It's like I got pregnant and dropped out of the blog world, huh? Really I'm just tired...naturally. I've still been working, and looking for a new place to live, and trying to keep our family fed, bathed, etc. So about 8pm I shut down, physically and mentally.
However, I had bought tickets for our family to visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore a while back when I found a killer deal online. And no matter how tired I am I'm still up for traveling, even if it involves an 8-hour flight on a budget airline.
So last Saturday we headed off to the airport to leave Australia for the first time in a year (me and the kids anyway, Chris has been to KL a couple times). The flight over was not too bad because Chris took pity on me and sat with the two kids, while I sat across the aisle by myself. They managed to keep themselves busy with video games, iphones and lots of walks up and down the aisle (for Ellie at least). We arrived in KL in the late afternoon, so there was really just time for a quick walk through the nearby shopping district and some dinner. My first impression though, was that this was going to be a fun place- It was so alive and busy. Melbourne is super busy in the daytime but after 5pm it really quiets down and the energy is kind of gone. But KL was buzzing well into the night. The Prince Hotel where we stayed actually had a little apartment (well....bigger than our current apartment) so the kids got their own rooms, with their own beds and.....their own TV!!!! They were so excited that we let them watch TV in bed (ah, the simple joys of vacations).
Day 2 we hit up Chinatown and the Petronas Towers.
Their Chinatown is pretty massive, most of the streets were lined with tiny stands with knock offs, cheap stuff, food (you know, stuff like fish head noodles, yum). We learned pretty quickly that they love for kids to check out the wares IF you're going to buy it, but don't just play around or they get really annoyed.
One of the main entrances to Chinatown.
Ellie got herself a cute little Louis Vuitton handbag that was just the right size for her and came in really handy for the whole trip (except for the numerous times she nearly left it in restaurants, taxis and airplanes).
Then it was off to the Central Market just a few blocks away that sold more artisan items. It was massive and I could have spent a whole day in there (if I weren't pregnant with a sore back and pain in my hips from all the walking).
Caleb got these Chinese balls that you roll around in your hands, he told us that he's ALWAYS wanted them, so we just had to get them!
After some food and quick catnap back at the hotel, we went and checked out the famous Petronas Twin Towers.
Apparently they were the tallest buildings in the world until 2006, but mostly they are just a Kuala Lupmur landmark. In fact I had to look them up on Wikipedia just to see what was inside- it office space in case you're interested.
You can go up onto the skybridge, but that really wasn't on my list of things I needed to do before I die, so we skipped it and checked out the wading pool and park just in front of the towers.
I was laughing because almost every kid in this wading pool was fully clothed. It was a pretty fun spot though with a massive playground right next door.
And in that playground there is a lady. And that lady's sole job (as far as we could tell in the 20 minutes we were there) was to make sure that no grownups were sitting on the play equipment. We saw her approach a few of them and ask them to get up. Super funny! I guess with such cheap labor you can hire someone to do just about anything.
After a good long play we went and had a good long stroll through the huge mall at the base of the towers. Did a little shopping and totally wore everybody out...to the point that I was almost in tears when the third restaurant we tried had a 20 minute wait. Luckily they had comfy chairs to wait in and we only ended up waiting about 10 minutes and were rewarded with some delicious Japanese food- though I was totally jealous of the yummy sushi the rest of my family ordered that I couldn't have :(
Okay, I'm way past my 8pm mental shutdown so the rest of this will have to wait.
