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Xin chào from Hanoi, Vietnam! After an almost tearful goodbye to the comforts of a familiar Malaysia, our own car and being close enough to drive home, we've flown more than 3 hours to a land neither of us have been to before. Watch this reel if you've missed it: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfgkaB2AJwJ/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D We landed, passed through immigration and got our luggage in barely 15 minutes. That's impressive to be honest. We've had to wait more than an hour in queues at Heathrow London and Auckland Airport. Spent 30 minutes at a belt waiting for baggage at Changi too. "DING!" Rang my phone.... Our Airbnb host told us to cancel our accommodation while we were in flight.... I had to report the host to Airbnb before the booking was cancelled and the full refund was made. The host just refused to cancel on his side. How lucky can we be?! We were thankful that it was easy to grab a Vietnamese SIM card for our little pocket Wifi device. You'll find plenty of shops offering the SIM cards at the arrival hall. It cost us 350,000 Dong ($21 SGD) for a full month with Viettel 4GB limit a day on 4G network. Unlimited on 3G network. We had lunch at a Burger King restaurant in the Airport while I searched for a hotel to replace our Airbnb accommodation. I'm not going to call this a nightmare anymore because we've been through that twice in Melaka and KL. It has been well established on our blog that Airbnbs are a 50-50 chance of encountering a disruption to your trip. We are fortunate it isn't hard to find decent and well-priced hotels in Hanoi. We were able to get a Grab car from the airport to our hotel in no time. Grab Car and Grab Food is very affordable in Vietnam! It cuts out the language barrier, getting lost and haggling problems with scam cab drivers. It has been a breeze getting around Hanoi with the Grab app! The ride from the airport to our hotel was like a baptism of fire. My anxiety was through the roof. If you grew up in country where lane markings and road signs are NOT optional, this is going to shock you. Watch this video and you'll understand.... https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfnyuzKg-R2/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D This is considered mild. There are some massive junctions that I can't even draw a diagram to explain the logic. There are 50 million motorbikes in Vietnam so just imagine. The biggest cultural shock was really the incessant honking. I’ve been feeling really tensed walking on the streets amidst the traffic. The kids were almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We’ve been conditioned in Singapore to understand honking as a show of frustration, anger and imminent danger. But the Vietnamese honk because they are communicating. It goes along the lines of, “I’m coming through”, ”Don’t come out I’m going to pass”, “please move aside”. They also honk when passing a cross junction. Nobody gets pissed. It’s just a way of life. We are better now after a couple of days! There’s so much beauty in the absolute chaos. We have so much of this world to explore! Vietnamese summers are as relentless as the honking on the roads. 4 of us are adjusting to the 48 degree celcius real feel in Hanoi. Before we delve deeper, here are 5 fun facts if you are just as clueless as us about Vietnam: 1. Vietnam is a communist country situated in South East Asia bordering Laos, Cambodia and China. (1 SGD converts to around 16,600 Vietnamese Dong) 2. Vietnamese drive on the right side of the road (Steering wheel on the left of vehicles) 3. It has both temperate climate (in the north) and tropical climate (in the central and southern areas). Mountainous regions bordering China do experience snowfall in the winter! 4. Vietnam was a French colony for 6 decades. 5. Religion was banned, suppressed with great force and persecution until 2004. We spent the past 3 days walking old town and visiting Sword Lake, Ngoc Son Temple within the lake, Hanoi train street and St Joseph's Cathedral. The heat makes 1km of walking extra hard for all of us although we really are enjoying the charm of this city. There's more to explore and we'll report back in our next post! We recommend sun block, hats and ALOT of hydration. Avoid being out from 12pm to 3pm. You can get a heatstroke from being out in the sun in summer (June-August) We also recommend our original design Tees that you see us wearing here! The city really comes alive at night because most people avoid being out in the heat. The night markets and beer streets only come alive once the sun sets. You also almost forget you're in South East Asia. The charming streets looks European! Hanoi is most charming in the Old quarters! You'll find historical buildings, old buildings with French influence and a lot of street food. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and you'll also find the glass skyscrapers and a very modern city. It is more developed than we all think it is! You get the same big brands in other major cities! Speaking of food, you cannot come to Vietnam and not have Bánh mì (A savoury stuffed baguette). You must also try Vietnamese coffee in the street side shops and from Highlands Coffee. Debra is not a fan of the intense coffee but I absolutely love it. We will add a new post some time this week about the eats, sights and adventures around Hanoi! Please drop us a comment and let us know if we're missing out on something we shouldn't miss in Hanoi! A parting thought: Seeing beauty in the chaos reminded us that there really isn't one way to live life. Whether you are travelling on a perfectly orderly road in Japan or North America, or a through a mayhem in the streets of Vietnam's cities, you will still get to your destination. Always remember, My battles, My way!
