Trip Of A Lifetime
So obviously I dislike blogging, which is why my last entry was months ago. As you can imagine PLENTY has happenned. But honestly, how is one supposed to keep up with facebook and a blog??
We took this 2 week trip thru 3 countries and EVERYONE wants to hear about it, so here goes.......and BTW, I've broken it up into 3 posts. Enjoy~
SINGAPORE
We flew to Singapore at night with 6 backpacks, one stroller, one baby backpack, 2 purses/bags and 5 kids. Matt had booked us in a hostel, because all the affordable hotels were taken. It was Chinese New Year (called 'Tet' in Vietnam), like our Christmas in the states. The hostel was less than happy that we had children and did not tell them so upon booking. So we took some grief, but I assured them that no, the baby does not cry. Of course, this is why we did not tell them we had children. The Betel Backpacker Hostel was definitely an experience, glad we got to give it a try, but really glad that the Lau family let us shack up with them for the next night. We are family afterall! :)
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| Sand, tankers and rain~it poured on us! I had Dalila bundled with me in the slight safety of the trees, she fell asleep~sweet baby that she is! |
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| Brighton & Dylan, Oskar & Jacob |
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| Siblings ~Soren & Sofia |
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| The great thing about Singapore beaches are the tankers. Still very clean and nice tho. Of course, nothing like Thailand or San Diego for that matter. |
We hung by the pool, went to the beach and enjoyed great food~fish-n-chips, slurpees, Starbucks, Roti somethin somethin(SO GOOD I forgot the name), slurpees, starbucks..... And we had SO much fun chillin with Sarah and Peter, Dylan, Jacob and Jade. They are truly hosts with the most. We did a little exploring-the massive Boat casino place with the most beautiful mall ever. The Helix bridge over to some awesome Chinese New Year light displays and all kinds of food. The boat casino (name?) is most impressive. Impossible to even really get a decent photo, so we didn't try. Oskar and Brighton stayed to play with Dylan and Jacob.
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| Traditional Singapore noodles |
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| Sofia definitely wins the nike pose position |
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| Yes, th Starbucks cup is there on purpose ;) |
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| LLLLUVVVV |
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| Cute, hip and happy |
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| Love this dragon cuz it's made of teacups and plates |
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| So many of these crazy lit up animals and such and people posing in front of every single one |
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| Like us! |
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| Just loved this mall light display~a few more on the link if you need inspiration |
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| View from the Helix bridge of the light show. |
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| More of my favorite mall display |
photobucket.com/shepsing12 for the whole album of Singapore~if you just didn't get enough!
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Selamat Datang
From there we took the night bus to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. KL, is the capital of Malaysia. A big busy, thriving, bustling city. I have never seen a more pristine, nice, air-conditioned border crossing. Random I know. Getting off and on and off and on buses till we got thru the border to the bus station was an adventure, fortunately everyone spoke english. The bus station was the exact opposite of the border crossing buildings, but hey, there was a McDonalds that we chilled in til 1 am when our bus was due to leave. The bus was great. Fully reclining seats, with blasting AC and loud music.
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| Everything was obnoxious~music, A/C, crazy fabric design~but comfy! |
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| Sofia gettin cozy and comfy |
Selamat Pagi Kuala Lumpur~
We slept little that night. Especially since we arrived in KL at 4 am. Why we thought it was all-nighter, who knows. The taxis(we needed 2 everywhere we went because so many of us and no big taxis like VN has, it was unnerving at times to lose the other taxi en route...) drove us around forever before spotting our hostel (that Matt had the foresight to book ahead). They most def took us for a ride, strangely, I didn't mind...... We checked in and went to sleep-some of us. Matt took Oskar and Brighton to the Petronas Towers to get tickets for us to go on the tour, then came back and got the rest of us. We headed on the train/metro to the Batu Caves. A hindu temple worshipping site that is built into a cave and the mountain side. We had to climb up about 200 steps, in FULL sun. It was hot and smelly and dirty and really cool.
Batu Caves
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| Hindu god statue |
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| A couple of the many temples/structures here. |
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| BIG gold statue, but unfamiliar with the hindu gods and goddesses to be able to say which one. |
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| This old womans hair is what is sitting in her lap. At least a foot thick and wrapped at least once around her.....she appeared as a statue-never moved. Eerie..... |
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| Blury, but I liked this one.....we're inside the cave here |
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| Dalila and Brighton holding hands |
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| Kuala Lumpur in the Distance |
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| Another temple. I had to get this shot~it came with a model :) |
Then we hopped back on the train after some ice cream, exotic fruit juices and Sofias henna'd hand. We got to the petronas towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world and are truly awesome. I'm not one to rant and rave about architecture, well actually I kinda am, but regardless, We were thoroughly impressed.
Petronas Towers
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| The bridge connecting the 2 towers |
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| Model of towers |
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| Virtual tour like Star Wars style~so super cool! |
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| Kids were trippin and trying to figure it out, mighta been the highlight for these two |
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| Enjoying the view |
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| Can't believe there is actually a pic of me! |
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| Motley Crew |
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| Top of one of the towers |
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| They just couldn't get enough of this place |
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| Another virtual reality~a game you play in front of a mirror using your ticket to line up to make these images appear~again, a highlight for the boys |
We then hung out in the mall a bit and splurged at Chili's!!!!! Bottomless chips and salsa........
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| Soren watching a basketball game, what else!? |
Matt and I put the kids to bed, walked the streets in some(name?) infamous district for a bit. We got back to our hostel and left at 7 am the next morning for Penang.We didn't love hanging out in a big hot crazy city, so we decided to only spend the day and move on. KL is nice enough, and we liked seeing the caves and the towers, but I think at this point we were starting to get the itch for the beach and relaxation.
Selamat Tinggal Kuala Lumpur
Continue to the next post as we travel to Penang, Malaysia.....
And, if you want to see more pics of us in KL, here is the link~
photobucket.com/shepkl12
