Hello again readers! I’m on a roll and finally caught up to the point where I’m writing the blog for our just prior destination. This post for Malaysia, for example, is coming to you from a beach in Sri Lanka, so pardon the laidback “take life slow” tone. Honestly, the main reason I’ve been able to catch up is due to social media time limits I reinstated on my phone. It’s amazing what the human mind can do when limited to “just” 20 minutes of combined Instagram/Reddit/YouTube time a day. Don’t get me wrong, I think my Love Language is Instagram Reels, but too many nights I was up way too late without anything to show for it.
The irony of me doing all of this writing is that it reminds me just how much I’m NOT writing down. This blog touches the surface of our journey, but there are so many small day-to-day events, expressions and just life happenings with the kids that I want more than anything to remember forever. Wearing a Go-Pro 24/7 probably wouldn’t be a “cool dad” thing to do so I’ve tried to at least keep a note pad on my phone for random memories or quotes. It’s worked fairly well, but past Alec sometimes provides so little context that I have no idea what he was talking about. For example, from Malaysia I have these gems: “Shoe slide” and “wrinkles-spicy, smooth-not”. Still no idea on the first one, Madeline helped me remember the second was in reference to dried chilis.
Hopefully you all enjoy these preambles. They are the easiest part to write and I enjoy my random self-reflection before getting in to the actual point of the blog.
Where Are We?
When it came to choosing where in Southeast Asia to visit, we were overwhelmed with options. Madeline and I have been fortunate to have been to Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia pre-kids. We wanted to try something new, somewhere kid friendly, and after our relatively expensive Europe/UAE/Singapore stint, we looked for a country where the dollar went further. We narrowed down to Malaysia or Indonesia. Ultimately, research showed the areas that intrigued us most in Indonesia required a flight + ferry + car (if not multiple of each) to get to and we elected to file it away for an older kid trip where everyone could carry their own bag. So Malaysia it was!
We spent 3 weeks in Malaysia: one on the island of Borneo and two in the region of Penang. Borneo was all about seeing the rainforest and associated wildlife while Penang was our second pick-a-city-to-live-in-like-locals location for our year abroad (first one being Noordhoek, South Africa). The cities were very easy to travel around via <$5 grabs (like uber) and because of the mixing pot of ethnicities, 95% of people we met spoke English. The kids were also a hit with the locals, who loved to wave and play with Emmett’s cars (which he did not appreciate). Overall the combination of the food, ease of traveling around and laidback populace made Malaysia one of our favorites of SE Asia.
Starting in Borneo, we had two main goals: Turtles and Orangutans. For the former, Madeline found a very limited tour where you go 40km by boat out to the island of Selingan in the Turtle Island Marine Park and spend the night there. You stay up really late until the turtles come on shore to lay their eggs and then go with a naturalist to watch, retrieve and transplant the eggs to a protected area. The kids were equally excited to see turtles and stay up past normal bedtime. We occupied our time teaching them a version of Uno a 2.5 year old could play (colors only) and building dominoes tracks from the well-loved Jenga set. At 10pm, we got the word that the turtles had landed and out we went with our flashlights.
The kids got to watch a mother turtle lay eggs (lots of questions), and then help bury the minute old eggs into a new protected burrow. The best part was what came after: baby turtle release. Again with the help of the rangers, we gathered the newly hatched turtles from an adjacent, protected nest, brought them to the ocean and released them in to the sea. Some of the turtles we released would hopefully make their way back to the same beach in 20 years to lay their eggs and we promised the kids we would come back to see them then. Total count for this tiny island that night was: 18 nestings, 1,391 eggs transplanted and 495 baby Green and Hawksbill Turtles released.
For the land based exploration, we stayed in Sandakan and were a short, 30-minute drive from the Rainforest Discovery Centre and the world renowned Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. The Discovery Centre had walkways up in the tree canopies that you went along, looking for birds and primates swinging through the trees. While our sightings were limited (things are really good at hiding in the jungle) we did get to see one orangutan high overhead moving from tree-to-tree. Right next door, the Orangutan Sanctuary gave us another chance to see the local wildlife celebrity. The Center works to inform the public about and take care of wounded orangutans. They have a feeding platform, where twice a day they leave fruit and we got a prime view of mother and baby sifting through the piles of tropical fruit for the best pieces. These orangutans are wild and able to roam freely so it’s actually a good sign if they don’t come to the feeding platform as it means they are now getting food on their own.
