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Published: July 21st 2012
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We decided to try a new destination (for us) in Malyasia for our Little Mans first overseas trip - so off to Penang we went. Travelling with our first baby for the first time to somewhere outside of Australia we also went with what is possibly the biggest most child friendly resort on the island - Golden Sands Resort. And it was excellent! The hotel and room was very nice and clean and big with some amazing swimming pools. One of the pools had a sand embankment that slowly got deeper which is absolutly perfect for toddlers. Next door and quite huge in size was some sort of childrens themepark. It was associated with the hotel but i think you had to pay seperatly for it. Our little man at 6 months was too young but it was good to note for possibly the 10 year old range.
The location of the hotel was really good too with heaps and heaps of local cafes and restaraunts around. Right next door and what appeared to be an unused cement building except at lunch time, you could get all sorts of malay or rice meals for a whole AUD$1! At night we'd
venture along the beach for nicer restaraunts and there was a great choice and there was also a food hall about 5 minutes up the road which was good for cheap meals and a range of different meals. We also went out to the famous Hawkers area one night but really i didnt think the food was any different to elsewhere except every tourist on the island was there!
Something we seem to find in Malaysia more than other south east asian countries is the wildlife and we were not let down in Penang. Around the hotels and climbing around trees and powerlines were heaps of monkeys. There were also heaps of lizards and we saw a snake one time come in to the hotel swimming pool to get a drink...but...the weirdest thing we saw was this giant lizard that was over 6 foot long that was swimming around in teh open storm water drain and one day decided to come into the hotel swimming pool! Funnily enough the staff decided to take/ecourage that lizard away 😊
We only did a bit of tourist stuff and one down went to Georgetown to check out the colonial architecture which
always seems strange to see in asian cities. There were some odd shops to visit along the way too - i think one was full of statues of toys!?! We did some shopping and found for the first time how cheap nappies were so came home with a suitcase full of nappies 😊 The little man did get really bad nappy rash though from the humidity and as it was really hot (36ish but humid) we had been leaving him in wet swimming nappies and thats it to help cool him down but turns out that doesnt help with nappy rash - woops! One afternoon we also ventured out to the jetty village which didnt seem very authentic as such but did have some great fresh seafood dineries.
Overall it was an excellent trip and good to see that even a less touristy location that bali or thailand catered for children. We had one small problem however and that was just as we returned home the little man started to get sick. It seemed like a cold or flu but he got really really sick and within 2 days he had massive fevers, was not holding down liquids/solids and
became lethargic and stopped moving at all - so off to Emergency we went and he ended up in ICU for 5 days in an induced coma, on a ventilator and on an antibiotic/antiviral they give for meningitis. It was very scary and the doctors said it could have gone either way but turns out he had RSV virus (the common cold) but it got complicated with a second virus called haemopholis no type that is no longer found in australia so it took them a while to work out what it was to try and fix it. But... 10 days later and the little man was fine and ready to get out of hospital. But...lesson learnt from this trip was to make sure you dont let random people look after you baby as who knows what diseases or hygeine they might have.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Looks great
I know you are having a great time. Looks like you selected the perfect location for the 1st overseas trip.