The next day we left Bali travelling overland to the Padang Bai port on the eastern side of Bali to catch a ferry to Gili Air.  We had a large group probably 30 people the majority of which was children, this made boarding the ferry far more chaotic than normal which I am sure was crazy anyway.  We threw in 8 families, an archaic ticketing process, a narrow pier, 95 weather and what could go wrong?!?!  Actually everything was fine and we finally boarded the boat with aircon (air conditioning) which was a life saver, my shirt was completely soaked which is becoming a daily occurrence even when not doing much of anything.

To get to Gili Air we were required to cross the Lombok Straight which brought us across the Wallace Line.  The imaginary line was drawn between the two islands by Alfred Wallace who noticed that the species on either side of the Lombok Straight were strikingly different.  The species on Lombok are more closely related to animals in Australia while the animals on Bali are descended from Asiatic species.  It was later theorized that the fauna could migrate along the chain of island until the Lombok straight because when sea level was lower exposed land allowed for migration except for the Lombok Straight which has a very deep channel and prevented migration.  Wallace was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and came to similar conclusions about species and what was to be known as evolution.  Yes, I totally bored everyone on the boat talking about it.

We arrived late in Bali the day before Easter and got picked up by our car that took us to meet up with all the other world schooling families south from Denpasar where the airport in a small town on the beach called Balangan it was primarily a surfer hang out but we overran it with kids for the Easter holiday, we met a ton of new families and the place was perfect for us.  After we settled in we got to work as the Easter bunny and even supplied some of the other families with candy for Easter morning.

The next morning we got up and had a fun family celebration and then joined everyone for breakfast and swam to our hearts content until the afternoon when we had an Easter Egg hunt.  Thanks to Jimi for putting together a video of the kids Easter egg hunt  It was a very successful we enjoyed the relaxation and warm weather but missed everyone back at home.

The sunset that night gave us one of the most spectacular sunsets of the trip in an amazing location.

No chewing gum, no spitting, no being naked… we heard about all the rules in Singapore before we got there, so we fully expected a nanny state, but when we got there but really didn’t see a lot of violation attendants waiting to give out tickets during our stay.  We did really like all the activities for kids that they had, between the super trees, the zoo safari and a harbor boat ride we kept quite busy.  We were lucky enough to stay with our friend Arika, who Maddy knows from business school. She had a lovely home with a great space for us all to stay and was such a kind hostess.  Thanks Arika!!!  The kids got to play with her daughter Anjali and got to play with lots of different toys in their house. The girls were thrilled, as they don’t have many toys with them.  Arika’s neighborhood was very interesting, lots of architecturally significant Peranakan houses.

We arrived on Wednesday from KL and got situated in her house and chatted with her a while before heading off to bed.  The next day we completed school in the morning; Caroline was having a hard time concentrating, especially on writing, so she and Maddy stayed in and finished her work while Mimi and Julie and I went to investigate the Singapore river and the old shoreline.  We learned that the island has been expanded by 23% from the original island especially around the main port area.  In fact the spot where Sir Stamford Raffles landed and founded Singapore is now a freshwater reservoir completely cut off from the ocean.  We walked around the river area and saw the merlion (half lion, half mermaid) that is the symbol of Singapore and the raffles statue and a dozen other beautiful buildings, I even tried a Singapore Sling while the kids got some ice cream.  We grabbed an Uber back to meet Maddy and Caroline before dinner.

That evening we went out and explored the Gardens by the Sea, where they have two huge biodomes and lots of Supertrees.  The Supertrees are water reservoirs as well as solar power generators.  We enjoyed watching the lights come on at night before heading home to bed.

School was a bit better the next day then we all went out for a cruise on the Singapore river (the before mentioned freshwater reservoir).  We learned even more stuff about the city and got great river views.  After the cruise we stopped of and got a snack and a beverage before dinner and the girls played in some fountains and got totally soaked but they dried out quick as it was so hot.

