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The Star
  • 12/25/2024
International visitors are choosing Malaysia's tropical warmth over traditional white Christmas celebrations this holiday season, embracing a unique festive experience filled with local culture and cuisine.

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Transcript
00:00International visitors are choosing Malaysia's tropical warmth over traditional white Christmas
00:09celebrations this holiday season, embracing a unique festive experience filled with local
00:15culture and cuisine.
00:17Japanese sisters Natsuki and Honoka Morita, aged 24 and 22, traded their snowy homeland
00:23for Malaysia's sunny shores.
00:26Compared to Japan, Japan is very cold and white Christmas, so Malaysia is quite different
00:32compared to Japan.
00:34The sisters, who arrived on December 21, were impressed by Kuala Lumpur's festive decorations,
00:40particularly the Petronas Twin Towers, and discovered a new favourite in Malaysian Nasi
00:44Lemak during their stay in Langkawi.
00:46We tried a local food, rice with nasi lemak, I think nasi lemak is good, that one, I liked it.
00:55German couple Peter and Elin Heberling are also enjoying their unconventional Christmas.
01:01Peter is a fourth-time visitor to Malaysia, while this is Elin's first trip here.
01:07I love the people here, they are always friendly, it's always nice food everywhere and you can
01:13go outside always without jackets, short shorts.
01:17The couple have also immersed themselves in local experiences, exploring night markets
01:22and street food scenes.
01:23Elin says, despite the different climate, the Christmas spirit remains the same.
01:28It's good, yes, the people are so friendly and it's so much energy here, it's always
01:34buzzling, it's beautiful.
01:37The music is the same actually, it's really, really similar.
01:42Meanwhile, 47-year-old Jeffrey Strickland from the United Kingdom also spent this Christmas
01:48in Malaysia with his family and this is their first holiday abroad since the pandemic.
01:54He also plans to visit Taman Negara with his family during their two-week holiday here.
02:00We'll go to Taman Negara and then we'll go to Langkawi.
02:05Strickland adds he admired Malaysia's hospitality and culinary diversity.
02:11Very busy and bustling, it's good.
02:14In the UK, Christmas day, everything closes, here there's always things going on, always
02:18things to do.
02:19I think how friendly people are and the variety of all the food, it's good.
02:26For their Christmas meal, Strickland and his family enjoyed a traditional gathering with
02:30roast lamb and beef, blending familiar flavours with the warmth of a Malaysian holiday setting.
02:36Merry Christmas!

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