The hotel we stayed at in Kota Kinabalu (KK) was hopping with the buzz of Chinese New Year and we were lucky to have a dragon dance right at our hotel.

After a few days in KK, we hopped on a bus and headed for the jungles of Borneo and some time on the kinabatangan River. The views while traveling over Kinabalu Mountain were absolutely stunning, but quite windy and proved too much for Callum and Paul. Once over the mountain pass it is back to the typical Malaysian landscape of Palm Plantations. In total, the bus ride is only 6 hours, but given how the guys reacted to the trip we opted to purchase flight tickets back to KK.

Our connecting bus from Sandakan to Sukau and the Kinabatangan River was more of the same…Palm Plantaions for as far as the eye can see. Then you hit the Jungle and at the end of the road you reach the village of Sukau situated on the river’s edge. We stayed at the Greenview B&B which was basic, but very comfortable and the food was good. The middle pic is of the water storage system. The only down side to our stay was Paul and Lydia had broken out in a rash (started before we traveled to the river) and Callum was definitely under the weather. Paul’s rash spread all over his body while Lydia’s was confined to her chest, but both were extremely itchy. Callum struggled with nausea and a sore throat, but he was a trooper and came on every excursion, taking time to rest in between.

Our Chariot

The River

We got our feet pretty muddy during our jungle trek and even though we didn’t see any wildlife, we had fun exploring the jungle. I was hoping for an elephant sighting during our visit to Borneo, but no such luck. We did however, hear them in the jungle, saw elephant tracks and found elephant dung. It is my mission to see a wild elephant before we leave Asia. Once back from the trek, we had to give ourselves a thorough once over to check for leaches. Luckily, we were clean!

The river cruises were spectacular as we saw so much wildlife including; Red leaf Monkeys (photo by Paul Williams), Proboscis Monkeys, Short and Long Tailed Macaques, Orangutans, Crocodiles, Pythons, Yellow Black Banded Snakes and oodles of birds. One of the highlights among many, during the river cruises, was the fireflies dancing in the night sky against the backdrop of the Jungle. I looked at Lydia and said, “I do believe in ferries, I do believe in ferries, I do, I do, I do!”.  Again, quoting Disney.

The Rangers in the Forest Reserve have strung ropes to allow the Orangutans to traverse the river as they do not swim, but all the monkeys seem to appreciate the new crossing system. I would to, knowing there are crocs in those waters. This Short Tailed Macaque walked out on one of the ropes and hung out and watched us, as we watched him and his family.

Out of the Jungle and into the harbour town of Sandakan for a couple of nights. Our hotel (IBIS Styles) was waterfront and right smack dab in the middle of things. Great location! Also, gave the gang time to recuperate and get over what was ailing them. Luckily the rash passed and Callum is on the mend

From Sandakan we visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Such a great day visiting the semi wild Orangutans and I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to see these auburn haired beauties in the wild and at the Rehabilitation Centre. Lydia was so excited and said it was the best day of our holiday so far. They are just amazing to watch and while doing so you realize why they got the name Orangutan, which translated from Malay is “Man or person of the forest”. These beauties share 96% of the same DNA as humans. Unfortunately, the Orangutan population continues to drop due to habitat loss and the pet trade. Thankfully organizations like the Sepilok rehabilitation Centre are working hard trying to educate the public while saving orphaned Orangutans.

This past week was truly special and Borneo proved to be everything I dreamt it would be.

Completely switching scenes…today we left Borneo and flew to Johor Bahru. The home of Legoland. Woo Hoo!

With a huge time zone change of 16 hours, culture shock, extreme heat and a couple of illnesses thrown in just for good measure, the first week of our two-week stay in Malaysia started a little rough, to say the least. What kept us going was carefully planned outings that the whole family could enjoy and taking into account everyone’s needs, especially considering that children can have a much harder time with heat. The huge time difference makes it difficult to keep in touch with friends and family back home, but with today’s technology and again with some planning, you can stay well-connected. I highly recommend Skype or something similar, as it is nice for everyone to see a familiar face from home now and again.

In Kuala Lumpur dining out is easy, cheap and delicious so why not? With such a wide variety of restaurants on every corner you are sure to find something to suit every palette. Our favorite stop most mornings was Old Town White Coffee which was right in our metropolitan square condo complex. Callum and Lydia usually had the steamed bread with peanut butter (Roti Kukus Mentega Kacang) and some hot lemon & honey water. Paul liked the deep-fried tube things that I called chinese donuts with baked beans, while I loved the veg curry with naan (Campuran Kari and Paratha Kari Kentang) and coconut rice. On top of the good food, the staff here were always so friendly and welcoming.

