Miles In Between

It’s been several months since I issued a trip report post.  This one coming from a family of 4, but traveling with Tim’s parents so we maintained a 2:1 adult on child ratio.  Indonesia was a new country for everyone: Hazel’s 2nd, Miles’ 5th, my 20th and Tim lost count (but thinks its in the 30s).

Our first stop was Ubud, “love” destination of the recent Eat, Pray Julia Roberts box office hit, and cultural hub of Bali.  Given recent (and not so recent) hype about the area, our expectations were hesitant, but ended up being vastly exceeded.  First of all, Bali is a land full of genuine, loving and smily people.  They are literally around every corner to help and coo at our kids.  We marveled how they have retained this attitude while it seems the peoples of many other Asian countries have turned cynical and Nike’d in the face of capitalistic tourism.  Second, the setting was more beautiful that I could have imagined.  Vast rice paddies in all stages of harvest (we learned there are 3 harvests a year), temples around every corner with ornate stone work, and the people (again) with their smiling faces and traditional dress.  Third, the food.  Why are there not wildly popular indonesian restaurants all over the world?  The food was amazing.  From the ubiquitous Gado Gado to the melt off the babi back ribs for traditional food to the organic cafe’s smoothies and beetroot patty burger, everything we ate in Ubud was delicious.

Our Ubud stay commenced after a long journey with a couple Bintang beers and some of the aforementioned pork ribs and other items off the tiny grill at the warung across from our hotel.  The hotel villa had 4 rooms overlooking the adjacent rice paddy and a warm plunge pool about 4km from Ubud center.  We were the only guests for the first 2 nights and Miles became one of the guys with the 2 bahasa-only speaking houseboys.  We spent the next day exploring Ubud, but the heat and humidity were brutal, even for Penang standards so we retreated to the breezy balcony of our villa for siesta.  The next day, Tim and I woke up early and took Hazel (leaving Miles to the grandparents for a morning) to visit a temple at the bottom of a ravine that held massive bas-relief structures in the cliff walls.  We were all the way down the 300 steps when the skies darkened and drizzle started.  Our guide recommended we hustle back to the car with the baby, so he and I started off at a decent clip up the steps while Tim caught a few more snaps.  I know I just had a baby, and was carrying said baby, but this little driver was leading the way barely panting while I was heaving when we made it to the top, beating the ensuing downpour.  I found out later he was used to doing such exertions with a 75lb bag of rice on his head and didn’t feel so bad about my physical condition.  That night, our last in Ubud, we went to a dance performance.  This was a “must do” in all the travel guides.  There are dozens of styles of dance, but most shows started at 730 or 8pm.  Our decision was made with the only 6pm early show that night.  It turned out to be in the most magical location – the grounds of the ARMA museum & hotel.  There were hills and a lotus pond, rice paddies and tucked away villas.  Gorgeous.  We all enjoyed the show – Miles loving the lion dance & female dancing but scared of the masked king with the weird voice, and I was entranced by the musicians, especially the lead drummer who had addictive passion and soul for his performance.

Then we were off to Lombok via fast boat.  While we had my mother in law to thank for the Ubud planning and our amazing accommodations, I was in charge of this leg and was a bit on edge.  Nothing to worry about, we were transported to a volcanic sand beach a few km north of Senggigi and quickly shown to our private two-level villa with plunge pool. Everything about the Jeeva Klui resort oozed relaxation, and that’s what we did.  We even enjoyed a full quiet afternoon (both kids passed out!) during a downpour, watching the rain from our covered balcony.  And there’s no question I enjoyed my hour at the hillside open air spa – foot reflexology and coffee scrub later, I was totally relaxed.  We spent the last evening at a little local beach with raised tatami-mat seating for a fantastic meal of Lombok style foods while Tim tried to catch the outline of Bali’s Agung volcano backlit by the sunset.

