Blogs from Langkawi, Malaysia, Asia - page 23

Day 25: Langkawi Island It was J’s birthday and we started the celebration with some warm, just baked buns from the bakery downstairs and some fresh milk from the duty-free shop. As it was Malaysia, some of these buns were cheese and some were peanut butter, jelly and raisin. A truly perfect breakfast in bed. We set off biking to a black-sand beach we’d heard about on the north shore, but once again, we didn’t know exactly how far it was. Apparently none of the usual visitors to this island had any need for a map with exact distances because we couldn’t acquire one anywhere. Each map we found not only didn’t have exact distances listed, it wasn’t even drawn to scale. We may have been the first tourists to arrive on the islands with bikes, ... read more

I was summoned to spend six weeks working in the thriving Sarawakian capital of Kuching in late 1995, and I somehow managed to convince Issy to join me for the last three of those weeks. We had our then two offspring in tow - Scott aged nearly three, and Emma at eleven months. It wasn't still winter in Melbourne, so I'm not sure what Issy was thinking. I'm not too sure what I was thinking either for that matter. We had two interconnecting hotel rooms, but the establishment was an unachievable hike from the city centre. We didn't have access to a car, so Issy was cooped up 24/7 with two restless toddlers whilst I enjoyed the relative luxury of working in an office. I'm not at all sure how she coped. I thought I'd try ... read more