PENANG

Dearest Friends,

That trip to Penang, which I mentioned in my letter, ended up being one of the most memorable family vacations of our lives.  First and foremost was the resort itself.  I think it was called Golden Sands, and it was one of those lushly exotic oceanfront resorts that you see in travel brochures -- the kind with an open air lobby and lagoon-like swimming pools surrounded by palm trees and lounge chairs.  All you had to do was raise a little flag and a waiter would appear at your elbow with the icy beverage or snack of your choosing.  The only downside was in getting there, as the road from the airport to the resort followed the shoreline, with all its twists and turns.  Never a good thing for me, but man-oh-man, was it ever worth it!

We had traveled there alone, only to find several other families we knew already there, one of which had seven or eight children, so our kids had plenty of playmates to keep them company at the pool, as they wore themselves to a frazzle climbing up the awesome rockslide into the pool, over and over and over again.  That left us free to lounge, read, and visit with the other parents, just keeping a watchful eye out.  The resort also had a kid's club, based in its own little house next to the hotel, and our kids actually asked us to take them there, after hearing glowing reports from the other kids about the fun activities they had scheduled for each day.

When they eventually grew weary of that and the pool, we hired a car and driver to take us to do some shopping, tour a batik factory and a butterfly farm, and to go to Lexi's favorite (NOT!), the arboretum-like place where you could walk through the jungle and buy little bags of peanuts to feed the monkeys.  If only someone had warned the poor kid that you have to make sure the alpha male gets fed first.  Otherwise he's liable to launch himself at you when you least expect it, scaring you half to death, and he'll grab the whole dang bag right out of your hands!  Twenty years later, she's still not too crazy about monkeys, but I bet she'd go back to that resort in a heartbeat!