Sydney Lake

On January 18, 2020, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I knew the moment we landed, we would love it here. As we began our descent, you could see the sparkling Indian Ocean and then gradually we could see land that was filled with huge palm trees. And the heat - it’s been an average of +35 since we arrived; we have all agreed that we much prefer -35 as opposed to the heat.

Since we have been travelling close to 5 months now, we knew we needed to do some shopping in Kuala, Lumpur. We couldn’t have picked a better city as Malays love their shopping malls and they are all air conditioned. The girls and I spent an entire afternoon at the Mid Valley and Mega Mall. We replaced some of our worn out t-shirts with some really fun New Year’s themed shirts. The malls were really busy as many, many people prepared for the Chinese New Year which is celebrated on January 25 and 26, 2020. Welcome to year of the Rat!

We also visited the KLCC Tower, the Petronas Towers, Little India, saw some really cool street art and learned about Malaysia’s history by visiting the national museum. There was so much more we could have done, but after our experience in Ha Noi, we also just wanted to regroup and take it easy. We had an amazing apartment in KL, that was perfect for hanging out in. Our apartment building also had an infinity pool so the girls went swimming at least once a day, and we also managed to get a couple of family runs in on the dreadmills (so boring, but with the heat, the only way we managed to run) in the building’s gym.

After 3 days in KL, we flew to Langkawi, an archipelago made up of 99 islands on Malaysia’s west coast. It is surrounded by turquoise water and the beach, which is a 1.5 km walk from our rustic cottage style accommodations, has beautiful white sand. The only annoying thing about swimming at the beach is that tiny, 1 cm jelly fish sting you in the water. About every 20 seconds you feel a pinch somewhere on your skin. The stings don’t itch or leave any marks, but it is a bit annoying. But as Sophie and I agree, we can now say we have all been stung by jelly fish. There is a netted area that you can swim in, which catch the jellyfish, and sometime you can see jellyfish washed up on shore. It is high season for jellyfish so I guess the little ones getting through the net is to be expected. I really do hope that none of us gets stung by the larger jelly fish as I'm sure that would hurt much more than a pinching sensation. We have heard that vinegar helps with the stings, so may add a bottle to our beach bag. Despite the tiny jellyfish, visiting the beach will be a daily occurrence. On our first day here, we managed to catch the sunset on the beach, so I will be sure to go back to get some better photos.

The last thing I’ll mention is that every Thursday evening between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, there is an amazing food market/clothing market about a 10 minute walk from our rustic cottage. We went last night and were not disappointed. I had Nasi Goren for dinner (Heit, your’s is still the best I have tasted), but this one was pretty good. David and Sophie had BBQ lamb and corn on the cob while Neve had sticky rice with Mango and a Mango milkshake - it was so good. You’ll know where we will be having dinner next week. We also tried some cookies for dessert that were in the shape of fortune cookies but with a fruit filling. The average price seems to be 5 RM per meal item, so about $1.62 Canadian.

The rest of our days have been filled with catching up on banking, correspondence, submitting school receipts, finding a decent grocery store, and finalizing our dates for flying back to Canada. It is hard to believe that we have been away from home for almost 5 months. It has gone by so fast, but we continue to be incredibly grateful for this year away from the business of work and being able to spend quality time together as a family. Signing up for the deferred leave program and travelling abroad was one of the best decisions we have made and while there have been hiccups along the way, we wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

ClarindaRead more