Two days later, it was time to head home.  We knew it would be a long day, one boat, 2 planes and 3 car rides back to Penang.  It turned out to be such a long day.  Our boat was delayed, so the driver was maxing it out on the way to the airport to help us make the flight, amping up the already-anxious travel nerves as he played chicken with every car, truck & motorbike headed in the opposite direction.  We arrived to the airport on time to have our flight canceled.  16 hours after we started off, we were home in bed in Penang, wondering why we ever left our tropical island for another and then another so far away.

And then some friends told us of their plans to visit (another) island this weekend, and I felt a bit jealous.  I’m insane!

Check out more Bali pictures on Tim’s Photo Blog.

Links

• Hotels: Suara Alam Villa & Spa (Ubud), Jeeva Klui (Senggigi)
• Restaurants: Bali Buddha, Kafe Batan Waru, Atman Cafe (Ubud); Coco Beach (Senggigi)
• Lombok Boat Transfer: Lombok Reisen Tour Transfer
• Dance Location: ARMA

View from Suara Alam Villa in Ubud

Dinner at Coco Beach, Lombok

Sorry, folks.  Way overdue on this one.  But I better get it written before there are much more exciting (and hopefully not also of the overdue variety) things to write about.

We took a very short trip to Langkawi Island at the beginning of November.  The total flight time to this duty free Malaysian paradise near the Thai border is about 20 minutes, making it door to door around 2.5 hours to get there.  Not bad.  We just had an over night stay planned, and spent the majority of it just relaxing.  We dug in the sand and splashed in the water.  We had good food and took long naps and went to bed early.  A short visit to the souvenir shop, duty free shop and aquarium rounded out our 36 hour trip nicely, and we made it back to Penang as quickly as we had gotten away.

We landed in Penang with just 4 days left on the ticking travel clock (I had to sign multiple waivers to be allowed to fly with this airline), and no plans to go anywhere until March.  I had the wonderful feeling of being glad to have gotten away, and glad to be grounded.

While daddy headed off to the Pearl of the Orient, Miles and I went back to Singapore for a few days to visit our friends.  We were gone just about 48 hours, and unfortunately spent the majority of it sick.  No teething this time, just fevers, cough and lots and lots of snot.

Anyway…we still got to sneak in a few fun outings: a stroll through the botanical gardens, which are gorgeous!, ending at a splash pad; a stop for homemade ice cream, with so many tempting flavors from the very intense black sesame to unique fresh coconut; browsing at H&M, where they stocked their full winter line. In Singapore. At the equator. Interesting; dinner at a Whole Foods-esque fresh market, everything was so delicious – real bread!; and a little paddle in the pool before heading back to Penang.  In between, there was playtime with Taylor, catch up talks with Winnie, and just appreciating being with friends.  And watching Elmo.

This was probably my last trip before #2.  I am already well into the third trimester, and found the travel itself to be a bit tiring.  Especially with a sick and screaming kiddo on my lap.  I’m sure traveling with two won’t be exhausting at all

Six days, five states, two public holidays. 2+1+1 in the car, and an impressive kelidoscope of diversity to be seen.  Here’s the rundown:

We started Sunday morning in Penang, a predominantly Chinese city where the major spoken language is a dialect of Mandarin called Hokkien.  Miles woke up late (7am??!?) and hungry.  He had finished most of our breakfast snacks before we even crossed the bridge.  Little did we know that he would decide to start eating again on this trip – it had been 6 weeks of travel & teething which are not conducive to chowing.

Good news for him, our first stop was for dimsum in Ipoh, Perak.  This is a predominantly Chinese city where the spoken language is Cantonese – same as Hong Kong, which explains the famous dimsum!  We had a tip from a local and headed to a pretty popular spot.  I stood around for a while with Miles resting on my belly while Tim parked the car, all the dimsum delivery ladies dodging me.  This place was so tiny and so packed there was no room for carts; all the dimsum was hand delivered on trays.  Luckily for us, Tim turned down the 6-pack of durian buns…”but you can take the rest on the road!”

