Fruits of the Forest

13th August

Pretty interesting day today, as we shot straight up the East coast of the island, to the Tamen Negara (country/national park) in the north. The road there is brilliantly windy and tight, and passes close to some stunning drops and hill orchards.

Our first stop was the Forestry Museum, which showed us all about the types of trees, and the ecosystems they support. There was also a great deal about how they manage the forests of the national park, to keep diversity and natural ecosystems well maintained.

There were animal dioramas, and lots of examples of traditional woodworking techniques and craftsmanship, including housing, cookware, and ornamentation.

We popped outside to have a bit of a wander around the park (you needed hiking gear for much more of a look see). Lovely trails leading up to small waterfalls and jungle thickets, and we very much enjoyed a soggy stomp through them. Found a cool suspension bridge, that the kids had the obligatory need to jump up and down on as much as possible, to “test” it 🙂

Taking the West road back, meant that we were driving around the whole island, and got to see a bit more of the interior. Loads of fruit orchards (durian, rambutan and banana mostly) and as a result, some brilliant roadside stalls selling the fruits fresh from the trees. Those of you who know Atti, know that he can usually demolish bananas like lumbar into a tree shredder, but the size of the fruit here was beyond even him, so he had to resort to eating it like a corn on the cob!

Fantastic day out, and got to see a great deal of the island.

Leave you with a cool exhibition in the Forestry museum. It was a wall of drawers, each filled with a sample of wood/leaves/seeds/roots of various types of trees in the forest. You were able to open, sniff, feel (and if you are Atti, chew) the bits. While this sounds really weird, it was really fun to see what they all smelled like, and find out what they were. Spent ages comparing them, finding the worst, and rummaging around.

See you all soon 🙂

Made in Penang

12th August

Started the day with a walk through China Town, in the brutally hot mid morning sun, hopping between the shade and calm of the little craft stores and galleries on the way.

We had a delicious lunch in a quaint little 2-man pizza deli, at which point the sky opened and threw an insane amount of rain down, even for SE Asia it was pretty impressive. So we sat it out in this little cafe, just watching the (wet) world go by, as Atti slept.

After it had cleared up a little, we headed over to the “Made in Penang” museum. this was really very interesting, and had a bunch of informative and entertaining exhibits, which the kids got involved with.

Lots of history of Penang, but couched in fun activities and photo tricks, like the 3d museum we visited before. So lots of local things, including Tea Tarek throwers, street games, house moving and more.

Very cool day, and were worn out after it.

Leave you with a lovely image of Lily posing in a Tarik Upih scene, which is a traditional game played by kids, using banana leaves as pulled chariots.

See you all soon 🙂

Escape….

11th August

So today was our return to Escape.     Insane.

Full day, 7 or so hours of climbing, bouncing, falling and swinging, all in gorgeous tropical heat and humidity, under the shade of the canopy. It is the coolest thing ever. We took loads of photos, so here are some highlights

Rope swing. Massive swing, with little bodies attached. Enjoy.

Monkey Business, a giant, multi tiered, harnessed ropes course. The new additional track for beginners saw Izzy, Lil and Leo end up at the top of the deck in this photo. Zoom in and you can see them in the middle, having just zip wired across from the canopy. Awesome.

There are climbing races, net and rope tracks, harness trampolines, and balance beams, all of which were well used. There are smaller equivalents of the ropes courses for kids of Atti’s age, as well as a towering zip-line course for adults only (which Izzy assures me is brilliant). The whole place is full of animals too, which give you something to chase when on firm ground.

Brilliant day, leave you with the obligatory family selfie.

See you all soon 🙂

Flying Kites and Feasting on Curries

10th August

Great day today, started with a chilled out wander around the Gurney malls, the bits we had not already done, followed by a snack out there.

Then had a brilliant afternoon flying, or attempting to fly, some kites on the central field near Esplanade and the fort. The surroundings of the sea, fort, city hall and town hall are stunning, but the wind was not up to much. Kites were pretty much running-around powered, which worked up a thirst (for coconut milkshakes nearby) and a huge appetite….

…that was sated at the local Indian brasserie on our corner. we had been walking past it for a few days, and watched the absolute carnage going on inside, people moving in and out of every entrance, at least 20 guys serving, and some fantastic flames and smells. Figured it must be something special, and it was!

Amazing food, brilliant and entertaining service, and a great environment to absorb. So much fun.

Leave you with a snap of Leo examining one of the hundreds of art pieces scattered around Georgetown. Every alley, side-street and doorway seems to hold another curio of some sort, it is remarkable. This one is a hand crafted, gravity held (no glue or nails) sculpture of a tiger.

