Back to Malaysia

When planning this #honeyquarter trip last summer, we googled for children-friendly sights in Southeast Asia and found out that there is Legoland in Johor Bahru (JB), in Southern Malaysia, just a bridge away from Singapore! And that´s not all: there is the only Hello Kitty World situated outside Japan!! OMG, we have to go there!
When this plan was said out loud, we found out that Satu's good friend Nina has been an exchange student in a city nearby Johor Bahru and is a friend with a local girl (err, aren't we over 40 called women?) Kamalia in turn has been an exchange student in Salo, Finland. Nina got us connected with Kamalia who helped us to book a hotel in the city centre which is run by her friend who has lived in Gothenburg for 15 years and therefore speaks Swedish. What a small world we live in!
All the planning went smoothly but the actual border crossing from Singapore to Johor Bahru took quite some time. We took a taxi from our hotel Marina Bay Sands to the Woodlands checkpoint. This is a taxi trip that spans the entire length of the whole country and it became abundantly clear how tiny a country Singapore is. Not 40 minutes later, we arrived at the checkpoint. For the first time in Singapore, we encountered a very run-down building. Seemed a bit like it was on purpose. This is the main artery for Malaysian people to come and work in Singapore and you get the feeling that Singapore does not want to encourage that too much. Their effort are to little avail though as the checkpoint and the causeway across the tiny body of water separating the two countries are constantly choked to the limit with traffic. One may cross the causeway on foot, by own vehicle, by bus or by train. We opted for the 5 (yes, five) minute train trip, but when we arrived all the departure except the last one at 11pm were fully booked. Instead of waiting for hours, we lugged our bags through the border control and got in line for the bus. The line was endless but as this was a well tested immigration machinery, we got on a bus eventually with the by comparison ridiculous amounts of luggage (most travelers where carrying a near-empty small backpack as they were only leaving for the day). 10 minutes later, we where at the much nicer looking Malaysian border control, getting our passports stamped for immigration. Welcome back to Malaysia!
Our hotel, The Grand Jade is situated very close to the causeway and every morning we could witness looooooooong vehicle queues to Singapore. We were told that more than 40,000 motor bikes cross the border daily and yes, the drivers has to go through the same border control as any tourist each and every day! One can understand this much better when comparing the prices and salaries between the two countries. Singaporean dollar is three times stronger than Malaysian ringgit meaning that price level in Malaysia is 2-3 times cheaper and for example a monthly salary for a garbage truck driver in Singapore is around SD 5000 (EUR 3,000) which corresponds to a Malaysian executive salary.

Kamalia has five children and they all are on 6 weeks' school holiday until January. We were not really sure if she was happy to have four more to look after but she had planned a great agenda for our week-long stay in her hoods. Our kids got very well along so I guess that the week was a bit easier for her since her three youngest ones and Max played, ran and laughed so much together.

New best friends leaving the zoo

"Titta där"!

The first day she picked us up from the hotel, showed us around in Johor Bahru and its surroundings, took us to her home for coffee, ice-cream and playing with all their toys. We finished the day with a visit to the zoo. It got very clear to us that our children have had a fair share of the animals lately since both of them were far more interested in the rather worn out playground than actual sights: tigers, hippopotamus or snakes. Another anecdote about price differences between Malaysia and Singapore: the entrance fee to the Singapore zoo was about EUR35 per adult and in JB the cost for the whole family was EUR4...

Max and The Usual

In the evening, after all the sightseeing and playing, we were too tired to plan anything special for the dinner so we just walked into the restaurant that is a wall-to-wall neighbor to the hotel. And like it often happens, this simple solution to our hunger situation turned out to be a very decent and good restaurant where we became regular customers who could just order "the usual" (chardonnay to äiti, Tiger beer for pappa, freshly squeezed apple juice to Max, fresh milk to Saga and pizzas/pastas for the whole gang :) )

Fast but not furious

The Angry Birds Park was situated in a big shopping mall just a few hundred meters away from our hotel in downtown JB. We felt like we have to go there since 75% of the family members have same nationality as these furious fowls. Since it was school holiday the place was pretty crowded but the more the merrier, and fun it was. Saga has showed lately very clearly that we don't have a baby anymore in our family; in the Angry Bird park she was so much with in all the activities she could, running around and screaming out happiness when trying a kick bike or a trampoline. Max was just as thrilled as his little sister and wanted to try ALL the activities ALL the time (but did not appreciate queuing at all!) Needless to say, everyone slept well that night :)

HK cookie decorating work shop in progress

And the good rest we needed because Hello Kitty World was on the agenda for the following day. It is an indoor attraction with various walk-through activities with Hello Kitty theme. Kamalia and four of her children picked us up with a minivan. Max was already in love with the whole family and the love grew deeper when he noticed that in the van they had a tv screen and a lot of cartoon films! Both Legoland and HK World are situated outside of the JB city centre but not far enough to watch a whole movie. Max wanted to stay in the car but changed his mind when his idol, Kamalia's eight years old son Puteh, took his hand and led him into the world of fluffy cats. It was a blessing that the boys had each other because it was quite clear for which gender the pink and cute world was created. Magnus felt quite malplacé too and happily retired to the cafeteria to write the travel blog. So in our family Saga and Satu competed who was excited the most. Their interests were far apart e.g Saga didn't appreciate that one couldn't touch anything in Hello Kitty's home but loved the dressing room. Satu found a lot of decoration ideas in HK home but were sad that the clothes were only in children sizes. But we all, even the boys, enjoyed greatly eating Hello Kitty cookies and the HK shows (once about each 2 hours and we saw three of them!). The day was even more packed with action and laughter than the previous with the Angry Birds so in the evening the choice of restaurant was again very easy.

