Category: Jenni

We’ve been enjoying our time in KL. We have explored the various parks and playgrounds and we did a bus tour of the city. We were expecting an open top bus with commentary as per the UK but all the buses bar one were completely enclosed and there wasn’t a commentary! Made it rather less interesting than it might have been….but we used it to go back to the KLCC water play (with swimming costumes this time!) which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We have been entertained by the apparently full time presence of two police officers whose only role appears to be to whistle at anyone who tries to enter the water area with shoes on! They take it very seriously…..

We have been finding that even somewhere as multicultural as KL Ramadan causes some challenges for us. We walked home through the Kl city walk looking for tea. Loads of restaurants but none of them open. Eventually we gave up and went back to an unhopeful looking one, open but deserted. It turned out to be a brilliant choice. They had boardgames to play while we waited, a waiter in love with Susie and delicious Indian food, all for less than £10. We were sad to leave.

Yesterday Emma had our first stomach upset. I can’t quite believe that we had made it very nearly halfway through our trip without issue, we must have cast iron stomachs. We think Emma’s was probably brough on by her falling over into what appeared to be an open sewer the day before. Although we cleaned her up and antibacterial gelled her, it seems some germ escaped our efforts. Anyway, Emma recovered within a few hours but by that point we’d already made the decision to keep her at the hotel for the day with Phil while I took Luke and Susie to an indoor play centre to keep them occupied and away from any potential germs. Much fun was had!

In the evening we decided to venture to a hawker market slightly out of the centre with great online reviews. It’s called Suzi’s corner which entertained our Susie! Turned out no taxi driver had any idea where it was. The first taxi took us in the right direction through awful rush hour traffic. He was very unhappy about the whole thing and tutted loudly throughout.  He eventually dropped us off without having found it. We walked a mile or so without finding it before getting in another taxi who drove us round in circles for a while before eventually finding it, only about 50 meters from where we had got in! By that point the kids were tired and hungry and Phil and I were pretty stressed. However it turned out to be worth finding as the steaks were the best we have ever had! Very unexpected in such a location. A much simpler taxi ride back to the hotel.

Today we will try again for the waterpark. Everyone seems well, the sun is shining and it’s time to get dressed.

We arrived in KL slightly bleary off the night train. We had a real adventure with our five top bunks through the jungle but I don’t think anyone actually slept all that well. A quick stop in KL Sentral station for breakfast and then on to find our hotel. Two interlinking rooms this time, very lovely and very friendly staff.

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We couldn’t check in until 2pm so we went to look at the shopping centre opposite. Turns out it has a theme park on the top levels including a full size roller coaster. Only Phil was tall enough and brave enough to go on the big one, but we still enjoyed the smaller rides and we had the place pretty much to ourselves for a good deal of the afternoon. For tea we hit the hawker stalls and had fabulous beef ball noodles! A broth with beef balls in and a separate bowl of noodles with soy sauce mince on top. Delicious and very filling.

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For thursday we had taken the plunge and booked a tour to the Malaysian elephant sanctuary. It was highly recommended by both locals and travellers but we were very disappointed. Bathing the elephants was cancelled due to high water levels, feeding them was much as you can do at Colchester zoo, and the “ride” was only a 20m circle. Not at all what we had hoped for, and very expensive for what it was. We visited deerland on the way and the kids held an albino python.

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Today we have redressed the balance a bit by playing in a free playground all day. The kids had been in their pants in the water play / paddling pool as we didn’t know they would need costumes. The water provided some much needed cooling from the blistering heat. I’m trying not to moan as i know those at home are still hoping for some summer weather but, my goodness, it has been hot on this trip!

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This evening there has been a thunderstorm so we have been out for dinner at the indian just a few doors from our hotel. As we walked there i thought maybe one korma, one biriyani and one hot one for Phil should do. Once we got there we realised that making plans like that is hopeless! It turnedout to be a canteen type effect with no words of english spoken so we pointed at some random things and hoped they wouldn’t be to spicy for the children. The staff couldn’t have ben more welcoming. It turned out just fine with delicious food and enough that the children could manage, just far too much. Child size portions seem so far to have eluded us completely. Normally we order three adult meals and share but today everyone wanted a chance to choose from the counter so we ended up with five adult meals. No chance of starvation tonight…..

We’ve been far too relaxed here, even updating the blog has seemed to be too much effort!  The setting and weather have been ideal, the kids had been happy playing on the beach and snorkelling and i have finally got stuck into some of the books i brought on my ereader.

Phil has had some great diving.  After my refresher course i just did one dive.  Unfortunately it was marred by too many stinging jellyfish to avoid at that particular site on that particular day.  Then i ruined it completely with my error on set up (someone had already turned my air on, so I turned it all the way off and back on half a turn, instead of all the way on and back half a turn) meaning that my air stopped very suddenly.  My buddy and i had to quickly put into practice our training and ascend together using only her air.  Wouldn’t have been much fun at the best of times but through the jellyfish it was pretty horrid.  All in all i’ve decided to leave the diving to Phil for now 🙂

Today we have to drag ourselves away from here, several stone heavier and a good deal browner?  We will spend one more night in the same hotel at Kuala Besut and then move onto to Kota Bharu.

We had our first minor hiccup today. Susie ran a very high temperature all day slept most of it away.  At about 5pm we decided she was getting worse rather than better so we asked the hotel about options to visit a doctor.  We were told a boat would take us to the island clinic staffed by a nurse.  Susie and i duely set off, passports in hand…..

