Malaysia

It wouldn't be vacation if one of us weren't sick!  I wasn't surprised at all when Connor woke up with a fever the day before we left.  Sick or not, we headed off to Malaysia on September 25!

 

We had another brutal flight out of Dammam at the ridiculous hour of 4:30 am!  It wasn't an especially long trip, but with the 5 hour time difference we landed in Kuala Lumpur around 8:00 pm.  We were exhausted and ready to get to our overnight stay at the airport hotel.

The next morning we caught a short flight to Johor for Connor's birthday celebration part of the trip.  Legoland!

It was a late night followed by an early morning.  We were all feeling it!

He perked right up when we got to Legoland!

Our room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our luggage and went straight to the park!  The Legoland hotel is super neat, but the best thing is that both parks are at its doorstep.

He was not amused when we made him take a picture with this guy!

The stuff made out of legos were awesome!

Crazy drivers!

This boy loves his corn!  

Driving school!

It was no surprise that Connor was the only kid stopping at intersections and looking both ways.  Haha!

 

 Ninjago show!
 



The weather was awesome and there weren't many people in the park.  We never had to wait to do anything.  We were off to a fabulous first day!

Of course Jameson wasn't interested in a picture with the lego shark.

We had our fill of the park for the day, but our room still wasn't ready when we got back to the hotel.  Thankfully they have lots of legos to keep the kids occupied while we waited.

We finally made it to our room and it was awesome!  The hotel has a few different themed rooms and Connor chose the pirate adventure one.



Nice view of the waterpark!

He was pretty excited about the kid sink in the bathroom.

This kid right here.  We were in the other room and could hear him calling for help.  This is what we found!  He didn't want to go up any further, but didn't know how to get back down!  LOL

Dinner time!  Legos, legos, everywhere!

He got to decorate his own cupcake for desert.

Silly kids after a great first day in the park.

We went back to where we left off in the park for a little boat ride.

Of course there is a lego statue in front of the train station.

Complete with a pigeon...

He loved the train ride!

Back of our hotel.

So there was this Splash Mountain sort of ride that Harry took Connor on.  I've got to give it to my boy.  He was willing to try it even though he was nervous.

Nope, not a fan.  Haha!

We went to the burger joint next to the ride and sat outside for lunch.  It was quite entertaining to watch everyone come down in their boats!  One guy screamed at the top of his lungs the whole way! LOL  



Connor built a car that he got to race.

Naturally, this was Jameson's favorite part of this attraction.  You get to build a tower as tall as you can, turn the machine on so that the base shook, and then wait for the tower to fall.

4D show!

I thought this was a knight jousting ride, but apparently I was mistaken.  Connor turned it into a bucking bronco.

Darth Vader lego man!

Albert Einstein!

 



 

The Saudi baby found his friend!

 

He was very upset that he couldn't go on this ride.

Super cool Mini Land!  Everything was made out of legos!

The closest I'll probably ever get to the Taj Mahal.

 



We had a nice dinner at the Italian place in the hotel.

Of course there were legos for the kids to play with.

Our last day at Legoland was spent at the waterpark!

While in the plane flying from Kuala Lumpur to Johor, I mentioned how foggy it was outside.  When we were walking around the park later that day we thought it might start raining because it seemed so overcast.  We later realized that it wasn't fog or clouds that we were seeing.  It was smoke!  Smoke coming all the way from Indonesia!  Crazy!  The farmers there have to clear land in order to grow palm oil and they do this by burning it.  The smoke actually sweeps across Southeast Asia and affects many of the surrounding counties, where the air quality often reaches hazardous levels.  It was really bad on our last day at Legoland.  We could smell the smoke in the air and we definitely saw it!

 

 

The smoke was terrible, but we continued on with our day!  Of course the park included lots of lego people.

We got to build our own raft, out of legos of course, and float it down the lazy river with us.

Connor could have run around here all day!

He's such a cheese ball.