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10 weeks ago, we uprooted our lives and drove our tiny little car across the causeway into the unknown. We didn't have a blueprint of what the past 10 weeks will be like. It was a step of faith and it still is. We carried with us grief that we will still carry for some time to come. If not now then when? Life is so short and unpredictable after all. We've spent a significant amount of time in Cameron Highlands because the climate, nature and landscape was calming and healing. It brought great comfort to all of us. Almost 6 out of the 10 weeks were spent in rolling hills and clouds. We spent the other 4 weeks shuttling between Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Ipoh, Penang and Port Dickson. You can read our entire series here. We've spent the last leg of our trip largely homeschooling, illustrating our new book, creating our travel inspired apparel, cards and stickers. Please support our work by patronising our store! We have been extremely blessed to find an amazing property in Melaka at a very affordable price to spend the last 3 weeks. This part of our travels, we got to really interact with locals and enjoy local food. We even made friends with our Malaysian neighbours who kindly gave us a tour of his amazing garden full of vegetables and fruits. He even gifted us a whole bunch of homegrown bananas! I've enjoyed all the conversations we've had at the gate where several neighbour uncles gather and chit chat like long lost friends. The property is a two-story corner terrace house in the Taman Malim Jaya area of Melaka. The neighbourhood is 20 minutes away from the city centre of Melaka. It is very quiet but also felt very safe. No crazy loud exhaust of bikes and modified cars here! It has an industrial unfinished feel to it. Much of the wall surfaces and floor are simply concrete. We were a little apprehensive initially because it had no wifi, no washing machine and no freezer. We coped by getting an unlimited data sim for our pocket wifi device and did our laundry at the self-service laundromat nearby. This also forced us to explore the neighbourhood shops that no tourist would frequent. We visited hawkers and coffee shops a lot more often on top of the trips we made to Jonker street and the major malls. To be really fair, ALL of us found Malaysian food a lot tastier than a lot of the food we find in Singapore. There is a lot more character in the food. Don't flak me for this first! Let me explain! I feel that too many (not all) coffee shops, hawker stalls in Singapore and especially Food courts in malls are no longer owned by the chefs. Chef owned and operated hawker is the essence of our hawker culture in South East Asia. That was how it all started. When a chef owns the brand and operates the stall, he owns the taste and he is the master of his dish. Hired hands will never be as invested as the entrepreneur who built his brand, customer base, dish and taste. Food from a central kitchen that is reheated will never be the same as the taste of home. We feel that food with character and proudly made by chefs who own the business is increasingly harder to find in Singapore. This is something we will miss a lot as we officially say goodbye to Malaysia. We took our last drive to Port Dickson via the small village roads to enjoy the serenity of it all. It was blazing hot but that made the beach really beautiful! It is also officially over because we are saying goodbye to our trusty car. We really can't afford to keep the car and it wouldn't be financially prudent to. It is a painful decision to make because it is one of the best cars we've ever had. It works perfectly fine in little Singapore because we don't drive long distances or carry much luggage. We were a little apprehensive about the smaller boot size and tiny 1.2L engine. The Suzuki Swift Hybrid performed way beyond our expectations. (We aren't sponsored ! Just celebrating a really good machine!) We've driven more than 7000kms across the West Malaysian peninsula climbing and descending more than 60,000ft worth of mountain roads and cruising up and down the North South Highway. It still averages 17-20km/L. It is a stunning looking Super-mini (B-segment) hatchback, packed with tech we expect of a modern car. Here are some of them: 1. Adaptive cruise control 2. Lane departure warning/prevention 3. Autonomous emergency braking (dual sensor brake support) 4. Stability control system 5. Hill hold 6. Tire pressure monitoring 7. Apple CarPlay/Android Auto 8. Paddle shifters on steering 9. Auto Led headlights with Auto high beam. (Perfect in dark mountain roads!) 10. 6 airbags Although we can't expect the performance of a sports car or the silence of a premium continental hatchback, it is still a well made and reliable car. With the COE and fuel prices at absolutely crazy levels, you'll want something well made and fuel efficient like a Swift! The children have grown to love our "Big red car" (if you watch The Wiggles you'll know...) so much. We are all sad to say goodbye to it. So here are some pictures to pay tribute to the car that made our amazing adventures possible.... This is the official end of our road trip in Malaysia.... BUT.....it is not the end of our Grand Tour! WE ARE GOING TO......... We hope you enjoy our content and continue to join us on this new phase of our lives that we wish to continue as much as we can! You can support our work by shopping at our store, recommending sponsorships, remember to like and share our posts!
