Final thoughts

It has been just over a week now since we have arrived back from our family trip overseas. We certainly have many fond memories of the places we went to and the people we met. It was good to have the 'three' holidays in one, with the 3 distinctly different phases of our holiday.

Back to Malaysia ..... :)
We took a challenge and went to the China Town markets on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was good to see but I did find the prices a bit expensive compared to the local markets that we had been to. By going earlier in the afternoon it was not so crowded for at about 4:30 - 5pm the open street all of a sudden became a filled in street with narrow walkways. With all the children with us, it was best that I walked in front moving from stall to stall, with Marielle taking up the rear. She said that it was funny to see the locals reaction as they counted the number of children each time. The locals also wanted to have photos taken, or to hold the youngest children and oohed and aahed over them due to the colour of their skin and hair. It was kind of cute and it also made it easier when shopping as the shop assistants had no problems helping our Shana or Joshua in looking are Deanne.

Sunday was Laura's birthday. She turned 10. Was was spoilt with jewelry and hair pieces which she now has to make choices of what to wear all the time. We had purchased a birthday cake from the local bakery down the road the previous day and we all got to have a share of it for morning tea. After lunch, we had the opportunity to spend a long time at the pools at the apartments to remain cool. It was a lovely relaxing day, where we also had the opportunity to listen to 2 sermons from different pastors that we had taken along with us. Laura was certainly blessed to be able to share this day in a different country. According to the card that we received in the mail after we got back, she has to celebrate her next birthday in San Diego again. Wouldn't that be great :)

 Birthday Cake

All smiles for the birthday girl

 Presents

On Monday we went to KL Tower, the 5th tallest single tower in the world. The elevator rises at a top speed of 120km/hr and takes 52 seconds to reach the viewing deck. We decided to go the KL tower rather than the Twin tower for we found out that you have the queue for about 2hrs to get into the twin towers as they only allow 1600 people to go up a day to the sky bridge. There is no queue at the KL tower. The view from the Twin Towers is limited as you see the skyline from the 43rd floor but cannot see past the rest of the towers which go to the 81st floor. In the KL tower you have 360 degree views through all the windows. We managed to find our apartment buildings from the tower amongst all the other tall buildings that are found in Kuala Lumpur.

 Twin Towers

 Times Square - were we went to the theme park

 Our apartment - tower on left with flat angled roof

Even the males want to hold the Deanne

After the KL tower I took all the children back to our apartment and Marielle went shopping by herself in China Town at some of the permanent shops along the street and really enjoyed the opportunity. The massage that she had was great as well. She came back please with what she was able to accomplish and buy - and for so little.

Tuesday was spent leaving early from KL to catch the plane, flying home and arriving on our own doorstep. It was great that a number of small shopping items had been done for us and we even had 2 meals prepared for us so that Marielle did not have to prepare anything. Then it was unpack and sort out and start getting back to a normal life again. It's all over - till next time as we would love to go back - except with out the children this time :)

Signing off
Gordon