Getting new home decoration ideas :)

Max with the workshop result

Star moment for daughter and mom

After two active days we all needed a day with less adrenaline and more relaxation. Kamalia stayed at home and we headed for another big mall to run errands, eat, look around and play. Christmas is coming and even though Malaysia is a muslim country they seem to decorate and play christmas carols in every single corner and the malls are crowded with everything with christmas on it. In the centre hall of the mall we went, a dozen of merchandises had erected stalls selling christmas presents, decorations, toys, clothes etc. Max went bananas when he saw the toy stall and realized that the meaning of it was that the kids could touch and play with the toys (so that it would be easier to sell them to the parents sweating to pull the kids away from the tables). We had no rush so Max (and Saga on and off) spent at least 2,5 hours standing and playing by the desk. During that time Satu had a job interview over the Skype in a nearby cafe and got her facial done. Magnus strolled around the mall with a tall latte in his hand as the "lattepappa" he is. He found a great gadget store that fuelled his inner nerd for quite some time too.  "Time well spent", thought everyone after the day in a mall. 

We had promised kids a day in Legoland while in southern Malaysia but from various sources we heard that the park is merely for older kids and only very few rides/attractions are for children under 120cm. The entry tickets are not as high as in the mother park in Denmark, but compared to Malaysian price level they were rather pricey. Therefore it was not difficult to say yes when Kamalia proposed a two-family-trip to beach resort in Desaru, a 1h-drive east of JB. A concept of a minivan ride with movies, kids who by now were very familiar with each other and a well filled picnic basket turned out to be unbeatable. After the lunch kids flew kites, played soccer and bathed in the Southern China Sea. We had swimming clothes for them but since it seems to be a custom in Asia to bathe in regular clothes, we allowed our kids to do that too. At the beginning wet clothes felt strange but soon it was business as usual, as it often is with (our) kids and new habits. At least 5kg black sand followed us to the hotel room that day :)

On the way back to JB we stopped in an old resort for a well earned ice cream and talked about the kilometers wide palm tree plantations we saw alongside the highway. They are for producing palm oil and Malaysia is nr 2 producer in the world after Indonesia. It was pretty clear to us that palm oil is a big business and that accusations by environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth may be true. They are claiming that the deforestation caused by oil palm plantations is more damaging for the climate than the benefits gained by it. On the other hand palm oil production provides employment opportunities, and has been shown to improve infrastructure, social services and reduce poverty. Interesting thoughts and discussion in the times of Paris Climate Agreement.

The very last evening in Malaysia Kamalia invited us for a dinner at her home. Since she has lived almost a year in Finland, speaks some Finnish and likes Nordic design we had to remember ourselves that we are not in the Nordics. Nowadays when IKEA furnishes homes on all (?) continents it is not very easy to differ Malaysian home to one in Stockholm. Kamalia had also baked Finnish christmas biscuits  that we ate after a nice and abundant Malaysian Nasi Lemak dinner so the mix of cultures was complete. As soon as Puteh were out of sight, Max started calling for him. According to Kamalia's husband Irwan, he sounded exactly as a local kid while calling "Puteh! Puuuuteeeeh!".We exchanged some gifts between kids to memorize this great time together. It was very nice to get to know Kamalia, Irwan and kids Abid, Damia, Puteh, Myra and Kira. Terima kasih and hope to see you soon again!

Our flight to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam left at 07:05AM. The taxi service in Malaysia is great (and cheap) and especially the taxi company who picked us up at 04:30AM did very well: the booking could only be made via an app, the taxi driver sent several sms via app to confirm the booking details and even to secure that we had woken up in the early morning. The only minus was the air con that they seem to be very keen on here in Asia. As a Norther I am not used to say to my 3-year-old "Soon honey, it will be better when we go outside the door" when he complains that he is cold. Both kids did very well despite the early bird flight time and long queues. Max was again very excited before and during the flight and did not sleep much but Saga still needs her daily naps and we adults enjoyed rather calm flight. Too bad it only lasted 1h 35min... ;)Our next and third last stopover during this trip is Ho Chi Minh City in south Vietnam. We will spend the Christmas there so WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas to all! God Jul allihopa! Hyvää joulua kaikille ystävillemme! Saga & co

Singapore

Arriving at Singapore airport, there was one big question rolling around in Magnus’ mind. The first time he visited four years ago, he really liked it. The combination of all the cultures, the range from simple/genuine to mega exclusive and the general cosmopolitan feeling made it a clear favorite at the time. Now, with the added experience of Kuala Lumpur, he was not so sure which of the two cities would be the pick of the litter. A sort of Asian metropolis death match if you will. And so it begins…

A visit to Singapore could easily break your bank, so we opted for a simple arrangement the first seven days and a bit of splurge for the last two. We started the adventure at Orchard Road, in an apartment through AirBnB. It was a simple two-roomer with full kitchen, bathroom and washing machine, located behind a doorman in the CentrePoint mall building. Orchard Road is not normally something you would associate with ”simple”, considering the über-fancy malls for the filthy rich dotting a considerable part of the street. But believe it or not, it was the best priced alternative we could find with reasonable access to the attractions (and the doorman was doing a fair impression of narcolepsia so he didn’t really exude any glamour). But the apartment was well suited to our needs, we felt rather at home pretty quickly and made heavy use of the washing machine.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells"

Every mall was thoroughly covered in christmas ornaments, fake snow and season greetings. Christmas music was played everywhere - on the streets, in the elevators, in the shops and soon enough in our heads too. Walking among palm trees and well-frequented outdoor cafes while listening to ”Let it snow” was a hard sell for us, even if the Orchard Gateway mall tried its best to help us with soapy foam-”snow” falling down on their plastic snowman and santa sleigh, adding very realistic slipperiness to the sidewalks. I suppose that we northerners really need proper cold and permanent darkness to find that christmas spirit. Since we chose not to spend this christmas in the Nordics, lack of christmas sprit is not a problem for us. So let it "snow" on Orchard road!