Here's some motivational stuff to end off this post! Stay tuned for VIETNAM! First things first, an update of our Grand Tour: After a really stressful time in the big city KL, we decided we needed to leave and find somewhere that we can find peace. Due to the limited accommodation options in Cameron Highlands, we weren't able to return there again. That would have been amazing. We chanced upon a quirky accommodation in the suburbs of Melaka and looked through google maps and street view extensively. (We've got some great shots and will share the links once we've moved on to our next location!) We were apprehensive because we had a heavy heart and a disastrous Airbnb experience the previous time we stayed in Melaka. We absolutely love this property and there are amazing neighbours who are very friendly and kind. Quiet and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the major roads, we've been decompressing! We've been visiting local eateries and shops in places tourists don't usually frequent and we've been blown away by the amazing food and hospitality of the locals. One thing that we really love about Melaka is the abundance of AWESOME food! Here's 4 that we really enjoyed this time... 1. Shu Peo Korean BBQ No.2, Jalan KPKS 6, Kompleks Perniagaan Al-azim, 75250 Kota Syahbandar, Melaka https://www.facebook.com/shupeokoreanbbq/ 2. Face to Face Noodle House 2 Locations...click link https://www.facetoface.com.my/store-locations#melaka 3. The Best Chicken Rice (冠军鸡饭) G14, Jalan Rahmat 1, Taman Malim Jaya, 75250 Malim Jaya, Melaka https://the-best-chicken-rice.business.site 4. 729 Kopitiam Taman Merdeka Permai, 75350 Batu Berendam, Malacca We've stayed mostly in the suburban areas of Melaka this time but decided to head to Jonker Street this weekend! We were surprised IT WAS ALIVE! So many stalls are back in operation! It is best to go around 5pm before the really massive crowds come by. If you intend to have dinner at the hawker areas in the street, you'll really need to get there early. By 630pm you will have to wait quite long for a seat. A beautiful mess is my short description of Jonker's allure. The longer description: Jonker is where you'll hear the noise of the crowd excited at the calls of shop owners promoting their wares. It is where years are rolled back to when shopping at a street market was part of life. Homogenised and sanitised shopping malls aren't a thing and haggling was an essential life skill. Street markets like Jonker activates all your senses. The fascinating sounds of hawkers clanging their woks or breaking up ting-ting candy while bright lights illuminate their little stalls. Your olfaction is constantly on alert as the smell of umami wafts through the air. An occasional stink of raw seafood and (controversially) durians interrupts the sweet smell of local delicacies. It is like a little treasure hunt where you're constantly searching for something interesting to eat or buy. Here are 5 awesome things you can do at Jonker Street, Melaka: 1. Eat street food There's street snacks and if you'd like, the hawker stalls cook up full meals too! 2. Buy local souvenirs You'll be spoiled for choice at the amount of knick knacks you can find here. There's apparel, electronics, local art, chicken bowls and even customised cup noodles. Go earlier in the day before 5pm to make yourself a customised cup noodle (Noodle Doodle) at Mamee Jonker House. 3. Street Photography/Videography There's so much action to be captured here! It really is a photographer's dream. If you like blogging or creating reels like we do, here is an amazing place for content creation. Be discreet and most people are generally okay to be photographed. 4. Visit the old town The Dutch square is just a short 2 minute walk from the entrance of Jonker Street. You'll find the Queen Victoria Fountain, The Stadthuys, Christ Church Melaka and several other museums in the immediate vicinity. The A Famosa Fort is also just a 7 minute walk from Jonker. 5. Take a caffeine break at a Cafe nearby There are some pretty well reviewed cafes and are all walking distance from Jonker street. I've listed these because they are pretty good + they are open in the evenings on weekends when Jonker Street is in operation. -Street Barista @ Jonker 3, Jalan Hang Lekir, 75200 Melaka -Alley No.5 https://www.facebook.com/Alley-No5-五号-1411295249150289/ -Limau Limau Coffee https://www.facebook.com/Limau-limau-cafe-156430097788314/ We are now wrapping up our Grand Tour in Malaysia! Our Grand Tour is headed to another country and we are SO EXCITED to plan for the next leg. We will be flying again and we've been waiting for this moment since 2018!
Please support our work and check out our store! If you’ve landed here on this post you must be a little interested in how a Singaporean family can home school two kids while they travel! Under the compulsory education act, a Singaporean child below 15 and above 6 years of age must receive primary education in a national primary school unless exempted. The first step to homeschooling is really to ask yourself: 1. Can i commit long-term to my child’s learning? 2. Am i willing to learn and adapt WITH my child? 3. Will i keep an open mind and do what is BEST FOR THE child? Homeschooling is a long term commitment. For at least 6 years, you will need to make an effort to create learning moments. Don’t do it if you can’t commit to it. The most common comment I hear from aspiring homeschool parents or people considering it for their children is “I am not qualified to teach my own kids, i don’t know how to teach.” Consider this, we didn’t have widespread formal classroom learning in society until the recent 200 years. Human civilisation has existed for thousands of years when parents and the elders “informally” taught their children language, math, life skills etc…They weren’t paper qualified were they? Even though Debra and I are former trained MOE teachers, we don’t know everything. Homeschooling will challenge the most qualified teachers if they aren’t willing to ADAPT and LEARN. The key is really just an open mind and a willingness to challenge your preconceived ideas of learning. Remember, every child is different and everyone learns differently! Here are some steps will have to take before you can legally homeschool: (We sharing about our personal experience. Rules and regulations can change from time to time. This is not meant to be legal advice) 1. Around midyear the year your child turns 6, you’ll need to apply for a place in a public school. If you intend to homeschool and apply for exemption, you’ll still need to apply for a place in school 2. After you’ve done that, you can write to the MOE compulsory education unit (via email) and indicate your desire to homeschool your child. They will ask for information about your child and ask for personal details etc. You’ll get a bunch of forms to fill up. You are required to school your children FULL TIME. So you can’t be having a full time job and be the main homeschool parent. They will look at the homeschool parent’s credentials as well. They are more likely to accept homeschool parent/s who are graduates. 