Kids Ruled in Singapore & Malaysia

Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  – Elizabeth Stone

It was likely a combination of factors; the beginning of summer vacation back home, Liam’s birthday, and the limited time remaining of our global trek, but for this segment the kids desires took the forefront.  We added Singapore to the itinerary and removed Myanmar.  Myanmar had a lot of wonderful temples and less infrastructure that we were curious to see.  However, this is not what the kids are loving still, so we took a pass.  The kids did love Dubai, so we thought Singapore might inspire them too.   A Hilton buffet breakfast followed by the interactive Science museum in Singapore and the Legoland Hotel just across the border sounded like a perfect place for Liam’s birthday celebration.

Breakfast is our favorite meal of the day, and Hilton buffets are where we find bits of home.  So that was a solid choice to start Liam’s day.  (We love Hilton hotel reward stays!)  Then we hopped in cab to the Science Center Singapore with a building full of hands on science stations.  The highlight here was The Human Body Experience where the kids were swallowed whole and walked through the human body with dark & lights, textures, sounds and even some scents to set the stage.  From there we had to spend a couple hours getting to the border and over to Malaysia for Liam’s last surprise of the day.  While our kids are a bit old for Legoland Park, the hotel was an inspired palace of play for us to enjoy.  It was perfect.  Huge Lego sculptures, massive pools of Lego pieces, a pirate themed room with a scavenger hunt to unlock a treasure chest and a private area for the kids with a “No Adults Allowed” sign.  My favorite was the elevator.  When the doors close Disco music stars to play and when you press the button for your floor the disco ball overhead kicks on.  Elevator Dance Party!  YES!  While a posse of his friends is what he REALLY wanted, I think it worked out to be a very special day.  And surely seeing buckets full of Legos after 6 months without toys was a pretty nice surprise.

After the birthday hoopla we continued up Malaysia to another island paradise.  The goal here was to fulfill the kids desire to see sharks.  Perhentian Islands in Malaysia was our chosen destination.  By this time we’ve seen some amazing islands but it is always fun to see their unique flavor.  We’ve seen crazy clear turquoise water in:

• Zanzibar – coupled with incredibly rich history and a fascinating blend of cultures.
• Gili Islands – tiny island bustling with activity and with horse drawn carriages instead of cars.
• and now Perhentian Kecil – no cars, correction: no roads.  A walking trail goes around the island connecting the beaches and water taxis carry folks from place to place when needed. This island has one fishing village and the tourism season is only half the year. It was the closest we got to a deserted island.

One beach had a nice platform anchored in the deeper water so larger boats could drop shipments without impacting the reef.  The kids loved this as a diving platform, but Shia was so confused looking down at the sea floor.  The water was so clear that she was convinced she could touch, but it was so deep!  Beautiful water.  And mission accomplished.  We did two scuba dives and a lot of snorkeling off the shore and we saw a few big reef sharks and a lot of baby sharks.  We also saw sea turtle again and many different types of clown fish.  The kids seem to love most the reef creatures that interact with us.  Clown fish do a great job of that while protecting their home, and christmas tree worms are fun to touch triggering them to hide, and giant clams pull back when they feel us swim over.  The kids enjoyed less the ones that took the lead in the interaction.  Shia and Chad learned that cleaner wrasse take it upon themselves to ‘clean’ any flesh wounds for you.  They didn’t love their owies getting nibbled at.  And the famous hitchiker the Remora was trying to catch a ride on us while diving.  They have a sandpaper like suction area on the top of their head to catch a ride with sharks and big fish.  I guess we fit the bill.  That felt weird!
On Perhentian Kecil we also had the unique experience of staying in a basic hut right on the beach.  The level of luxury was on par with camping but sleeping to the sound of the waves and walking the precious few steps to a heavenly hammock was quite amazing. I wanted to stay up at night to see if I could watch baby turtles dig out of the sand, but it was so relaxing I drifted off to sleep too early each night.  The hosts of our hut did have a couple baby turtles in a tub that they had found.  All species of sea turtle are endangered.  One challenge is that only 1% of hatchlings survive to parenthood.  The hope is that they can help give these little fellows a better chance by letting them grow a bit before they face the dangers in the open sea.  It is amazing to think that a sea turtle goes to the beach, lays her eggs and never returns to the eggs again.  They hatch and head out to the sea and are on their own from Day 1.  Wow.  And then in a way still unknown to us, these hatchlings eventually will return to this same beach to lay their own eggs.  I pray it won’t be covered by a Hilton hotel when they do.