In Singapore, there are three main cultures and thus there are three ”enclaves” to visit: Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street (for the Malay people). Starting in Chinatown we checked the markets and had crazy-cheap chicken & rice lunch in one of the food stalls. Max got a set of children training chopsticks with a Minion-shaped rubber gizmo holding the ends together. This contraption he used to play with a rather expensive chess set until one of the pieces broke. None of us in the family can play chess worth much, but I guess we now have some rather elaborate equipment to hone our skills with, one of the pieces carefully taped together. Luckily, the store owner took a bit of pity on us and gave us a good discount. From now on, Max enjoys a vigilant escort whenever he enters a store. 

Tivoli? No, an Indian hindu temple.

Little India was intended to be the food highlight of the week, but unfortunately it became the opposite. Following Lonely Planet’s recommendation, we went to Lagnaa Barefoot Dining - the top 1 Indian restaurant, they claimed. Once there, it was clear that they focused on little else than the spiciness of the food. They had a 10-grade scale, and according to our waiter, 3 was the most she herself could handle (a born and bred Singaporean with Indian roots). From Magnus’ experience after having travelled India from south to north, often off the beaten track, for a month; food was generally spicy but nowhere near as spicy as for instance the thai food. Magnus ordered a level 3 dish and Satu a level 2. Both turned up close to being inedible, and they lacked the sophistication of carefully mixed spices that so clearly signifies Indian food. Magnus Chicken Tikka tasted like they had dropped a can of smoked paprika powder in the bowl and it made steam come out of our ears. Remember that we had so-called ”thailand spicy” food just little over a month ago without breaking into a sweat. The place was more about the macho bragging right of being able to finish a level this or that, a fact made perfectly obvious with their hall-of-fame at the cashier where patrons who were able to handle level 6 or more was immortalized. 

Cool kid getting a star in his hair

We soon got chirpy again thanks to a nearby place offering proper Chai Masala, lovely Indian tea, while we waited for a sudden rain to stop. We found a hairdresser with cool hair designs, so Max went in the chair for some star quality. We finished the Indian odyssé with a very typically colorful Indian tempel before making our way to the last stop of our ethnic tour.

The Arab Street is filled with small roads with all kinds of shops, bars and hotels. But it is the main walking strip Bussorah Road we found to be coolest. A majestic mosque marked the beginning of the road and towered there like a huge arabic fairytale castle backdrop. The prayers where soon streaming from the minaret loudspeakers and the picture was complete. There were plenty of nice restaurants all over the place and a cozy vibe. Our time was running out, prohibiting us from exploring it in detail so we hurried a couple of blocks southwest to see Magnus favorite building.

In 2002, the construction was completed on a 24 floor lavish spare-no-expense art deco skyscraper - ell over 70 years since the art deco style fell out of style. It was the last big project by a Taiwanese businessman, and most likely a labour of love. The result is, in our humble opinion, absolutely brilliant! The Parkview Square is one of the most expensive office buildings in Singapore, despite the rather big distance to the big business melting pot down by the waterfront. Despite the retro design, it does not look or feel like neither a has-been or a washed out replica of the real deal. This is very much the real deal! The materials, the level of detail, everything. Once we stopped gawking at the imposing exterior we tentatively entered the lobby. Magnus was kindly but decidedly shown the door four years earlier so we didn't expect to be able to stay long. Luckily, history did not repeat itself. The lobby consists of the Divine Wine bar, all in lavish art deco of course, and with a huge three-story wine cooler lining one end. To retrieve a bottle, a lady clad in a fairy suit complete with wings straps herself into a harness and gets lifted to the proper location. We marveled at the interior for a while, then we left with a mental note to return sans enfants for a much anticipated champagne tête-à-tête. Pardon our French :)

"Titta där!"

One of the more famous attractions is the Singapore Zoo, and especially the Night Safari. We did what any responsible parent would do and visited both on two separate days. The zoo is huge and well maintained, where most animal exhibits are cleverly planned so that you almost always got at least a pretty good look of the inhabiting creature (nudge to Skansen in Stockholm where we are almost convinced that the wolverine exhibit has been empty for the last 20 years but no one mustered enough energy to take down the signs). You come real close and personal with lovely animals like cheetahs, lions, white tigers and crocodiles. There are lots of neat rain shelters scattered around the area, which came in handy when we got surprised by a real tropical downpour, just in time for a well deserved snack. We took the trouble to go to the far end of the park to access the children area, but unfortunately the playground was closed for maintenance and the kid-friendly animal exhibits where mostly pony riding, which required older kids than ours. A bit of a bummer, but we all enjoyed the main attractions at least. When we returned for the night safari, it got little more exciting. You load up in a typical rubber-wheeled safari train and get driven around slowly while looking at the more nocturnal animals, like leopards, otters, deers and such. Every now and then you can disembark and walk some paths to further investigate. We went a full loop with the train first and then stopped for the wildlife show - a cute collection of small acts involving otters, chivets, snakes and such. They invited a guy up from the audience and hung a big python around his shoulders. Then they faked some kind of emergency and rushed off stage while all lights went out. Always nice to have a python to cuddle in the pitch black...