One of our points of interest was Brickfields Little India. We went early in the day so it was quiet (nothing like Chinatown) allowing us to leisurely stroll through different shops and take in the atmosphere. Lydia really wanted to have a henna treatment and even though there were oodles of options in Little India, we decided we would wait until Sri Lanka. Mostly, I wanted to have some time to research the whole idea. One of our favorite sights in Little India was watching the merchants making the Jai Mala Garland (centre pic above). These beautiful garlands are used for decorative purposes and in Indian wedding ceremonies where the bride and groom exchange Jaimala, similar to the exchanging of wedding rings. Jaimala is symbolic for unifying two souls into one.

because of the heat in Malaysia and given our poor old Canadian bodies are just not used to it, we tried to plan only one outdoor activity a day. Again, the kids especially are susceptible to the extreme heat, so we took lots of breaks and would head indoors for some air conditioning and liquids to cool down often. The transit system in KL is not great, while the taxi service is typically quick and affordable. We downloaded an app on our phone called myteksi, which allowed us to simply input our location and destination and then wait for a taxi to grab the call. It almost always happened within minutes (Super quick, so you’re not standing around waiting with impatient kids) and it saved trying to explain where you wanted to go. I do have to say though, we found most Malaysians were comfortable speaking English as English used to be the official language.

After exploring Little India we headed into a nearby mall to cool down, refresh and regroup. Once we all felt rejuvenated, we headed to The Islamic Arts Museum. Not high on the priority list for the kids, but rated number 1 on Trip Advisors list of top ten things to do in KL, so this was one of those times where compromising came into play. The Museum proved to be a lovely choice, as we all enjoyed some aspect of the visit.

I marvelled at the architectural features of the building while Lydia loved the clothing and Jewellery section. Callum and Paul were all over the weapons and armor. The Islamic Arts Museum is a quiet, roomy space filled with significant artifacts. The first floor has an art gallery with pieces from around the world while the second floor is equipped with a retail shop and restaurant. The third and fourth floors house islamic artifacts. Admission for the Museum was 50 ringgit (about 16 dollars Canadian) for our family of 4.

Wooden window carving at the Islamic Arts Museum.

Some of our best days in Malasia have been hanging out with family at Desa Park, which included Dim Sum lunches, swimming in the pools, feeding the fish at the lake and having a few drinks poolside at the club.

we are now off to Bali for a couple of weeks and welcome the opportunity to chill at the beach again. With some well thought out planning and discussions, I am confident that our whole family will continue to enjoy our travels together.

The long travel proved to be too much for the Nixon clan. Paul was the first down with a bad cold, followed by Callum then Lydia. So far I have been healthy, but I’m not gloating as I usually would because I know if I do, karma will kick me in the butt. Lesson learned, break up long flights with days in between. It’s just not worth the recovery time. Thankfully, our only really long journey is behind us now, and it prompted Paul to bump us up to Business class on our 4 hour flight from KL to Sri Lanka. The rest of our flights will be no longer than 8 hours. YAY! No more of this 24 hour thing.

We are starting to feel settled in Kuala Lumpur and have been out exploring a bit. What we have discovered is transit sucks, but taxi’s are quick and relatively inexpensive and KL is for the most part, not pedestrian friendly. No extending your arm and crossing at a cross walk here. It’s more of a run, dodge and weave situation or glom onto a local and stick with them for as long as you can. Our first venture was to KL City Centre (KLCC) where we checked out the Aquarium (KLCC Aquaria), City Park, Petrosains discovery centre (similar to science world in Vancouver) and the Petronas Twin Towers. 

The aquarium was pretty cool and the kids enjoyed seeing some different types of fish, seahorses and sharks. Great walk-through tunnel where the sharks and fish are swimming all around you. The Aquarium is a bit pricey, 180 ringgits for a family of four which converts to 60 bucks Canadian, but still well worth it for the kids. They have feeding times during the day, but we missed them all. May be worthwhile to make a call first and get the feeding schedule before a visit.

In the background on the left, you can see the water park which is a great place for the kids to cool down when exploring KLCC. This park has several playgrounds, walking/running trials and a mosque nearby so you can hear the call to prayer which is quite cool for us newbies.

