Singapore and Malaysia 2017 - Part 2

Day 6

After a much needed restful morning, we had breakfast with mangoes from the agrotech park that V had gotten up early to visit, completed packing and went to the Durian Perangin waterfall and pool. This was a beautiful area admist lots of  greenery, some mosquitoes and a  swaying bridge. The kids and K had a  lovely swim and I had half a dip as well. C and V opted out of a dip.

We then proceeded back to Kuah town and visited langkawi parade for a egg fried rice lunch and some quick duty free shopping. We then realised that we should have done more shopping as everything was really cheap in Langkawi as it was duty free throughout the island and also due it being a port town, Kuah town was especially cheap for lots of branded items.

 Back to the homestay, and after the  usual confusion due to the home stay being helpfully named after the airport, we boarded our flight back to kulalmpur. This flight was cheerfully decorated with posters from Kabali but we were all too tired to care. We had a quick Veg dinner on the Air Asia flight  and unusually but understandingly, there was not a peep from the tired kids.

We landed at KL and took the one hour fifteen minute journey to the PNB Perdana hotel.

We checked into the spacious rooms and despite the concern about the not perfectly clean sheets or the drops of water in the tub, we drifted off to sleep.

Day 7

This hotel turned out to be wonderful looking but badly maintained with extremely poor service. The location was brilliant as it was right in the centre of the city. Must have once been a fantastic venture which has now fallen into bad hands.

The one advantage was that we had breakfast in the hotel, so got up, had breakfast and marched out  in the morning for Petronas ticket booking. Turned out that no tickets were available but made a  jugad for 31st night with an associate there. Kids played by the fountain below while the dads made the arrangement for the newyear's eve visit to the towers.

 We then went to Batu Caves to the wonderful murugan temple. Though the monkeys were scary the tall statue, the caves up the 272 stairs and the Ramayana caves down below made the visit worthwhile.

We then proceeded to the pavilion mall, apang mall and surya klcc all of which had phenomenal Xmas displays competing with one another. The kids had a lovely time dancing to the music and singing along to the Xmas carols.

The plan was to visit Jalon Alor for some street food but once again the smell of sea food put us off. So we quickly changed plans and moved to the mall area.

We had a lovely late lunch  of Malaysian veg dishes at Simple life in one of the malls and packed some for dinner. Kids watched Indiana Jones together and were off to sleep as we carried them to their respective rooms.

Day 8

The next day saw the CM do some swimming in the hotel pool and playing in the play area both on the 9th floor. We then went shopping in the Berjaya mall which was disappointing to say the least..Dinner ordered to the room from Saravana bhavan was a further disaster. But the kids were happy monkeying around as unusual.

For the first time in her 8 years the CM had tears in her eyes at the thought of the holidays coming to an end and of her having to leave her friends R and K behind. ‘ I like getting up in the morning and getting to see them!’ She sobbed. I never thought the CM could be so emotional! A revelation for me.

I reassured her that we could keep in touch through skype but was quite surprised that the kids still bickered with each other before going to sleep. C said it was their way of coping with the impending separation.

It was all very touching and very sweet.

Day 9

On the last day we went to the Theon Hou temple, prayed in gratitude for 2017 and wished for a healthy and wise 2018. Tried shopping in the pavilion mall, had another diastorous Sara and bhavan lunch at a different place , rested a bit at the hotel and then went for the PETRONAS visit. The visit was really good and by the time we made our way back to the hotel the streets were quite raucous withe celebrations in full swing to welcome the new year.

Rushed back, the kids cut the cake as per yearly tradition to welcome the new year and the younger ones went off to sleep. The cm and both sets of parents then watched the spectacular fire works display from the French windows of the hotel floor and thus dawned the new year.

We said our good byes and good nights and left for our respective rooms.

Day 10

Due to the issues with my back and the fact that K had to go to work the next day we had booked BC tickets for the return leg. We enjoyed some quite time in the lounge and some snacks before boarding.

Though the first leg to Dubai was a tired looking 777 we still enjoyed the BC experience, stretched on our flat beds and had a lovely time. The food though was disappointing as always.

We were hoping to spend some time in the Dubai lounge as well but that was not to be. We rushed to the next flight and the A380 BC was fantastic. Everything was brand new and very comfortable. Alas, the food was no better. K said it was the vegetarian option that was the issue. The normal meals were all quite ok.