3. The process really starts when they send you a package of documents. This is the most difficult part. You’ll need to provide your plan for 6 entire years of their compulsory primary education. This involves extensive work prior to submission. You’ll need to have a syllabus, a timeline of what is learnt and how it is learnt. You’ll have to cover English, Math, Science, Mother Tongue for 6 whole years. You can add on other areas of learning like religious teachings, coding or other areas into your learning scheme. They also ask for a time-table you intend to work with. Your child must still be able to pass the PSLE (he/she will be required to take the exam the year they turn 12). We chose the MOE syllabus for Matthias because it is something we are familiar with. This is really the most daunting part for most parents. We are happy to connect and assist anyone who is interested to homeschool their children! 4. There will be a home visit by an MOE officer to determine the suitability of the learning environment. Your child will also be asked a few questions about the home situation, learning with you etc. 5. The officer in charge may write back to you and ask more questions about your learning scheme. They are usually kind enough to provide advice on how you can improve it for approval. Upon a final approval by the ministry, they will send you an official letter stating you are legally allowed to homeschool your child. The whole process usually happens between September and November. 6. Upon approval, you can then proceed to withdraw your child from the school he/she got a place in. You can provide the ministry letter and correspondence to support your withdrawal. It is usually just an email to the school. Here is how we do school with two kids turning 8 and 5 this year… There is no escape from worksheets, writing and table work when it comes to learning. We follow the MOE syllabus for all subjects and so we do use MOE text books. We travel with their text books, story books, paper, stationary, learning cards and exercise books. We follow a very simple style of teaching: 1. Teacher lectures 2. Teacher practices with the student 3. Child is assigned independent work 4. Teacher reviews independent work and reinforces learning with student We intentionally make this style of learning only less than a couple hours a day with the kids. The point of homeschool is not to replicate the public school classroom. Our kids learn throughout the day in different contexts, languages and environments. Apart from their academic pursuits, we make sure they are learning to love others and themselves. Matthias loves coding and Gwyneth loves to draw. We give them space to pursue there interests. My favourite part about homeschooling is that we can be flexible about when we learn, how we learn and what we learn. We can do progress faster with Math because Matthias is able to. We can spend more time on Tamil because he needs more practice. We can take a holiday from school when we need it. Their learning is tailored to their needs. We can continue with school through June because we want to. We learn about the weather systems when walking through the clouds on a mountain. We learn math when we calculate the tax on the restaurant bill or multiply the price of fuel by how much we pumped into the tank. We learn resilience when our bookings get cancelled or plans change. We learn Bahasa when we travel through Malaysia and speak with the locals. Homeschool is a rewarding journey! If you are interested, drop us a message and we can connect and share more! We've spent more than 8 weeks on our Grand Tour across Malaysia. Our initial plan was to spend some time in Kuala Lumpur after spending 6 out of our past 8 weeks in the more rural highlands. The convenience, the comfort of having a huge selection of food and way shorter distances on the road called us to the city. We knew we would enjoy the malls, selection of gluten-free groceries and glitzy architecture. It sounded all positive, bright and cheery. Or at least that was what we thought it was going to be. It has been a long eventful week for us. A little too eventful for us. You can read the horrible backstory. We did have pockets of enjoyment in the city but the city really sucks for us. It is not just about Kuala Lumpur. Whether we're in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Melbourne, Auckland or Rome, they are all plagued with the same problems. Here's why we think the city sucks... 1. Crowds We've been so used to empty streets and social distancing for the past two years that it has become OVERWHELMING to be in a crowd. We noticed very distinct behavioural changes in the children and ourselves when we are in the city. We are short-fused, easily frustrated, anxious, heightened and stressed. Where there are crowds, there is competition. People compete for space, toilets, a place in the queue, a seat and parking lots. 2. Traffic We love long journeys. Long hours on road trips isn't a waste of time because we get to go places and see the landscape change. Being in a jam IS A WASTE of time. In the current climate of inflation, it is a waste of fuel/money too. 3. Noise Noise from traffic, trains, sirens, crowds and noisy neighbours. If there's one thing that most affects us, it must be noise. Can someone explain where is the pleasure in loud exhaust noises? I thought that if one is living in close proximity in a city, you'll be more conscious of the noise you make and how it will affect others around you. I'm absolutely wrong. I've been to more than 15 major cities across the world and grew up in one, I've yet to find a city where noise isn't a problem. 