Building and racing boats!

Connor doesn't like roller coasters or scary looking rides, but he loves water slides.  He went on everything he was tall enough to ride and loved every second.  He wanted to go on them over and over again!

The little one loved them too!

We had a fantastic time celebrating Connor's upcoming 6th birthday at Legoland!

 

Here are a few pictures from in and around the hotel.

 

We took a super early 6:30 am flight to Kuantan where we stayed at the Club Med on Cherating Beach.

 

We wouldn't let him go swimming so he laid down as some type of silent protest.

Back massages for everyone!

Our first of many monkey sightings at the resort!

Making friends with the chef.  Guess that's a good friend to have :)

 

The next day the boys visited the kids club.  Of course Connor loved it.  We watched them practice for the show they were going to perform that night.

 

 

We didn't escape the smoke when we relocated to the beach! 

The only reason why I wouldn't recommend this particular Club Med is because it is very, very dated.  It really needs a complete renovation.  I went to the gym to workout and had to laugh when I saw the mats.  I remember my Mom having one of these when I was a kid!  

We went to check on the boys at the kids club and weren't surprised that Jameson was refusing to eat.  Haha!

 

 

The monkeys often liked to hang out around the main area where the pool bar is.

 

 

 

This one found sugar packets and ran up into the rafters to eat it.  He threw all the wrappers down from there and made a huge mess!

 

When we checked in they told us not to feed the monkeys because if you do, all the monkeys from the jungle would come out.  When that monkey found the sugar packets it was like he sent out some weird silent call to his friends because tons of monkeys started showing up.

Off to one of the highlights of our trip and maybe one of the coolest things we've done...release baby green sea turtles into the South China Sea!

Tee, our Club Med guide, loved Jameson!

Lucky for him, Jameson liked him back.  That doesn't happen often.



The hatchery that we went to is on a public section of the beach that isn't protected by the government.  The guy collects as many eggs as possible and also buys them from anyone who will sell them.  Despite being an endangered species, some people still think of sea turtles eggs as a delicacy and will eat them.  That's why it's important for this hatchery to collect as many eggs as possible from the unprotected section of the beach.  

The hatchery keeps a very close count of how many turtles they are able to hatch and release.  They are able to release thousands of sea turtles every year.  They can even decide if they want male or female turtles by putting the eggs in warmer or cooler spots.  Warmer sand temperatures will produce females, while cooler sand temperatures will produce males.

Here they come!

The turtles will make their way towards the surface, but actually stay in the nest for days after it hatches.  Once it gets closer to the top it will usually wait for the sand to get cooler before it emerges.  This signals that it is night time, when there are fewer predators out and about.  Their natural instincts are incredible.  Nature is so amazing!

Empty eggs in the nest.

We all had a great time!

Pick me!  Pick me!  Haha!

Time to release them!

And they're off!

 

Again, their natural instincts kick in and they know exactly which direction to go in!

 

The female turtles will return to this same beach when it is time for them to lay their own nests.

 

It was disappointing to find out that they only have a 1 in 1,000 chance of surviving into adulthood.

 

Almost there!

 

 

There it goes!

 

I loved everything about the sea turtle experience...from learning about them, to playing with them, to finally releasing them into the sea.  Definitely something we'll never forget!

 

When we got back to the resort we got ready for Connor's big performance with the kids club!

This kid loves to dance!



To top off an already amazing day, Connor lost his first tooth!!

 

The resort might be dated, but the grounds are stunning!  Here is a very cool looking tree!

 

 

Monkeys are everywhere!  We were warned to make sure our doors and windows were closed and locked before leaving the room because the monkeys would get in and trash everything.

 

 

A redneck tree?  LOL

 

 

This is pretty much what it looks like when I try to get a picture of my kids together.

We got shampoo-massages at a typical local hair salon and let me tell ya...it wasn't the typical salon visit we're used to!