When we got out, there was a fire show going on. Four guys in "tribal" outfits where blowing fire and swinging torches around with expert skill. Magnus was busy shooting the spectacle when one of the guys approached and invited him up to join them. He obliged and was asked to remove the shirt, then was handed a torch and got to join in a bit of fire dancing. One of the tricks was to flick the torch back and forth once with such swiftness that the fire went out. The guys, of course, did this with no apparent effort, but Magnus struggled. By imitating their gestures, the flame barely stirred at all. Not before Magnus started to frenetically shake the torch all over the place, the flame finally died. But he made it, and he was shirtless like a real hero. The hero was then mercifully allowed off the stage with memorabilia badges, some moist towelettes and three splinters in his torch hand. Thug life! We took another spin with the train and went on the walking path to see the leopard and some bats. The bats were free-roaming in a special enclosure. There were both fruit bats and flying dogs, the former liked to swoosh by real close in the dark and the latter was huge and hung upside down, glaring at us. With some relief, we left the enclosure and made it to the exit. Since this was a night safari, we left the park around midnight. Saga had fallen asleep a way ago but Max got his batteries charged with all the excitement and it took a good while before he calmed down and tossed away in a back seat of a taxi.

Of course, one cannot visit Singapore without having a proper Singapore Sling, preferably at the point of origin: The Raffle's Hotel. In the Long Bar on the second and third floor, one can enjoy the original, complete with a big bag of unpeeled peanuts. The tradition dictates that you drop the shells on the floor, just as the old peanut farmers did. This was a small heaven for Max who took more care in dropping nuts on the floor than actually eating them. Kids really need a pause from the rules sometimes, right?! The drink was great and the bar is as well, with its old fashioned mechanical sun-fan style ceiling ventilation devices (mostly for show as the central A/C was doing its best to push the temperature below 10 degrees C). The Raffle's is a very nice place indeed, also complete with super-exclusive shopping. It has since long lost its ocean front due to heavy building up the land to accommodate more towers, but you feel the colonial wings of history in there so it's well worth a visit, Sling or no.







We did some window shopping in the crown jewel of the Orchard Road, the ION mall. Imagine Rolex, Patek Phillippe, Versace etc in endless rows of shops. Scattered around the concourses were pieces of art from humble artists like Salvador Dali and Botero. This would have been the perfect place to upgrade our fake Rolexes, but in the interest of a sound travel budget, we kept to just browsing. The Orchard chapter was coming to an end and we were getting more than ready to take on the next lodging: Marina Bay Sands!

Built as three separate towers, all joined together at the roof by means of a huge, shiplike roof/park/infinity pool, stands the Marina Bay Sands. Completed in 2010 it is arguably the most eye-catching building in downtown Singapore, stealing a lot of shine from institutions like the Raffles hotel. We had booked two nights there, with the intent to use the rooftop pool (available to hotel guests only), the gym and just wallow in luxury in general.
We got a room with city view on the 46th floor, and what a view it was! The room was spacious and very nicely decorated, with a big bathroom with tub and all sorts of niceties. The breakfast buffet was huge with excellent quality and the service was impeccable. It's not a cheap place but it becomes quite clear rather quickly that you get value for every penny spent.

Between the hotel and the sea is the Marina Bay Gardens, a large recreation and park area with playgrounds, walking paths and various attractions. The centerpiece is the Giant Tree forest, with several artificial tree-resembling structures packed with plants and lights with an elevated walking path between them to boot. It currently was clad in christmas decoration with several rides and even an ice skating rink.

Again, the smooth and sentimental voices of Bing Crosby et al filled the air, promising a white christmas, sleigh rides and jingling bells. We didn't want to meet Santa Claus nor play in  fake snow so we took the kids to the playground that had nice stuff for both Saga and Max. And the adjacent water play area was very much appreciated - we could barely haul them out of there when closing time approached. We stayed for the music & light show at the giant tree forest, which was a nice combination of classical music and the "trees" lighting up in all sorts of colors. Everything with the hotel as a majestic backdrop. A very nice day out indeed!


Being now in a well equipped hotel, we made sure to use the gym and sauna facilities. Being on a crosstrainer overlooking the whole business district and marina bay from level 55 was a very rewarding experience. And to finish it off in a quite well functioning sauna complete with a bucket and ladle was exactly what our weary backpacker bodies was asking for. We could not quite reconcile with the fact that the sauna interior was all TYLÖ. Anyway, it worked well enough and the löyly was lovely after some serious scooping. But gyms and all aside, the absolute main attraction of the hotel was the rooftop "park" with pool.



Sitting at level 57 on top of that boat like structure is the worlds largest rooftop infinity pool, and it makes you feel like you might just spill down into the bay at any time - but in a good way. There was also a shallow baby pool and some crazy hot jacuzzis overlooking the garden. The pool is reason enough in itself to book at least one night at the hotel, as it is not open to the public.

Groupie in the pool

Next to the hotel is the Marina Bay Shoppes, an underground galleria that even shamed the Orchard Road ION mall, except for the modern art which the Shoppes lacked. We could not help but wonder: how many watches in the >10'000 EUR range do they move per day? It had at least 10 exclusive chronometer brands in there, often wall to wall but sometimes interrupted with the occasional Versace or Prada boutique. We did not shop much here, but we had a great dinner at a French bistro, complete with a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. Even the kids seemed to appreciate a nicer atmosphere in comparison to all the Asian street food places we have been eating lately.

On another day in The Shoppes, we had coffee and ice cream at the Superheroes café - a place where you can gawk at 1:1 models of the batmobile while sipping a very agreeable cappuccino adorned with latte art superhero logos. Max got his first can of soda here - the Superman flavor. The feeling of walking by endless rows of haute couture and expensive horlogie suddenly interrupted by the batmobile was best described by a record playing Vivaldi where the pickup needle is pulled away, sideways. But it was nice too, in its own way.

Merlion, the mascot of Singapore

On the very last sightseeing day in Singapore, we visited Sentosa, an island packed with recreation like the Universal Studios theme park, waterpark(s), aquarium and  several artificial white sand beaches. We took the cable car from the harbor front, quite a vertigo-instilling experience but a very nice alternative to the boardwalk. Our timing was a bit unfortunate as the first beach we encountered was heavily rigged for an upcoming mega danceparty. Then the rain came and we were stuck under the roof of a beachfront pizzeria for an hour. After that we tried to reach the playground areas, but they closed before we managed to get there. We should have started out earlier, it seems, but the cable car ride made the trip worthwhile anyway. We decided to return to Sentosa but in 10 years or so, so that kids can fully enjoy all the attractions offered on the fun island.