From Perhentian Kecil we boated back to the mainland and hopped on a bus over to the other coast of Malaysia.  We’re surprised by the number of flights we have taken and it was a nice change to do a bus again.  The bus was roomy and wasn’t blaring any music or foreign language films.  The air was kept at a nice temperature, roads were great, and the views were beautiful.  It was refreshing to see that urban sprawl hasn’t gobbled up Malaysia.  It was rainforest as far as the eye could see most of the time.  After 7 hours we arrived on as island too big to feel like an island. Penang.
We stayed in Georgetown – the historic neighborhood which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There are plenty of captivating cultural attractions here to take in that we will have to leave for another trip.  Kids still ruled and thus we had fun with our map hunting out some of the famous street art on the first day and walked right past more than one museum and temple.  The next day the kids and I (Heidi) took a Batik class.  Technically this was a huge bucket list item for me – but the kids quickly showed a healthy amount of enthusiasm for the idea and arrived to class armed with a 100% themselves original drawing to inspire their project.  I was very proud of the effort they put into it and it was so cool to see how their designs reflect their interests and personalities.  Then they executed their projects beautifully.  What a fun experience that was!
Our last day in Penang was planned in response to a request from the kids to do more “adrenaline activities”.  Paragliding in Bali was a good start, but they wanted more.  Chad found a great adventure park in Penang to surprise them with and wow, was it cool.  With one entrance fee a wonderland opened up and due to Ramadan, there were practically no lines for anything.  All the cool stuff you see at festivals back home that make a parent gulp knowing it will cost $15 extra were there (for no extra fee) – like the big swing at the Renaissance Festival or the Bungee Tramp in the mountains.  It was so nice to say “Yes, you can do that – go for it!”  over and over.  Then they had stuff I’ve never seen.  A high ropes course on steroids and a trapeze swing, just like the circus!  The trapeze was my personal highlight.  It didn’t look so crazy to me from the ground, but I was sure surprised when I gave it a try.  The launching platform was way higher, leaning out to grab the trapeze was way freakier, that first swing was way faster, and then they told me to pull my knees up over the bar.  That seemed like asking the impossible as I was zooming through the air.  But they kept telling me to do it like it was obvious and easy and eventually I believed them and did it.  Then releasing my hands and trusting my knees (and the safety harness) sounded crazy.  But lo and behold I did it all.  At the end he declared Shia the best trapeze artist of the day and I got second place.  He also said we were the first family he’s seen that ALL did the back flip dismount.  He encouraged us to return at 4 pm for their special event, “the catch”, when he gets on the second trapeze and we swing together and we could transfer from our trapeze to his hands – just like the circus. Sounds like lunacy to me, but the way they said I could do it with conviction made it kinda tempting.  As 4:00 approached and we were still there, I debated faking an injury.  But again, when we got there and he assumed I was participating, I reminded myself of a favorite quote by Helen Keller.  “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing”.  Well, game on!  This time it was a faster pace because we had to synchronize with him so before I knew it I was in his hands.  It was so amazing.  Again, Shia was the star student and Liam was the youngest participant ever to pull off “the catch”.  We all had really sore muscles and plenty of rope burns, blisters and bruises from this crazy day, but it sure was fun!

Malaysia had a lot of interest to me before the trip and seeing this little bit of it makes me want to return someday.  Hopefully I will.