We were planning to be awake but it turned out that all three of us slept through the journey. I only managed to catch three movies ' the battle of the *exes', which was about the iconic match between Bobbie Riggs and Billie Jean King, 'Mark Felt' which was about Deep Throat and the watergate scandal and 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' which was about A.A. Milne, the author and the real Christopher Robin - Billy Moon. I loved the first and third movies but the second put me to sleep!

We were back home before we knew it and the complimentary chauffeur took us home in the cold that is so integral to this part of the world!

So dawned our 2018!

This year is critical to us in so many ways, K's business and  R's 'big leap' . For me this year is about these two mentioned before , as with respect to me, if the year was the same as 2017, I should be OK.There is just one last millstone that I want to get rid off and K who has helped me get rid of the rest has promised he would help with this one as well.

2017 brought home to me very clearly, how very much K is handling and how well. He took care of my millstones, resolved 2 of them, handled R's eyesight difficulties, spent an enormous amount of time with R on Piano and Ganidh,  arranged the entire trip and lots more ..all of this., on top of his daily job  and the early morning extra work on the new venture that he is so very passionate about.

I have never seen you so passionate and committed about anything else in your life (except of course things that are important for R and I)

Hope 2018 makes it all worth it for you K. In my brutally honest, and despite my usual cynical, assessment I cannot but see that  you really deserve it!

Singapore and Malaysia - 2017 Part 1

For the xmas holidays in 2017 the plan was to once again hook up with C, V and the kids R and K and do a joint holiday, as has been the tradition for the past 3 years.

We started from home to Dubai. This was a A380 model flight and was wonderfully comfortable. However, we had booked the very last seats in this double decker flight and that gave us plenty of space at the back ( the way to the upper deck) to exercise, stretch and move around a bit. Though I was apprehensive that this may be incovenient near the toilets, given that it was way back, not many made it that far and the easy access made a comfortable travel for us. The service was excellent but the vegetarian food was appalling.This sadly turned out to be the case on all 4 legs of the flight, onwards and return though while returning we travelled in BC with emirates.

From Dubai to Singapore we travelled in 777. This was a tired flight but given the seats at the very back and a restful sleep, this turned out to be easier than we had imagined. So 14 hours of travel, successfully managed.

We landed in Singapore Chiangi airport. I have been to Singapore twice before but this was the first time with K and the CM. As always, the airport was immaculate and the xmas decorations were a sight to behold. We were hoping to join with C's family, once their flight landed but that was not to be.

Day 1
Straight away on landing, we had some breakfast at 'Wangs' and therein was our introduction to Singapore's famous Kaya Butter Toast. And it was love at first sight for the CM and me. :)

Having exhausted all the entertainment that Chiangi had to offer, we made our way to the Destination hotel . Whilst we were settling down, C's family arrived. They were received at the airport by two more of their friends with whom we made an aquaintance as well.

They thought, given that we had travelled 14 hours, we may want to rest. But what they did not realise was that , the A family, with it's bunny battery on, never rests! Thus, we all made our way to Marina Bay Sands, had a wonderful view of Sinapore in the night on the top floor including the specatular light and fountain show and the carousel and lighting up of the Super tree grove singapore. Fresh from the cold climes of UK, we thoroughly enjoyed the gentle breeze of the hotel terrace and the balmy 24 degrees of the Singapore night.

The kids had a gala time joshing with one another and kick starting the holiday with the warmest of hugs and the sweetest and silliest of games! It was wonderful to see them pick up exactly from where they had left quite some time ago. ( C had visited us at home around April  if I am not mistaken)

From there we made our way to little India for dinner.

The kids wanted to have a sleep over, so C and I went to our room and the hubbies and the kids slept in their room. C and I chatted through the night and barely had 3 hours of sleep!

Day 2 

The next day we had a leisurely breakfast at Saravana Bhavan at the food court at  Suntec tower. The kids also played in the fountains there and were generally up to a lot of mischief.

We then proceeded to a photo stop at the Merlion and across the bay from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Some cold and milky ice creams followed and we chatted our way to the Gardens by the Bay.

Since we had already had a beautiful view of the gardens the night before, we did not spend much time there but proceeded promptly to the Cloud forest followed by the Flower Garden, both of which I loved. Singapore is indeed as expensive if not more than the UK but what you get in return for what you pay is much more than the UK in my humble opinion. Everything is maintained to very high standards and the experience is truly wonderful which does not make you resent the money spent.

