Deciding where to go next

The best part about coming home from our 7 weeks in Asia was that it meant I could start planning another trip!!!

Where to next?

We had many discussions about where to go next.  We were both quite keen on Europe, but once we realised that we really need the trip to be at the end of the year, and that we really didn't want to miss our summer to be somewhere cold, Europe was out.

Going back to Asia was something that we would love to do, but we had time and could afford to go a bit further afield, so that seemed like a good idea before Z was older, and flying became more expensive.  This left two options for us - South or North America.

We love love LOVE Argentina, so that was definitely something we considered.  However, when Virgin had a sale for flights to LA for a grand each (and even cheaper for S), the USA and surrounding regions became our top choice.  We also love the US, we could still visit some of Latin America from there, and we have been hanging out to do a US road trip since our last visit.  We were also very keen to do another Caribbean cruise.  It all sounded so perfect, that it seemed crazy that we had ever considered doing anything else.

Last Caribbean cruise

Flights booked!

So we bought the flights to the US at 11:50pm at night, ten minutes before the sale finished!

Next came a crazy week and a half of trying to work out a rough plan.  The main thing we had trouble working out was where else to go other than the US.  We wanted to spend half the time in Latin America.  Partly because we love it and partly because our budget meant that we needed to spend half the time in a cheaper country.

Latin America

I wanted to go to Colombia, Venezuela, Panama or Costa Rica.  They are the four remaining countries I need to visit to be able to say that I have been to every country on the American continent, and it kind of drives me crazy that I haven't been to them.  In general, I don't get caught up on visiting countries for the sake of visiting another country.  I have been to an impressive number of countries, so I think this helps me feel less pressure about this than some people.  However, I am so close to having been to all the continent, and I do actually want to visit these countries as well, so I do really want to go to them.

Some of our previous great times in Central America

Costa Rica was my initial choice.  Colombia and Venezuela are far bigger countries and we'd have a small budget so we'd have to stay reasonably stationary, so it kind of seemed like a waste to go to them, just to see a place or two.  Something I love about Central American countries is their size.  Lots of variety in such a small place make them easy places to go to if you want to see a fair bit without spending many hours on a bus.  So Costa Rica and Panama moved up the list.  Panama has more likelihood of malaria, so Costa Rica won.

Next came some research on Costa Rica.  It seems like it is all about natural attractions which are not something that interests us much.  What did sound promising was relatively good tourist infrastructure, and we could find lots of good holiday rental options for us that were very affordable.  J wasn't keen, so I started tossing around ideas like combining Costa Rica with Panama or Nicaragua.  We came up with some good plans, but then it seemed like more effort than we felt we would want to put in after spending 3 weeks on a road trip.

I then remembered reading a family travel blog a little while ago where they went to the Dominican Republic.  I read through some of it again. I researched costs in the Dominican Republic.  I looked through the Lonely Planet and researched any health problems.  It all sounded great for us, so it was decided.  We would spend a month in the Dominican Republic.  I look forward to spending Christmas and starting the new year there!!

Road trip

I have been to the US lots of times and loved every trip.  However, I feel like I haven't really been there as I haven't done a big road trip.  No doubt it is mainly Hollywood hype that makes me feel this way, but I still have a very strong urge to do a US road trip, and I am very much looking forward to achieving this goal!

San Fran in 2008

Since we will be in the US in winter and we hate the cold, we felt there were only two choices for our road trip: coast to coast LA - Miami, or a journey round some of the deep south and Florida.

The coast to coast trip had some advantages - we could visit a good mate of mine in Texas, and just the idea of a coast to coast trip sounded cool.

The deep south had some advantages - for some reason this area seems like it would be weird and wacky - exactly what I am looking for in a US road trip.  It is also cheaper as no one way car rental fees.

In the end, the cheaper cost had to win out, especially as I have heard that the coast to coast route has long patches without much to see.  In my opinion, part of travelling with kids means not doing anything for the sake of it, so the deep south journey won.  We will be doing a 3.5 week road trip starting and ending in Miami.

Cruise

Picking a cruise was pretty easy.  We just looked at what was available in our price range (so very cheap!) and went from there.  Our biggest problem was trying to find one that went somewhere different as many of them in our price range went to the places my previous two cruises went to or where I have travelled to independently.  We found the perfect one in the end though!!

