Swimsuit day

Remember those days when as a kid you would spend the entire day in your swimsuit? Well, that was today.

Joe and I went on a snorkeling trip to the Marine Park, which was probably close to the best snorkeling I've ever done, if not the best. We swam in schools of fish, saw a moray eel, and I got stung by a jellyfish (it came up behind me). They do sting!! Basil watched the boys in case you were wondering.

They we met up with the boys in the swimming pool, swam, had some lunch, took Martin back for his nap. Joe, Oliver and I, rented a kayak and kayaked over to a secluded beach. We then paddled back, got Martin and had more fun in the pool and on the beach.

We then had dinner and while walking back to our cottage, Oliver wanted to wish on a star, but we couldn't see any. Then we heard the rain, and we started running. We beat the rain back, but barely. We made it up the onto the porch and then the rain hit.

Another great day, and we go home tomorrow to real life. Sigh.

Fun Day!

Well, that was a fun and tiring day. We went swimming, on a glass bottom boat ride, Oliver, Joe and I went kayaking, swimming so more, playing on the beach, just general fun in the sun.

The beach is beautiful. The weather is beautiful. And traveling with your maid is beautiful.

Having a great time and wish you were here!!

Redang

We arrived this afternoon after being delayed for about an hour. We fly from Seletar airport which is the old army airport, which was the smallest airport I've been to, until I landed 90 minutes later in Redang.

Redang is an island in Malaysia. And that's the end of my knowledge.

We finished check in around 5 and headed straight for the beach. Its beautiful soft talc like sand, very shallow as the tide was out and what I thought was perfect light (not so perfect when we reviewed the pictures, lots of shadows). So I made Joe go get the camera and take these pictures. Here are some edited ones. I should really start doing that, it didn't take him long.

See you later!!

Malaysia Pictures

Malaysia pictures are going up on www.joeandjill.ca. Joe said it will take a while, but they should be up by the time you wake up.

Enjoy!

Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

Home again, home again, jiddegy jig. The drive home was nice and uneventful. It took us 5 hours from door to door, with two stops. One for gas and one for a quick lunch. Oliver and Martin slept most of the trip.

We really liked Malaysia. Every trip we do a top 5 best and worst, but since the trip was short, I'll just do a top 3 (in no particular order).

Top Best 3
The rickshaw ride in Melaka
The Petronas Towers
The aquarium

Top Worst 3
Getting a head cold on Thursday night and not sleeping much
The busyness of travelling with 2 kids
Hmm, I don't have a third

Driving in Malaysia was really easy, and the navigation was a breeze (again better than Singapore). But we are happy to be home.

Kuala Lumpur - Birds and Fishes

Today we went to the Bird Park and to the Aquarium. Frankly, both are better than those in Singapore.

We, okay I, decided to drive to the bird park as opposed to taking a taxi like Joe wanted. We got there but did take one wrong turn. The Bird Park is very nicely done and is smaller than the one in Singapore, but it felt more accessible. We feel like we saw more variety of birds.

We then went to the Aquarium, which was back at the Petronas Towers. It is very nice, and we learned a lot about fish, turtles and Malaysia. The funniest part was at one of the pools, a small shark came to the surface and splashed Joe.

We then had Malaysian for dinner, and back to the hotel for bedtime.

Okay, for some reason I can't get pictures posted tonight. I'll update the website next week, and let you all know.

Kuala Lumpur - Petronas Towers

Joe woke early to get us the free tickets to go up to the Skybridge in the Petronas Twin Towers.
We went up around 11:30. First we watched a 3D commercial in the holding area for Petronas. I figure if they are letting us up their building for free, the least I can do is watch their commercial.

The elevator ride up was very uneventful, in fact it was a service elevator.

Thw bridge is nice, views were okay as it was a hazy day. Here is a picture of us.
We then ate lunch at The Little Penang Cafe, which serves Malaysian and then went to the biggest playground I've been to. Even bigger than Pasir Ris!

What was odd is that at the children's pool there was a group of young men, doing only what could be descibed as frolicing in the water and taking pictures of themselves in every possible combination.

While outside we heard the Muslim call to worship. Its very different for me to hear a religious service piped outside for all to hear.

After a break at Hagen daaz, we went for a rest at the hotel.

Oliver really wanted to ride the monorail, so we road it to the Bukit Bintan area, and ate at the mall. Which is culturally appropriate.

Melaka / Malacca

Today we toured around Melaka or Malacca in the morning. It was a nice sunny day, and we must be getting used to the heat as we found it pleasant. Of course, the nice breeze helped.

We drove into the centre of town, where we immediately were approached by a rickshaw driver. We decided, what the heck, let's take the rickshaw tour. Well, it was worth the money. Our driver was quite friendly and we covered more ground than if we had walked.

Here we are on the rickshaw.

Malacca has been invaded by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese before gaining independence. Malaysia itself is only celebrating its' 50th birthday this year (Happy Birthday Malaysia - you don't look a day over 49!).

We saw the old fort, the Dutch church, a Chinese temple, and a Muslim mosque. The town in that area is quite picturesque and worth the stop.

At the Chinese temple, our driver held up Oliver and had him rub the dragon's head three times and then catch the ball in the dragon's mouth. I believe Oliver will now have good fortune for the rest of his life!We are now in Kuala Lumpur until Friday.

Road Trip!

We decided to go to Malaysia after all. We left around 10:00, and quickly made it to the border. We don't have Martin's dependent pass yet (but we do have his passport) and when the Singapore security crossing guard realized this, we were pulled aside. Well, 40 minutes later the finally came to the conclusion he would come back as a tourist.

Over the causeway and then we were in Malaysia.

Then onto the Malaysia crossing. Right away, we felt like we were in a second world country again. There was huge lines but the odd part was you had to fill out a form. Okay, that isn't odd in itself, but I had to leave the car and walk a far distance to get it. The forms were so long it took us the entire time we were in line to fill them out.

There was a detour one in Johor, so I never really figured out where we were on the map but signage was excellent and we found the expressway.

Highway is highway, but this one was lined with palm tree forests, which I've never seen before.

We've turned into the type of tourists we used to mock. We ate at KFC for lunch, are staying at a Marriott and ate hotel food for dinner. Since we didn't arrive at Melaka until 4:00 we haven't done any sightseeing yet.