Stuffed (except for Miles, who immediately started begging snacks after downing a couple BBQ pork buns at the restaurant) we headed up, up, up into Pahang to the Cameron Highlands Valley.  This hill station is full of colonial architecture, British charm (think scones & tea), fresh produce and tourists!  We stayed at a very charming chalet, enjoyed the cool temps that had me sleeping in socks, and ate a lot of strawberries.  We visited a farm, where I saw where my lettuce is grown, hydroponically.  We went for a hike and got wet from rain, not sweat (not even a little tiny bit by sweat).  We ate hotpot (without sweating) and even snuggled up next to a real wood burning fire at the bar of a restored chalet.  It was a marvelous break from the heat.

The next day was Hari Raya, the celebration of the last day of Ramadhan.  We were headed to Kota Bharu, Kelantan, a predominantly Malay (Muslim) city where the spoken language is a localized dialect of Bahasa.  We weren’t the only ones on the move, this holiday is like Thanksgiving in the US, and the streets out of the Cameron Valley were lined with mostly young men with pillbox hats and traditional dress.  They loaded into truck beds and rode standing up along the windy roads, presumably headed home.  Around lunchtime, we were hours away when we saw another exodus to the mosque for prayers, this time scores of motor bikes with young men in pastel pyjama prayer suits.  I wish I had a picture of the 3 bikes with 2 riders each that made up the rainbow with their outfits as we passed them.  We arrived in KB to a ghost town.  No people, everything was closed (creepy, especially given that the city is full of loudspeakers that project the recording of birds in an abandoned house all over the city).  Think if you went into anytown, USA on Christmas day, and that is what we faced.  And we handled it just as you would have to – lunch at McDonald’s and dinner at a Chinese restaurant with a movie in our room for entertainment.

Figuring the next day (another holiday, Independence Day this time) would offer more of the same, we headed out the next morning a day early to our next destination, the Perhentian Islands of Terangganu.  A short drive and a short ferry deposited us on a white sand beach with the most gorgeous water I have ever seen.  Turquiose blue, with 30 feet (at least) of visibility, straight down to the bottom.  Gorgeous.  We spent the next three days on the beach, or steps from it in our beach front bungalow.  A major highlight was the snorkeling trip we took one morning.  We missed out on the resort’s trip (it was full), but took a tip to hire a private taxi.  Without any roads, that meant a small boat with an outboard motor!  We linked up with a couple from Barcelona (impressive that Miles didn’t scare them 0ff) and saw some interesting fish, corals and even a turtle at a tiny nearby island.

Friday it was back in the car and across Terangganu, Kelantan, Perak, Kedah and finally Penang to get home.  Holiday traffic made for a long, long ride.  As we pulled into Penang around 9pm, having driven 8 hours without a serious refueling stop, we pulled over to a hawker stand and ordered some wanton noodles “da bao” (to go).  As I walked back to the car, I noticed anew the peasant-ness of Penang – the weather, the food, the people, even the traffic – and realized I was glad to be home.

I have to hand it to Miles on this trip.  It was a lot of hours in the car, and we only had to listen to the XX – Intro on max volume five times the whole way.  We watched a movie in the KB hotel (not a very good one) called Knight and Day.  There is a scene where Cameron Diaz is drugged and keeps seeing flashes of action-adventure (on a boat, in a torture chamber, skydiving) as she drifts in and out of consciousness with Tom Cruise taking care of her the whole time.  It got me thinking if this is what these trips are like for Miles.  He gets into his carseat, then he’s at a dimsum restaurant, then its 20 degrees colder, then he’s at a road-side rest-stop playground, then he’s on a water taxi, next thing you know he wakes up on a gorgeous desert island (this happened to Cameron Diaz, too), swaddled in a life jacket.  He’s a trooper, and a great traveler!

Miles and I unexpectedly joined the flight of expat wives westward last month to spend 4 weeks on a US tour.  Due to last minute booking, we ended up on a flight from Singapore to Houston (via Moscow) with a flight time of 23 hours 5 minutes.  Added to the connections and short flights on either end of that, and we arrived in Austin after a surprisingly pleasant 38 hours travel time.

