The four of us in SE Asia

Kuching is the capital of the state of Sarawak, Malaysia’s biggest states. We were to spend 4 nights in Kuching. We stayed at The Waterfront Hotel which was a nice modern hotel sharing the same building with a large shopping centre complete with two Foodcourts and an amusement arcade. Needless to say where our favourite hangout spot was. While in Kuching we went to an Orangutan conservation park (the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre) to see those great apes. There was a feeding session and we were lucky enough to see 6 orang-utans amongst which a big male aged 38 and weighing north of 100kg. Seeing this animal sitting next to a park ranger gave a good perspective of how large and powerful they are. 38 yrs old - 100kg+ We also visited the Bako National Park. It takes a taxi and a boatride of about 1.5 h to get to the park. We hired a guide and it was a good idea because we saw many things we would have missed had it not been for him. Rock formations The girls walked ...

The island of Borneo is the 3rd biggest island in the world (behind Greenland and New Guinea). About 1/4 of the island in the north is Malaysian, a minute percentage in the northeast is occupied by the Sultanate of Brunei while the rest in the south is Indonesian. The rain forest on Borneo is one of the oldest in the world, estimated to be about 140 million years old. In all that time one can easily comprehend how many endemic species have evolved. Amongst those are the famous orangutans along with the Sumatran rhinoceros, Borneo elephant, the clouded Leopard, etc. And of course we (as a species) have managed to almost entirely erase 140 million years of nature‘s doing in a couple hundred years due to extensive logging and poaching. Most of the above named species are either on the brink of extinction or getting there. We landed in Kuching and took the one and only "Grab" to our hotel in Santubong, bout an hour’s drive away. My first impression was that B...

For our second spell in KL we checked in the Lanson Place and that was a great choice. Well done Roxana. The apartment was huge, with great amenities and a kitchen I would not mind having at home. The swimming pool was huge, a 50m x 15m rectangle and children’s playground, BBQ pits etc. Great stuff. Would highly recommend it.  Proper 50m swimming pool!  As for the visits we resumed normal service! We had a fantasic visit at the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory. Kuala Lumpur began as a tin exploitation hub a couple of centuries ago and this is the oldest and biggest Tin and Pewter processing factory.  Amongst other fabulously crafted pieces, gifts to kings and emperors, these guys make the trophies for the F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia, Singapore and China along with some other Moto GP and Tennis competitions.  Masterpieces - and a hefty price too  In the evening we went to the lights and music show at the Petronas Twin T...

We had an early rise at 4am to catch a flight from Georgetown to Kota Bahru. Thank God for Grab, the SE Asian Uber: quick, reliable and cheap.  We got to the airport a little too early but I prefer it this way. After the flight, a one hour+ transfer in a comfortable minivan, a 1.5h wait and a 45 min speedboat ride, we got there! Hurrah!  Beautiful sandy beaches, clear turquoise lagoon, lush green rain forests, the works. This is the kind of place that people label Paradise island. On top of that the water was warm...around 30 degrees in fact.  Paradise Island We just dumped our stuff in our room and threw ourselves in the lagoon. It was great. After the first swim, we booked ourselves for our first SCUBA dive. Then dinner! For every meal there was a choice between chicken, beef and squid along with veggie option of course. Food was good but after Georgetown, it felt a little under. The desert was freshly cut pineapple and watermelon. Delicious...

Penang and especially Georgetown is street food from wake to sleep. There must be thousands of food stalls and other eateries scattered all over Georgetown.  Street food is king in Georgetown  George Town is the colorful, multicultural capital of the Malaysian island of Penang. Once an important Straits of Malacca trading hub, the city is known for its British colonial buildings, Chinese shophouses and mosques. Getting a knife massage Georgetown is also reputed to be a culinary hotspot (apart from being the birthplace of Jimmy Choo!).  So we obliged: we gorged on all kinds of fruits (we still avoided the King of Fruits, the fearsome Durian), we tasted Chinese roast duck rice, fried rice, with a side of Chinese greens, Indian roti, chapati, tandoori chicken, biryani, Malaysian beef rendang and tamarind sauce prawns, the works! DIY cooking Buddhists monks with a sense of humour  When our eating schedule permi...

Singapore was a great experience for the whole family. Constantin wanted to see it and so we planned it early in the trip. The first thing that strikes you and this might be a cliche; is the order. Everything is well organised, little to no queues at the airport or anywhere else for that matter. Time is time, no cheating no overcharge etc. It is very comfortable to visit Singapore ... but expensive! During our time in Singapore we visited the zoo of course where the highlight was feeding the elephants.  Mara feeding carrots to the elephant  Having a drink and dinner We also did a lot of the other tourist things such as watching the beautiful water show at the Marina Bay once from land and a second time from a boat in the bay itself.  Water show from a boat in the bay  We relaxed at the Gardens with lights and music at the Supertree Grove. We visited Chinatown and ate great fried rice there.  Light and music show...

30/5/2019 The reception called at 4.22am announcing our taxi was waiting. We rode 45 min to the airport, no traffic jams at that time although quite some movements in town as people are eating before the break of dawn. Still 5 days to go before the end of Ramadan. We printed our boarding passes, dropped the bags and cleared all security rather swiftly. The KLIA 2 (KL's bigger airport) is huge, but organised. So all is good.We boarded our flight on time and headed for Singapore and Indonesia. Landed in Singapore 5 min ahead of schedule. By the way Air Asia is very impressive. Clean new airplanes and in flight food is cheap - in adequacy with the tickets I would say. Once in Singapore, you realise immediately you are not in Malaysia anymore. Everything is super clean and extremely efficient. We breezed through security in a flash - no queues because there were plenty of desks open (I’m looking at you Heathrow Airport).Evidently our suitcases were waiting for us on the ...

Day 1: We landed safely in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur, aka KL means "muddy confluence" and is home to just under 2 million people. Greater KL counts over 7 million souls though. The temperature is very constant throughout the year with Dec being a chilly month with a daily mean of 27.6°C and May having a daily mean at 28.8°C. KL is a rather young city beginning its story in the mid 19th century and was built at the back of Chinese tin mines. Upon reaching Malaysia, the first thing that struck us was the heat and humidity. We made our way rather swiftly through immigration, booked a taxi via "Grab" and for a RM120 fare and 1.5hrs ride we got to the Oasia Suites in downtown KL. We were all exhausted and hungry - so we headed quickly to get some food. We did not walk too far and settled for a Chinese Restaurant close by - it was late (about 10pm local time) and the restaurant was empty. They took last orders and we returned home tired. Day 2: Petronas Tw...