Hopefully we get another free balcony upgrade!!

It really does seem like an awesome thing to do with a family too.  Our cruise is only about $200 a day and for this we get our accommodation, all meals (and damn good ones at that with many places to eat to choose from) and many activities and entertainment.  S can also go into the kids program whenever we want, and Z can too, as long as we accompany him.  We are very much looking forward to it.  So is S!  I asked her if she wanted to go to school on a boat (what she calls child care) and she said "absolutely!!"


So, the rough outline is done.  Now for the part I love even more - spending hours and hours working out all the details!!

Being home and planning our next adventure

So we've been back home for just over a month now, and life still doesn't feel like it's gone back to normal.  The trip feels like a long time ago, but a lot has happened since we got back, and I think it helps that we weren't straight back to "normal life" like it was before we left.

So what's been happening?

J started a new job last week.  Well actually, it's an old job.  He's back to where he was before we went away.

I worked two weeks doing my teaching rounds for my teaching diploma.  That was tough.  It's a ridiculous amount of work and stress, especially as I was spending 2-3 hours in the car a day.  It went well, but I am very glad it's done, until I go back in September anyway.

The kids are back at home and child care and have adapted well, except for missing their dad a lot this week.  Every day by 5pm, S has been crying for him and asking to ring him.

What now?

I guess on the outside our life looks the same as it did before we left.  On the inside, it feels very different to me. The break away gave us a lot of time to think about our lives, and what we want to change.  To say I was unhappy before we left would be an understatement, and I am very glad that I don't seem to be heading back that way.  J and I have a rough plan of how we want the next few years to look, and that is helping.  I love goals and a plan!!

Part of the plan is already in action and is no doubt part of the reason why I am happy to be at home - we have started booking our next trip!!  Part of our life plan is for me to return to work next year as a teacher, so we figure we may as well take advantage of the time between when J's contract ends and mine begins!  So we have just over two months planned for visiting the US and the Caribbean.  It also helps that J's long overdue redundancy payment from last year is in the process of finally coming through.

We are a bit nervous.  The trip is going to cost a fair bit, and we will probably move out of our house before we leave and be homeless on return.  However, we do feel it is the right path for us - we only live once, and I truly believe we should take advantage of any opportunity to live life the way we prefer (travelling), especially before three of us are locked into school terms! Well some of the time anyway, we certainly don't plan to completely stop long trips once the kids are at school. 

So yeah, I am busy trip planning, studying and looking after the kids.  If this is our new version of "normal life", then I am very happy with it!!

A week back - adjusting to life at home

It's hard to believe it's only been a week since we got back.  It already feels like the trip was ages ago.

We are not really back to "normal life" yet, as J is at home full time and I am about to work for two weeks, so it will be a couple of more weeks before life returns to how it was before we left.

It has been a super busy week which hasn't allowed much time for reflection which is perhaps a good thing.  J has been job hunting, I have been doing uni work and preparing all of us for placement next week, and we have both been doing 1000000 jobs around the house while looking into renting our place out.  We have also been catching up with friends and family.

I do still feel the inner peace I was feeling with travel, so "normal life" hasn't totally taken over yet. I'm sure that will be gone Monday when I am in a room of teenagers though!  We had a lot of time to think while travelling, and I am trying to put things into action about how we could improve our lives at home - mainly by simplifying and just making day to day life easier.  I was trying to do this before we left, but some time away gives a better perspective.

As part of this, we have taken on the challenge of throwing out 1000 things, in addition to old kids clothes (I'm sure we would have 1000 baby clothes easily :-/).  We are up to 400 without really even trying, but it still takes time, especially when we have to go around the neighbourhood finding public bins to stick stuff in!!  We have heaps of clothes the kids have grown out of and have also been getting ready to sell them, and all other baby stuff we don't need, at a market.  I love getting rid of stuff.  It feels good and does makes life easier.

The good things about being home

Obviously seeing family and friends top the list.  It is nice to sleep in our own bed, and it is very very nice that the kids have their own rooms again, although I do miss waking up to Z's toothy grin.
S would probably say being back at child care as her best thing about being home!! She was very happy to be back with her friends.

It is nice not having to unpack and pack all the time, although I probably spend far more time putting away clothes/toys/etc at home than what I ever did doing that.