On the last evening, we booked a babysitter via hotel and equipped her with bribery goodies, freshened up and hopped in a taxi, destination Parkview Square. Finally some adult time! Immersed in art deco goodness, we sipped some Veuve Clicquot and enjoyed a long and uninterrupted adult conversation while munching on a cheese platter. The small trio of musicians manned the grand piano, the bass and the mike and raised the mood even further. The place was perfect for us - just the right noise level, excellent ambience and good wines. The latter is something that is few and far between in Asia in general. The wine fairy took a few flights as well, but not on our account (they keep the house pours down in the bar and the more exclusive stuff up in the towering cooler). The house pours were real good so we were happy as clams. As an extra bonus we heard Satu's favorite song by Bo Kaspers Orkester, "Hon är så söt" played in the radio while we were waiting for taxi. Swedish music in Swedish played here in Singapore?! Amazed and happy, we returned to two sweetly sleeping kids and a babysitter chilling by the window. Excellent date night!

Asian Metropolis Deathmatch, and the results are in. Winner by a noselength - Singapore. The main reasons: everything works and are in excellent shape. The range of activities is staggering and you can go super low key one day and get on a mega splurge the next. KL is cool, but Singapore is cooler. So, it was not win by knock out for Singapore, but won it did.

Seasons greetings from Orchard Road

Bali

On November 9th we arrived to Bali where we would spend the rest of the November. This little Indonesian island has 4 million inhabitants and the majority of them (84%) are hindus. Quite a surprise as we expected to see more women is islamic veils because 85% of Indonesians as a whole are muslims. The Balinese people take the hinduism seriously and the island is rightly called The Island of Thousands of Temples. That is so correct, there are at least one temple on each street, on each block and the top sightseeings are, alongside the rich flora and fauna, temples! Balinese people have a reputation of being nice, smiling and child-friendly but unfortunately it took some days before we could verify that. At Denpasar international airport we arranged a taxi at the official counter and got assigned arguably the grumpiest driver on the island. He huffed and puffed while waiting for luxurious detours like purchasing of water and toilet visits for Max before making it to his car. Our luggage barely fit the small sedan he was driving, and everything about him exuded blame towards us who had the audacity to bring so much crap with us. With the folded baby stroller in the front passenger seat and some angry glances from Mr. Happypants whether it would dent or stain the car ceiling, we were mercifully allowed to take a seat in the back and be transported to the hotel, under absolute silence. He had at least one spiritual brother - in one of the myriad of tiny shops littering the streets, peddling indonesian batik, wooden fallos with beer openers attached and Rolex replicas, the sales guy jumped at the opportunity to demonstrate his watch collection to Magnus. When Magnus backed out while explaining that he already had one, the snappy reply was "Shit man!".  Welcome to Kuta - the most exploited part of Bali. Tourists are pouring in by truckloads every day, mostly from Australia, so the attitude is not geared towards repeat customers. But luckily there were many exceptions. Walking the streets of Kuta requires some getting used to. Expect being offered taxi every three meters, seeing store keepers invite, ask, shout and literally beg you to visit their shop and at least buy a t-shirt. This reaches almost laughable levels at times, and it's no wonder there are people walking around with t-shirts with the print: "No taxi!", just to get some peace of mind. 

We also quickly noticed that Bali is an expensive place, compared to Thailand and Malaysia. We were expecting the opposite so it took a while to reconcile with the fact at hand. The currency, Rupiah, has inflated rather heavily so a normal amount of money to withdraw in the ATMs is around one million (about 700 SEK). It took a while to find an easy strategy for converting rupiahs to SEK without calculators so we struggled a bit in the beginning. Now were are masters of deducting zeroes and multiplying by 7!

The big thing in Kuta is surfing, and the town is packed with aussies carrying surfboards or driving customized scooters with attached surfboard holders. The aussie clothes brand Hurley is ubiquitous in the form of gray tanktops with large logos and you hear the familiar "g'dday" accent everywhere. Not all of them are here to surf though - Bali is just 3 hours away from the Australian west coast so it's pretty much aussies of all ages and sizes. We spoke to two nice elderly women from Melbourne, who had been coming over 17 times the last 14 years.

There are lots of similarities between the towns throughout Asian countries. Houses are often rather humble, sometimes not more than a tin roof supported by wooden sticks. Traffic in the bigger streets is bustling with scooters and every other house has some level of merchandize to offer, even if it is just one watermelon or a couple of Absolut Vodka bottles of petrol (yes, ALL petrol bottles we have seen throughout Bali is Absolut bottles). But we noticed that the Balinese people seemed more inclined to decorate. Houses generally has at least some kind of embellishment, and quite often they are beautiful with exquisitely carved wooden doors, statues and other objects. They also practice their balinese style of hinduism, that involves offerings twice a day in the form of small baskets with some flowers, sometimes a cracker or piece of candy and even a cigarette. These baskets lie absolutely everywhere - in the middle of the street and sidewalk, on top of brick walls, on cars etc.