It was great to reunite with Tim, and for a moment to feel the hairdryer-blast of 105 degree heat that came along with stepping off into our homeland.  During our 2.5 weeks in Austin, we caught up with friends and sisters, met new additions to some of our favorite families, ate Mexican and burgers, drank hoppy beers (all of us, some much more than others), went to the pools and splash pads, lake trails, farmers markets, and natural grocers we had missed.  We built in a bit of down time (I had one rough pregnancy week in there), and overall had a great time.

Then it was time to part ways with Tim again, as he needed to go back to Penang.  Miles and I flew north to see my family in Michigan and were greeted with lush, green, cool summer.  They had had a good bit of rain this spring/summer and the contrast to drought-stricken Austin was pretty astonishing.  We enjoyed what I was told was the best week of weather in MI this summer: mid to upper 70s, days of clear blue skies, evening rains and a lovely breeze to tie it all together. We first headed to the cottage, where Miles enjoyed the lake, but not so much the boat.  We saw grandparents and cousins, second cousins and neighbors, and I was reminded once again of the virtues of midwesterners.  We ate well, in a fortifying meat and potatoes kind of way, and at one point I found a cider mill (open! in August!) where I snagged a half dozen cinnamon sugar doughnuts that I all but hoarded for myself.  We ate berries by the bucketful, had tree-ripe peaches and the last of the rhubarb crop.  Back in Detroit, we met up with mom’s side of the family, more grandparents and cousins.  The best part for me was watching Miles bond with his grandparents (things with the dog fell off after a few days when the dog realized this little man would never go away or back down).  I loved seeing Miles search for fish with my mom and take my dad’s hand to show him around the playground.  My dad gave me a great gift one day when I wasn’t feeling too great and let me sleep while he took Miles for a walk then put him down for a nap – go grandpa!

We finished off whirlwind-style with a quick jet over to Chicago for some dear friends’ wedding (with reception at the zoo!).  We had a free day on Sunday before our evening flight to Penang, and I contacted some cousins whom I hadn’t seen in 15 years but have kept up with through blogs &  facebook.  Serendipitously, it was the day of their 2 month old’s baptism, and I got another family reunion out of the deal, making this short stay in the midwest the most I have caught up with family in literally decades!

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Back on to Penang, and we were ready to be ‘home’  (referring to Malaysia).  Our next scheduled trip out of the GMT +08 time zone will be in March, where we will introduce our expanding family (we plan to travel with a 10 week old!) to our expanding family (we’ll be gaining a couple Wilemans!).

A weekend away, just me and Tim.  We drove (back) down the coast 2.5 hours and boarded a private twin outboard ferry for the “one island, one resort” of Pangkor Laut.  I’ll spare you all the romantic details, but this place was swanky.  It wouldn’t even appear on our radar if they didn’t offer some incredible Malaysian-resident deals (which we apply for!).  The beach was amazing, the spa experience not to be missed (more resident discounts), and the company and ability to actually have a relaxed meal with conversation totally enjoyable.  Recommended!

And here is a post-dated update about our recent trip to Borneo.

Borneo is a big island in the south China sea that has been split diagonally and allocated to the countries of Malaysia (1/3), Indonesia (most of the rest) with a tiny notch cutout for the country of Brunei.  It’s a little confusing to tell folks at home we went to Borneo, as most post-WWII people, including myself before moving here, can’t imagine where to look for it on a map.  Hint: West of peninsular Malaysia.

I had heard it was different over there, but was not sure what to expect.  Afterall, Kuching, the capital of Sarawak (the more southern of the 2 Malaysian states, the other being Sabah) sounded similar to Penang, with strong influence by the straits Chinese.  I was surprised to find when we arrived that Sabah and Sarawak have independent immigration, so we had to get stamped at each new airport.  I’m also not sure if it was just a fluke, but the weather was also extremely different.  Cooler, less humid, clouds and rain.  Ahhhh….

Our first stop was the remote beach residence of Tempurung Seaside Lodge, a 2 hour drive south of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.  Located on a steep cliff right on the sea, the residence-turned-hotel was built in a long house style with a big common living room and a separate dining area where we took all our included meals.  The stairs made for a bit of a physical challenge getting Miles (and me, and Tim’s parents) up and down each time we wanted to go to the beach, but the serenity was worth it.  The sea was swirling and angry as there were massive wind and rain storms each night.  This made for some interrupted sleeps (Miles’ emerging 7th tooth didn’t help) as we went to bed with the windows open, only to wake up to howling winds whipping through our room!  Tim, Mariel and Linda went on a wildlife watching boat cruise, while Miles, Wally and I spent some more time at the beach, collecting sand.