The bad things about being home

Cooking and cleaning would be top of this list!!  And just all the other house jobs that we are trying to do at the moment, which we don't normally have time for.  I am hating how much time "normal life" takes, meaning that there is way less quality time with the kids or as a family than what there was a week ago.

It's cold!! I am definitely a hot weather person, and I don't like the fact that it's cold here and we're heading into winter.  Very depressing!

Job hunting is not fun at all.  Even though I am not the one doing it, it's stressful.  We just want to know what's going to happen so we can plan the next stage in our lives.

A couple of things to think about before going away

We meant to disconnect the battery in our car, but we forgot.  We had a dead car battery which was annoying.

I hid my wallet before leaving in a great place.  Like a really really great place.  I can't find it now :-/  Write down where you hide things!! Perhaps in an email to yourself.

How are the kids?

The kids are fine.  They have adapted right back into home life like nothing has changed.  Of course, they do still have both parents full time with them at the moment.

Z isn't sleeping as well.  He has gone back to night feeds and isn't napping as well either.  It seems crazy that he slept better while we were away, but he did!! I think they probably both miss the food, as they are not as interested in food at home.  They both went back to child care this week (just one day) without any issues, like they had never left.

About the only time the trip has been mentioned is when S asked yet again about her big Dora balloon we left behind in Manila.  She still says she loves holidays though and is keen that we go away for her birthday in a month's time.  I wonder if she will find it strange when we come home after just two nights?


Anyway, goodbye for now, this will probably be my last post until we start planning our next trip!!  I can't wait to see what that will be!

Overall wrap up of our 7 weeks in SE Asia

We ended up going to 5 countries and stayed in 14 different towns/cities... omg!!  When I read that, I am quite impressed that we did all that with a toddler and a baby.  However, the reality is that it really wasn’t that hard or anything to be impressed about.  It wasn’t really that much different to normal life in many ways, we just got to live normal life in awesome places doing far more awesome things than normal.

Our favourite destination?

Such a hard question to answer!!  Our favourite destination of this trip would be Boracay, closely followed by Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

The only places we didn’t like were Ayutthaya (good for a day trip, but I wouldn’t stay over) and Manila.

Our overall impressions of the countries we visited

I actually loved visiting all the countries we went to.  I guess it shows that all my hours/days/weeks/months of research paid off!! Malaysia was very kid friendly, easy, modern and with lots of great attractions.  I could say exactly the same thing about Singapore. 

We love Thailand, and it has been one of our favourite countries previously, but I didn’t enjoy it as much with kids.  There was difficulties getting around where we went, that I feel limited us a bit.  It was still great, and I recommend it, but it’s frustrating being somewhere that we can’t really use a pram, and in Bangkok, this frustration was compounded by all the traffic and how long it took to get anywhere in a taxi.

We loved the Philippines, mainly because it was somewhere quite different to the rest, that we haven’t visited previously.  It was fun, surprisingly straight forward to travel around with all 4 of us, and a lot of people spoke English.  It is a great place to go for beach resorts/breaks.  It also was not somewhere pram friendly, but it was so cheap and easy to get around in taxis that this didn’t bother us, although we really didn’t have that much we wanted to do but sit back, relax and soak in the country, so that made things easy.

This is getting repetitive but we also loved Taiwan.  I think the thing that will always stand out for me about Taipei is the food – omg just so so good.  It really was delicious, and I can’t think about Taiwan without my mouth watering.  I would love to see more of this place sometime, I will just pick a better time of year and wait until the kids are a bit older as these two things were negatives for us with our time here.  Otherwise, it is a very modern, easy to get around, country to visit.

Most kid friendly destination?

Overall, I would say Malaysia or Singapore.  Singapore would win as long as you have a big budget to go with it.  Otherwise, Malaysia was great with kids and also very wallet friendly.

Both places had the baby gear we needed, we could get around with the kids fine, and they have a lot of attractions for families.  We also received lots of compliments about our kids in Malaysia, and people were all eager to entertain them.  Foreigners are much much more common in Singapore, so special attention was rare.  It was nice to feel a bit more anonymous for awhile.

