Malaysia! I think this is our longest stay in one country at 29 days... The stats lady will confirm I'm sure. Beth and I have great memories from Malaysia, but we are breaking new ground by our venture into Borneo, where we landed today. Borneo has caused quite the confusion with the kids.... It's not a country, and it's not all in Malaysia, so here it is, so they can refer back. Borneo is the huge island in the middle of Southeast Asia that is shared by 3 countries - Indonesia has the southern 2/3rds of the island with the four East, West, Central and South Kalimantan provinces. Malaysia has 2 huge provinces - Sarawak in the West and Sabah in the East. Little Brunei is the third country, and it's kind of in the middle of Sarawak and Sabah. Got it? Good.
We landed in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak at around 2:30pm. We enjoyed a nice Starbucks breakfast and a good stroll around the Singapore airport (** some call it the best airport in the world - nope. Hong Kong and Tokyo are better in our group's opinion! We didn't like how each gate had a security clearance (instead of having one or multiple big security clearance areas for entrance into the terminal) - you couldn't bring drinks into your gate, and you couldn't really leave to go the washroom very easily without going through security again... Annoying).
We have a pretty big apartment in a managed apartment/hotel property for the next five nights. We have lots of breathing room, and the place is pretty clean, though dated. We even have a kitchen and laundry machine (which we have had two successful service calls on today :-)).
It's pretty sleepy today - it's the day after Ramadan ended, and the 2nd and last day of Hari Raya, a national holiday (luckily not for the Chinese so a few stores and restaurants were open!). Beth and Robin opted to have instant noodles for dinner while Abby and I ventured out.
We walked down to the waterfront, which is nicer than I'd expected. Though it was mostly really quiet, there is quite a bit of character here - I'm pleasantly surprised. We circled back, found an indoor mall that had some activity so we found dinner there and picked up some supplies at a grocery store. Abby and I walked back through the tourist/backpacker area where we noticed there were quite a few more restaurants ignoring the national holiday. It was great to explore with Abby on our own - she is quite the adventurer and is always up for a walk to check out new surrounds.
We have an activity planned for the morning tomorrow which should be great. After that? Who knows! We have a fun few weeks ahead with our friends (the Versly, remember?!) coming on Abby's birthday which is Monday. Can't wait!
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