We went to the beach to see the surfers. The waves was fairly calm so there was not a lot going on, but plenty of people hanging out in the sand. To celebrate the halfway of our Honey Quarter, Satu got some braids made to really embody the vacation mode, while the kids were playing in the sand and Magnus enjoyed a Bintang, the local beer. One hour later the hair was done, and that was when the rain hit us, hard! We quickly covered the stroller with the rain cover and ran up to the beach drive to seek shelter in a small cafe. We were covered with sand and took turns to try and wash it off in their small restroom, eventually clogging the plumbings. One alibi espresso later the rain eased off a bit, enough so we could get out on the road and hail a taxi. The driver tried to charge us 100'000 rupiahs to take us to our hotel but we refused and demanded him to turn on the meter. He finally gave up and did so. The trip back "missed" a lot of turns but the final cost landed anyway on 30'000. Key takeaway: taxi drivers in Kuta cannot be trusted. We warmed up a bit to the place eventually though. There were plenty of nice people to talk to, some good shopping and a very nice sunset meal at a seafood restaurant near the Century mall. We found a nice Rolex replica for Satu as well. Our new motto is "When love is real, watches don't have to be." ;)

When love is real, watches don't have to be :)

Who could guess that I just puked?

After more than a month of traveling, it was now time for the first stomach to get some problems. Unfortunately it was little Saga that started vomiting after a day in Bali with no appetite. But she was a real trooper! As soon as the vomit spell was over, she immediately started commenting her surroundings again and being just herself. We decided to lay low the remaining days in Kuta, giving her some rest in our moderately air conditioned hotel room while Max was playing and swimming with one of us in the hotel's very nice pool. After a few days, she started to recover. Her mood had barely been affected at all despite virtually no food and very little water staying down. Magnus cries more than she does during a stomach meltdown!

Ubud

Our outdoor bathroom

Saga recovered just in time for the next stop in Bali, Ubud. This lovely city is the cultural capital of Bali with loads of artists, dance groups, silver smiths, craftsmen and yoga studios.  The 'Love' part of the movie Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts was filmed in Ubud. What a contrast to the loud and lousy Kuta! Our hotel, Nefatari Villas, offered complimentary pickup, so we had a nice and free 2 hour ride with a chatty young balinese until we arrived. And what a place! Situated a bit outside the Ubud city centre, close to the green rice fields and country site,  it offered us a private villa with pool, outdoor bathroom and dining area. All in beautiful balinese style. We walked around in our new surroundings with our jaws dropped for a while, then we all went in the pool to wash off the road dust. A good start indeed!

Good, better, ginseng coffee!

Since we had read a many good reviews about Ubud and its cultural offerings, we had booked a whole week to stay there and make many day trips to its surroundings. First trip took us to a temple (who would have guessed!), rice terraces and coffee plantation that produces Kopi Luwak, the coffee made out of coffee beans that a civet cat has pooped out, said to be the most expensive coffee in the world. The coffee place was the last visit of the day and our driver had problems finding it. So our troop was tired and quite out of focus when we finally arrived at Bali Pulina Agro Plantation. Luckily we started of with tasting of nine different drinks they produce, everything from ginger tea and coffee to the drink we have been waiting for, Kopi Luwak. What an effect this 'fika' had on us: the combination of caffeine, ginseng (yes, ginseng coffee was the absolute winner of the tasting) and sweet coffee biscuits left us feeling energetic and happy. The main attraction, Luwak coffee, was an enjoyable drink too but the "wow" factor was not quite there.

Pineapple ready to be picked

While Max was taking a nap and Saga held her usual fan club meeting with the staff, we adults listened the luwak production presentation with great interest, shopped both ginseng and luwak coffee and enjoyed the beautiful scenery this place had to offer over a valley with rice terraces. This was also the first time in our lives that we saw how pineapple is growing. 

Capturing the rice terracesO

On the way back to our villa, we stopped by a spot with a great view of rice terraces. After some time there we heard "Saga! Hey Saga!", and found some Asian tourists that had took a great liking to her in the coffee place and now had caught up with us. If Saga had a Facebook profile, she would have more friends than us parents combined by now.





The days we didn't go touring around, we walked along the streets of Ubud. One of these days, while spending an enjoyable lunch at a nice restaurant/café called Bali Buda, that served excellent organic food with lovely health shakes, good coffee and nice pastries, we got approached by a lady who was Finnish, had a love for children and got plenty of time on her hands. Her opening phrase: "Hei, I am Riitta and I wonder if I can babysit your children?" left our jaws wide open. We got acquainted with this Riitta and decided that she could definitely babysit our darlings while we attended a much longed-after yoga class the following day. Since the Bali Buda had a well equipped play area plus killer shakes and the yoga place was three houses down the same street, we agreed that they should hang out at the restaurant. We left the kids in her capable hands but got a fair share of protests from Max, reminding us of the daycare drop-off chores that are in store for us when we return to reality. Quickly, we made way to the yoga center and checked in to a big room with open walls to a garden of palm-trees and frangipanis. The instructor was Sanna, also from Finland (!), and she gave us a 90 minute customized Ashtanga routine, complete with headstands, armstands and whatnot. No, we were not able to complete the upside-down bits but plenty of the other, super well-shaped guys and gals in the room did it quite effortlessly. It was quite obvious that this is a place for hardcore yogis, but Sanna offered lots of pedagogic advice and exercises for us with lesser skills. 90 minutes later, soaked in sweat and filled with endorphins with huge grins on our faces, we had a quick shower and returned to our little ones. Max was so busy playing catch with the staff so he barely acknowledged our presence, and Saga was happy as a clam in Riitta´s arms. Thank you Finland for bringing us Riitta and Sanna. Even though we seem incapable of having a less than excellent day in Ubud, this day was the very best!

A visit to Bali is not complete without seeing a Balinese dance show. There were plenty of variations, but by recommendation from Riitta, we chose the Kecak fire dance. Performed after dark in one of the many temples, with a sea of chanting bare-chested guys in checkered sarongs and male and female characters in very elaborate costumes, dresses and makeup telling the story of prince Rama and his princess Sita being banished from the kingdom. Everything a capella with narrators telling the story while the main characters acts it out around a large wooden torch. As the story ended and the couple was safely back in their kingdom (spoiler alert?!), the show ended with a barefoot guy straddling a wooden horse, kicking around burning coconut husks with sparks flying everywhere. Quite a spectacle and very well worth the visit. Should we mention that we saw all of this while the two smaller ones were sleeping? Thanks buddies for choosing your nap time so that we could concentrate on this cultural spectacle on 100%!