4. Temperature/Climate Cities are generally always 2-5 degree celcius warmer. If you live along the equator, the 2-5 degrees make a huge difference. We were completely exhausted after 15 minutes outside in 38C/100F temperature. It is just simply unbearable. It reminds us every moment that climate change is real and it will kill us. 5. Isolation You would think that in the city of huge crowds, you will be less lonely. Michael Buble puts it across best in song... "May be surrounded by, a million people I, still feel all alone" (Lyrics from 'Home'). It is precisely the crowds competing for what little space and resources that makes the city such an isolating experience. People are less friendly and more hostile. Ear pods on, rush to your work cubicle and rush back home to shut the world out. It is no wonder anxiety and depression rates are higher in cities. We experienced all 5 of these and it reminded us of Singapore and why we chose to travel in the first place. It deeply affected all of us. We took a few days off work and school while we search for a new place to spend the rest of our time in Malaysia. Sofitel KL was our choice of refuge while we worked out where we would go next. The thick window glass blocked out traffic noise almost entirely, the air-conditioning was well regulated and we were isolated from the world. We caught up with sleep and enjoyed our food. As much as we enjoyed the time there, we were under no illusion that this was a long term solution. Despite the respite in a 5 star hotel for the past few days, it still feels like a STARK difference from our 6 weeks in the rural highlands. There was significantly less noise. We enjoyed the sounds of nature and we took notice of the natural surroundings. We were a lot more relaxed, less anxious and met with friendlier people. The weather helped reduce our allergies and made us go outside a lot more. We were also substantially more inspired creatively. In fact our brand new store and collection features art and designs inspired by our surroundings while we were in the highlands. If we ever have a choice on where we should settle, it would be a small town about an hour or two away from the city. We could take trips to the city for supplies and services just a couple of times a month. We've since left KL and moved on to a quieter sub-urban area in Melaka. For security reasons we won't be posting specifics about the property or area we are in. We will continue to bring you more content on awesome food and our travels soon! We'll start with the super fun and light-hearted stuff first! "Mama, I want to go to the place with all the games!". The two kids have been repeatedly asking to go back to Genting Highlands. We thought, why not? We didn't quite get enough time to see most of the massive new Genting. I grew up frequenting this place in the clouds and I must say it has transformed drastically. Fly with us on the Awana Skyway up to Genting here! The relatively new cable car system (newly completed in 2016) brought us through the clouds and the rainforest from the mid hills. Comfy, fast and offered amazing views. The station at the base is directly connected to the Genting Highlands Premium Outlets which offers a wide range of branded shops and eateries. You can park your car there for the entire day for an affordable RM12. We arrived in time for dinner. We were greeted by the amazing food street lined by restaurants, bubble tea shops and pubs that play live music on the weekends! It felt so nice to hear a live performance again! We had dinner at The Laughing Fish by Harry Ramsden. Fish and Chips was about 7/10. The cod can be a bit fishy for some. Our food came warm and we thought it would be nicer if they came out piping hot from the fryer. We shared a big portion of Fish and Chips, a bangers and mash and more chips! I had mushy peas all to myself because nobody seems to like it? Why?! We enjoyed Genting Highlands a lot because you can find shops and food for every budget. You can find activities for every budget and risk appetite. It caters to the young and old. Everyone gets to enjoy the cool weather outside and amazing views. You don't have to be rich to enjoy this place. It is a stark difference from some resorts that are exclusive playgrounds for gamblers and the wealthy. The transformation still amazes me! The mall is spectacular with all the digital screens! Gives it a Tokyo/Times Square and Piccadilly Circus feel. You can do a zip-line from the mall across the indoor theme park, scream your hearts out on the "superman" roller coaster or just enjoy a relaxing kiddy ride. Amazingly, the arcades are still where they used to be when I was a kid! Now for the nightmare 😱 The pandemic has locked us in for more than 2 years. But it isn't done wrecking havoc in the travel industry. Crazy expensive Airfares, shortage of workers in the industry and a very dismal drop in service standards. We've experienced our worst nightmare....AGAIN. If you've seen the previous time our trip got derailed , it pales in comparison to this nightmare. After a 7 hour drive from Cameron Highlands to Johor en-route back to Singapore to visit family, we decided to rest a night in an IHG branded hotel. The place was well renovated and had comfortable beds but as we lay down in bed ready to sleep, there was a COCKROACH on the wall. I flicked it onto the floor with a floor rag and ended it. Okay, we thought maybe it just came in from the outside. The next day, we returned to the room after a day outside, THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE DEAD ON THE CARPET?! The staff was apologetic when I informed them at checkout. Got extra points as a service recovery. We thought the worst was over. We've decided to base ourselves in KL for a few weeks to plan the next leg of our Grand Tour since we've been away from the bustling city for more than 2 months! We booked a very premium looking Airbnb unit that was very near to KLCC in Kuala Lumpur after wrapping up our amazing time in the Cameron Highlands Mountains. If you frequent the Airbnb website often, you'll see that many listings have reviews from 2 years ago before the pandemic happened. It has becoming increasingly difficult to judge how good are these properties from photographs. This was what greeted us... When informed the owner, he was pretty nonchalant about it. It didn't seemed to affect him and he wasn't too bothered. It seems that many Airbnb owners (in my experience its over 50% of them) are not too bothered what debilitated state their rental properties were in. Word of advice if you are travelling and booking an Airbnb: 1. Book with superhosts as much as possible 2. If you are unsure about anything, ASK before you book via "contact host" 3. READ the reviews 4. Always have a back up plan, be aware of hotels or other units you can possibly go to at short notice. The customer service will leave you stranded! The nightmare however didn't end there for us. The owner didn't suggest a solution for us and so I proposed that he refunded us fully. He immediately accepted. ZERO apology, not a word to express any tinge of regret of the horrible experience he has caused us. Not to mention, we were stranded AGAIN! We managed to book a 4 star hotel after some research and a quick dinner around the area. Checked in and decided to use the toilet. Lo and behold.... As if after 400km of driving, cockroach the night before, a horrid Airbnb that left us stranded wasn't enough....I went to the lobby to meet the manager and showed him this picture. Thankfully he was very apologetic and immediately got us new rooms and upgraded us. We hope KL will be kind to us as we look for another accommodation for the rest of our trip! We absolutely miss the weather in Cameron Highlands already! That's all for our double issue for this week!