Callum and Lydia loved Petrosains Discovery Centre. You could easily spend a few hours here with lots of hands on activities for the kids. The Petrosans is open until 5:30 and the last tickets are sold at 4:oo which is when we bought ours. We all felt a bit rushed and would have loved to have a bit more time checking out all the different activities.

After spending the day downtown, we hung around into the evening to get a picture of the Petronas Twin Towers. Rush hour traffic out of KLCC is very congested from 5 to 8ish, so we decided to hang around in town and wait it out. The Petronas are the tallest Twin Towers in the world and an icon for KL.

The Batu Caves are a quick 15 minute cab ride from where we are staying in KL. This is an easy to get to, old Limestone cave system with portions being used as temples for the Hindu population. I found it all pretty cool, but beware it is a bit dirty in the caves and all women must have their knees covered. They will give you a scarf before you enter if you need to cover your legs. Kids are exempt from the dress code.

On arrival, you are met by the giant statue of Lord Murugan and the hundreds of steps you must take to reach the mouth of the cave.

As we neared the cave entrance we were met by some local monkeys. The guy posing with Paul was a pretty laid back little fella, but once we got into the caves, it was a whole new ballgame. Chaos ensued several times over food and anyone holding a grocery bag, well that’s just asking for trouble.

At one point, while Callum was trying to get a picture of a monkey eating Doritos, another monkey came running and hissed at him. Freaked my boy right out! A nearby lady that watched the whole scenario play out, was laughing when the monkey turned and charged her. She started screaming, came running over to hide behind me and then proceeded to push me towards the deranged beast! I guess he felt he had reached the desired effect because he quickly lost interest and walked over to a female monkey and mounted her. Bonus sex education lesson for the kids.

Once we were done in the caves we came down to one of many restaurants and shops in the area to cool down before we made our journey home.

One of the best things this week has been spending time with family. The four of us adults even got to go out for a drink. Up until then, It had been 8 weeks, 3 days and 17 hours that Paul and I had been with the kids every waking moment. But who’s counting right!

The cousins chillin.

The overall feel of Waikiki is so very different from anywhere on the Big Island, but I can see why people are drawn to Oahu. There is always something to do, it’s a lively atmosphere and the beaches though crowded, are lovely.

Waikiki Beach

Callum and Paul loved touring Pearl Harbor and came back to the hotel room with a load of information to share with Lydia and I.

Every boys dream…playing with life-size army gear.

The USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor

Lydia was not interested in a full day tour of Pearl harbor so her and I went to the Waikiki Zoo instead.  Her first visit to a zoo!  I generally am not a huge fan of Zoo’s. I enjoy seeing the animals, but at the same time I always leave feeling a little sad. The Waikiki Zoo is small, but a good visit for smaller children and the enclosures were an adequate size.

Out of all the animals we saw at the zoo, these two chicken-like birds were Lydia’s favorite. One of them liked to run around in circles which Lydia thought was “AWESOME”.

Diamond head was a great, but somewhat crowded hike (that seems to be the overall theme of Oahu). Very doable 40 minute hike uphill with some stairs. Once reaching the top you are rewarded with a beautiful view of Honolulu. After our hike up from the Captain Cook Monument on the Big Island, this hike seemed like a cake walk. In fact, on the way back down we decided not to take the bus back to the city and just walked the rest of the way to Waikiki. We stopped to refuel at the South Shore Grill for some delicious, cheap fish tacos. Taco Tuesday!

 Awww, looks like someone needs a hug.

Haha, this little fella was actually just laying down by us when we stopped by the info shelter at Diamond Head. I was snapping a few shots of him when he yawned. Pretty ferocious looking yawn.

Oh, and our chariot awaits. We were all sad to be leaving Hawaii, but were excited to be on to the next leg of our trip. With delays and strong headwinds, it took us 24 hours to get to Singapore. We arrived at 1:30 am local time. Because our first flight out of Honolulu was cancelled, we were now arriving a day later in Singapore so we pretty much needed to start making our way to Kuala Lumpur straight away. After a quick nap on some chairs at the Embassador Transit Lounge, we cleared customs and caught the 8:15 shuttle bus to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. We spent the night in Johor Bahru, then caught the morning train to Kuala Lumpur. Train was a lovely way to travel and the 7 hour trip went by painlessly.

Now that we are here, we are resting up and exploring the area around us. So far we have found the locals very helpful.

We are all super stoked to see the Douthwaites (my sista from another mista), but first Paul has to lick the sinus infection he caught while we were travelling.