Even though this is the first time I’ve been back to Malaysia in over a decade, everything is still so familiar and some of the people still remember me (!).  My Auntie Suzanne still uses the same taxi driver to come pick us up from the family house.  His taxi still has the same wonderful scent of worn, but clean seat cushions, car air fresheners, and a little humidity mixed with air conditioning.  He remembered the time he drove my cousin and I to Sunway Lagoon which is this cheesy water park in the city.  Crazy!  Anyway, here are some pictures I took of day 3.

After Sonny and I walked around the neighborhood, I cooled off my feet in the pool and watched the sunrise.  You can’t tell from this picture, but the sun looks like a HUGE grapefruit chillin’ in the sky.  It’s quite nice.

Sonny and I went to one of his favorite breakfast places in town and he insisted on ordering Char Keow Teow with a side of fish balls.  Fried noodles is a heavy breakfast, but it doesn’t feel that bad and you work/sweat it off within a couple hours.  My dad was worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle the heat so he asked for the non-spicy version.  Come on, dad!  Obviously, he’s unaware of my obsession with Sriracha.  For dessert, we ate Kuih which are these gooey, jiggly desserts.  The one on the left has a layer of salty, coconut flavored goo on top of a layer of sweet green goo made from pandan leaves.  Sonny greatly enjoys the one on the left, but he prefers desserts that incorporate red bean.

We spent the day with Sonny’s best friend from the good ol’ days.  That’s Sonny on the left.  They’ve been best friends since age 6!  They spent the day lying to me about stuff and telling stories about how they camped out on the beach when they were kids and killed cobras that slept under their backpacks.

Then we went to Petaling Street which is the main drag in Chinatown.  It didn’t always look like this.  Back in the day, it was very dirty, a little hazy, and didn’t have that fancy covering.  Thankfully, a lot of the old haunts are still there.

My aunts buy all their herbal medicines here.  You can’t tell from the picture, but this store sells all sorts of crazy stuff like dried seahorses for improved eyesight, edible pearls for a more youthful complexion, and all sorts of dried barks for general health.  Back in the day, they would give me little packets of Goji berries to eat while I waited.

Kim’s Soya Bean is the BEST.  Every time I went to Petaling Street which was at least 3-4 times a week, my aunts would buy me a big ol’ bag of soybean milk sweetened with brown sugar syrup.  He now serves soy milk in a plastic cup, but he’ll give it to you in a bag if you’re on the run.  This business has been in his family for three generations.

My family has been going to this flower shop for years and years and years.  When my aunts got tired of lugging me around Chinatown, they would deposit me here with a bag of soybean milk and their many purchases so they could finish running their errands.

This is the temple Sonny used to visit with his mom.  This was the first time I went with my dad.  My aunts usually take me.  One of the best part of Malaysia is that there are Buddhist temples scattered around the city.  They are absolutely beautiful and have this incredibly rich and intense smell from all the incenses.  The combination of the humidity, heat and scents creates this hazy environment which feels very spiritually and calming.  It’s quite relaxing stopping at one of these temples to pray and meditate during the hottest parts of the day.

Then we went to Central Market which is basically a huge craft market and major tourist destination.  Central Market wasn’t that much fun, and I felt tired and overwhelmed by all the shops, but I did visit the jewelery store I got my ears pierced at when I was a little girl.  The best part was that the woman who did the deed still works there and remembered me!

Lunch time!  According to Sonny, this place has the best beef balls in the city, and I think he’s right.  It’s very important to get the beef balls separate from the noodles which have their own beef gravy so as to not mix the flavors.  I take all my meals with sweetened barley water.  Sonny takes his without sugar.

We were all tired after our walk through Chinatown so we decided to go home, but we couldn’t end the day without a big bowl if ice kacang (aka ABC).  So we drove to the old part of PJ (Petaling Jaya) to get our ABC fix.  Ice kacang can be prepared in a lot of different ways with different ingredients.  Basically, it’s shaved ice with brown sugar syrup and evaporated milk on top of a mixture of various jellies, peanuts, red beans, and sometimes, fruits.  Sonny watches his diet and shows great restraint around desserts, but he can’t hold back when you put a bowl of ABC in front of him.