Thais were also wonderful to our kids.  There are some great family attractions here too, although they weren’t all our thing.  The main problem here was just that we struggled a bit to get around with the four of us, as it wasn’t pram friendly and taxis were painfully slow in Bangkok.  I felt it kind of limited what we were able to do, as leaving our immediate area meant dealing with a lot of pain from the kids.  They had an ok range of baby items, but we weren’t able to find nappies big enough for a big toddler.

Our kids were also loved in the Philippines – perhaps too much!!  The massive amount of attention that S's red hair got did get a bit overwhelming at times.  The main problem here would also be the accessibility issues.  We basically didn’t even bother trying to use our pram here.  We also had issues with big baby products here.

Taiwan is very kid friendly in some aspects – I love how disabled bathrooms are also set up for parents with babies and toddlers, there are many “nursing stations” and prams are not a problem.  It is just a shame that we feel like our kids basically acting their age was not well tolerated, although it was no worse than how things are in Australia (except people probably wouldn’t laugh openly at your tantruming toddler!!).

What would we do different?

I actually can’t think of anything... which seems weird!   Apart from go for longer, but that really wasn’t a viable option, so I guess I wouldn’t change that either!  I would probably recommend Singapore for the beginning of a trip to these countries, rather than the end, as then it probably wouldn't have seemed so pricey.  Taiwan is probably better at the end of the trip as it ruined us for food everywhere else!!

It was actually a really great length of time to go away for.  It wasn’t so long that we got sick of it or got over sight seeing (like I have felt on longer trips in the past).  However, I was feeling tired by the end of it, and if we had planned to go away for longer, at that point I definitely would have headed somewhere and rented an apartment where we could have lived a more “normal” life for a few weeks.

Kid challenges

My two top challenges would be food for Z, and toilet for S.  We couldn't always feed Z how we would like, and it was frustrating having him eat off table tops (as he wouldn't use a bowl or plate, although this did improve as the trip progressed).  Apart from the fact that big nappies were hard to find, it would have been far easier if S hadn't been toilet trained yet, as she still wasn't perfect and we couldn't get her to proactively go to the toilet, so this could be stressful.

Where next?

Hard to say as soooo many places I want to go.  We can’t make any firm plans until J gets a job, but we are hoping for another trip at the end of this year.  For the time being, I have to finish my teaching diploma, and J needs to get us some more money!! Now that flying with the kids doesn’t bother us, we are hoping it might be further afield (like Europe or our beloved Argentina), but Asia is just so cheap, easy and wonderful, that it may be back there again.  What I do know, is that there will definitely be a next time in the not too distant future and the only thing that will hold us back now is money.

A special thank you

Before I finish writing about this trip, I have to acknowledge two very important women in my life who made this trip possible: my grandma and my mum.

My grandma and her partner, Harold, who also passed away in 2011, at our wedding in 2009

My grandma passed away suddenly in October 2011, when I was pregnant with Z.  I miss her a lot, and we even named Z's middle name after my grandmother (Lucas, it was her surname).

My grandma was all about living life.  She travelled often, and her and grandpa are no doubt where I get my travel gene from.  She spent her money on experiences rather than things, so when my mum kindly passed on the small amount of money that grandma had left behind to me and my siblings, it seemed perfect that we used our share on a trip.  A week or so later, a big Air Asia sale came out and that is when we bought our tickets to Kuala Lumpur.  It is sad that it took this horrible event to make this trip happen, but I am also glad that something good came out of it, and I'd like to think she is somewhere looking down on us, taking pride that she was able to make this happen for us.  I miss you, grandma.


Now to deal with getting back to “normal” life.  Except it still isn’t that normal as J doesn’t have a job, and I’m about to have to spend two weeks on school placement for my teaching course, so it’s all a bit stressful at the moment.  I look forward to life returning to normal in a few weeks time when hopefully J has a job, and I’ve survived my latest experience of teaching teenagers!!

Flying home

Overall, it was fine!!

I was a little bit worried, because I thought travelling in the day would be more difficult than the overnight flight on the way over.  I wasn’t that bothered though, as we haven’t had many problems at all flying.

Getting to the airport

We left our lovely lovely hotel in Port Dickson about 10am.  There was a little bit of drama when J realised his main credit card was missing!!  He went back looking for it, but couldn’t find it.  Annoying,  but at least it was our last day.