On Friday we took the day off school for good Friday and headed to the River Safari with Arika and Anjali and had a wonderful day exploring all the animals, including a pair of Pandas, a jaguar and a bunch of manatees.

The next morning we had brunch with Arika at a fun place which had an Easter egg hunt, a bouncy house, and face painting. We then packed our bags before heading out to the airport.  Our immigration exit from the country was a taste of the future, we walked up to a kiosk and scanned our passport then a camera attempted to identify us through face recognition, it was interesting but didn’t work for Mimi but they let us go anyway.  Off to Bali and Easter with the worldschoolers.

We woke up before dawn to catch the ferry from Penang to mainland Malaysia where we would catch the train to Kuala Lampur.  I had wanted to take more trains on the continent, but we had either not been able to reserve ticket due to Tet in Vietnam or they had not been cost effective or it just didn’t fit with our travel itinerary, but we finally got to take one to the capital city in KL.  We boarded the ferry to the main land and were treated to a beautiful sunrise, another perk of complex travel plans.

We had no trouble catching our train in fact we were an hour and a half early, we reserved seats all together with the Gallamoy’s and had nine seats in a car.  It was great fun for the kids to run around and everyone was pretty well behaved.  The train had a top speed of around 135 km/hr but we had lots of stops to make so it took the better part of 4 hours.  It was very comfortable, and it was great to see the country side although it was mostly palm tree plantations.  We arrived Once in KL we took the subway and then walked to our Airbnb and settled into our abode for the next 5 days or so.  Our place was located in a high-rise apartment and it was having plumbing issues in one of the rooms with sewer gas, so it was the best stay, but we made do.

We decided that we were going to take the rest of the week off school, for spring break because we were with our friends, at home the break comes a week later so we aren’t that far off schedule.  After getting food from a grocery store we ate dinner at home for the first day it what seemed like ages (about three months) and relaxed that night.

Our first full day we went to the KLCC park located at the base of the Patronus towers the 8^th largest buildings in the world depending on what criteria you rely on and played in their giant playground before cooling off in the pool/fountain play area. We were going to the science museum, but it was too packed due to the schools having the day off so we just ate lunch and went to the book store.  Maddy and I got a date night that night as a birthday present (thanks Seamus and Pam).  We had appetizers at an Irish bar then went to the Sky bar which looks out toward the Petronus Towers, we had drinks that were way overpriced.  The kids were apparently all down at the fountains and if we had binoculars we probably could have found them.  We walked around a bit more then had noodles and then got home before 10pm.

The next day we got back on the school train after a week off, it was painful, but we got some things finished before everyone back at home went on spring break, Julie had tutoring as well.  The rest of the day was ipads and swimming.  Pam and Maddy had a girls night out and Seamus and I took the kids to this great food truck area, which had great food for the kids and tons of options for us, even good burritos and tacos.  Every meal was about 8 ringgit or just over a 1 USD.

On Saturday we scheduled a day of tours; first we were off to Batu caves, which was a huge set of limestone caves one with a hindu temple dedicated to Murugan the god of war and victory.  We climbed 272 steps up to the temple, we carried pails off sand up the steps to help with the ongoing construction of the temples, gave us more exercise too.  There was also a longer cave that housed lots of bats and was known to be a guano-based ecosystem (the bugs and spiders all subsist on bat poop).  Mimi and I didn’t have time to do a tour so we were a bit sad.

We had to stay on schedule and headed out toward the coast to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park where we fed Silver Leaf Monkeys and visited a British fort, where there were great views of the Malacca Straight.  The Silver Leaf Monkeys are able to be fed because they have a much less aggressive disposition, although they still like to jump on top of your shoulders.

We had dinner and then a small boat ride where we saw the famous fireflies.  They were a bit smaller than the ones we have at home and they were synchronized in their blinking.  They were also isolated to particular trees where apparently they eat slugs by injecting digestive acids and then eating the partially digested slugs.  Pictures didn’t come out though.