After an adventurous week in Borneo we were looking forward to slowing things down in the northern city of Penang. Penang is known as the food capital of Malaysia and also as a World Schooling Hub, AKA place international families work and have their kids go to school. Again, Madeline worked her magic and found the coolest Airbnb, a 3 bed condo complete with jungle gym/ball pit in the living room, for a very affordable price. We spent two of what felt like oddly normal weeks of our trip going about daily life. I got a haircut, we took the kids to playgrounds and we restocked on socks and other travel essentials. Every resource we needed was available with a short taxi. Mealtimes were the main reality check of being somewhere foreign, but in a positive way with the excellent mix of cheap food centers and fine dining.
On our way out we spent a very quick 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, and saw the Petronas Towers, ate more delicious food and reminisced about a place that exceeded our expectations in every way. What originally felt like a consolatory destination to not being mobile enough to do Indonesia ended up a favorite of our travels so far.
Favorite Experiences
Places
Here were some of our favorite activities from the trip! I put these on a map at the end of the blog along with our accommodations if you want links and more information.
- Turtle Island, Borneo – I covered this above, but definitely worth a second mention. It was on the expensive side ($550 for the night for 2 rooms, all inclusive), but felt authentic and will definitely make the highlight reel of our year. Additional bonus, the island you go to has a fantastic beach with great snorkeling to enjoy during the day ahead of the turtle experience. Seeing the hundreds of turtle tracks on the sand the morning after was also memorable.
- Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, Borneo – Worth the visit, just make sure you make at least one of the feeding times either at 10am or 3pm. If we didn’t have to get Emmett back for a nap (or if Madeline wasn’t melting in the heat+humidity), the best thing to do would be to see the morning feeding, then go next door to meet rehab sunbears and then explore the Rainforest Discovery Center before returning to make the afternoon feeding as well.
- George Town, Penang – The historic, colonial town in Penang, this was a great walking area punctuated with street food vendors on many corners and colorful street art. We of course made it a goal to try and find all of the cat based art and got some cute kid pictures along the way. The Chew Jetty are old homes built on the water that are now a tourist destination with food and souvenir shops, but it was surprisingly enjoyable for a typical tourist trap. Also walk by the old fire station for a quick view and a big hit with any kids who love “wee-woos”.
- Tropical Fruit Farm, Penang – A bit of a drive out of the main town area on the West side of the island, this place grows all kinds of tropical fruit, as you would expect from the name. The tour basically walks you through a big garden and the guide pulls fruit from the trees to try while learning its medicinal and health benefits. The kids were big fans, particularly Emmett who apparently has no sour tastebuds and ate everything handed to him. We saw things I’ve never actually seen in nature before like nutmeg, passionfruit, +30 varieties of banana and countless fruits I can’t remember.
- Entopia – Butterfly Farm, Penang– I had a blast here with the kids, Madeline stayed at home being adverse to things flapping in her face. This is a huge greenhouse and butterfly sanctuary where we got to see all manor of bugs, learn about the various stages of the butterfly and even release some newly hatched ones. It’s a must for anyone with kids, or anyone who likes butterflies. Awesome blast from my past is that they actually send many butterflies all the way the Colorado Butterfly Pavilion which I remember going to when I was growing up.
Food
Here were some of our favorite foods and restaurants we visited. Similar to Singapore, Malaysia has the big three cultures of food all competing: Malay, Indian and Chinese. As much as we ate, I feel we barely scratched the culinary surface of what the area had to offer. A couple of our favorite dishes were the Nasi Lamak (think curry ramen) , Char Kwai Teow (Chinese Noodle + meat + sauce) and dosa with curried lentils.
