The End: Leaving Penang

I expect that nearly everyone who's acquainted with this blog knows that we're home now, back in Oregon, and that the Malaysian adventure came to a premature end. At the end of the day Intel's strategy for multiple simultaneous factory constructions ran into $$ challenges, and the expat team returned to the US.  We were disappointed to say the least, but have easily found silver linings in almost every part of our return, especially the proximity to family. 

Also we had the good fortune of knowing several months in advance of our departure, and with the factory project winding down we found opportunity to squeeze in a few more short trips to Thailand.

Such as Halloween in Phuket

And a final dive trip back to Koh Lipe - the place where we took our very first SE Asia vacation in November of 2023. But to get there we had to get past the watchful eyes of the sea eagle to board the ferry

Seems like this part of the ocean is home to an abundance of sea snakes, and was able to get a little video on one of our dives of this guy doing his graceful thing about 50' down. 

And little early-morning quality time with a hermit crab on her way to who knows where. Probably just away from me

We traveled to this island paradise with our good friends the Girard-Carrier family - realized my sandcastle skills had atrophied a bit but the kids were willing to provide a refresher course

Also enjoyed the refresher course of 2x daily mango smoothies

And kicked off the start of the Christmas season with some firedancers

Grateful that there was no invitation extended to adults for participation in the fire show. Also grateful for this beach sunrise

Speaking of Christmas, the way home afforded a chance to kick off the holiday season with a day or two stopover in Hong Kong to visit the worlds smallest Disneyland with our good friends + game night partners the Markees.

The drone show on main street was pretty impressive

So was Joanna's reach up to Mr. Potato head

Also took the cable car up the steep mountain to get the view of the city

Might have been a little windy on top

As if to offer one final kiss goodbye, Penang threw another festival just as we were packing up to leave. Lucky for us, it was right next door to our apartment at the Burmese temple. The celebration was Kathina, celebrating, among other things, (maybe this year, prematurely) the end of the monsoon season. Also a lot of alms-giving, which took the form of paper currency being shaped into what I can best describe as christmas trees, and paraded around the temple with lots of energy.

Some of the ethnic outfits worn buy those celebrating was super cool and colorful. Especially these head scarves

With so many cultures blended together it felt like the next street party or parade was just around the corner in Penang. And while the frequent midnight fireworks became a little lame, we will fully miss the consistent cadence of celebrations bringing a community together. Pretty sure there's a lesson for us  Americans in that.