The next day we struggled to get the kids out of the house, we finally made it to the pool and the kids got some of their energy out; had more dinner at the food cart area and just generally relaxed.

Our last day in KL and Malaysia we visited the KL bird park, a fascinating large park with tropical birds walking around, we had a great time and learned about birds.  We even rescue a bird when we found a stork that had it’s foot caught, we told the staff and they snipped the plastic off its foot and was free again.  Our last night in town we went took the kids out to the fountains, then packed up all our stuff.  We had a bit of a tearful goodbye to our new travel besties and we area headed off to Singapore.

The next morning we got up early to board our plane to Singapore we lived one of those AGGGGHHHH moment when we got to the airport and realized that we booked the tickets to Singapore for April instead of March. #%$^#%!!!!  Maddy and I realized that we both were partially to blame as we both had our hands on the reservation.  We got a new flight, had to eat the other reservation because it was a low price airlines.  I would say avoid Scoot, they hung up on me even though I was very polite.

The call to prayer hung in the air like a melodic cultural marker as we sipped our tea in the Beautiful Jawi Perankan Mansion and daydreamed about the curry to come.  Penang turned out to be our fifth UNESCO World Heritage site, it was the place where the British East India Company ruled the spice trade in Malaysia in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  The main city of Georgetown was named after King George III and it had wonderful architecture with Asia/Indian/Malay influence with a British vibe overlaid with Islam.  Lots of Chinese temples, street art and cheap food eateries dotted the town, tea was readily available in the afternoon and the hot sun never seem to abate.

This mix of cultures makes it evident that at least this part of Malaysia is very tolerant of cultures and religions, that’s a good sign.  We splurged a bit on our accommodations, staying in a old carriage house that has been remodeled with modern conveniences and old world style.  We loved our Mansion and we were within a half block of really cheap food; a dollar and quarter for amazing dumpling soup and chicken.

After settling into our rooms and meeting up with the Gallamoy’s we partook in a few adult beverages then wandered next door for tapas and spaghetti for the kids.  We tucked in the kids and sent them off to sleep with shamrock dreams.

The next day was St. Patrick’s day after eating breakfast we planned our stroll around town, visiting some of the famous street art, Chinese temples and tranquil jetty’s all the while Seamus and I planned our strategy for watching the Ireland vs England rugby match at an Irish pub.

We at dinner with the families and put the kids to bed and hopped an Uber for Healy Mac’s Irish Pub.  There was good celebratory atmosphere for the game (good crack as the Irish say) and the Irish put on a dominant rugby performance and claimed an undefeated six nations season.  We dragged ourselves back home and chatted with some other St Patrick’s day celebrants until some Russian guests thought we were too loud and we decided to head to bed.

I got to sleep in the next day until about 9 but did make it to breakfast to wish Caroline a happy birthday and received some nice birthday wishes myself.  Caroline and I decided we would continue our sushi lunch tradition from last year and recruited Mimi, Mia and Pamela for a lovely lunch of salmon niguri and edamame.  We went home for swimming and then had cake and presents, Caroline got some jewelry and some clothes, and I got a GoPro for filming our adventures.  We couldn’t be bothered to go out for dinner that night, so we ordered out for pizza and watched the last two movies in the Harry Potter movies and headed to bed.

The next day we visited fort Cornwallis and St. George Church; the girls went to another 3D museum (check facebook for those photos) and wandered a bit of the historic Georgetown area.  It was too hot to stay out very long so we headed back to our pool and got some quick lunch; lots more soups, chicken pot pies and bok choy.

The next day was our day for visiting a new adventure park and water park called ESCAPE.  We arrived at the park at 10 and went straight for the rock climbing and obstacle canopy course.  The kids had to push themselves a bit at first but they had great fun on the structures.  I was drenched with sweat in the first 20 minutes.  We figured out that the kids couldn’t go on the longest zip lines and Caroline was a bit distraught and shed a few tears.  We were bummed for an hour or so until we encountered the operations manager by chance and he cheerfully scooped us up and said come with me I will take you personally.  He brought us to a closed course where we were the only people allowed and completed 6 really great zip lines, one of which was at least 150 feet in the air and was giving Maddy and I a bit of a queasy stomach, but Caroline was awesome and loved every minute.

