Phil – Page 4 – Brave or Foolhardy

July 8, 2012July 9, 2012

Firefly watching at Cherating

Just finished breakfast at a self service restaurant packed out with Malay families. Last night we went on the local tour up the river to watch the fireflies. I would love to say we got some amazing pictures but it was simply impossible. Essentially we jump on a boat and potter up the river until the tell tale blinking on a specific species of tree. The tree type is someing to do with the enzymes that they ingest when they eat the sap. It is this enzyme that turns into a chemical that produces the blinking light. They actually have a very short lifespan and the light is used to attract a mate. I order to make the experience more personal they shine a red light around the boat and this is something that the fireflies are drawn out of the tree for. They alll make their way over to the boat and land on your face, hair, clothes etc. so we all looked like Christmas trees. It was enchanting though that they just pop over and float onto you. No bites thankfully but we seem to be in the insect capital and we are drowning in inspect repellent.

We are about to go to visit the turtle sanctuary now and later this afternon we are hoping to take another boat trip to find some monkeys and snakes. Not too sure about the snakes as I know this is a pit viper area.

Next on the list is heading up to the off-point for the Perhentian islands. Need to make some plans on how to get there as it is 6 hours away by bus.

July 4, 2012July 4, 2012

Raining Monkeys and dogs

Jenni has given the facts around our break at Sibu island. It was a really enchanting trip. From the moment we stepped aboard the boat I could tell that we were going to have fun. The driver opened up the twin 85hp engines on the deep vee long boat and we got on the plane in no time. The island looked like it was miles away but we reached it in 15 minutes. The swell was high so we landed on the leeward side and traipsed through the jungle to reach the resort. Clearly several groups of people have tried to make this place a holiday paradise but just outside the resort are the untended ruins of previous attempts and copious amounts of debris washed up in the tide. Humans throw away too many plastic bottles these days and this is where they and countless flip flops end up.

The time on the island was fabulous and just what the doctor ordered. It was awesome not having to worry about food, drink and cleaning etc.

We returned to the mainland today and when we met our driver we got into a car from a manufacturer I have never heard of – Nava – which had been suped up with chrome wide wheels and lowered. The driver was about 60 years old and really mellow. It had two air fresheners one incense and the other vanilla or sandalwood or something. To be honest the heady mix of a comfortable car, his mellow driving, the air con and the air fresheners took the sting out of the just in time overtaking maneouvres he pulled on the one hour trip to Mersing. On the way it was predominantly palm forest interspersed with villages offering car repairs and curry at the roadside. However in the most empty sections of road I saw many stray dogs and the odd monkey. None of them squashed this time in comparison to the trip from Singapore. It seems to rain every afternoon for an hour or so and we were glad this was mostly when we were travelling.

So now we are fed and watered and safely ensconced in the Embassy hotel. A rather grand sounding name for a beat up building with clean rooms and A/C and hot showers!

Travelling with the kids and not having booked anywhere has paid off this time and we are feeling more brave and less foolhardy now the trip is properly underway.

Kids in bed

A beautiful tropical flower

Susie and Luke on the beach

The mini Merlion in Singapore (while the other is being repaired)

June 29, 2012July 1, 2012

Botanical gardens

We ventured out today onto the SMRT the Singapore equivalent of the tube. It was awesome not least because it was air-conditioned. Destination botanical gardens. We had begun to think it was a terrible idea since it was sweltering again and about 30 mins after we got in Jenni felt very wobbly. The gardens were fabulourps though and showcased everything the tropics has to offer in terms of flora. We saw lobster claw, bananas, Bougainvillia and dozens of other plants in he healing garden and sensory gardens. The food court had re-opened and so we ate duck and rice, wanton noodles and ….

For adventurous types we gave up after lunch and headed back to swim (cool down) once more. I had been testing the diving commuter I bought in anticipation of the opportunities in North Eastern Malaysia.

The kids managed to find a praying mantis hanging onto the bin and also a red dragon fly so we have stuck this up as they will likely write about something very peculiar again on their journal tomorrow.

I found out from Tony that to own a car here you need a Certificate of Entitelment to drive before you are allowed to purchase one. This certificate costing £20-30k and the exorbitant price of cars means you have to be very privileged to own your own.

The papers are full of a court hearing going on where a church has funnelled donations into shell accounts to boost a pop singers career and Luke is outraged! :). How could they?

I was hoping we would get a thunderstorm but it looks like my bug toe was wrong. Probably still acclimatising!

June 29, 2012June 29, 2012

Singapore chillin’

Our poolside video. Singapore chillin’

Password is queens.

