Olli's parents arrived to Singapore at Christmas. We arrived earlier in a same day from Bangkok and met them at the airport.We spent couple of days in Singapore. Olli's parents were now first time in Singapore (and Asia) so we checked out sights like Marina bay Sands, Singapore zoo and of course had Singapore Slings in Raffles (Olli and I have been many times in Singapore but never had drinks in Raffles before). They were good but expensive.
 |
| Olli's parents has just arrived. |
 |
| Greetings from Finland! |
 |
| Finally some REAL bread. |
 |
| Don't buy this (kallista means expensive in finnish) |
 |
| Singapore slings at Raffles (pappa betalar ;)) |
 |
| Giant pandas have just arrived to Singapore zoo. |
After Singapore we flew to Langkawi, Malaysia and spent one week there. We rented a car and drove around the island and checked all tourist sights (beaches, water falls, view point, cable car etc). This was also Olli's and my first time in Langkawi so everything was new. In New Year's eve we went to sunset dinner sailing.
 |
| Just arrived to Langkawi, Malaysia |
 |
| Father and son are testing the "sea water jacuzzi" in the sailing catamaran. |
 |
| Happy new year 2013! |
 |
| We checked out a couple of water falls in Langkawi. |
After Langkawi we flew to Kuala Lumpur and spend two days there. We walked around and also drove by Hop on / Hop off sightseeing bus. We also visited in KL Menara tower and Birdpark.
 |
| Having dinner in Kuala Lumpur China town. |
 |
| Pertronas twin towers at KL. |
 |
| KL Menara. |
Today Olli's parents are going to fly back to Finland and we continue our trip to Macau for two days, then back to Bangkok. Our friends are coming to Vietnam in the end of this week so we'll then fly there and spend couple of weeks with them.
 |
| Olli needed new flip flops. |
Kiitokset viela kerran Ainolle & Jukalle seurasta, kiva, kun kavitte.
Tyoniloa!
-Maija
Added 13.2.2013:
And here is Jukka's and Aino's point of view :)
Aino and I had a very pleasant opportunity to spend some time with Olli and Maija in Far East at Christmastime. This was our first trip to east. I have shyed away form long flights and we have travelled mainly in Europe. Now we had an extra motivation to see Olli and Maija at least once during their year-long trip.
I want to thank Olli and Maija for taking very good care of us, making most of the arrangements and showing us around in a very professional way. I have usually been the one responsible for reservations, finding the transportation, looking for time tables and generally making the arrangements. It was a real luxury from our first meeting at SIngapore airport. "This way to the metro, there you purchase tickets, here we change lines, let's walk this way, we have checked you in, let's got to the Chinatown food court for dinner..." And of course "let's have a shot of this very good old rhum we have carried all way from the from Caribian to round up the evening".
We quickly learned what is "street food" and how to behave in a food court. Fabulous food everywhere. Both ends of the scale were astonising. The basic places frequented mainly by the chinese served as good fare as did the ones hidden in even the most high class shopping malls. There was bound to be a food court with reasonable price in every shopping center, but you had to know where it is or just keep looking. Give wide berth to the facy internationals and look for the real thing.
Olli mentioned the famous Long Bar of Rafles and original Singapore Sling. It was priced based on what the business will carry, of course. Still, the place did retain some of its old charm. Mechanical fans - fans, not propellers - slowly swinging and customers eating peanuts like they were starving. Singapore law being very strict on littering, the old habit of throving the shells on the floor seemd to make some of the customers crazy.
We sampled the Cristmas buffet at our hotel, too. Oysters from France, Canada and Thailand!, sushi, all traditional English Christmas specialities and even durian. All that at quite reasonable price was a pleasant surprise.
Visit Singapore zoo was a tiring day, but well worth the effort. Tapir was nearest to Aino's heart. She playd a part of a tapir in schooltime play and was quite impressed by the real thing. Giant pandas had just arrived and they got a special treatment. Read: We had to pay extra, be there at exact time and stand in a long queue. They were cute enough for the effrot, I must say.
We spent the holiday part of the trip in Langkawi island and played real tourists there. Trips around the island in a rented car, up to the hills by cable car, see most of the wterfalls etc. We even took a sunset cruise at New Years Eve. Sun probably set on that day like in any other, but it hid itself carefully behind the clouds. The rain stopped, however and when thay say "free bar" in the ad, they mean it.
Langkawi is quite quiet place and the main town, Kuah, where we had our hotel was a livley plca with relatively few tourists. The main beach and more touristic restaurants ar at the other side of the island. On the first morning I went for a walk and saw a for sale -sign on a nice little beach. I quickly learned that most of the island is reserved for native Malays only and it is not possible to purchase a freehold. Another obstacle was the price. 1 ha of tidal beach would have cost 1 milloin euros. A steep price for any property there.
Kuah had a night market of mainly local food. We expected it to be more of a flea market and made a mistake in going there after a hearty dinner. We had to just admire those interesting treats.
A week went fast and we foud ourselves in Kuala Lumpur. Novotel and the club lounge was a real treat. KL is much like any big city. Petrona towers are impressive, KL Tower gives good sight seeing, bird park would have been better without rain showers and so on. Street food had a bit different definition here. A long stretch of a street with small restaurants squeezed side by side on both sides of the street and their tables oveflowing to the traffic lanes. We went to a place famous of chicken wings - they were good - that had expanded to occupy 5 slots. They had not made any effort to make it look like a single restaurant. Every place still had original different chairs, tables and decoration.
On our way back we stayed 2 more nights in SIngapore. The hotel was recently renovated old colonial place that had served as a hotel and restaurant in early times. Taxi direver told us that there used to be a shop in that house last summer still. The hotel was near Little India, so it was natural to go there, too. On sunday night the place was packed to the limit with Indians spending their day off in the streets and cafes. Weird as only one in a hundred of the people was female. We concluded that they were mainly iterinant workers that had left their families back home. A very long queue in front of a money transfer office pointed to that, too.
Aino and I went to the new Garden on the Bay and the large conservatories there. Impressive place with giant artificial trees. Giant means that there's a resturant on top of one of the trees. The cloud forest conservatory was a well designed show of high altitude flora from all over the world. After hat the other dome with more down to the earth looked less impressive than it should have. They had full grown baobab trees there among others. They should have left out the christmas decorations, however - corny.
It was time to say good buy to Olli and Maija and prepare for the long flight back home. Should we return to this tropical district sooner rather than later? Subject is under dicussion. Today we had 20cm of snow.