Next up we split into two teams: team 5-star Shangri-La and team Mount Kinabalu.  I stuck with the mothers and children (guess where we went?) while the dads and Mariel went off to summit SE Asia.  Unfortunately for them, the weather patterns continued, and horrible storms kept them from the actual summit.  The resort, however, was fabulous.  Totally set up for kids, it was a great place to bring Miles and a wonderful relaxation spot for us.  I spent lots of time sleeping, reading and relaxing and Grandma Linda got to play with Miles in the pool on the up-down (slide).  He had a blast!  We loved our ground floor room with its tiny patio and garden that looked over the ocean.  The food was amazing (I ate! And ate, and ate…).  Right before we left we even got to see up close and personal a baby orang utan from the on-site nature preserve.

Lastly, we left Sabah and headed to Kuching.  Again, great, cool weather!  I was feeling so much better at this point, and I think it was due in part to the lower humidity and cool temps.  We were all charmed by Kuching with its riverwalk and temples.  It seemed quaint, and just walking around the city was fun enough.

We did make a few outings, though.  One to a nearby orang utan preserve with “semi-wild” animals.  Here we saw about 5 adults and one baby swinging around, peeling bananas in one fell swoop and cracking coconuts.  Miles tried his hardest to scare them off  by screaming and crying, but luckily they stuck around.  We also visited a cultural village, an extremely well set-up if a bit contrived collection of seven typical tribal dwellings, people and customs.  Miles went crazy for the dance performance at the end, watching the performers with rapt attention and fussing and signing “more” in between songs.  That night, Mariel and I got to have sister night of shopping, massage and Italian dinner while Tim, his parents and Miles headed across the river to the Malay side (Kuching seems VERY segregated).  The next day was our last, and we visited the weekend market, blocks and blocks of veg, fruit, fish, crackers, cakes, meat, etc, etc.  We finished off with an early Fathers’ Day dinner out in Kuching.

All in all, a great trip, and somewhere we wouldn’t mind going back and doing more exploring.  We missed out on the National Parks in Sarawak and all the diving spots in Sabah.  My guess is there may be a Borneo, part II, sometime in the future!

Penang hardly has enough hustle bustle to warrant an escape, but that is exactly what we did, trading one tropical island for another.  We took a long weekend last weekend and made the journey about 100 miles south to Pangkor Island.  A 2.5 hour drive followed by a half hour ferry followed by a 15 minute ride in a pepto-pink conversion van taxi away, it felt a lot further than just a quick sail down the Straights of Melacca.

Tiger Rock is the jungle residence of some artists who, incidentally, live in Penang.  There are a couple houses with about 5 rooms to rent, all with interestingly decorated common areas between them.  We were three couples with 5 children between us from 1-4 yrs old, and we had the whole place to ourselves.  There is a team of 5 lead by the fabulous Mr Mohan who’s job it was to look after us, and that they did.  From the icey lime juice and bhindi blessing welcome to special kids meals to a fridge stocked with fruit, snacks and beverages we were pampered every step of the way.  The rental is full board and the meals were fantastic.  Breakfast was continental style, but with eggs made to order.  Lunch was malay ranging from curries to satay to fried noodles.  Dinner spiced it up with some local flavors, and each night we had a memorable delicious fish dish.

As for stuff to do, it was the kind of place we could have gotten bored at 16 months ago.  As it was, chillin’ at the pool, naps in our breezy poolside chalet and a morning trip to the beach was enough to occupy Miles and afforded Tim and I some opportunity to rest up as well.  The major highlight of being in a jungle preserve was the wildlife show we got the morning of our departure: a 3 ft viper (more poisonous than a cobra!) and a fruit bat were caught by the staff then displayed on some of the dining area’s decor for a few hours for us to enjoy.  Luckily the snake was lazy and the bat was sleeping (upside down, from a hanging plant).  I still kept a wide berth with Miles, while Tim zoomed in with his camera.

