If you saw the video of my first Christmas Eve in Kuala Lumpur in 2016 you’ll know why I am so grateful to have experienced a fun, festive, and lovely Christmas dinner this year. Unfortunately, once I started drinking (and eating) I forgot to keep shooting video but this is what Christmas Eve with friends looks like in Kuala Lumpur (at least the non-messy beginning bits!) 
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This was a fabulous week in my world, discovering moon cakes after all these years in Asia … and finding SWEET passion fruit finally in Malaysia (woohoo!). (more…)
The last time I remember being this light, this joyfully happy, this optimistic, and this positive was the summer of 2013. I can pinpoint triggers in my mind and there are precisely two to be exact. The first was in July when my daughter and I went on a very fun weeklong road trip in India before she moved away to head to uni in the UK. We drove the chauffer (not Shiva!) mad for hours-on-end singing our favourite songs from the 60s to 2000s, had wonderfully long talks that touched my heart, and shared special and dodgy moments adventuring around South India. The second was the next month when I flew back to the U.S. to renew my India visa and had a wild weekend with my brother and sister in San Francisco. It was indulgent, hilarious, and a bit naughty … everything you want from a reunion, right? (more…)
Sooooo I’ve just returned home to Kuala Lumpur following an 11 day solo road trip in and around Cameron Highlands and had a fascinating adventure at a typical Malaysian rest and truck stop. It was my 1st solo road trip here AND the very 1st time I’ve driven in Malaysia, which mad it extra-super-duper-hella-fun! In fact, it was my first time driving since a solo road trip in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado while on holiday in the USA back in 2014 … but shhhhhh, don’t tell my friend who lent me the Subaru 😉 While stopping to refuel both my body and the petrol, I discovered that Malaysian rest stops are the BOMB and something truly special. (more…)
Woohooooo! My 1st (non-airport) experience with the Malaysian government was fantastic … every single employee was kind, gracious and helpful (NOT something expats experience in some countries, trust me!!! I’ve been yelled at in China and India for not being in the right queue so this was a lovely experience!). (more…)
After spending 7 weeks back in California in a very ‘white’ residential suburb, one of the things I’m loving most about being back in a city – especially one like Kuala Lumpur, and my new village of Mont Kiara – is being able to walk out the door and have a very multi-cultural life buzzing all around me. There’s something about that initial burst of morning fabulousness that really starts the day off perfectly. And for me that all begins at my friendly, local coffee shop and bakery on the ground floor of my building that is perfect for people watching. (more…)
I still remember my first squatty toilet experience just like it was yesterday. I was 22 years old and on a fabulous road trip that took my dear friend Janine and I by car from Barcelona all the way to Gibraltar, then across on the ferry to Tangier and back again. The trip itself was laden with so many memorable travel moments that to this day it still ranks in my top 5 favourite trips of all time. And one of those memories is from a seaside restaurant in Africa where we were eating the most amazing fresh fish … and where I discovered the squatty toilet bathroom, and that a cupful of water can replace toilet paper. (more…)