 

The head massage part was really awesome, but they also massaged our shoulders and back and it felt like they were beating us at some points!

The shampoo had a kind of oil consistency and they didn't wet our hair first like we normally do when shampooing our hair.

 





Connor thought it was fun!

They styled our hair after rinsing it.  I actually liked the way she styled my hair...Harry and Connor's were, sort of...interesting.

After our salon experience we headed out to Pasar Malam, an authentic Malaysian night market!  It was awesome!  There were only a handful of other tourists there so we knew we were in the right place with all the locals.  People basically set up shop here in the middle of the street and cook food to sell.  Lots of people come by here to get their dinner for the night.

This would be a great place for a food tour.  I wish we would've had someone with us that knew what everything was so they could explain it to us.

We had our Club Med guide with us, but he is French and had only been to the market a few times so he wasn't a big help.  He did tell us that these things were good and he was right!  Delicious!

It was packed!  The stalls lined the streets for quite a ways.

We tried chicken satay for the first time and it was unbelievably good!  We've had it several times since then, but it's never been nearly as good.

A few of the stalls sold things other than food and I had to laugh when I saw this one.  They were selling the little perfume samples that we usually get free when we buy new perfume, for about $2.

Everyone at Club Med was amazing.  Our guide this night was Ainsley and he was one of the best!  He kept buying us food and was great with the kids.  Here he even took Jameson's nunu out of his mouth and gave him a sip of his slush.  It was another great day!

 

Jameson decided to test out the massage skills he leaned the night before!

***Harry's Day Out***

I was very fortunate that my friend and coworker, Roseli was in Malaysia to visit with his family while we were there.  He took some time out of his schedule to come and pick me up from the resort and show me around the local area. It was really awesome to have a tour guide that I knew would take care of me.
 

 

First we set out to try some of the local produce from the street vendors. Stall after stall there were straight from the farm fruits and vegetables. I made Roseli a deal that I would try everything he asked me to. We tried several of the local fruits and I enjoyed all of them. One of things I wasn't used to was all of the samples. The vendors were anxious for you to try their produce and then try the same fruit from a different region to taste the difference.

 

 

The Fearsome Durian!!! This fruit smells so bad that some public facilities ban the consumption of it on the premises. All the hotel rooms we stayed in had a notice in them to let you know that it was against policy to have it in the room. Rumor has it that the smell is so bad, it will make elephants charge the person eating it. From what I have been told, you either love it or hate it. Truthfully I was ready to try it, but it was out of season and Roseli said that they wouldn't be good.

 

When Roseli showed me the next fruit I was a little leery. I thought he was trying to sneak a durian into our tasting but it turned out to be a Jack Fruit, which was not smelly at all and very good.
 

 

Jambu was my favorite. Similar in taste to a pomegranate, crunch of an apple, but much better.

 

 After we finished up at the produce vendors we drove to a small family style restaurant. These were pretty common to see while driving around Cherating and Terrangnou. It would be the equivalent of someone from the south turning their front porch or carport into a café.
 

 

I am a pretty big fan of food in general, but one of the better experiences I've had while in Saudi is being exposed to Malaysian food. Simple ingredients, prepared in intricate ways, and served in an amazing collaboration of sweet and spicy, cool and tangy. Needless to say I was a very happy man.



 

Sata - ground fish wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over an open flame.



King Fish Otak Otak - Fish in sweet, spicy sauce cooked in a coconut leaf over an open flame.
 

 

Fresh Coconut water straight from the tree.

 



 



 

The Chef was very happy to show off his skills

 



 

 I returned to the resort with all of the spoils of my adventure to share with Jolie and the boys. Roseli made sure I had tons of fruit to bring back!

 

 

Jameson agreed, Jambu was his favorite as well

 



 

Connor was true to his carnivorous ways and wasn't very excited about trying any sort of fruit or vegetable, but he snuck in a few bites.

 





 

***The End***

Monkey see, monkey do!