By the time lunch rolled around we had to guzzle down several bottles of water and headed to the water park to cool off.  We submerged ourselves for a bit then headed off for some of the water slides and water obstacles.  I got to try out my new GoPro and let the kids record some of the small slides and pools.  We had a great day but we were all completely exhausted and collapsed into bed.  Then next day our first train ride to KL!!

Our boarding process for getting on the ferry to Langkawi was a pretty drawn out, first we stood on the beach in the hot sun for what seemed like forever waiting for the passengers to disembark.  We then boarded one long boat to take us to a large ferry.  We had been told they typically have two long boats to bring people to the ferry and only had one that day so the process took at least an hour longer.  We were in the front of the line (we learned our lesson) and finally got on the boat and into air-conditioning as we waited for everyone else to get on board, but we finally got on our way to Malaysia and to our fifth country of the trip.

Langkawi is a large island with quite a bit of tourism, beautiful sandy beaches and lots of areas to watch the sunset.  I wish we had spent more than a day there, someone had advised us that it was very similar to the other islands along the Thai Coast but it seems a bit more affluent.  Our only activity on the island was to head to the Sky Cab a huge gondola or Teleferico depending on your country.  It took you to one of the highest points on the island with a huge sky bridge overlooking a massive untouched jungle.  The rocks were interesting as well, some of the oldest in the country with 550 million year old pre-Cambrian sandstone and conglomerates.  Langkawi is also the place where the Malaysian people are said to have originated from.

On our way home from the Sky Cab we took in a 3D art museum as well and encountering a water monitor at the bottom of the Sky Cab.  I would not have liked to be in the water with that lizard.

I would surely have like to spend more time on the island but we were heading to Penang to meet up with the Gallamoy’s so no dilly dallying.  The next morning we hopped on a jet to the island of Penang.

On the eve of our leaving Thailand I would be remiss if I didn’t take a look back at the food in the Indochina or mainland Southeast Asia. The peoples, cultures and ingredients on this peninsula make it arguably the best food on the planet. We enjoyed food from each of the country we have visited: Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.  All had some great dishes but Thailand has to be our favorite. From Tom Yom Goong (soup) to Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) to grilled fish and the curry.

Our cooking class in Chiang Mai was amazing, all the dishes were incredible and the girls even tasted many of them. Maddy’s favorite was probably the Penang curry.  I am obsessed with the soups, I was a bit disappointed with pho in Vietnam, although crispy pork made up for it.

The seafood has been amazing in most places, loved the grilled prawns and fried squid were a big hit with the girls.  We have loved the street food especially in Bangkok, it is usually really inexpensive and has not gives us intestinal distress to date.  The hot pots have been especially fun, we have seen a few varieties, like the ones in Luang Prabang and Hanoi. In Luang Probang they had an amazing buffet of uncooked food and you boiled whatever you wanted in a soup of noodles and broth, spices and straight up cubes of fat, really whatever you wanted in them.  Hanoi they just brought you heaping plates of veggies and meat.  Both were fantastic gatherings for the family.

The girls didn’t always try all the food but 1 or two times a week we were forced to have an all Asian food meal and they would try things and actually liked some dishes especially Mimi, we have had refusals more often than not. Here are a few recipes from our cooking class that were our favorites. See you in Penang, Malaysia.

