Trip to Malaysia

While the kids were asleep Goichi (my brother in law) arrived from Japan around midnight. He had to work until a couple of hours before he got on the plane. I felt very sorry he finally got to Singapore but had to leave the country straight away!

We bought Tiger and Air Asia tickets for this trip. I still cannot get over how cheap they were. I guess it is an advantage to live somewhere like Singapore!

Ready for an exciting adventure!



At the low cost terminal - who was most excited to get on the plane with his cousins?



Some duty free shopping at the terminal. I thought there won't be much at the low cost terminal but it was pretty good.



Only one hour and bit later we arrived in Penang, Malaysia. I wanted to do a lunch and shopping stop on the way to the hotel as I knew they have Tesco in Malaysia (I found it funny to see you went to Tesco too Boel!).

Luca getting us a big taxi:



We got a very good taxi/van driver who took us to the biggest Tesco in Malaysia. He also offered to come and pick us up after 2 hours to drop us at the hotel.

It is always easy to have a quick lunch in the food court. Mako's family were happy to try some local foods.

Oliver was getting expert posing in the Japanese style:



Goichi and Yuzuki:



Hinata didn't really like Malay food but he was very into Indian food:



I had to make sure we get some loaves of bread to feed the fish the next day. Mako loves supermarket shopping in foreign countries. It was way cheaper than Singapore supermarkets too! Bargain!





We had two extra bags before we got to the hotel!

We booked at the Hard Rock Hotel Penang for the following two nights.



Oliver was very very happy with his own bed and his amenities kit:



We didn't waste much time after check-in. We all got changed into our swimming togs and jumped into the fab pool.

Mako bought a waterproof video/camera for this trip as we spend most of our holidays in the pool or at the beach. It was certainly a great buy!

Yap still the Japanese way even underwater!



Evening cocktails and snacks at the swim up bar:









The pool was the perfect size for families with little ones:







Happy Roses:



The kids loved the slides - there were no queues so they went down over and over again!



Even I went up to try it out:



Relaxing time away from busy busy Japan:



We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe attached to the hotel. The American food filled us right up!





I think they used the wrong glass to serve my Mojito - it was rather strong...



The food:





It was movie night at the hotel lobby, Hinata got to relax and chill out after dinner :)





What a fun filled day we had!

Surprise? foot reflexology

In the afternoon on Day2 Mako and I went to get a massage at the nail salon in our condo while Matthew took the kids for a swim.

I've never been to the salon before but it always looked very clean and nice. My friends told me they do nails quite well too. So I booked us for a foot reflexology.

When we were told to sit down on a very comfy leather chair, two men appeared! I've never had my feet done by a male therapist except for one occasion on a street in Taiwan! Mako started to giggle and we just thought it was so funny - Us in a nice salon with two old men.

They were very very good tho. Mako fell asleep halfway through....



Once the massage was done Mako and I hit Orchard road for some shopping. We thought the kids will have a nap in the afternoon so better to leave them with my lovely husband.
And for sure it made a difference. We zoomed between and around the shops and came home with some nice new things!! I even bought a new top :) Happy Happy days for mummies :)

Fun biking at ECP

We hired some bikes at the East Coast Park in the morning. Hinata and Yuzuki wanted to ride themselves which made it perfect for the rest of us to hire a family one.

Both boys were pretty happy getting their own seats:



Hinata and Yuzuki were leading us:



Going faster!!



Yuzuki:

Poor Matthew had to do most of the pedaling. It was getting very hot so we stopped for a little break:

After the break the heat must have kicked in. Oliver got very annoyed he couldn't pedal himself and screamed all the way back... 

We stopped at the food court to get some coconut and sugar cane drinks. It was very refreshing - boy! we needed that drink!

Pool and Zoo

There was no way we would do anything else before the kids could jump into our condo swimming pool. Japanese pools are always full of people (you can sort of float but you can hardly swim...) so it was quite a treat for them to have the big pool almost to themselves.

It was a super hot day so certainly helped them cool right down :)





My sister Mako:



Hinata:





Oliver just wants to do wall-walking at the moment:



We had a lovely Italian lunch and then took a taxi to the zoo. The kids wanted to go on a bus but we needed to save time...

We made good time but by the time we got there it was the hottest time of the day and lots of the animals were resting or hiding from the sun :( But the kids were so happy seeing the animals very close. Oliver was super happy showing off his zoo to his cousins.







We encountered a big monitor lizard which was just wandering around the walkway:



We spent quite a while looking at the orangutans:



The baby ones were so cute!





Lovely to see the feeding, plus got great family photos with them :)



Break from walking....



Oliver was so busy showing off his zoo:



Giant Rabbit and Hinata:





We just couldn't miss visiting the water play area. I didn't realise it closes at 5pm. So they only got to play 45min or so... still such a great way to spend a hot hot afternoon.





I just love the Singapore Zoo, they have everything for the kids. There is a little playground and also an athletic area. It was fun trying this raft.



All of us were so exhausted but we had to get some dinner before we could go to bed. I already had somewhere in mind so we took a taxi straight there.

This is an old Hong Kong style 24 hour Dim Sum restaurant we found in the Katong area (about 10min on the bus from our condo).



Hinata looooooves shau lon pau so I knew even tho they were tired they would eat without whinging!





And I was right!!





Everyone was exhausted from swimming and walking plus the heat. We all went to bed quite early so that we could recharge ourselves for another busy day.

Cockpit photo

Hinata and Yuzuki were lucky to have a peek in the cockpit - where their uncle works!

Awesome holiday

We had such a full-on week with Mako's (my older sister) family. Their days off are limited so we had to squeeze in whatever we could. We had so much fun in Singapore as well as in Penang, Malaysia!

It's been a long time since I last sat in front of my computer... I will try to update as quickly as possible so you can see how wonderful our holiday was and what we have been up to :)