So much green and so nice to see after living at Al Jail...I mean Al Jude in Saudi Arabia.

Yep, it's about it happen.

Down he goes!

 



Later that night we went on the firefly excursion.  I was a little skeptical that it would be as "amazing" as they claim.  I saw fireflies, or lightening bugs as they're called where I come from, all the time growing up.  I remember catching them to put in old glass mayonnaise or mason jars.  I'd poke holes in the lid so they could breathe and put the jar next to my bed and use them as a little nightlight.

Mr. Hafiz is very passionate about his fireflies!  He knows A LOT about these little bugs.  He gave us lots of information before we got into the boat to see them.  I was impressed by his wealth of knowledge, but still wasn't sure I'd be wowed once we got in the boat.

After our introduction from Mr. Hafiz we got into boats and started our tour down the Cherating river to see the fireflies.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!  Once we got to a certain part of the river it was pitch black.  It was so dark I had no idea how the guy was able to drive the boat!  Then he took out his special light and flashed it in a certain sequence that basically called the fireflies out of the trees. They came out by the thousands!  Connor thought it was the coolest thing and he was so excited when they got close enough to catch.  We stopped several times while going down the river to do this.  Fireflies use their lights to communicate and the tour guys have studied these things so much that they know how to use their nifty little flashlight to "talk" to them.  The little girl that used lightening bugs as a night light was pretty amazed.



 

The next morning I decided to try batik painting.  I chose the scarf because I love scarves and this one had a sea turtle on it that I thought would be a good way to remember our trip.  I really wish I would have chosen to do one of the smaller wall paintings, for two reasons.  One, it took me a looonnnng time to finish the scarf and two, it didn't turn out like a scarf that I would actually wear.  I had fun doing it, but it took way longer than I was expecting it to.  I literally painted for most of the day and still wasn't finished.  I think it was 8 hours.  We joked that night that I had put in a day's work!  

The smoke finally cleared enough that we were able to see the sail boat off the coast.

 

Harry took the boys to the beach while I did the batik painting.

 

They even tried out the kayak!

Here we go again!

We let the boys go to dinner with the kids club that night and when we went by to pick them up they were having a talent show.  Connor was on stage telling jokes that didn't make sense.  Haha!

 

Then they had a dance competition.  Jokes and dancing...right up my guy's alley!  Jameson wasn't interested.

 

Then they made all the parents get on stage and dance with them to end the night!

The next morning I went back to the batik place to finish my painting.

 

All done!

 



We spotted Jameson with the kids club.

While the kids hung out at the kids club we decided to go check out the adult only area.

They have a shuttle that goes back and forth but we decided to walk through the jungle.

Ahhhh!

We sat here a while and I even took a little nap.

Then we moved to the pool with great views!

More monkeys hanging out!

We saw these lizards pretty often too.

He does everything his big brother does.

Addicted much?

 

The next morning we took a short flight back to Kuala Lumpur for an overnight stay before going back to Saudi.

 

We had thought about going a food tour in the city, but I'm glad we didn't because Jameson started running a fever before we even landed.  Did I mention we can't go on vacation without someone being sick?

 

He thinks he's VIP!  Sorry kid, we travel economy.

 

 

Of course Connor wanted to try the green KitKat he spotted at the airport.

 

He said it was good, but didn't eat more than one piece...yeah, okay.

When traveling in countries with a large Muslim population it's not uncommon to see this in the hotel room.  It points to Mecca so they know which direction to face when they pray.

The next morning we flew back to KSA.  It was Connor's 6th birthday so we pretended the cake they served with the meal on the plane was his birthday cake.  LOL!  World traveler problems. 

Back in brown town!

I rounded out the trip with a bang!  After we got home, I came down with what I thought was a virus.  Turns out I had a bad case of salmonella and shigella and ended up spending the night in the hospital getting fluids and IV antibiotics.

Those pesky bacteria were the worst vacation souvenirs ever!