Kuala Lumpur, 9 May 2008 – Malaysia plays host to ex-Olympic swimmer Babaeva Tatiyana, and her daughter, Babaeva Evgeniya, as they visit Langkawi, Penang and the capital city.

Throwing all cautions in the air, the mother-and-daughter duo packed their bags and travelled over seas and lands on the warm beaches of Malaysia for their summer vacation.

“We Russians like the sun and the beach a lot, because we don’t get much of it over in Russia. The hottest temperature we ever get during summer is only 24C!” said Tatiyana in frantic Russian, with the help of her daughter for translation.

It has been great fun in the sun for them after spending eight days in Langkawi, one day in Penang, and the consecutive three days in Kuala Lumpur.

Tatiyana and Evgeniya had coincidentally met up with the VirtualMalaysia team during their short stint in Penang, and together, they tried out some local delicacies in Malaysia, such as Hokkien Mee and Asam Laksa, as well as the local fruits like rambutans, mangosteens, and the King of Fruits, durians.

“I find it unusual when we were eating by the streets in Penang,” added Evgeniya, who is also a fluent Chinese speaker, and has been studying Economics in China. “We don’t commonly do that in Russia, so it’s definitely something different to us.”

So far, their trip around Malaysia has been a smooth flow with the help of friendly locals and easy access of documentations.

“It was easy to obtain the visa and plane tickets, and so far we’ve stayed in comfortable hotels,” said Evgeniya. “Even the taxi drivers were a great help to us because they speak different languages. We just need to tell them the places we want to go on the map and they’ll bring us there.”

The Babaeva ladies have also visited other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, but have found their stay in Malaysia the most pleasant.

When asked if they would recommend visiting Malaysia to their Russian friends, the mother and daughter gave a thrilling grin and nodded their heads.

“We would definitely like to come back to Malaysia too along with our friends,” said Evgeniya. “There are still so many islands we haven’t visited, such as Tioman and Pangkor, and we would like to check out those places with our friends.”