From Redang

Complete lack of blogging in KL, mainly because we were too busy ‘mall-ratting’ as Mr  C calls it. We arrived on Thursday, after a mercifully not too stressful flight, Suhayb slept through most of it and was trying to charm the other passengers the rest of the time. Because of the swine flu scare we had to go through a health check at the airport and all the staff were wearing face masks. Mr C had a temperature of 38 degrees C so he had to have it checked again, but it was normal the rest of the time. In the city itself though, it was business as usual.

We stayed in a luxurious hotel thanks to a third night free deal online – huge room with flatscreen TV and  truly amazing breakfast buffet. They had a shuttle service to the KLCC mall, next to Petronas Towers, so that was where we first headed to meet my sister-in-law and family who were already in KL . The malls are full of really high end fashion brands, and although there were plenty of people milling around, it didn’t seem like people were buying anything. I didn’t actually bother going into the shops much myself as they were just unrealistic, but there were a couple of really interesting antique/traditional crafts shops which were good.

We packed in a lot of stuff in our three days: we went to the Bird Park, the Chinese and Indian areas, Putrajaya and Shah Alam Mosque, as well as Petronas Towers of course.  The weather is really hot and humid, but quite bearable, and it’s nice to be able to go out in the evening without having to wrap up, especially with a baby. KL is very baby friendly, even the nicest restaurants have highchairs, and all the malls have baby changing/feeding areas.

The markets were packed because it was Labour Day on Friday, and everyone was on holiday. The street food looked very tempting, but I thought it might be better not to chance it as we were going to be coming to Redang Island. The journey was pretty gruelling, we had to wake up at 4am, be at the airport by 6am, then off the plane and to the ferry station by taxi, then on the ferry and a 15 minute walk to the resort. The island is absolutely idyllic, or would be if it wasn’t for the other tourists cluttering up the place!  Clear turquoise sea, soft sand, palm trees and colourful boats in the water. After our stunning hotel in KL though, this one has taken a bit of getting used to – its ok but fairly basic in terms of furnishings and bathroom, and the food isn’t great but I suppose that is partly the point – if this island had lots of high end 5 star resorts, it wouldn’t be the same place.

I went diving this morning, 3 years after my last dive. I was trying to look up how to do my diving checks online, but I couldn’t really work it out in time. Luckily, the instructor, Rina, went through everything and also controlled the buoyancy for me, so I didn’t really need to know much. We went to the dive site by speedboat, which was a fun experience in itself, and then dived down to about 14m. Most of it came back to me, although I was a bit worried about trampling on the coral! I don’t think I did though. The dive was incredible – it was like being in a documentary. We saw a barracuda, bumphead fish, parrotfish, and a shark, as well as lots of tiny pretty colourful fish. There was a biggish one which looked like it had eyeshadow on I always have a big problem equalising the pressure in my ears, so it was quite painful for at least the first 10 minutes. Even now (2 hours later), my ears are still hurting a bit! So I think one dive will be enough for now.  Mr C is going to do a Discover Dive this afternoon, and tomorrow we may go on  a snorkelling trip.

A few photos:

Petronas Towers

Petaling St

Skybridge

Bird Park

Shah Alam

Interior Shah Alam

Redang

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