Two holy ones

We checked out the two most important temples on Bali, indeed for most hindus in Indonesia. Both residing at the foot of active volcanoes, they need to be rebuilt from time to time whenever an eruption destroys them. The last eruption of Mount Agung in 1963 missed the number one temple Pura Besakih, the mother temple, by mere meters though. The secondmost important temple sits on the foot of Mount Batur, the Pura Ulun Danu Batur, and apart from being quite beautiful also introduced us to very loud insects drilling in a large, holy tree in the temples courtyard. The noise was so intense that we could not keep up a normal conversation close to the tree.

Sacred Sga

In Besakih we went through with a praying ritual, requiring a stick of incense and a basket of offerings, all available within the temple walls. First, we took some dry, mosslike "grass" from the basket and rubbed it between our hands as a cleaning ritual. We made a praying gesture and prayed for our own souls. Then we took a yellow flower and put it between our fingers in a praying gesture and prayed for the supreme One. Again with a red flower and prayed for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Finally with empty hand for the peace of everybody. The priest then sprinkled holy water on our heads and put some grains of rice on the forehead.

Max the Almighty

The used flowers seated behind our ears, rice adorning our heads and a donation safely into the money box, we felt quite peaceful when leaving the pura, not before the priest had the chance to play a little with Saga and give Max some rice on the forehead too.

Mount Batur, an active volcano

After an active week, the Ubud time was sadly approaching the end. We really enjoyed pretty much everything about it. And when we could not love our villa more, they called and asked when it would suit us to get our complementary dinner. They arrived at the agreed time and put out candles around the pool and in the dining area, set the table nicely and served their best meal offering from the menu, all for free. The Nefatari staff simply does not stop to give pleasant surprises, and the dinner was the perfect ending to our most satisfying lodging ever.

The day after we left Ubud with some reluctance, being driven by our favourite driver Made who was a pleasant guy who helped enormously by lugging our baby stroller whenever there were steps (and there were a LOT in the temple areas), carrying Saga and being a nice guy in general.

Candidasa

Now it was time for the scuba diving part of this holiday, aka early Christmas Eve for Magnus. The plan was to make three full day trips with whole family so that one of us would take care of the kids while the other one is in to the deep and after the lunch we'd change roles. Magnus had one extra dive booked already on the following day after our arrival so first we did after the breakfast was to walk some hundred meters from the hotel to the diving centre and get all geared up. The owner of the dive centre was Jos, a jovial Dutch guy and during the a couple of hours we spent at the centre, we heard his life journey from Eindhoven to Bali, met his lovely Indonesian wife and 5-year old daughter Iris, chatted with all his staff, got offered home made banana cake and got advised that it would be best if Magnus can leave for his half-day scuba diving trip as soon as possible. Well, we had come to this tiny fisherman village to do nothing but dive so we quickly adjusted our plans.
While Magnus and divemaster Putu headed for Padangbai, Satu and the kids had quick lunch at the hotel room followed by 1,5 hours in the hotel pool. Padangbai proved to be a nice place. A real nice beach, even though it was quite busy with loads of boats. A small boat trip rounding a point, ending up in "Blue lagoon" and down they went. It turned out to be a pretty good dive! Orangutang shrimp, scorpion leaf fish and plenty of nudiebranches. Putu's experience became obvious rather quickly - not only could he spot almost invisible critters with ease, he also played a little with a gang of cleaner shrimps (remember Jacques from Finding Nemo?). He took out his breathing mouthpiece and got real close to them with his mouth open. Suddenly, one of the shrimps jumped to his face and ventured inside his mouth. Magnus had decided not to bring his camera with him this first dive, and he had the entire dive time to regret it. Divemasters are a weird breed - they seem more comfortable submerged than on land, and they barely use any air at all. One is half expecting them to grow spontaneous gills any time now. Oh, and by the way, no shrimps were harmed in the process - the little mouth spelunker was allowed safe passage back to his homies.

We got into a frustrating problem in our hotel room. We got upgraded from our first beach villa to a rather huge apartment because the bed broke and the cleaning was not up to standard. This apartment had two safety boxes, one in a cupboard and one in a storage area in the living room. The latter was already locked, something that didn't bother us as we were more than comfortable with just one. We did notice it to beep a lot when we moved in. Eventually it fell silent and we thought nothing more of it. Then, around midnight, the beeping resumed. It was quite loud as well and kept us awake. The kids mercifully snored along - phew! After many frustrating trips to the reception we learned that nobody was able to open the safe but that they would look into it the following morning. Not exactly your favorite answer when you are dead tired and are due for an early morning of diving. After some angry exchanges, Bradley the manager arrived and tried to muffle the cursed thing with a towel and what not. When nothing worked and nobody seemed to know how to silence the damn box, Bradley ripped the obnoxious thing clear from the wall with his bare arms. Oooo-kay we thougt, but at least we got back to bed without unwanted back groud noise.

USAT Liberty at Tulamben

Frogfish

Unexpected company

As planned, we did three days of diving, where Magnus took the morning plunge and Satu got in after lunch. We checked out the USAT Liberty wreck at Tulamben, chased various fish at Amed and had one more go at Blue Lagoon. The last dive day the water temperature had changed from 28 to 21 degrees for some reason. We were chilled to the core! Satu got to see swimming turtles, something Magnus still hasn't seen. Some other interesting sightings were hairy frogfish, more nudiebranches and a free roaming moray eel.

Moray eel, for once not peeking out from a hole

Satu's first dive offered a little drama, when she got attacked by an irate triggerfish who took a bite out of her fin!

