Day 11

We had an awesome day today at the Laketown Resort in Bukit Merah. We visited the only conservational orangutan island in peninsular Malaysia, an Eco Park with wildlife you can feed and touch, and then we went to the Resort's main attraction, the Waterpark.

Orangutan Island was incredible. We took a boat over to the island and a tour guide introduced us to Mike, a 26-year old orangutan (the leader of the group.) Ben later asked me how old I was and when I told him, he said Mike and I could be friends because we are the same age. Then we met a few others and the best part was seeing the baby orangutans. They were adorable. The youngest one, a female, was just barely born 3 weeks ago. We saw the nurse swaddle her and put her to sleep. We also saw her change a 6-month old male's diaper. I just wish they would have let us hold them!

Then we left the island and went to the Eco Park. We bought a bag of food for RM5, filled with sunflower seeds, leaves, carrots, and bread to give to the animals. There were monkeys all over and they would take the seeds and bread right out of our hands. One monkey even climbed on my mom and reached into her purse and pulled out her red mechanical pencil. We tried getting it back but the monkey would not let us near him. It was hilarious and I just wish I would have caught it on video. Another monkey climbed onto Whitney and tried to unzip my backpack and pull out the ziplock bag with wipes and diapers in it. My dad and mom had to hold the zipper down before the monkey could get the bag. The kids loved feeding the monkeys and the highlight of the day for Ben was feeding the turtles, his favorite animal.

After the Eco Park we headed to the Waterpark. It was very kid-friendly which made it nice for us, not having to watch their every move, worrying they might get hurt. We were the only caucasian family there and most of the others were Muslim, swimming with all of their clothes on. It was interesting to see. Also, we loved that we felt like we had the park to ourselves. Since it was a Monday afternoon, most kids were still in school so the park had maybe 50 or 60 people there. We went down a waterslide with our tube and it was really bumpy and half the time we turned over in the tube. Ben LOVED that ride and went down it multiple times. Poor Emma wanted to go too but she wasn't tall enough.

Our flight home leaves tomorrow around 3:30pm and we will get back into Salt Lake on Wednesday around 9am. The kids and I were talking about leaving and they said they will miss it here. It has definitely been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I just hope the kids remember all they have seen and done. As sad as we are to leave, we are very excited to see Jake and give him hugs and kisses. We have all missed dad a lot. I don't think I will be posting again until we get home so... until next time.