Malaysia

We have been out of Thailand for the last week doing a ‘visa run’ and we decided to start with a few days in Malaysia. It got a bit complicated piecing it altogether in the end as the Thai immigration said we had to leave by Feb 5th, and Chris’ mum was stopping in Singapore on her way back from New Zealand from Feb 8-10th. In the back of my mind a red flag went up - having worked with pre-school children for many years I had a fair idea that Chinese New Year was around that time too (I can make paper lanterns in my sleep now) and lo and behold it fell on Feb 7-8th this year!! It made flights etc busy and expensive, but those were the dates we were tied to, so that was that.

Last time we were in Malaysia we had a few days in Kuala Lumpur, so wanted to try somewhere new, and as this was a family trip the girls were promised a whole week of NO DIVING so we chose Penang – and island in the Andaman sea, with a few things to see. It was actually really cool, as roughly 50% of ‘Penangites’ are Chinese, and so New Year was a VERY big deal. We walked in through the hotel to see the New Year display – ‘That giant mouse is not unlike Mickey’ I thought, before realising it was a rat; the year of the pig is on the way out, the rat is now in (duh!) and so Chris and I felt very special as we are both Rats, Fin is a very dramatic Dragon and Sadie is a belligerent Ram! We had arranged 2 nights in Georgetown to see the sights downtown. The first night we went for a walk, found a very cool playground next to Fort Cornwallis, and then wandered into Little India where the sounds and smells were terribly evocative. We found a tiny little restaurant where they seemed very surprised to see tourists, let alone small blond ones and immediately set about laying on their best service. That night we could have been back in India; Formica tables, plastic plates, the most delicious food and undivided attention. The next day we set off up Penang Hill on the funicular tram, where at the top everything is still just as it should be for a Hill Station with cucumber sandwiches and cream teas.

The funicular ascent up Penang Hill:

A 2km walk along the winding road on top of the hill and we came to the Canopy Walk, which was planks of wood laid end to end suspended with some ropes and netting over the rainforest below. Scary? You bet! Sadie was motivational speaker, Fin and I tried not to look down! Back down the hill that evening we couldn’t resist a drink in our hotel’s revolving restaurant on the 17th floor – not as ‘70’s’ as the one in Jaipur, but a great view over the old shophouses of Georgetown none the less.
On Day 3 we went off to Fort Cornwallis, where we got locked in cells, looked at the cannons and learned a lot about the East India Company and Captain Light (or Capt. Go-Lightly as we couldn’t help calling him), founder of Penang. The girls were a little disappointed when we explained that Fort Cornwallis had never been engaged in hostilities – they had been half expecting to see pirates hanging from the slightest high branch (like Gramps, no sorry that’s PILOTS, they still can’t quite decide which is cooler!) They did take solace though in the fact that the moat was filled in after a particularly bad malaria outbreak in the 1920’s!! We then left Georgetown for a couple of nights at Ali’s guesthouse on Batu Ferringi beach, which is a mere 30 paces from the beach so the girls thought it was fab. We had breakfast on the beach, did workbooks on the beach, played on the beach, went parasailing off the beach…the girls both went up with Dad and thought it was ace.

Parasailing at the beach:

Batu Ferringi has a great night tat (not TAT this time) market, so we bought the obligatory sunnies, DVD’s and had dinner. There were lanterns and pretty lights everywhere, and later, as it Chinese New Years’ Eve fire-crackers started going off everywhere waking us up (like you thought we’d still be up at 12am!)The next day it was more beach and also a trip to the Butterfly Farm which was really cool – ‘today’s nature lesson will be the life-cycle of the butterfly and also the differences between butterflies and moths’.

Beautiful Butterflies:

Slightly dodgy moment when we thought we would be marooned there on the ‘No Through Road’ at 5.30pm on New Years’ Day, but at the last minute a taxi hove into view – phew! More market, dinner, and off to Singapore.
See ya,
All love CRFS xxxx