We took a private transfer from the hotel to the airport.  It was a bit pricey, but we weren’t sure about other options and were too busy trying to enjoy our last couple of days to want to stuff around working out other options.  It took about 45 minutes and soon we were dealing with LCCT yet again.

Flying home

It was a painless experience at LCCT as the Air Asia X staff were nice enough to take us out of the line and straight to the front.  Before we knew it, we were on the plane.

We tried the same trick as had worked for us on the way over - splitting the four of us over two rows of three, leaving the middle seats.  Unfortunately, the plane was nearly full and this didn’t pay off, although of course the people in the middle seats were happy to move to the aisle ones.  We kept an eye on things, and as soon as the doors were shut, Z and J moved to a spare row of three on the opposite side of the plane.  We got extra lucky when it turned out the guy next to us was travelling with the guy that had been next to J, and he moved to sit with him, so S and I also got our row of three.  Yay! So much less stressful when there is no one next to us.

Z can be a bit trickey on the plane.  He doesn’t want to sleep or stay still.  It is hard to get him to sleep, but once he is asleep, he usually sleeps pretty well.  Not this flight.  The flight was eight hours departing at 1:30pm and he only slept for one hour of it.  He had slept for 20 minutes in the taxi ride to the airport and that is all he slept that day.  So he was tired and reasonably hard work for J for a fair bit of the flight.

Z is very cute sitting on the plane

S is actually very easy, except for the toilet thing.  She happily goes into an ipad fest (she would never be allowed to have it for so long normally, so she laps it up).  I can leave her and do whatever on the plane and everyone’s happy.  The toilet thing was annoying this flight though. She needed to go right before we took off, when obviously she can’t.  Lucky I had a spare nappy for exactly these situations on me and the guy next to us had moved seats.  Later in the flight, we also had an “accident” all over the seat.  Joyful!

S sleeping

Anyway, it is actually kind of nice sitting on the plane with S.  It’s basically 8 hours where I don’t have to do anything and can’t do much except read and watch bad tv on my laptop.  Its awesome!
S did a fair bit of sleeping on couches in the second half of the trip, and I think this helped us – S actually laid down across the seats by choice about 6pm Malaysia time and fell asleep for about an hour (at which point they turned on all the lights bright and did a meal service).  It does show how quickly kids get used to travel.  7 weeks ago she barely slept at all, and it took ages for her to get to sleep and our flight didn’t leave until after 1am.

Arrival in Melbourne

We arrived on time at 11:30pm, and it was all very smooth.  Well, it would have been very smooth if S hadn't decided she wasn't wearing underpants on the way to immigration and kept trying to take them off while holding her dress up high and flashing everyone :-O

There were many tantrums as I wouldn't allow this.  Fun fun.  It was a big relief when we got to the baggage claim area, and she could sit on a trolley and stop being silly.

Soon enough, we were out and in the cars with my sister and mum (it takes two cars to pick us up as they both have smaller cars and we, of course, have to use two car seats here).  It was great to see them and have an easy ride home.

It was weird to be back in our house!!  Thanks to my family, it was nice and clean and even stocked with some basic food items including milk for the kids (thankfully).  We got the kids straight to bed, and it was so nice to have their kids in their own rooms.  Well it was nice for a couple of minutes.  And then Z started screaming :-(

Sick Z

I got Z more milk, to see if that would pacify him.  It worked for a few more minutes and then J goes in.  He's screaming and making horrible choking sounds and soon J is screaming too, worried that Z is choking to death.  I go in and there is big, horrible, smelly, chunky vomit all over both boys and the ground :-/  Z is screaming his head off as well as making choking sounds and looks so white with massive red areas around his eyes.  I strip Z off and send them both to the shower and start cleaning up.  I am worried, as I have never seen him like this.  He is very easy going and not one to scream like that.  Given we have just got back from overseas, there is even more to worry about.  I suggest one of us takes him to the hospital. J starts getting dressed, and then we remember the car seats not in the car, it is all locked up and the battery is probably dead. Ahhhhh!  These things always happen at great moments, hey.