"You should see the other guy!"

Diving finished, we left Candidasa for the last leg of the Bali trip.

Sanur

Philip <3 Saga

We rode with Philip, a cool guy from the Indonesian island Flores who beside chaffeuring also was a wedding singer. Yes, he had heard about that movie a zillion times and no, he had not seen it. He entertained us all the way to Sanur with impressively good self-taught English and especially liked Max saying "kap-kun-kaa' (thai for "thank you"). We expected some type of hotel but we arrived instead at our own "town house", all to ourselves. No reception, no meals, just a nice house. It boasted a spacious kitchen, living room and bedroom plus bath downstairs. Upstairs was another bedroom, living room and bath plus an outdoor jacuzzi. And there were two bikes, one with a baby seat, included. Brilliant!


Sanur is the oldest beach resort in Bali and for some visitors is not that cool anymore. We could rather quickly see that is was indeed much calmer than Kuta, but since we didn't miss anything about Kuta, we liked Sanur directly. There were people everywhere, but the vibe was relaxed and pleasant. And the beach was the best we encountered so far with nice sand and calm water. Perfect for the kids to play on! There were plenty of the usual peddlers, but they were less invasive than in Kuta and never impolite. We found a good café with fresh juices and smoothies, excellent coffee and handmade raw food chocolate from Ubud, so there were no shortage of good snacks.
We spent our days playing on the beach, exploring the town and venturing by bike to the local play land Peek-a-Boo. That play land was another very pleasant surprise for us: even though the climbing area was not nearly as large as in many popular establishments in Europe, the place was absolutely littered with toys ranging from dolls to rideable cars and massive play kitchens. Almost all the electronic toys, and there were a lot of them, had working batteries. The staff was very child friendly and actually played with the kids. And, as a grand finale, the place served good lattes with the customer's portraits in latte art. The word we looked for was O-M-G!

After all this snacking, we decided to get some real exercise the following day. We had noticed an ad in a local paper  saying that a German guy offers group training at the beach every Fri, Sat and Sunday. The early group was outdoor fitness, and Satu was in place at 7AM. It was a very tough routine and the weather was pretty warm already in the day so she was quite soaked in sweat afterwards. Magnus took the next group which was yoga. The guy turned out to be an excellent yoga instructor as well and the routine was pretty strong so the family had two exhausted but happy parents before the clock struck 10. Great!

A manta ray, like an angel in the water.

We were so excited about diving and wanted to get more. The diving company in Sanur made us a package of three dive around Nusa Penida, an island a short boat trip from Sanur, famous for its manta rays. By taking our kids into the diving boat with captain and a service staff on board, we were able to finally dive together. A very rare luxury for us. It turned out really well, where Max and Saga took turns sitting in the captain's lap holding the steering wheel, and finding cosy nooks and crannies all over the boat to hide in. We did three dives, all quite different in nature. The first was at Manta Bay. It was only 20 degrees in the water so it got frosty real quick, but there were mantas! Lots of them! They came real close too.

Up for some surface interval, snacks and play with the kids. Then back in again, this time at Crystal Bay. The idea of the dive site was to get to the drop-off, where Mola Mola (sunfish) were feeding. We tried our best but we had strong current going against us and it all ended up being more of a treadmill thing with us swimming as fast as we could without moving at all. A bit disappointing. The final dive was at a place called SD. It was a drift dive, meaning that there would be current that would carry us away, and we should just go with the flow. It went fast! The current was strong and all kinds of lovely corals and sea critters just zipped by us. We could be completely still, save for maneuvering around rocks and such. The water was up to 27 degrees here too so the frostbite from the previous dives started to give way. It was a good dive - Satu loved it but Magnus, proud member of the "Team Slowdivers" that  moves one meter every five minutes, photographing every miniscule thing that happens to be there, almost got stress symptoms.

Tired kids after one full day on a dive boat

For the final evening in Bali before going to Singapore we went to Jimbaran beach. Located south of Kuta and the airport it is famous for serving seafood by sunset. We went there with our neighbor, who took the opportunity to offer us taxi service when we stumbled upon each other in the narrow alleys leading to our house. Another nice guy with impressive self-taught English, so we had plenty of discussions about the Bali life in general on our trip to Jimbaran. First, we stopped by Nusa Dua for lunch and to check out the Pirate Bay - a place recommended for kids by having a big pirate ship on the beach. We expected a kids place but it was a restaurant, albeit with a cool decor. A big ship with two masts with dinner seatings for two parties, plus two tall multilevel tree houses with plenty of seating. We settled for a regular table in the sand next to the ship. The food was expensive and average, but Max loved to run around the ship and the tree houses. And it had one wonderful effect: the sand had precisely that firmness so Saga dared to take more unsupported steps. Not too soft as to make walking difficult and not too hard as to make falling down painful. She practiced and practiced and we felt that the tipping point was near. But it was time to go to Jimbaran and our dinner.

The beach was really beautiful. It was easily the best we've seen anywhere on the island. It was also crowded with tourists but, like Sanur, the vibe was relaxed. Here, Saga shed her last trepidations and simply started walking. Well done <3!
The kids got to play a bit in the water first, and Saga became the instant attraction of the camera wielding tourists.

We ate at the Ganesha restaurant and walked past fishtanks full of frutti di mare. You simply pointed to the unlucky fella who would see the inside of a frying pan very soon, and then enjoyed the meal out on the beach as the sun set.

Our dinner to be. (The one on the left side.)

We
chose lobster as our farewell meal, and it was superbly barbecued. Max took an instant liking to it and on the way out he ran around the fishtanks, pointing out which ones he was willing to eat next. We feel slightly worried about future family meal expenses...

Thank you Bali, it was a very pleasant time! We'll miss you!
Next stop, Singapore!

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