- The Maker, Penang– There were tons of these trendy, new-age coffee & pastry shops in Georgetown with fancy names to match, but our favorite was The Maker. They made a killer flat white, matcha and of course babychinos. The pastries were even more impressive, both in look and taste with the group favorites being the black-sesame croissant and the matcha tiramisu. All of this was packaged in an industrial vibe that made us feel like we were back home in downtown Seattle.
- Night Markets, Penang – Popping up around the city on any given night, these markets had vendors selling all kinds of street food. They didn’t actually close the street for them, so there was definitely some chaos ordering your food while simultaneously avoiding scooters. My general strategy was to find the longest line and wait.
- Cooking with Chef Samuel, Penang – We found Chef Samuel’s Cooking class online with over 300 five star reviews. Surely no place could be that good but Samuel proved us wrong. While our kids played with his son upstairs, he took us on a culinary learning experience tailored to our skill level through mainly Malay inspired dishes. We made a vegetarian sambals (chili based relish), banana leaf wrapped fish and a coconut sweet potato stew that was sublime. We learned a ton about techniques that will also improve our cooking in general like the right way to boil coconut milk without curdling it and how to crisp ingredients before adding sauce to keep their integrity.
- Ayer Itam Food Market, Penang – We actually went to this market the morning of our cooking class to gather supplies and enjoyed it so much that we came back. We were definitely the only tourists here, both times, and were presently surprised by how welcoming all of the locals were. Buying freshly made tofu at a stand from a lady who didn’t speak English resulted in a game of charades with her eventually calling in reinforcements from two stalls down to figure out why we were offering her 500 RM when she only asked for 50RM. At the attached food court, we had freshly made roti and lentil dahl, a new family favorite breakfast.
- Durian – Penang is famous for growing durian and it’s everywhere. It’s stinky, slimy, and so strong that you have to wear plastic gloves to eat it. There are no durian signs in apartments and subways too. But we did it – we tried the infamous fruit and strangely, didn’t hate it!
- Burger King , Kuala Lumpur Airport– I bet you didn’t see this one coming. Definitely not my favorite fast food (Wendy’s is the GOAT), but Burger King was the ONLY restaurant in the domestic terminal of Kuala Lumpur and we had to eat there TWICE on our layovers. So the kids first time eating at a fast food restaurant ever was in Malaysia. Word of warning, don’t get the vegetarian mushroom burger.
Family Moments
- Pool Days – In both Borneo and Penang we stayed at apartments with an on-site pool, which became our go-to afternoon activity to beat the heat. Our pool sessions became a mix of play and attempted swim lessons. We played motorboats, “monkey walk” along the pool wall and put on grand water ballets to pass the time. The kids have also both made great progress, but still no interest in dunking heads or, in Emmett’s case, closing his mouth underwater.
- Mae Makes Another Friend – While in Penang we went to several meetups with the local World Schoolers, other people raising their kids on the road. Mae became fast friends with Sofia, born in Italy to a Brazilian mother and English father. We met up nearly every day for a week and made plans to see them again in January when we both serendipitously will be in Melbourne, Australia at the same time.
- An Unfortunate Tour – We don’t always get it right and our half-day driving tour of Penang Island was just such an event. We booked a highly rated private driver to take us around the island and see some of the further afield sites. Unfortunately, despite us repeatedly asking to go to some of the less known places we went to tourist trap after tourist trap. After each one we would kindly suggest where we wanted to go and he would agree but then stop at another place “on the way” that he knew “we would love”. Spoiler alter, we did not and were tired of being hawked for cheap souvenirs over the course of the day. The Pièce de résistance was at our last stop at a beach bar, with our children, that had horribly overpriced beers and the Google ratings saying as much. He told us to relax and take our time and that the extra hour of tour time we were unknowingly incurring would only cost us an extra $20…
- Sandakan Market – The kids love looking at all of the exotic foods when we go through the markets and the vendors love interacting with the kids. Everyone always said “hello baby” to them and offered small samples or pieces of fruit. Madeline also enjoyed miming with the vendors to determine which noodle sauces were not spicy to bring home for dinner.
- Per Emmett (2 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Turtles” – Emmett loved everything about Turtle Island. The highlight for him was cheering as the last baby turtle we released finally made it to the water after being distracted by a ranger’s flashlight. A week doesn’t go by where he doesn’t mention that “Mama turtles lay eggs”.