After saying goodbye to our friends we hopped on a high-speed boat to Koh Lipe, it was probably a 25 foot boat with 3 outboard motors.  We made the mistake of getting in line for the boat last and we all had to sit apart from each other and I had to sit in the back of the boat near the motor for a three hour ride.  I had a bit of ringing in my ears and inhaled exhaust fumes for a few hours afterwards but it ended up being just fine.  Our place was only a few hundred feet up the beach but we had to purchase national park tickets and had to endure some pretty hot sun and whinny kids before we arrived.  Our place in Koh Lipe was without air-conditioning which despite the heat it was fine a few fans and a cool breeze off the ocean at night.  The beach was beautiful and there was a great walking street for food, trinkets and dive shops galore.  Very beautiful island in all.

Maddy and Caroline went running on our first morning on the island, they said they did two miles and saw a couple of beaches.  I later ran up the tallest peak until the trail became jungle and decided to turn around.  I did get an idea of the geology; it appears to be a big chunk of granite sticking out of the ocean.  There were lots of rounded sugar loafs or rounded granite lumps about twice the size of people.  There are several other small islands in the area but many of them are not as populated as Koh Lipe and are likely to be part of the protected National Park located in the area, preventing much development.

I went for a snorkel in the afternoon and found a bit of coral and fish just off the coast, there were sea urchins, so the girls would not go near the water.  We found a pool at a fancy resort next door and strolled over in the afternoon for happy hour and enjoyed a swim.  We grabbed some street food and NYC style pizza for the kids around dinner time, then Maddy and the twins went shopping for birthday presents while Caroline and I headed for home.

The next day Maddy went scuba diving and I completed school with the kids.  Maddy finished just around 1 and then joined us for lunch.  Maddy said she enjoyed the dive and saw lots of fish even though her visibility wasn’t the greatest, but no sharks or stingrays.  We enjoyed some beach time and ipad time before heading to our favorite pool spot.  For dinner we went to a local grilling place and had roasted crab and grilled fish, I inadvertently ordered some Tom Yom goong (with shrimp) that was blisteringly spicy, it didn’t go all that well.  The next day I got a chance to dive in the waters around Koh Lipe and had a lovely couple of dives despite my dive master giving me trouble that I was breathing too much; that’s what happens when you are 6’3” and 230lbs.  My dive master was probably no more than 120 lbs.  Oh well, I did see some great coral, a cat eye shark and a sting ray.  Our last night we took in an amateur fire show and then packed our things for the ferry to Malaysia the next morning.

We arrived in Koh Lanta after a two hour ferry boat ride, the boat was a larger multi-layered vessel, we had plenty of room despite meeting up with 4 boats near Ao Nang to pick up additional passengers.  We arrived at the island without reservations, which is not like us, we were advised by our world-schooling friends that the place we were planning on staying at was not great, so we cancelled.  So hopped on the Koh Lanta Tuk Tuk equivalent, a motor bike with a large side car that fit all of us and our bags.  We arrived at long beach and after walking around for a bit we found two nice rooms near the beach and settled in.  It wasn’t long before we ran into our friends the Foxes and Enfields.

We had almost every meal with the group and enjoyed their company for the week and even met another family the Wooleys.  It was also good to have long discussions with other families about how and where they are travelling.  The slow vs fast travel, luggage and world schooling.  We are apparently on the fast travelling pace, with minimal luggage and our amount of luggage and a far more defined curriculum for school.  I am very happy with our type of travelling especially the schooling and all the support from  our great school district at home.  I feel like they are being exposed the to the same amount of worldly travel but they are getting more specific studies than we did last year.

Our rooms were very close to Long Beach in a small enclosed beach area, we ended up knowing lots of the restaurants and stores.  The mini-mart was our favorite place for quick food.  The kids learned to walk out and buy food on their own, how independent!  Our first night on the beach we wandered around looking at the hermit crabs that came out at night and then watched a fire show before heading to bed.

The next morning Nyall, the father of the Canadian family, and I exercised by swimming in the ocean along the beach, it was good to get some exercise in such a beautiful place.  Long beach was perfect for the kids too, except that there seems to be some sea lice which feels like someone is rubbing sand on your skin.  We spent the week playing in the water and hunting hermies, as we called the crabs, and watching beautiful sunsets over Long Beach. The adults enjoyed hanging out especially after putting the kids to bed as our rooms were close enough to allow for late night shenanigans.