So J goes out to the car to see what he can do.  While he is gone, I cuddle Z and he not only calms down, but is suddenly happy and trying to crawl away from me!  It is a very quick, very bizarre turnaround.  When J comes back in, we put him back to bed, and he sleeps no problems and even wakes up the next morning wet through... wtf?!  all we can think of is that maybe he just had too much formula/soy milk in him.  J had given him a fair bit on the plane to try to get him to sleep, and we had given him more at home for the same reason.  Oh well, all's well that ends well!!

Overnight or day flight?

This is actually a tough questions.  Neither was that bad!!

The overnight flight was slightly easier with the kids, especially Z who slept pretty well once we got him to sleep.  However, this easiness is probably cancelled out by the fact that we were very tired ourselves, and this made the first day in KL hard work.  It also took longer to recover from this flight.  The other negative about an overnight flight on the way home would be that you are without a room for most of the day.  That wouldn't suit us as we would not want the kids to not have their day nap before an overnight flight, so that would mean booking a night in a hotel that we wouldn't really use which also makes this option pricier.

I'd probably just book whichever flight was cheapest or fell on the most convenient day and not be too fussed about what time it actually departed.  The only exception to this is if I wasn't going to buy Z a seat.  It would be really tough having the four of us sitting in a row of three, so I'd go for whatever flight was more likely to produce sleep for Z, so an overnight one would win.

Practical Information
The original flight had only cost RM1904 for 4 seats, bags, seat allocations, food etc.  Very cheap!!  We paid about this again though when we changed the dates.

Awesome resort stopover in Malaysia

Before I start, this is our 900th blog post!!! omg!

Anyway, our last two nights of this trip were at the Avillion Port Dickson.

It is a bit strange how I came across this hotel.  We were flying into KL from Bangkok last month, and I noticed it from the air!!  I had been thinking it would be nice to have a more beachy stopover later in the trip that was convenient to the airport and KL, and when I saw the over water bungalows, I made a mental note to look it up later.

I went on google satellite a couple of days later, and I actually found it!  The resort sounded great, but a bit pricey.  So I filed it away in my brain, and when everything changed when we left Taiwan early, I took another look at it, found the rates were cheaper when booking not far ahead and here we are!!

Getting here

We caught a taxi straight from our hotel in Kuala Lumpur.  There are also buses, but for only $50, we just couldn't be bothered.  We are all about enjoying our last week in Malaysia, rather than worrying about money.  You can also get here easily from the airport.  The airport is in between KL and Port Dickson and about 45 minutes away.

It was very straight forward and an easy run on express ways.  The 1.25 hours passed quickly, and we were soon checking in and walking through the resort to our "water chalet".

The Resort

We were not disappointed!!

It is a lovely place.  There are fantastic facilities, everything is well maintained, and there are just so many nice little touches.  Like lots of little signs giving information on little things, and many little private spots with big chairs and great views.

One of the many spots to sit back and relax

Our room was great.  It was a decent size and comes complete with a "day bed" - basically a queen size mattress in an alcove by the windows.  It is a lovely place to sit while watching and listening to the water below.  It also makes a great bed for S!!  It had an open air bathroom which I have never experienced before.  It is awesome - lovely having a shower outside while watching the water below and is completely private.

Our room

our shower - not really possible to get a good pic of it

The only downside is that at low tide, there is no water below us.  Most the time, we are surrounded by water and it is great!!  I had worried that it may be dangerous to stay somewhere like this with little kids, but there is a big sturdy balcony with railings and the kids can't get out onto it anyway, unless we unlock the door.  The walkways to the room are very wide and I don't feel there is any danger.  It is not like some pictures I have seen of resorts in this style where they have platforms on the rooms to swim from.  Nothing is open here for them to get through.

Our chalet

There are lots of nice facilities here - three pools, one of which is adults only and one is a kids one.  There is also a water slide.  What is a bit strange is that the water slide has a weight limit of 20kg, which seems made up to me and is annoying as S doesn't want to go down alone, and we obviously wont let Z..

The pool is a hit

There is a lovely little playground, a large kids room with activities that the kids both love, a little farm area which has an hour each morning where you can all go in and feed the animals as well as some bird aviaries.  There is a beach area at each end of the resort as well.

So many things to do!!

