Jon & Maeva: Malaysia

Day 1: Travel to Malaysia

For the kids spring break we decide to head out to Malaysia for a little exploring, a little relaxing, and a lot of family fun! The total travel time was less than 13 hours which is not bad, but those red eye flights make it a little more tiring.
We chose to break up our stay into 3 different regions, Kuala Lumpur, Not Kinabalu in Sabah, and Langkawi Island. Each area has it's own unique attractions and features. Doing this gave us a pretty broad cultural experience of this beautiful country.

Day 2: Exploring Kuala Lumpur

Our first stop of the day was Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are a series of limestone caves in which Hindu shrines were placed in. Monkeys live around the cave and scamper around the shrines.

It is always exciting for us to see monkeys and watch them try to grab things from people, including us! It is pretty entertaining.

After visiting Batu Caves we stopped by a nearby cave called Dark Cave and visited it.

There were a lot of bats and cool little critters.

Eden was ready for a nap, in fact I think we all were!

Luckily Julien was there to hold and snuggle him until we made it back to the hotel!

After a little rest we were back out exploring Kuala Lumpur

In the afternoon we visited the Menara KL Tower

Before going up the tower Jon and Logan went to the XD theater to watch a pod racer show.

Kiki really liked the purple tower! It reminded her of Rapunzel's tower from the movie "Tangled"

We enjoyed a nice dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. Jon and Julien had to wear Sarong wraps to cover their legs (For once that it was not me who had to cover up)

We all ordered some fancy cocktails to go along with our meals. It was a very beautiful setting.

I love this picture of Eden and Logan!

After dinner we took the train to China town for a little shopping!

We had a lot of fun doing that!

The view from our hotel room!

Petronas Twin Towers

Although we did not go up the towers we drove past them many times as our hotel was within walking distance from them.

When we got home I was craving some nice freshly squeezed orange juice. It took over 40 minutes to get a very tart and bitter orange juice that cost about 30 MR which is the equivalent of 7.5 USD. You can imagine how horrified we were at the price and the taste as well as the time it took for orange juice to get to the room.

While we waited however, Jon made a pretty cool light show for us using the new laser pens he bought at China town.

Day 3: Travel to Kota Kinabalu

Off we go to our second destination, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

I thought the sign in the cab was funny. They grouped no kissing with littering and smoking. Malaysia is a Muslim country so kissing would be rather offensive.

After a long day of travel we finally arrived at our beautiful resort: Shangri La Rasa Ria, but we were ready for some dinner and some much needed rest.

Tonight, Jon and I were able to go on our first date during our Malaysia vacation. After ordering some room service for the kids and getting them settled we went out to a delicious buffet dinner where we got to try a lot of local foods. We had the opportunity to go out on a dinner date nearly every night during our stay. Julien and Logan are a big help and we are so lucky that they are willing to help watch their younger siblings. They do a very good job.

Most of the time we came home to sleeping kids!

Day 4: Orangutans at Shangri La Rasa Ria and pool time

Today we slept in and after a nice breakfast we headed to our resort's Orangutans Rehabilitaion Center. We were fortunate to be able to see the Orangutans because the resort was shutting down the program in 3 days.

Orangutans!
Did you know that Orang Utang means man of the forest?
I didn't until now!

We spent the afternoon at the pool. Julien and Logan also played a little beach volleyball.

Day 5: Mt Kota Kinabalu, canopy walk, and poring hot springs

Today was our busiest day yet, but we saw and did some pretty great things!

Just a little shopping!

We took a nice stroll in the botanical gardens of Mt Kinabalu.

The guide said that it had not rained in a long time so some of the plants and flowers were drying up.

Our guide showed us how to start a fire with the juice of a fruit called "kerosene plant".

For lunch we ate Chinese food while enjoying a breathtaking view!

After lunch we stopped by a local's property where they had Rafflesia flowers in bloom. This was quite an amazing phenomenon because Rafflesia's are very rare. They are very fragile, and take just the right amount of sun, moisture to bloom. It is my understating that it takes 10 months for Rafflesias to bloom and they only stay in bloom for 3 to 5 days before they turn into a ring of black slime. Rafflesias are not considered flowers but parasites without roots, stems or leaves. They can grow up to 1 meter in diameter.

We than enjoyed a nice hike and canopy walk!

Love this pic

"I'm not scared! I'm not scared!" Screamed Eden as he refused to take a step onto the suspended bridge. It took Jon and Logan to get him to move. He did manage to give a smile for the picture however.

After our hike we pored ourselves a nice bath of natural hot spring water and rested our legs for a bit.

A little soak in the pool!

We ended our day with a little ice cream treat, than Jon and I enjoyed a nice dinner date.

Day 6: Mari Mari Cultural Village

The Mari Mari Cultural Village is a show tour which winds through the jungle passing through various tribal dwelling where you learn about each indigenous tribes from the Sabah region. At each stop you can try bamboo cooking, rice wine making, fire starting, henna tattooing, blowpipe shooting, and much more. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. This was much more one on one and hands on which made it very cool.

Kuih Jala demonstration!
I got a chance to go up and try to make the treats! It was pretty fun!
Kuih Jala treats were very good.
Jon was cute and recorded the measurements of the ingredients for the recipe.
500gr of flower
400 gr of water
200gr of sugar

Mix all ingredients together and fry in coconut oil using a ladle with holes letting the batter drip in a circular motion in the oil. After a few seconds fold batter in triangular shape. This technique is rather difficult to do, but the cookies are yummy.

The tour ended with a performance of several traditional dances and a buffet style dinner where they served traditional Malay food. At the end of the performance they asked for a few people to come up and participate in the stick dance. Since no one in my group wanted to go up, I decided to give it a try. The sticks were moving slow for us, but when the dancers turn came, the sticks were moving very fast and the dancers were doing some pretty fancy foot work around the sticks!