See you all soon 🙂

 

From Little India to massive slides.

Decided to start the day with a walk around the local area, as we had seen it hammered at night, so wanted to experience it in daylight, and boy was it a treat! We are smack bang in the middle of the heritage area, and just wandered straight into the carnage of Little India.  Lil describes it pretty perfectly here…

After stumbling through the music and noise and crowds, we wandered around the Armenian street and artistic quarters, looking at the iron wall caricatures, and loads of art and design areas and temples.

After all that creativity, we let the kids make their own ice creams in a gorgeous little coffee house, which eventually descended into drinking melted ice cream out of the glasses!

Having cooled off, we ramped it up again by hitting the park opposite the sea front, which was great fun. Picture of Leo was him doing a great job of swinging himself, which he was very proud of! This was followed by lunch a couple of hours later in a bustling hawker stall area called The Esplanade. Hainanese food was amazing, surrounded by local office workers and such.

At this point Atti was shattered, so we figured it was was the best time to blast around the mega-slides area at the adventure park, and he soon woke up and got involved. Not many photos, as you all know what indoor play look like…

Had a lovely wander by the beach, and through the stunning resort grounds, and popped up the road to another fantastic hawker stall place, one we had frequented regularly on our last trip. Lovely fresh carrot and pineapple juices, insanely hot food straight out of the wok in front of you. Was all amazing.

Bit of a cruise around after dinner, and home to bed! Great day.

Leave you with a nice shot of Lil in some archways on our wanders.

See you all soon 🙂

To Penang…

8th August

On the road quite early today, as our ferry back to the mainland was mid morning, and we had to do all of the checking in/queuing. Here are a few pics of the ferry, and then the road bridge over to Penang. Second largest bridge in Malaysia (after the other Penang bridge), at over 8 miles. Lovely journey, as most of it was blasting tolled highways, so it literally flew by.

Once in Penang, we traveled straight to our guest house, which is a 250 year old, traditional Malaysian mansion. Very much reminds us of the Baba and Nyonya museums we have seen elsewhere in Malaysia. It has a pair of stunning deep courtyards, that let light and rain directly into the house, and give it an incredible atmosphere. We will take more pics soon.

Our suite is very spacious and right up our street. Two big rooms on lower level, a small balcony to the rear, and a mezzanine bedroom for Lily and Leo. Kids seem so happy to be running around here.

We popped out to do some admin, and finished up the day in the mall area of Gurney Plaza, where we got the lads a couple of new cars, and had some lovely dinner. Here is Atti showing off his new acquisition.

See you all soon 🙂

Park and Pool

7th August

Not a huge day for photos after yesterday’s mammoth efforts. Pretty chilled out time had by all.

In the morning we popped to a big parked area in Kuah, and let the kids rip for an hour or two.

Atti had a nap after lunch, while we had a swim for a couple of hours. We took a walk down the road to a lovely cafe, which is surrounded by sweet smelling Plumeria trees (called Frangipanni here), with these distinctive white flowers (must say, not my photo!). Amazing Thai/Malay food, but no photos, because we are classy like that.

Early start tomorrow, as we are headed to Penang! So leave you with Atti, getting his much needed rest.

See you all soon 🙂

Bit of a big post this one…..

6th August

Great day today, we went back to the oriental village to do more of the activities we had seen the day before!

Began with a quick fruit breakfast (the fruit and juice shop is doing a roaring business with us around) and we were off. First thing was a little run around with some rabbits in the shadow of the cable car. Really cute, and very friendly little things.

Then we went to feed a huge elephant, who seemed in great shape, and was keen to scoff the sugar cane lumps the kids offered. We also went to visit a lovely Malaysian tiger, and saw how the development of her new home was going.

From the animals, we walked around the corner to the 3D art museum. This was something Lily had wanted to do for a while, and it was great fun running around all of the exhibits, and experimenting with our cameras. We hammered the photos, so there are quite a few here, sorry 🙂

After leaving the gallery, Atti had a nap at the hotel (a shot of the complex is below), while we went back to the beach, and spent a couple of hours getting trashed by the waves again. The beach has a pretty steep incline, which makes for some massive waves, and a fierce rip current as they return to the sea. Mental and exhausting fun, but not for the faint-hearted.

Popped back into Cenang for a spot of supper, and then slumped off to sleep.

Leave you with Lily posing as a fairy.

See you all soon 🙂

 

Cablecargghhhh!

5th August

Breakfast of dragon fruit , kiwi, and banana, eaten in PJs.

We traveled to the north of the island, to Mt Machingchang, where there is a lovely little oriental village, shops, and a cable car to the summit. Peak was about 800m, and the journey up was spectacular. Was made even better as it was virtually silent, and you were level with the local eagles. Gorgeous.

