Greetings, weary world travelers and those with an appetite for adventure (sounds like a Travel Channel promo, doesn't it?), and welcome to Melaka, Malaysia! Melaka (also known as Malacca) is the second smallest state in Malaysia, and is located in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. They have a fairly small population here (considering the area) of 650,000, which is made up of Malays, Chinese, and assorted others. Malacca is well-known for its food, most notably is the Nyonya-Baba cuisine, which is a mixture of Chinese and Malay cooking.

Since cooking is right up the beans alley, they had to stop here at Capitol Satay, where they serve up some mighty tasty satays with peanut sauce. The frijoles were going to ask if they'd ever considered making a black bean sauce, but then thought it wouldn't be such a hot idea, since they were the only black beans in the immediate area. Maybe they'll write them an e-mail after they're back home and a safe distance away...

Next up, the beans hop over the island of Borneo, which with a population of 9.1 million and a size of 743,000 square miles, is the third largest island in the world. (See? You learned something new today.) Borneo was controlled by the Brunei empire way back in the 15th - 17th centuries, but today is divided politically into parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Borneo is also where CBS filmed the first season of "Survivor", and while the beans didn't run into any naked Richard Hatches (and we can all be grateful for that), they did meet this interesting gentleman...

BATW Ambassador Martin writes: "This is without a doubt the coolest beans picture I've been able to take. When visiting Borneo, we stayed overnight in a longhouse, a sort of communal housing of the Iban tribe. These folks used to be head hunters in the old days, and they have the skulls of their unfortunate enemies to prove it! Luckily they've given that up, of course otherwise I wouldn't have handed over my can of beans this easily. Although not always dressed in this traditional gear, this gentleman was kind enough to pose with the beans and his blowpipe."

So as you can well imagine, the beans were 100 percent respectful and humble in this man's presense. I mean, this is a guy who could blow a dart right through their little metal exterior if he desired, so it's best not to antagonize the locals. (Free advice from the polite AND intact frijoles.)

And while we're being so modest, the beans would really like to show their gratitude to Martijn and everyone in Malaysia for showing them a good time.