We came back to the hotel to freshen up,. It being christmas eve, I surreptitiously got the CM's gifts ready for her to open once we came back. I also changed to the dress that C had bought for me as a gift. To my delight it fit me perfectly  and we were all set to go.

I had been to the night safari before and thoroughly enjoyed it. This was before the CM was born and even then I wanted K to visit as I knew he would love it too.

We had a phenomenally wonderful time at the night safari. K and the CM and C's family, we all enjoyed it a lot. Little K's loud commentary about the animals only added to the fun.  The CM particularly enjoyed the  'Creatures of the night' show as the MC was very entertaining. She particularly liked the  raccoons foraging the bins kept for the show to demonstrate how they can sort the rubbish correctly in to the recycle bins.While C and family stayed back with their other friends, K insisted that we went back to the hotel as he was feeling very tired.

Unfortunately, the CM had other plans. We originally were planning to wrap up dinner in the complex opposite the hotel. But the place smelt so strongly of non vegetarian food that the CM refused to have any food there and batted her puppy eyes at her dad for a subway sandwich.

Of course, nothing else mattered to K anymore. We all trooped into a taxi and took a wonderful tour of singapore all the way to  Clark quay, which is where a subway was. To be fair, we thoroughly enjoyed the views of the The Raffles palace, Swissotel ( where I stayed the two times I visited before), The Arts House ( formerly the old parliament house) etc. The cab driver was also quite chatty and explained the historic significance of each of these places. I am always fond of late night drives and visits and I enjoyed this one as always..

The  CM had her subway and we then went to a hotel by the river for K to have a freshly caught fish. (I am sure there was a posher name to this, but for me, they are all fish!) We were there when the clock struck 12 and there were happy exclamations of 'Merry Xmas' all around.

We came back quite tired but the CM still had the energy to pipe up ' So, it is xmas today! May I open my presents please? '.  Of course she could and she did. She was very happy with Santa's gift of a new year party dress, Michael Morpugo books , Bad Dad by David Williams and a whole lot of Suppandi books all the way from India!

Day 3

The CM had already announced to everybody that they are all to accompany her to the roof top pool next morning for a swim, so the dads dutifully marched the kids to the roof top and had a lovely swim. I joined them later and by the time we all got ready, we were all quite famished.

Unfortunately K got into his head that xmas day was a day for a proper south Indian breakfast , so he dragged us half way across singapore in search of an elusive restaurant called Laxmi Villas. We never did find it. I was fuming out of my ears by now, so we all went straight to China Town to see if anything would be available near the Mariamman temple there. With no such luck, we settled for Kaya Butter sandwiches which turned out to be a saviour for K. Grrrr

We then went to the fantastic Buddha tooth relic temple and I had a lovely time praying, looking at the wonderful buddha statues, the hindu/chinese fusion gods and goddesses, the meditation hall and the terrace garden with C and little R.

The rest of the gang took a rain check and had ice creams from the card outside and the CM settled with her icecream to read her kindle books.!

We proceeded to the hotel to check out and make our way to the airport to catch the flight to Langkawi with a stop over at KL. We knew the kids would enjoy Chiangi again, so we went an hour early, checked in and let the kids do their thing. We also had a wonderful pastry lunch at the 'Baking house' whereas K and V in their quest for Indian food had a lacklustre lunch at one of the airport Indian restaurants.

The flight was loads fun as the three kids sat together and were giggling, playing and chatting wonderfully just on the inside boundary of being irritating or loud or rude. The air hostesses were so charmed by them that they got extra peanuts and drinks :)

As these were short flights, they were not supposed to have food. We were telling the kids this, when little K piped up ' But I did see a lady with a trolley go by.. there definitely is something'. I think almost half the flight laughed!

K had a funny experience too as he tried repeatedly to charge his phone and the air hostesses would gently but politely keep pulling the plug out without saying a word. It was much later that we discovered that  we are not supposed to charge during take off or landing or 10 minutes after that! K's confused face was a sight to behold!

The tele screens had no headphones as it was a short flight, the CM had great fun watching Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets without head phones but narrating the same to little R and K.

There was a very brief stop over at KL and then an extremely quick flight to Langkawi.

The Langkawi airport , being an island airport was very despondent especially after the flashy charm of Singapore. The cab guy who took us to our home stay ( cunningly named 'Kapal Terbang' which means airport/airplane in Malay'. This lead to lots of confusion whenever we wanted to get to the homestay from anywhere as the cab drivers would start driving to the airport and it was most amusing when we wanted to take a cab from Kapal Terbang to the airport on our last day there!), was absolutely useless. He started selling visits to us claiming to be a well versed local but when we asked where we could buy fruits or bread he said he had no clue!