June 27, 2012June 27, 2012

Quiet day recovering

Eventually persuaded Jenni to get up at 11:00am after insisting she would not lie in – hehe.

We had a very gentle day getting over being dog tired from the travel. Very proud we were able to stand having just a fan rather than opting for the aircon overnight.
We had some lunch with Ally and the kids and then headed off for the pool. It is really exactly like being on holiday. It is a great privilege to have such a lovely pool onsite.

Then a dramatic sortie to the supermarket to get the essentials we had forgotten. Wishing we had got them at the airport as the prices for basics are as warned very high indeed. The supermarket was only 500yds away but it still felt very brave with 3 kids. Going to have to get ourselves sorted before we depart for Mersing at the end of the weekend. It is hard to believe 3 days of our time away has passed already.

Great thunderstorm in the morning too to take some of the heat out of the day.

June 27, 2012June 27, 2012

27th June – Singapore jet lagging

I am sitting with Luke helping him with his journal after an interesting (read restless) nights sleep. Susie and Emma struggled to settle which meant I was able to help them. Having said that I don’t feel like death warmed up just yet. It is predictably sweltering but the sun is not even out today. We have so much acclimatatising to do! Everyone else still asleep. I am worried they are dehydrating as I have drunk a litre or so of water so far to stave off headaches. The view from the apartment is amazing. 34 floors up the business district and the port make a great backdrop and there is always something going on. We tried the swimming pool last night and it really feels like we are on holiday. Still hard to believe that we have so much more holiday time coming up. Venturing off on our own seems still a bit too brave and I am really grateful that Tony and Ally are here and have made us feel so welcome.

Hoping to mooch about a bit later to get my bearings. Will take the camera and pop some images up.

Help everyone is doing well and look forward to posting more updates later.

;

Actually I did take a pic using the iPad late last night to get a feel for the vista.

June 17, 2012June 18, 2012

Packing

We have now done the test pack to see if everything fits. It does thank goodness but there is an awful lot of stuff and when we put it on to test for weight last week that excluded the huge quantities of suncream, washing stuff, first aid kit, malaria pills, insect repellent, hand cleaner, sea sick pills and maybe another 10 things I have forgotten to list!

Here it is laid out. Hey you can still see the floor right? Maybe we are not taking enough 🙂

Cannot believe it is only 7.5 days to go!

Phil

June 4, 2012June 5, 2012

Itinerary

Hi there

This is it – dada! The Itinerary. Flight times on scheduled flights will dictate some movements so here are the main elements.

[travelmap-map height=400]

Hope this gives a quick idea.

[travelmap-list]

Phil

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

Jubilee only 21 days to go!

The Thai consulate in Birmingham have really surpassed all expectations. We sent the visa applications on Monday morning and they returned them complete on Wednesday morning!!! How about that? No more worrying whether our passports would be back in time. The CRB forms for Plan International are still away and it is probably a stretch to hope for this week even.

Because it is not nearly busy enough we wanted to complete the upstairs lick of paint approach to redecorating so we can put the house on the market when we get back. So we are doing our room, paint, lighting and curtains. Should look lovely once ready but a complete bombsite now so we are sleeping in the tent. Good practice for the rooftop chalet we have booked in Bukit Lawang. This looks awesome.

We now have an itinerary that we are happy with. It has involved setting some things in stone like going to Sumatra because the flights (no ferry from Pedang any more) had to be booked. Still this has made the malaria tablet calculations massively more simple.

I watched the bridge over the river Kwai last night. Seems odd that we will be there in not too long. I have no idea what the kids will make of it. I don’t know what I make of it.

We have set out what clothes we plan to take so we can establish what we don’t yet have. It is a bigger list than we thought and several early purchases look very utilitarian and we may relax into more surf style for the remainder so as not to look like someone from the bridge over the river Kwai!

Totally fed up with the weather here and cannot wait for some consistent heat. This is going to change when we get there and end up hunting for air con I am sure. The grass is always greener.

Feelings about work being too much to handle are fading away when I contemplate that in 3 weeks we will be at the airport. Life will go on and no amount of preparation will stop all the plates I have been spinning from crashing to the ground. Maybe I can just describe which will fall first?

Thats all for now. Will update the map and present the itinerary later.

May 20, 2012

Final phase of preparation begins

Hi all

We now begin the final phase of our preparation.

Final jabs for the kids

Malaria tablets

Test pack

Visas

CRB checks

It is getting very exciting now. The countdown is new on the right hand side so we can keep an eye on it.

Should be publishing an itinerary soon.