We don’t spend enough time on planes.  So we scheduled a trip within a trip, a quick pop up to the east coast, smack dab in the middle of our first Austin home leave.  Our purpose was to see family; well, to show Miles to family and friends.  After the whirlwind of our first week and a half in Austin, it also served as some much needed downtime.  Huh, rest during vacation.  Interesting concept.

We arrived in DC to near freezing temperatures and a steady mist falling from the sky.  To these tropical island expats, this was heaven.  We donned pants, sweaters, scarves, gloves, hats and zipped Miles up in a green marshmallow coat.    It was perfect weather for hanging out in GG’s apartment, emptying the cupboards, and for a little museum time at the National Mall.  Not such perfect weather for viewing the cherry blossoms at their peak, but we made sure to do some of that too.  The rest of our time was spent with GG (Tim’s Nanny to our generation), Tim’s Aunt and Uncle, Tim’s childhood best friend and his wife.  Miles slept like a dream, and we did too.

April Fool’s morning, we took the Amtrak three and a half hours to New York City, where we met up with Tim’s brother at Penn Station.  After a pizza fix, we made it out to his apartment were we shared a two bedroom with him, his girlfriend, her sister, and her sister’s fiancée.  Again, freezing temps and rain (we even saw a handful of snow flakes!) and more downtime on the day we arrived.  We had an adults’ dinner out the first night and actually got to bed at a decent time.

The next day dawned perfect – 50 and crystal clear.  We headed to the upper east side for brunch with our dear friends from China (via the midwest), and then walked through Central Park to the zoo where Miles had the most exciting hour of his life.  He was running, laughing, pointing, squealing with delight at the animals and ingenious kid-focused props around the tiny childrens’ zoo.  From there we headed to Brooklyn brewery where, thanks to a sweet connection from our native New Yorker, we jumped the block-long line and got a private tour of the brewery with free beer!  Miles wanted desperately to get into the vats of iodine used to clean the brewing mechanisms, but we held him off with offers of blueberries, which he ate by the handful this whole trip.  From there, we headed out for more pizza (Vinnie’s – heaven) and gelato (GROM – extra dark chocolate and hazelnut) before heading back up to the ‘burbs to sleep.  Long day!  We took a slow start to the next day which dawned equally gorgeous, taking Miles to the park and enjoying breakfast at a local diner.  We boarded yet another plane, and Miles slept most of our 4 hours back to Austin.

We arrived home to more pizza (Chicago style this time), and a warm, fragrant Austin twilight.  It felt good to be HOME.  Pictures coming soon.

Before our big home leave, we made a quick weekend of a trip to Hong Kong.  Although this 48 hour stay will make it four times in one month we will make the flight between Penang and Hong Kong, and leave only 3 days before we turn around and do it again, our timing was intentional.  We met up with our friends from Shanghai via Austin and California who now live in Singapore.  She is a Hong Kong native and was meeting up with her parents, and invited us along.  Four years ago almost to the day, Tim and I had joined them on what turned out to be a culinary tour of her youth, with mere minutes between meals of all their remembered favorites.  This trip was a little different as we each had a toddler in tow, but we still managed to stuff ourselves while enjoying the cool, dry Hong Kong spring as we wandered between eating establishments.

Some of our trip highlights: Cafe de Coral for glutenous rice, noodles and congee…H&M!!!…Man Mo Temple, Tim’s favorite for the incense coils…Dim Sum…a wander around Wan Chai…bakeries…Victoria Peak…take away in the room after Miles went to bed…run up the Peak (Tim)…HK French toast (should I post this gut bomb recipe?)…Times Square electronics and clothing shopping…more congee, red bean soup and a rice noodle wrapped you tiao doughnut with soy sauce (actually really good)…a beer at a street side table…A LONG trip home, probably Miles’ worst flight yet, but then he slept until 7 the next morning, so I guess I’ll forgive him.