We all love the tranquility, cool weather and epic landscape of Cameron highlands! But...after two weeks of not moving around, we all got really restless. I guess that is why we are living this Grand Tour as our lifestyle! If you know anything about the roads in Cameron Highlands, there are two ways into and out of the area. The road from Tapah was the original road the British built between 1926 and 1930. Opened in 1931, this road is EXTREMELY windy. If you are susceptible to carsickness/motion sickness, this will be hell for you. The road surfaces are very very bad on this route. The potholes are just patched over again and again until you have some sort of a patch work blanket that is as rough as the moon's surface. One lane for each direction and trucks heading up can crawl as slow as 10km/h if they are very heavily loaded. Throw in a heavy downpour and fog, this road can get pretty dangerous. The terrain is so challenging, we can imagine how hard it would be to get large machinery to properly repave the roads. Thankfully a new road was constructed to enter Cameron Highlands from the northern side. Simlang Pulai exit is about 40km further up the North-South highway from Tapah exit if you are coming from KL or Singapore. But let me tell you, it is WAY BETTER to travel slightly longer on this route. You still get windy roads but the turns are a lot less acute and the road surface is a lot smoother. There are several sections with overtaking lanes for safe overtaking instead of having to drive in the opposite lanes when you encounter crawling trucks. And so we took off from Cameron Highlands and drove towards Penang on a day trip. 500km return trip. The kids slept and enjoyed the long drive. There is just something so calming about driving long distances and I love it! We planned to visit the Penang Hill and ride the funicular but upon arriving, IT WAS CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE?! GOOGLE MAPS WASN'T UPDATED!!!! What else do you do in Penang? EAT! We decide to enjoy some famous Dim Sum at Tai Tong Restaurant! (Non-Halal) Here are some details: Address: 45, Lebuh Cintra, George Town, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang Opens Tuesday to Sundays from 630am to 2pm AND 6pm to 10pm. They are closed on Mondays and everyday between 2pm to 6pm so do take note! I just love these restaurants in old shop houses. The charm is in their focus on just making and selling delicious food. No fuss and fancy decor involved. When you get there, find yourself a table and the staff will give you a restaurant menu and two ordering cards. One card is for the restaurant menu and the other is for Dim Sum. Don't be silly like us. We sat there confused and wondering where in the world is the Dim Sum menu?! There is none! This is how you get your Dim Sum: 1. Walk towards the staff on the left (Refer to picture above). She has stacks and stacks of steamed dim sum on her trolley. Ask her what there is, and tell her what you want. She will mark on the dim sum card what you've ordered and pass you the dishes. 2. See the big sign in the middle? That's the second station where you get other fried dim sum or larger dishes like Chee Cheong Fun and Lo Mai Gai and Baos. Tell the staff what you want and she'll mark your card and pass you the dishes. 3. You'll grab the dishes and bring it back to your table. Only things on the restaurant menu and tea/drinks are served to your table. 4. Pay at the counter with both your marked cards once you're done eating. This meal alone was worth the 500km of driving. Debra and I were commenting on how this is better than Swee Choon in Singapore. What are your thoughts? Well, the bill was definitely better in terms of value. We paid only RM80++. We spent the evening walking off the calories at a mall. It reminded us a little bit of Melaka because many shop spaces remained empty. The effects of the pandemic are still profoundly felt. We took the ride back in darkness and climbed 5000ft back to Cameron Highlands via the Simpang Pulai route which meant we made good progress quickly. We miss the dim sum already... This little short trip still reminded us of how much the city has to offer. Perhaps this will influence our decision on where else to go to on our Grand Tour.... Dream big, live simply, laugh often and love a lot! That's what we've been doing on this Grand Tour. We've been driving across the states of Johor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Pahang, Penang and Kedah, soaking in the sights, food and culture. You can read our entire Malaysia series here! Dream Big We've been dreaming big! I've decided I would like to co-author a book, do up photography, video content of road trip through North and South Island New Zealand in a camper van in honour of my dad. I know he would have loved it so much to go on a trip like that. It is more than travelling on his behalf, it is making that last thing we shared come to life. Some background: I've sat with my dad on countless occasions along hospital corridors, in the clinics and by his bed side for hours in the two years he battled the cancer. Those times gave me an insight I never had of my old man. I still remember the day he showed me the channels he subscribed to on Youtube vividly. We sat waiting for his number to be called in the Haematology Department at Singapore General Hospital. He whipped out his iPad as usual and went: "I'm watching this ang moh build their own container house". It was the "Life uncontained" channel on Youtube! I've never seen him so excited! Mind you, he had a rare blood cancer that sucked the life out of him. We would discuss the progress of the renovation every week and when they missed a scheduled upload, we'd comment about it. It was something special between us! I still watch it weekly. I wish he was here to see the completed house. After showing me the "Life uncontained" stuff, he went on to say "You see this van, they can cook, got toilet and he drive all over and travel". I was in absolute shock because I WATCH VAN LIFE VIDEOS TOO!? and I'm also crazy about living out in the nature and HGTV/renovations. His eyes sparkled and I could tell he was so excited about it. We watched several episodes from the Chinese van life channel. He would occasionally say "How good can travel everywhere and do this...Singapore don't allow, they should allow this". New Zealand was also the last place we planned to go as a whole family just before the pandemic hit. My heart aches as I'm writing about this now. (I did New Zealand for my honeymoon and you can read about it by clicking the destinations tab and selecting New Zealand!) I'm so glad we've come up with a meaningful way to memorialise my dad. We miss him terribly. The only issue is....we can't make the trip. Airfares alone are $8000-$9000 for all of us. Camper rental would cost another $6000 for a month. That's not including camp sites, fuel, food and attraction costs. We estimate that a trip for a month to properly cover the North and South Island would cost more than $20,000 cash. It didn't cost this much pre-pandemic! The costs have doubled! We are determined to make this work and at the same time we would love to continue