eat ridiculous amounts of incredible Chinese and Malay food.
-come to feel like family to Auntie Kim and Uncle Chua, our amazing hosts in Malaysia!
-go to the top of the mountain we lived on in the jungle, and spend time with Jesus on the “prayer mountain” overlooking the palm oil estate and jungle.
-fertilize palm oil trees with a thick black liquid fertilizer, and also give them “haircuts” (aka prune them) to help Uncle Chua with the harvest.
-see huge families of monkeys jumping through the trees on my front porch.
-present an entire church service on the spot to an unexpected group of Chinese students.
-make a massive amount of sardine, egg, onion, and ketchup sandwiches for the church.
-visit the Cameron Highlands, a beautiful place in the mountains of Malaysia that is known for its beautiful tea farms and strawberries.
-swim in the stream on the property of the palm oil estate, along with a scary unknown species of snake.
-have 2 hour long tea times with our hosts in their front yard, complete with delicious little goodies and passion fruit tea.
-accidentally gnaw on a chicken neck one night while the power was out.
-make friends with a Singapore youth group and learn a traditional Chinese dance.
-teach English in a Malaysian village center to beautiful children, and serve anchovies in grease with rice to everyone who showed up for church.
-eat one of the scariest meals so far on the Race…some sort of huge, sketchy chunks of chicken skin that looked like aliens in curry sauce, EW.
-come across incredibly beautiful limestone caves while running one day with Amanda.
-drive deep into the jungle on a crazy bumpy dirt road to minister to a group of plam oil farmers.
-have my hair professionally washed and styled as a gift from our lovely host, Auntie Kim.
-take the night train to Kuala Lumpur and pretend I am on the Hogwarts Express, along with the rest of my team.
-visit on of Asia’s coolest amusement parks!
-fly out of Malaysia on Qatar Air, the nicest and most luxurious airline so far…free 3 course meals, hot towelettes, wine, candy bars, and movies galore!
I loved Malaysia, especially because of our amazing contacts…Auntie Kim and Uncle Chua, we miss you!
