April 9 2012

We left Bali and headed to Malaysia to stay with an old friend of Martin's in Penang. Christian, Ni and baby Jenesta showed us around and gave us lots of good advice and ideas before we headed to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. While we were there we also noticed a world music festival was happening so spent an evening listening to great music from Asia, Ireland and Indonesia. Being at a music festival felt like being at home and made us excited for summer and good friends!

Malaysia was a big change from Bali and we were suddenly immersed in city life, huge buildings and bustling streets. Also came a change from Hinduism to Islamic and we had the opportunity to visit the central mosque dressed in full gear! We were so hot I started to feel a bit dizzy and stood mostly by the fan. The twin towers were a highlight for Silas and looked especially impressive at night.

We left for Bangkok after only 5 days in Malaysia and stayed for 3 nights on Khao San Road, a crazy street full of vendors and tourists that doesn't quiet down till 4:30am. We had a nice quiet room when the air conditioning was on to help the kids sleep but on the night that we let them stay up later they had a blast, making dogs and swords from the long modelling balloons and giving them out to people on the street. Silas just wants to go back there and do that again.

We also treated the boys to a fish foot spa for only two dollars each for 5 minutes. They laughed so hard while the tiny fish ate all the dead skin off their toes and tickled their feet! The prices here are unbelievable. We ate most of our food from street vendors as was often suggested to us by other travellers and usually spent only two dollars each for most meals.

We travelled around the city by either tuk tuk ( a little cart driven by a man) or a boat for just dollars a trip while we saw the giant reclining buddha, china town and an amazing procession of 1500 monks walking the city street on rose petals. We were given petals to throw as they walked the 10km through the streets toward their gathering place.

Now we spend a few days on the island of Koh Samet before heading to meet dad and Meng in Chaing Mai for the water festival. We are so excited to see grandpa and have a local Thai friend show us the ropes!  The water festival will be nice to cool off as the sea water here is like bath water and we are hot again by the time we dry off... It is the peak of the hot season now in Thailand and holiday season too so it is hard to find somewhere to stay without spending too much. Thanks for the advice Meng to book the transport and accommodation ahead of time for our stay with you. A funny little thing...Orrin has learned how to say no in Thai since he is stopped many many times a day to have his cheeks pinched or photo taken by locals amazed at his blonde hair. He is getting tired of this and will now be seen in albums across the continent!

We are all well, missing friends and family of course and look forward to seeing you soon!