To cap our amazing day Jon and I went to the Oceano Italian Restaurant for a romantic dinner date. It was delicious! For appetizer we had an onion fondu, for our entree Jon ate a mushroom risotto, and I had lobster linguini pasta, and for desert we enjoyed some pana cotta and gelato.

Day 7: Travel to Langkawi and some pool time!

Off we go to our next destination, the Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort in Langkawi.
This resort was beautiful and very very relaxing. There were several pools and it was located right on the beach, close to many attractions.

We were fortunate to have a pool directly behind our hotel room, it had a pool bar too. It was very convenient. We enjoyed several lunches and dinner pool side. The pool was also very quiet. Most of the other guests would use the other pools or sunbathe by the pool, but we took advantage of it. In fact, if we were not out and about, eating or sleeping, we were in the pool splashing around having a lot of fun!

Nice walk on the beach to a beautiful sunset!

Day 8: Pictures, pool time and parasailing!

As always I took nice pictures of the kiddos and my hubby, and actually Logan took pretty good shots of me as well! I just can't help it. I love taking pictures of my family, my kids and my baby are so cute and photogenic!

The Stud

Me and my baby bump

Julien

Logan

Kia Ora

Eden

Splish Splash! Pool Time!

Jon took Julien and Logan to go parasailing!
Julien and Logan said that parasailing was amazing, a lot of fun and that it was not scary, and a very cool experience.
Those kids are pretty lucky!

Those smiles say it all!

Playing in the pool and swim lessons for Kiki with her daddy!

Day 9: Man Grove boat tour, ATV's, horse back riding, black sand beach, cable cars and skybridge!

WHAT A DAY!

We started off our day with a private Mangrove boat tour. We got to see many beautiful things. The spots we visited reminded me a lot of the Phi Phi island in Thailand. And in fact we visited a few Thai islands. I did not realized how close we were to Thailand. During our tour we visited a historical cave, a bat cave, a crocodile cave, a fish farm, as well as a place where eagle would come to feed, and a place where we could feed monkeys. It was a very fun tour!

After our tour the boys got to ride ATV's in the jungle and Kiki had a pony ride. Eden was to afraid to go on the pony but I did convince him to get on for a picture!

We stopped by a black sand beach. It was very pretty and had a cool folklore legend about the color of the sand being an outcome of an ancient civil war between the Land Kingdom and the Underwater Kingdom.

Our last stop of the day was at Oriental village where we took a cable car up to the top of the majestic Gunung Machinchang mountain (708 m) than walked along the skybridge (100 m above a jungle canopy). The view was pretty spectacular. It reminded me of Jurassic Park!

On the skybridge was a place were you could place some love lockets. Jon was sweet and pledged his love for me again by getting our names engraved on the locket and placing it on the bridge!

Before heading home we stopped to pose with the dinosaur!
Eden was convinced it was not a good idea because he thought it was real! lol!

Cooling off!

Day 10: Pool, Skytex adventure, and fish spa!

After breakfast we headed straight to the pool for some time playing and relaxing.

Skytrex adventure is a zipline/ obstacle course set up on the canopy of the jungle. There was over 15 zippiness during this course. The guide told us that it takes about 2-3 hours to complete the course, but not even 1 hour and 30 minutes later we got a call saying our boys were already done! These boys are pretty fit! I wish i could have gone with them! I love doing that kind of stuff!

The boys kept the gopro so they could take pictures while on the course

Kiki and Eden found some kitty cats they were very fond of! They did not want to let them go!

After dropping off Julien and Logan at the Skytrex, Jon, Kiki, Eden, and I did a little shopping and spent some time at the fish spa! It felt so strange but left your feet very smooth.

little ice cream for this little

Jon shopped at a little local market nearly every day to buy drinks and snacks!

Eden enjoying some bubble bath time!

Day 11: Beach time, pool time, and helicopter ride!

This was our first beach day after spending nearly 10 days at beach front resorts! Eden is terrified of the ocean which makes it hard to enjoy any beach time. Luckily with much convincing, he got used to it!

Julien is so good at catching little hermit crabs

After the beach we headed to the dinosaur park for more swimming fun! Eden had been afraid to go there up until now! Once he realized how much fun it was, he did not want to leave!

The kids had some quiet time while Eden napped so Jon and I could enjoy sunbathing by the pool! 'twas pretty nice!

More play time in the pool, the boys saw a monitor lizard swim in the pool while I was getting Eden. I did not believe them until it came our of the pool, and a few others were walking around the hotel grounds.

Jon sporting his hand print against his burned back! lol!

Jon, Julien and Logan had the amazing opportunity to take a helicopter ride around the island to watch the sunset. They all came back with big grins on their faces. Jon said he would love to do it again.

looks like someone had a long day!

Day 12: Travel back to Kuala Lumpur
Our long trek home! Frist flight of 3 + 2 nights layover!!!
During this vacation we took a total of 8 different flights. We were pretty tired of checking in and our of airports and planes. But all in all it was an amazing vacation!

Little late night activity for Eden!
Than Kiki decided to join in on the fun! Poor dad, he is a real life canvas!

Day 13: Travel day to Oman

Look who we ran into at KL International Airport! The Collins!
We did meet in Malaysia after all!
I just love this family!

Slowly but surely we will make it home!
Since Oman Air bumped us our of our flight they put us up in a hotel and provided us with meals and transportation. That was helpful but a slightly frustrating process. The hotel rooms they booked were so small that we could not fit in 2 rooms. For the first time ever we had to get 3 rooms. Jon and Kiki bunked together, Julien and Logan were in a room, and Eden and I were snuggle buddies that night (like most nights to be honest)!