The boat driver was very kind and took us into the clinic.  Whatever he said seemed to work as rather embarrassingly I think we queue jumped horribly.  The nurse took Susies temperature (39.9) and asked me to undress her.  He then shoved two large paracetemol doses up her bum with no warning.  He hadn’t bothered to ask, but we had given her paracetemol not half  an hour before.  The nurse was all set to send us home at this point, but, not being the retiring type I insisted that he look in her ears first as she had been complaining that they hurt.  Oh yes, she did have an ear infection!  He tried to give me ear drops but I went into full on stroppy western tourist mode and insisted on oral antibiotics. I don’t think he’s speaking to me anymore…….

We made the boat trip back and the driver was an absolute star, even refusing to take any payment for his service.  Back at the hotel, and one paniced call to our doctor friend (thanks Kate!) to check the paracetemol dose wouldn’t cause a problem and panic over.  Susie has felt well enough to watch a film and eat two biscuits – a significant improvement on the rest of the day,  we are hoping that the antibiotics will continue to do their job.  If this is the worst of our medical problems whilst away we shall have got off very lightly!

We are sitting in the communal area of our guesthouse in Cherating waiting  for the long distance bus which will take us to the jump off point for the Perhentian Islands.  It’s drizzling, although still very hot, so it seems a good time to leave!

We’ve had a mixed time here – we have loved seeing the fireflies, just like real life fairies, viting the turtle sanctuary and laughing at the cute baby turtles waiting to be released, and the river boat trip where we saw mangrove snakes, crabs, monitor lizards and a magnificient sea eagle.  We haven’t loved the relentless heat with no air con, the unbelievable amount of bugs that have left us all itching despite buckets of repellant, the rubbish left lying around everywhere or the local youths on moterbikes zipping around everywhere.  We had the unsettling experience of sitting next to a local lady who had her jewellery snatched by one of the youths who then jumped onto the back of a motorbike as it sped past.  We have been more careful with our stuff since then but that hadn’t helped the poor lady who was very upset.

Here we have also experienced our first “proper” local breakfast – western options don’t start before 10am and the kids still want to eat at 8am.  The restaurant serving the locals offers fish curry, chicken curry, curried eggs and rice.  It was all tasty, but i do have to argue with my stomach about whether it can handle it at that time in the morning.  Susie is esting a lotmof rice and tomato ketchup at the moment.  Luke and Emma are getting addicted to soups which is surprisingly healthy!

We have hopes for airconditioning and hot water tonight :-). Perhaps our age makes us need a bit more luxury!

We left Singapore feeling sad but not for long…….. Our luxury car drove us in air conditioned comfort into Malaysia. Immigration took longer than the driver had anticipated which resulted in some hair raising overtaking, use of truck only lanes etc to get us to our 2pm boat on time.

The boat took off at a fantastic speed with no warning causing some consternation and rapid hat grabbing, but once we got used to it there were big grins all round. Very exhilarating!

The boat took us to the island of Sibu where we were treated to luxury and relaxation at Sea Gypsy Resort. We had a lovely two bedroom chalet and fullboard included. It was completely idyllic, like a holiday brochure with white sand and palm trees. We made great friends with a family from New Zealand and the kids ran feral together. We were able to walk through the jungle, seeing lizards and giant millipedes, to another beach where we could snorkel (or in our case goggle) right off the beach. We saw hundreds of brightly coloured fish, jellyfish and crabs. Amazing.

Today we have travelled to Mersing, for the first time with no accommodation booked and seem to have fallen on our feet with a reasonable room for a good price. Now we are off to find dinner. No doubt Phil will add some photos and video to this later on…….

It’s been lovely to have Tony off work and to be able to do things with all the Hunts. We spent Saturday morning chilling by the pool again but this time with the addition of Josh and James while Tony and Ally took Isabelle to view a potential school. After lunch we headed to the Singapore Science Centre. Loads of really interesting things for the kids to do ( and the adults!) and heavenly air conditioning. We are all struggling with blisters on our feet although we are used to our shoes just because of the level of heat and humidity.

In the evening Ally had booked us a BBQ pit next to the pool at the condo so we had delicious food and a late night swim in the pool. A late night for the kids but definitely worth it! We are STILL struggling with jet lag – only Luke has got the hang of sleeping through the night so far. Hopefully the rest of us will work it out soon.

Today we planned to visit a wildlife park and a boat trip but looking at all the tired faces we are scaling back to just the boat trip. We are looking forward to it, and tomorrow we have to leave the luxury of staying with Tony and Ally and head off by ourselves. We’ve found it hard to find accommodatioion the islands we wanted so we have pre-booked for 2 nights on Sibu – three hours north of here, off the Malaysian East coast. Bizarrely, although we first contacted them before we left the UK it turns out Tony and Ally have stayed in the same hotel before and are able to recommend them. Should be fun!

Well despite my best intentions we’re still a bit all over the place with jet-lag. We spent yesterday morning zonked out in the condo and the afternoon splashing in the pool. Phil took some lovely video of the cousins playing together in the water which I’m sure he will put on here in due course. We all had a fantastic time.

In the evening Ally and the kids escorted us to the local hawker centre. Susie gave is all a fright – she kept crouching down to hold her sore tummy and turned the brightest shade of red. It was only a 10 minute walk although it was incredibly hot. Fortunately once sat down in the hawker centre under a fan and with a large juice she returned quite quickly to a normal colour!

Tony joined us at e centre and he and Ally showed us some of their favourite Singapore food. We loved the dumplings filled with soup (how do they get the soup to stay inside?) and Phil enjoyed the cereal prawns (yes, really prawns covered in oatmeal). I couldn’t get my head around the bahkuhtae noodles which were very dark brown. The look was just so off putting, I did try them but I didn’t like them!

Today we are braving heading out alone on the MRT to the Botanical Gardens. Maybe some more swimming later – even the people who live here are saying it is unusually hot!