There are a few different restaurants and bars.  With the kids, we feel kind of limited to one, and probably the only problem I have with the place is that I would get sick of the food if we were staying here much longer.  It's mostly western style and is ok, but not brilliant.  There is a posher restaurant and cocktail bar that look great. There is a day spa.  The only thing the place is really missing is a shop.  It would be great if there was a little shop with things like water and chocolate bars, so that there was no reason to leave the resort.  Thankfully, we came with lots of stuff from KL.

Z is happy with the food!!

There is a free shuttle bus that runs into Port Dickson town every two hours, but we didn't get around to doing this.

It is a great place for families, but I would love to come here one day with just J and I.  I think it would be the perfect place for a honeymoon or a romantic weekend.

What did we do?

Really not very much!!  Which was the idea after all.

We hung around the resort.  We spent lots of time relaxing, I especially loved sitting on the day bed and enjoying the water below.  We fed the animals, spent a lot of time in the pool and the playroom.  We drunk some yummy wine on our balcony and by the pool.  The kids loved it and are always pretty much drama free when we are taking it easy like this and only doing things they love.

The playroom

S feeds some of the animals

Feeding the animals

Drinks on our balcony

It was a great place to forget about the depressing fact that we were about to go home, and I managed to make it until the final night before I got upset about it.  We've had a really great trip, and I don't want to go home!  Either does S, she gets very upset when I say we are about to go home and demands more holidays.

Anyway, it was a great couple of days, and I definitely want to come back here one day!!

Practical Information
Avillion Port Dickson cost us about $140 a night for a water chalet.
http://avillionportdickson.com/ 
The taxi here took 1.25 hours and was RM160.  We got stuck booking a taxi to the airport through the hotel and it was RM150 and took about 45 minutes.

Malaysia wrap up

Malaysia has been awesome!!

I have been surprised how awesome, actually, as I have been to Malaysia many times in the past and have been ambivalent about it, and preferred the surrounding countries.  However, with kids, it is a fantastic destination.

Enjoying the pool in Port Dickson

We spent 2 x 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur, 2 nights in Johor Bahru and 2 nights in Port Dickson.

They are quite different destinations.  KL is lots of fun with many activities for families.  We could have spent a lot longer here happily.  Our hotel here was awesome which helped us enjoy our stay even more.  It's great to be staying above a massive shopping center!!  We didn't even come close to doing all the things we want to do here, so we look forward to coming back.  As KL is the hub of Air Asia, I'm sure it won't be long until we return.

Johor Bahru was an ok stopover.  Our primary reason for going there was to see Angelina at Little Big Club and this was great!!  It is definitely somewhere to consider visiting if you are going to Malaysia or Singapore, especially because it it is a lot cheaper to stay here than Singapore.

Our resort stopover in Port Dickson was the perfect way to unwind for a couple of days before flying home.  Such a lovely place, and I got to live my long held dream to stay in an over-the-water chalet.  This is definitely somewhere I can see us coming back as well, preferably without the kids!! Although it was a perfect place for a family as well.  It is close to KL airport, so the perfect place for a relaxing, tropical stopover.

One of the reasons we loved Malaysia is that it is nice and easy, while still being cheap.  It is a modern country and many people speak at least some english.  I think that after Singapore, it is probably the easiest country to visit in Asia.  The cultural mix of Malays, Chinese and Indians is interesting and means lots of great food!!  I find the people quite reserved, and not as friendly and relaxed as nearby Thailand, but travelling with young kids warmed many people up to us and that made a big difference to how I felt about the country compared to previous times.  The amount of attention the kids got was just about perfect.  Not overwhelming, like it could be in the Philippines, but enough to make us feel very welcome and to make times when we were travelling around, eating or sight seeing easier as people helped in little ways.

I think all of this, the many attractions for families and how far the Aussie dollar goes in Malaysia, makes it a perfect destination for families.

My only (minor) complaint would be that the country is quite conservative, and this means dressing more conservatively, not much alcohol around, and I could often feel quite awkward at pools.  For example, I did seem to clear out Middle Eastern Muslim patrons from the pool in KL, and I wasn't even wearing a bikini.  This was not the case in Port Dickson, and I felt completely comfortable there, although you still didn't have things like pool bars, like I would expect in resorts like this in other countries.

Baby stuff is easy to find.  KL had plenty of nappies, baby food, formula etc.  We used the pram a lot in Malaysia, although I do know from previous trips that places aren't always pram friendly, but that wasn't an issue with where we went.