At the top there is a sky bridge, and two large observation rings. apart from that, the area is pretty much undeveloped, so it just looks like it was plonked there from above. Very nice job of reducing the impact of the structures. Was even room for a little ice cream stall under the rings.

Here are some more shots of our journey down.

In the village below, we found a great little chocolatier that served coffee and waffles. Fantastic skills at work by the ladies there, and a lovely little place to chill out for a while.

Finished off the day going our separate ways, as the girls went to do a batik painting at a local craft shop, While the boys got demolished by the massive waves on the beach round the corner. Not many photos of these things, so leave you with this one of Izzy and Lil’s batik artwork.

See you all soon 🙂

Capes, Cakes, Crafts, and Carp.

Morning run around with the boys, getting used to the feel of capes flowing in their wake. Makes any family movement ten times more carnage, but they are fun!

Breakfast was held in the bakery in Kuah, and was delicious.

Then we popped to a large craft complex, and walked among the artists making batik pictures and carvings. Saw and purchased some beautiful jewelry, and were very lucky to be able to sit and watch a great demo of glass blowing, and the creation of local style glassware.

After a bit of fruit from our local fruit and juice place, we were ready to visit the aquarium in the centre of Cenang. We were able to get really close many of the species we had seen while snorkeling, and saw some amazing creatures from further afield. The rays were spectacular as ever, and we watched a pretty impressive, and ecologically astute, feeding and medical check for the fur seals. So swift and captivating were they, we failed to photo them at all!

The Rock hoppers were cute, Lion-fish elegant, and the White tips menacing. The kids loved the massive spider crabs, and were captivated watching the Hawks-bill turtle floating over their heads. Great time had by all.

Leave you with a little video of Lil surrounded by penguins!

See you soon 🙂

Up a mountain.

After looking for hours to find a lovely breakfast, we finally settled on a Mc Donalds porridge to tide us over. Daddy checked that they served porridge, and we all sat down waiting. When the porridge arrived, we realized that despite his checking, it was chicken porridge, which is nothing like what were hoping for!

After begrudgingly trying it, and not feeling like eating it at all, we cruised around a bit more, and found a gorgeous little bakery, that sorted us out with breakfast eventually. Full up, we took a visit to the huge eagle monument in the town of Kuah, here are some snaps of our eagle impressions!

Then we decided to continue exploring our affinity for mountains, and drove to the top of Mt Gurun, in the centre of the island. Stunning scenery, few animals on the way up, and it even has a Bond Villan style fortress on the top. Peak was around 880m, and it felt like being at the top of the world.

We came back to the hotel, and had a spot of swimming, so you can now see the place we are staying. happy swimming, in a lovely salt-chlorinated pool, which feels really different to regular pool water, more slippery and buoyant!

We spent the evening at a beautiful little restaurant, that served stone baked pizza, and topped off the evening with a small serving of churros, which were delicious.

Leave you with mischief embodied…

See you all soon 🙂

Over to Langkawi

Today was the journey over to Langkawi. We had a great night’s rest, and were just round the corner from the ferry terminal. After hunting round for breakfast, we settled for some fruit, yogurt and a cheeky muffin from a local shop, and had a play at the park to kill some time before we embarked.

playground

seesaw

breakfast

While driving to the ferry we saw some busy little fishing villages, and a huge local market. we then drove straight onto the ferry, and posing notwithstanding, got ourselves comfortable.

yum

ferry

onto the ferry

car

reaching the islands

The ferry ride was stunning, particularly as you have to navigate through a number of the outer, pristine islands before docking at the harbor on Langkawi. The kids spent much of the time outside, both to see the beautiful scenery, and to avoid the inappropriate Malaysian horror film being loudly broadcast into the passenger area of the boat. Also another cracking squinty-looking-into-the-sun photo of Lil and Leo, en-route to Langers (as it will be known from now on…)

islands

islands

lily

The island is bustling with a much wider range of people and cultures, and has markets and shops to cater for them. So it was a refreshing change from the previous week’s awesome, but very traditional, Malaysian experience. We wandered around the shops for a bit, and came across the most delicious Arabic food place ever, with Turkish coffee to boot.

Arabic delicious meal

yummy

Bit more walking and shop looking, then popped into a chain store for a coffee and ice cream for the kids. Have not had this in a while.

Starbucks and icecream

ice cream cute

The place we are staying in is beautiful, but as usual, it is dark so you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see it.

Leave you with a picture of an old lady drying shrimp on her driveway in Perlis, as we thought it was something you don’t see often??

poor lady

See you soon 🙂