From a while back, I had wanted to plan a short getaway for right after Christmas. Only Christmas Day itself is a public holiday here. The thought of Mike having to work the day after Christmas just felt depressing to me! So, rather pack up and go on holiday! :-)
We rented a car and decided to road trip up to Malacca in Malaysia. It was really fun! Just being in a car again and driving around felt sort of fun and exciting to us - it's been a while! We probably picked the exact worst days to try and go though immigration at the border. What should have been about a 3-4 hour trip took us 6 hours, both coming and going! But, the kids did well in the car and we were happy to be together!
We fill up a while car now! :-)
Lewis rides in the middle so he doesn't get car sick as easily...plus that helps David to be safe from an overly adoring middle brother! :-)
We were stuck in traffic at the border for 2 hours...just standstill. The baby had to nurse! What's a mom gonna do?!? Actually, I'd say in general our car safety has been severely compromised since coming to Singapore. We just hop in and out of cabs, no car seats, no boosters. It's probably not a good thing, but I have to admit that it feels rather liberating to me! ;-)
Here are some photos from our time there.
The first night we had dinner by the river and wandered by the night market a bit.
The second day was lots of exploring, seeing the architecture, visiting lots of temples and mosques, and sampling some local favorites. We visited a great museum that showed the life of a family there from times past. We found an amazing Belgian chocolate shop when I needed somewhere cool to nurse.
The river is quite pretty.
The center of Malacca is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was really neat and fantastic architecture with all sorts of colonial influences. We did realize how Singapore has skewed our view, because the little city seemed much more run down than we had expected. In hindsight, it was great and should have been probably better than expected. But, coming from clean and perfectly maintained Singapore, it was a surprise!
The decorated tuk tuks are very popular! A good number of them were blasting "Let It Go", or some other music. They have neon lights at night. The kids got a real kick out of them!
This may have been the best thing we discovered here...potato twist on a stick! Our Idaho man had to document every step...he's considering taking this business home! :-)
Beau was asleep in the stroller, but Lewis loved these. We gave him some money and he stood in line all by himself to order one for himself at the end!
The "Floating Mosque" was probably our favorite stop of the day. It was really beautiful.
On Sunday morning, after quite a bit of effort, we managed to find the local branch. They were actually showing the Christmas Devotional instead of regular services, and we had seen that at our own ward a couple weeks prior. But, they offered us their potluck lunch before we left and we visited for a while. It was nice!
Finally a tuk tuk ride for us! Both boys, of course, had to ride in Superman. So, Mike and I snagged the Hello Kitty and rode behind.
We visited the Maritime Museum before leaving town. It's all in an old ship, or pirate ship, and Lewis and Beau called it! They liked that a lot!
On our drive home, we stopped by this seconds ceramic factory place. They make Spode, Dansk, Clayton and other china sets. We set the kids up with bubbles and let them play in the rental car while Mike and I browsed all the hundreds of patterns. It was fun!
Then we battled even longer lines of cars at immigration (the Sunday evening right after Christmas!). But, it all worked out and we made it home!
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| Beau on the way home |
