a weekend jaunt

(sage loves travelators. we rode this about 12 times)
nate has a yearly meeting in kuala lumpur, malaysia. we decided not to tag along this year...until i found a cheap ticket the night before he left. bought the ticket on a thursday night and left on a friday morning. we might as well take advantage of spontaneity before we can't do stuff like this anymore...

we stayed downtown in KL for the weekend, with this view out our window

fresh out of the bath, enjoying the complimentary grapes+dark chocolate plate

we wanted to do something different, and that something ended up being a family date at the fish spa

 

nate was brave and stuck his feet in the tank of big fish. i couldn't take it--i felt like animals were gnawing at my feet! only little fish for me. sage was intrigued, and thought it was all pretty funny.

 we headed out to putrajaya on our last day with nate, and got in a little pool time.

 a spontaneous, mellow weekend with our favorite little girl.

penang

penang has been on my radar ever since we moved to southeast asia. my mom lived in asia as a child, and i've grown up hearing stories about snake temples and pristine beaches in penang. when i found dirt cheap tickets for the end of january, i couldn't pass them up.

since the deals were only during the week, katie and i left our working husbands (thanks, hon!) and took our toddlers on an adventure.

penang is a little island off of northern malaysia, and just over an hour flight from singapore.

we started the day in georgetown, a UNESCO world heritage site. i wish i had a photo of all four of us squeezed onto the trishaw. our six-fingered driver (he was proud to show us his sixth finger) kept singing "gangnam style" to the babies as we rode along.

i'd never seen this fruit before, but i love how exotic it looks

we stopped at various little temples, like the tiger temple and the dragon temple

we spent time exploring the chew clan jetty, a village built on stilts over the water, established in the 19th century. the clan used to thrive on fishing, but mostly consists of just the elders now since the younger generation has moved on to other trades.

we picked up some nutmeg balm, a product unique to penang. good thing it worked like a charm on all my inevitable mosquito bites.

our sweaty sidekicks. these kids were such good travelers.

after our trishaw tour of georgetown, we headed up penang hill on a steep little train. we could have ridden that thing all day. the views were so beautiful! katie and i have both been to other parts of malaysia, but we loved the lush, green jungle and island mentality of penang.

we dedicated our last day to the butterfly sanctuary and the beach.

we found a sweet deal for the hard rock hotel. i kind of laughed that we were bringing our toddlers here, but turns out they have the best water slides. we spent hours going down the slides.
in sage's words, "ageh!" (again)

sagie did not like sand before this trip, but i was determined to change that. 

i taught her how to splash in the surf, search for seashells, build a sandcastle, and bury her toes in that sand. 

success!

we made a pit stop at the snake temple on our way to the airport. from my mom's stories, i expected a scene straight out of indiana jones, but things have become so commercialized and safe (gasp!). there were only a few sleepy viper snakes hanging out in the temple, and a collection of giant pythons you had to pay to have wrapped around your body for a photo.

i'm so glad we saw penang, and especially with such easygoing and fun travel buddies.

kuala lumpur, malaysia

nate and i made an unofficial deal that when he travels for over a week, sage and i try to go with. so to KL we went!

things started off with a bang. nate was booked on singapore air, and i'd just bought a cheap ticket on arguably the worst budget airline ever. one detail i failed to consider (and i'm blaming it on sleep deprivation) is that there are multiple airports in KL. little did we know when nate was searching for me at customs, i was actually at a different airport. sage decided to kick things up a notch and shriek happily, but loudly for most of the flight. with almost-dead cell phones, we found each other and made it to putrajaya, our first stop.

nate had meetings at a beautiful resort in the jungly suburbs of KL, so we hung out there for a week...


petronas towers in the distance








sage has never had her own real crib, and felt she needed to properly taste it.


this is why we come. nate misses this when he travels a lot.

...then we made our way downtown for a weekend stay in the city. our valentine's gift to each other was a romantic weekend in a swanky hotel that we snagged for a bargain. you know, as romantic as it can be with a baby sleeping in the same room.

the petronas towers were once the tallest buildings in the world


view from the towers

not such a fan of sea coconut water


bintang walk

bought a painting for sage's future-room-that-is-not-a-closet at central market

malay makes sense: spell it like you say it.

proof i was there too

KL felt a lot like singapore, but dirtier. well, everywhere is dirtier than sing.
we didn't see all the places on my list, but we had a great time.

and then we came home to a package of love and taco seasoning from my mom.
best homecoming ever!