Monday, after school Maddy took the kids to a local animal humanitarian facility to visit lots or cats and dogs.  I was lucky enough to opt out and went in search of dive shops.

On Wednesday we arranged to go to a new water park in the area.  We went with the 4 families packed ourselves into a big truck across to the northern island of Lanta Noi.  We only paid 500 baht for our family (about $16) a total deal.  The water park was a series of bouncy house blow up structures. I have not seen a water park quite like it; lots of slides and a huge pool for jumping on other blow up structures.

We enjoyed our time and mostly completed school and lounged on the beach.  We found a good pool to frequent by Thursday and enjoyed the afternoons.

By Sunday I finally reserved a day to go diving and Nyall joined me, Maddy didn’t want to endure the 3 hour boat ride.  We tried to go to the best dive site in the area Bin Huang but we were thwarted by rough waves and we had to settle for Koh Ha.  Unfortunately it seems like everyone else on the island was there too, including a huge boat Chinese divers.  Nyall and I had fun though and the diving was very good.

The next day we said goodbye to Long beach and our friends, although we are making plans to meet us with all three of them later.  We packed our stuff and set off for Koh Lipe.

We finally got to the beaches in Thailand and they are awesome!  We stayed in the town of Ao Nang on the western coast of Thailand after flying into Krabi.  The weather is really toasty hot, in the 90’s with lots of sunshine, we will be in need of lots of pool and beach time.  Better stock up on the sun screen.  We arrived on Wednesday the 28^th and checked into our bungalow about 3 block from the beach.  We grabbed some dinner and took a stroll down to check out the beach front and the rest of the town.  The next day both Maddy and I took separate jogs down on the beach; it is nice to be somewhere where we are able to do exercise without the potential for getting run down by a moped.  We finished school and then grabbed lunch on the beach, it was a bit pricey, but it afforded us access to a pool, so we enjoyed that until the girls fought over our new inner tube and we had to leave.

We hired a long boat to take us to Railay Beach and, I love hopping on and off these small boats to get us to different islands; they just pull up on the beach and drop you in the shallow water.  The long boats have essentially a car engine mounted on a pole with a propeller extending into the water.  The views of the area were incredibly spectacular, huge limestone cliffs, that looked like they were melting.  Once we got to Railay Beach we walked 20 minutes through the jungle to visit the Ao Phra Nang Beach, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the area.  It was gorgeous, with a huge over hanging wall of limestone and stalactites.  The ocean was very calm, and we didn’t have to worry about the girls being in the ocean.  We just kicked back and relaxed on the white coral beach.

After returning from Railey Beach we grabbed dinner at one of the Indian restaurant in town, it was the beginning of Holi, a Hindu holiday celebrating the first full moon after the new year.  We didn’t see much organized celebrations, although they weren’t serving alcohol at all for the day due to the holiday.  We also didn’t stay up very later because everyone was very tired after an awesome day at the beach.  The next day was Friday and we finished up school for the week and decided that we would explore the pools in town and got a deal on a barbecue dinner and access to a nice pool so we got plenty of time to try out our new pizza floatie.

The next day we booked a four island cruise to Chicken Island (Ko Po Da Nok), Ko Tup and Ko Poda, (I’m not sure what the fourth island was).  We had a great day playing in the water of chasing little fish and floating on the ocean.  We ate lunch on the beach, then went snorkeling just off one of the islands.  The kids enjoyed it and are getting a little bit better, but Julie and Caroline are still scared of the sea urchins.  We got a bit of sun on the beach that day despite re-applying sunscreen three times.  We are obviously not used to the hot sun this close to the equator, we will have to do better job staying out of the sun.  The next day we boarded a ferry south along the coast for Koh Lanta to meet up with some of our other world schooling friends.