Aaron and I flew to Malaysia in order to find a place to live, secure a school for the kids and learn more about the area that we will be moving to in January.
It was quite an interesting experience!
The first day of our trip Aaron had to go to work the entire day so I relaxed by the pool for a bit and also had an appointment for a massage and facial. Early happy birthday to me :) However, the rest of the week was no vacation. We were busy, busy, busy!
Driving around the northern part of the island where we will be living
The kids will be attending Dalat International School.
It is also a christian based school.
I love the outdoor and carefree feel of the school.
Pictured above is the basketball court and play area.
You can see our condos overlooking the school.
Our building is the one farthest to the left which is also closest to the water.
This is the cafeteria building.
We did not walk down to see the inside of it but it does overlook the sea.
They said that in the cafeteria the students can choose from "Asian and Western" food.
This is my favorite part of the entire school. The middle years kids (like Jaxon) can take the slide down instead of taking the stairs from the upper floor to the ground floor.
This is the main road right in front of the school.
I had to laugh at some of these signs. The picture above is talking about a local, popular fruit that supposedly stinks really bad. So they don't want it taken into the hotel!
The sign below, if you notice, has no 4th floor. Supposedly the number 4 written in chinese means death. So none of the buildings have a 4th, 14th, 24th etc.. floor. Hey, but on this sign it looks like there is no 5th floor. Okay I will have to investigate that one, probably has something to do with this particular building.
There is a small marina a short drive from where we will be living.
The picture above is us approaching Gurney Drive. This is the hot spot for shopping,
eating, movies etc.. We looked at housing in this area but because it is a popular area
it also has lots of traffic on the weekends.
After spending hours looking at housing our friendly and helpful guides took us to
lunch at an outdoor cafe. They ordered all the food you see here below. The picture above is us standing in front of a hawker center, next door to our cafe. Hawker centers are kind of like "food courts" where independent vendors sell their food and you just choose which vendor you want to buy from and sit in a common area together.
After we were done for the day, one of our guides wanted to take us to try a signature treat of Penang. It is called "Chendol. It consists of coconut milk, rice noodles that are colored green, and red beans. It was the strangest thing and I did not like the taste at all!
Our guides were very friendly and wonderful to us.
Photos of our condo...
When you walk in from the front door you enter this long foyer.
Above and below are of the kitchen.
The main living and dining area
This area is behind the family room. We like that if the kids are on the
computer they are still within earshot of us.
We have some fun amenities at the condo.
Here is a small soccer field which leads down to the beach.
We have 3 pools. The one above has a slide.
basketball court
play area
lap pool and an infinity edge pool beyond that
On our last night in Malaysia we finally found the time to hit the famous
night markets. A great place for tourists to find souvenirs and also some
cheap knock off handbags and wallets.
After we arrived back in Sweden I was able to spend a couple of days with Geri before she
flew back to Utah. I was so thankful that she came out to watch our kids for us.
It made our trip so much easier knowing that they were taken care of.
The picture above is the lights on in the city...at about 3pm!
Geri and I in Östermalm. Goodness, I will miss this place!!!
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