We managed to spot a seven eleven on the way and stopped to stock ourselves with some bread and egg.

The homestay was a huge villa with a wonderful garden and a small rubber plantation near by and the whole thing sorrounded by woods and fields.

The lady and her family who owned the villa, lived in the outhouse and they had quiet a few  cats and 8 rabbits. The kids were in seventh heaven! All the time we spent there, the kids had a gala time feeding the rabbits, stroking them and following the cats around..

I loved the jack fruit trees, rubber trees etc and the back-home like high ceiling-ed , wide open and spacious rooms all joining towards a central hall.

Be it Singapore or Langkawi or KL, the one thing that I was not happy about was the luke warm water. I know the temperature there does not warrant hot water, but even so, after a long day's travel, I always preferred taking a hot shower to wash the dirt and tiredness away. :(

We all drank Milo and went to a restful sleep.

Day 4

We started the day with Toasted bread and butter, milo drinks and boiled eggs. We spent the entire Day at oriental village. First, we took the Cable car over Mount Maching Chang. The view over the mountain and the Langkawi island and southern thailand was fantastic.

We then took a  walk over the sky bridge with see through glass boards, had loads of fun looking though the glass and making Titanic poses at the edge of the bridge.

We then went for lunch at the Indian Restaurant within the village. The kids fed the golden fish in the pond by the restaurant for a while and while we were waiting for the (ultimately, most disappointing and extremely silly )Skydome show, they went into the rabbit park and terrified the poor creatures trying to be overfriendly!

We then went for the skyrex which was a show similar to Birmingham dinosaurs in the wild show. The waiting time for all these was a good 20 minutes and we did not think it was worth it at all :(

Lastly we went for the 3D art museum ‘ art in paradise’, which was really good.

We caught the late night Uber and luckily this time the cabbie was a good lad who took us to a fruit stall where plently of fresh fruit and some noodles were bought.

Day 5

V decided to turn chef for the day and made egg omelette, tasty noodles ( discovered why it was so tasty much later, there was MSG already mixed  in the pepper which he had used generously on the omlette and the noodles :) ).

We then made our way to the Kilim geo forest which turned out to be the best experience of the trip apart from the cloud forest in Singapore. We visited the bat caves where we saw  stalagmites and some stalactites that grew towards the sunlight due to the algae on them.

The motor boat gave us a view of Thailand on the other side of the hills and also we saw a lot of monkeys and crabs next to the dense spider-like mangrove roots that were clearly visible as it was low tide. Needless to say, the kids loved the experience.

The motor boat then took us for a view of eagle feeding. The elegant rust gold eagles ( this beautiful species, we later found, is the symbol of Langkawi) with their majestic glide against the blue sky and  their graceful dive to pick up the fishes to feed on was a sight to behold.

The boat then took us to the  fishing farm in the middle of the water body. The guide was fantastic and he explained very interestingly how sting rays suck in their food/ prey, how a barracuda’s teeth that can crush bones, how the puffer fish that blew up on touch, how the lazy fish lived up to its name and  refused to even move for food, and how  the crab (?) fish that swam on its back used its front legs to crawl on the land etc while picking out each of the fish mentioned above from its top open enclosure next to our feet and demonstrating what he meant. I believe  it is possible that I may have enjoyed this even more than the kids!

K once again had a freshly caugh fish for lunch while the others just sat around him and felt sorry for the fish and made sure K knew it!

We all made our way back to land went to the Spice Village restaurant for lunch. Our cabbie was a lady and she was most charming and knowledgeable.

 We went back to the hotel, freshened up a bit , the kids played some monpoly and went back to the Tanjung rhu beach with its warm water. The kids had a great time swimming but the dads were not very happy as the beach was way too crowded and the water was  filled with the smell of petrol due to the numerous motor boats about.

 K and I went to the alun alun spa for a wave massage with firangi pani oil and ginger tea for me, and I loved it. K loved his herbal massage as well.

In the meanwhile C, V and the kids enjoyed the fire martial show on the beach and had some play time under the night sky in the beach.

The CM and us went for a subway dinner while C and family went for Pizza next door.

C and I went back to the homestay with the kids while K and V had their boy's night out.

..To be continued