travelling long-term. We've come up with a series of products that we are excited to launch very soon. We hope to get your strong support so that we could make this plan work in the near future! Living Simply We've been living simply and enjoying the simple pleasures of life: Food! There is where I made the MISTAKE THAT ALMOST KILLED ME. It was a regular evening, we were happy to visit a cafe near our apartment to enjoy a good meal after a good day of homeschool and content creation. I was excited to see a delicious chicken burger picture on the menu.... Chicken burger and a golden ring on top. What would you assume it is? An onion ring right?! Lo and behold, I put the WHOLE THING into my mouth and it tasted nothing like an onion ring. It was a calamari! I spat it out immediately but it was too late. I’m dangerously allergic to calamari/squid/shellfish/Molluscs. I experienced TWO episodes of anaphylaxis over the years after I ate steamboat and fried food contaminated with squid/shellfish. Had swelling all over, couldn't breathe properly, very very high heart rate + crash after that and had a whole body of rash. Ended in emergency to get jabs that didn’t help much. Each time it took two weeks of medical leave to recover from it. Debra was immediately alarmed, she witnessed it first hand the previous time it happened. (Sorry I scared the crap out of you!) I drank my coffee and assumed it would wash it down fine. After all, I didn't swallow the calamari. I only felt a little tired which I assumed was normal post-meal tiredness. We went to the supermarket to get some groceries and that was when the serious reaction started. The little tiredness became extreme exhaustion and I gradually felt more and more confused + brain fog. I stood in the supermarket thinking "buy toilet paper" and I did walk to the aisle. When I arrived at the row, I stood there staring at the toilet paper in a daze. I completely forgot where I was and why I was there. My body was reacting to the "toxins" and I think my blood pressure fell. We managed to get back safely and I collapsed in bed. I slept/concussed for an entire 12 hours. Thank God I'm okay now! I'm a little ashamed because I tell my students this all the time! READ, DON'T ASSUME! But I did exactly that and it almost killed me. It is so important for people will allergies to READ, ASK and CONFIRM that they aren't any allergens in food they purchase outside of home. It is a matter of life and death. You don't always come back from an episode like that. I woke up a few hours after collapsing in bed to this magnificent night sky. I grabbed the Leica with whatever energy I had and snapped these shots. Living simply took on a whole new meaning. This sky reminded how I first fell in love with photography. It showed me how small I was and I was in a place that made me feel so alive. Laugh often and love a lot Travelling slowly has given us so much time to look beyond the shopping and attractions. It has given me time to look beyond our homeschool schedule or work demands. It has given me more time to enjoy our children. It has dawned upon me that every day that passes is one less day I can put them to bed and kiss them goodnight. It is one day less I could tickle their tummies and have a little monkey on my back. I found this post on Instagram and it is like that life-saving model you drew for your problem sums that enlightened you! It is wise to number our days and understand we don't have a lot of time left. It could be a blood cancer or just a calamari ring.
Dream big, live simply, laugh often and love a lot! p.s: Updates from our whirlwind drive to Penang for finger licking good Dim sum coming this Thursday! It always scares me when I see ads on the newspapers promoting package tours that list 4 to 6 European cities for a 10 to 12 day trip. You'll spend an entire day on the plane and another day jet-lagging while they drag you across more than 1000kms in the coach. I'm not sure if that's a $5000 holiday or paid torture. Here are 4 reasons why you should travel slowly! 1. Travelling slowly helps you relax (and maybe make a baby :p) Have you ever got back from a vacation and wished you had another to catch up on rest? We've been there and we hated it. Packing less in a day helps you enjoy the lull moments sitting by the pool or taking a stroll around a picturesque nature reserve. It helps us unwind from the stresses of having to meet schedules and answer millions of emails right from the time we wake up. It is a great opportunity to not set an alarm for the morning! It gives you the opportunity to spend quality time with your loved ones and come back feeling recharged! I'm not joking about the baby part! We all know someone who is stressed out with trying to conceive. After years of not being able to conceive in the midst of their hectic stressful lives, BOOM! A good slow relaxing trip and congratulations! They are pregnant! We can attest this worked for us! I cannot emphasise what wonders this slow trip has done for our mental health as a family. We can focus better when we need to. We have that bandwidth to write blogs, take photographs, write a book, draw and design! The kids are more willing to do their school work, focus on reading and enjoy countless hours of open ended play. 2. Travelling slowly saves you $$$ Long stays on Airbnb are almost always cheaper. You also can ask for better rates when you stay longer with a hotel too! Less commuting = less costs! You save time and energy packing and unpacking again and again. Settling longer in a place also means we are more willing to cook/make simple meals, make our own cup of tea and coffee. Instead of eating at touristy places, we use Google Maps and look for great local reviews for awesome food. We've been able to find many food options throughout our trip that cost between 50 to 70RM (About S$15.80 to S$22) for the entire family. 3. Travelling slowly allows you to find hidden gems! Travelling deeply and slowly, you get to fully immerse yourself and enjoy a place. That's exactly what we've been doing! We found places other explorers mark as "Great View" on google maps in Cameron Highlands and roamed the around on foot to find our favourite satay man in Tana Rata. He sold a satay for 1RM and cooked them over coal... (See pictures in this post) Because we get to spend more time at a place, we tend to go exploring the area beyond what the travel guides point us to. We go beyond what Google Maps recommends! That was also how we found these eateries when we explored Ipoh... 4. Travelling slowly gives you unexpected adventures (my favourite reason for travelling slowly!) We've seen most of the places we could in Cameron Highlands and decided to explore the surrounding areas in Perak (Ipoh). Mossy forest and Parit falls in Cameron Highlands were closed when we wanted to access them because of landslide and maintenance. I chanced upon this cave on google maps while looking at the terrain layer. (Please try this, it is most amusing for those who enjoy seeing 3D maps!). The interesting "T" shape caught my eye and you won't believe what we found.... Next time you travel, try travelling slowly! Hope you'll find it as rewarding as us!