- Per Mae (4 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Playing with Sofia” – Mae is becoming more of a kid and less of a toddler every day. Seeing the importance of her social friendships and playing with others is beautiful but also a bit sad as I witness the first signs of shifting from our immediate family being her entire life. She loved making this new friend and its wild to see two complete strangers become so close in such a short time with only a love for Frozen pretend play as a starting point.
Tips & Lessons Learned
This is where we put all of the things we learned along the way about traveling in the region as well as traveling with toddlers.
About Malaysia:
- Grab to Get Around – Grab (Malaysian Uber) made it really easy and cheap to get anywhere we needed to. I talked in our Singapore Blog about the carseats we found to use while taking these around. The only bummer was the Penang traffic.
- Travel Advice – We had a 1 hr call with Jenny from the Travelynn Family and received travel advice about their current home: Penang. They are a wealth of information and helped us narrow down our whole itinerary for Malaysia including removing some areas and adding Borneo, which we loved! We also ran into them in Penang and they are just as lovely as in the chat. Tapping into other families can really help narrow down an itinerary that’s different than the typical guidebooks catered to the generic adult.
- Street Food Vendors – So if you’re like me, you want to try all the small random carts of delicious smelling foods in the city. The hard part is that they rarely have a menu in English, and never actually have all of the options on said menu. The best way to order, I’ve found, is just to ask what they recommend. The majority of the time they take is a compliment that you trust their judgement and they know you are a tourist so they aren’t going to serve you anything too outlandish.
- Vendors – Not so much a tip as just a general comment that Malaysia was by far the least pushy country I’ve been to in Southeast Asia. Vendors may approach you, but with a simple “no thank you” this disappear versus following you for multiple blocks. People were generally there to help you in the purchasing process vs ripping you off.
- The Environment – Borneo has some of the most unique wildlife in the world and seeing their habitats being destroyed with plastic trash floating in the water or rainforest deforestation for palm oil was alarming. We truly feel like spending our tourist $ at places protecting this ecosystem was money well spent. We also recommend doing your own research on tourist activities. We opted not to see the funny proboscis monkeys because we ultimately couldn’t decide if this was supporting the deforestation that concentrated these monkeys to places where they are fed for photos.
About Traveling with Toddlers:
- Buy a few Emergency Shows – One of the major cons of our connected world is how easily it crumbles as soon as you don’t have internet access. Flying around Malaysia, we were on several +3 hour flights without seatback entertainment. No problem, we have the kids Fire Tablet with shows downloaded. Unfortunately, many of the apps seem to require internet to even open to see the downloaded shows (*cough* Disney+) or invariably your downloads have expired. We finally bit the bullet and bought a few shows to keep on the tablet. Forever. Yes, one is Frozen.
- Worldschooling Hubs – GOLD. This was our first world schooling hub and it provided community while traveling that we didn’t think we’d find! There are usually Facebook groups for these areas around the world where international families tend to congregate. Typically, they are working remote and the kids are in local, international school or being homeschooled. There are regular meetups and even just a source of information for asking about halloween activities, where to borrow books, or best kid beaches. Families in these communities could be just traveling through for a week or so or living in the area for years. We met people from the UK, New Zealand, Brasil, and USA (Seattle!).
- Half Day Layovers – For our family, you can only realistically do 1 travel activity in a half day. We had an overnight layover in Kuala Lumpur and arrived at our hotel around 3 pm, flying out the next day at 9 am. Turns out that was NOT enough time to really see KL since transport into the city takes ~45 min-1 hr. Our younger selves would have lived it up the whole night but our current parenting selves fit in one activity (the Petronas towers) and dinner in a mall with an overtired 2 year old. We didn’t make it to the cool splash park at the base of the towers or the nighttime fountain light show. We wish we had a full day!
Closing
Malaysia was awesome, there’s no other way to put it. It was so easy to get around, communicate and most importantly for us, we felt that we could blend it despite visibly sticking out from the crowd. We will definitely be back to explore more of this beautiful country and meet more amazing locals.