If you've found other amazing food, scenery or relaxing places around Malaysia, please share them with us! Click the chat button or any of the social icons at the bottom. We'd love to connect! Thanks for following along our Grand Tour of Malaysia! We've done, Genting, Cameron Highlands and Melaka over the past 34 days! If you are curious as to why we've chosen to travel so slowly, you can read it here! This blog post's inspiration came most dramatically on a starry starry night as I enjoyed the cool 18 celcius night breeze with several bugs as company in the balcony. Cameron Highlands rarely has clear skies at night. That special night, the clouds cleared, the massive full moon shone and the stars appeared. I sat there in awe of that indescribable beauty. Most unexpectedly.... A shooting star suddenly cut across the night sky I made a wish. I wished that our Grand Tour will never come to an end. I wished that we would be able to make travelling our way of life. I wished that I could live out my dad's last words. I know of so many people who would have these thoughts... Why?! Of all dreams, you dream to live a life on the road? Why not dream of owning an expensive property on prime land or an expensive car? Gold? silver? stocks and bonds? Why won't you choose stability for your family? Why can't you be like everyone else? I did. I chose the Singaporean way of life back then. I studied hard for 16-17 years and had a career I loved. The stress of raising a young family and growing a small business had a significant impact. For many years, my health was poor and my mental health was dismal. I lived vicariously (& precariously) through others and their dreams. I watched countless films, followed many YouTubers and read blogs. But these people inspired me! Their hopes and dreams showed me that there was something more. These 3 teams/people were the MOST impactful: 1. Tim Slessor and team (1955) The First Overland from London to Singapore in two Land Rovers. Back in 1955, you don't have highways and the first generation Land Rovers were far less comfortable than a regular hatchback today. That spirit of adventure gets me SO excited. This trip also inspired the Last Overland. The dream of making a similar trip consumes me! 2. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Two men on their motorcycles riding 3 epic journeys. (Long way down, Long way round, Long way up) I have special respect for people who take journeys on two wheels. You are exposed to the relentless elements and the terrain is very often unkind to bikes. The camaraderie, the open minds and the tenacity in these guys inspire me the most. 3. 7 years ago while I slipped down this rabbit hole, I found out about Juvena Huang, a Singaporean lady who rode to Europe from Singapore on her old Vespa, ALONE! A regular person with a big dream, she has given me so much inspiration and courage to overcome our fears of the unknown. On a stormy night in December 2021, daddy breathed his last in the ICU. Just a week before that he sent his last WhatsApp message to us... “尽量享受人生,感恩。” (Enjoy life as much as possible, be grateful) I spent many nights thinking about my life. Am I really living my life like I'm enjoying it? Did he say those words from the hospital bed tinged with regret? I still feel an immense guilt that we couldn't make a last trip together. The pandemic didn't let us have our way. We walk through the tea plantations and talk about how daddy would have loved it. He would have had so much fun filming on his video camera! We have scones, cakes, coffee and tea thinking about daddy’s smile if he were having it with us. We walk through the Parksons emporium and thinking about how happy he would be shopping there. We travel in honour of a man who worked 40 years of his life, always loved his family tremendously and didn't spare any expense taking us across the world on amazing trips. He infected us with this love for the journey and travel. To be brutally honest, we cannot afford any of the trips taken by the 3 inspiring people/teams mentioned above. Looking at the airfares, accommodation and transport costs scare me. We are cracking our brains on how and where we should go next. We are working hard on new merchandise on our store, remodelling it so we can work remotely from anywhere. We are working on our story-telling, photography, art so we can create value and perhaps raise the funds we need for a life changing journey. Help fuel our journeys!
Help share our posts, like them if you enjoyed reading it! Drop us a comment or a word of encouragement (we need lots of it!). Link us up with sponsors or other inspiring people who can give us a boost in this journey. We are in the midst of creating content of our journeys through Ipoh and its caves. Stay tuned for Thursday's and next week's editions! This is our story, this is our Grand Tour. What's yours? What inspires you to travel? |
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