Penang, Return to Singapore and Home

We woke up in Penang at around 6 in the morning. We got ready and dad took a walk with Chizo and took some pictures while on that quiet, peaceful, early morning walk. The streets were quiet and the shops still closed.

Once everyone was ready to go,  all went our to the hotel's café. It was a hearty breakfast and the bus/taxi driver was ready to pick us up. We had a nice talk in the bus with the driver about Singapore in which we were headed again.

We arrived at the airport, got checked in to our Air Asia flight to Singapore. It was a lovely flight. It marked the last of our four local/regional flights: to KL; Langkawi; Penang and back to Singapore.

At the baggage claim in Singapore, we collected 2 of our bags but 1 was still out there for about 15 minutes until we finally spotted our last piece of baggage. By then, we had realized that our train tickets were lost. We finally agreed to take a taxi to get to Hotel Amara, Singapore. We had a very interesting and chatty driver; he told us of the term "Fine City"; the city will fine you for even the most minor transgressions, including littering and damaging the flowers and trees on the street. Multiple littering offense results in task of sweeping the city for 5 hours on Saturdays.

One immediate observation about the city is how green it is. Tree, flowers and shrubs are at every road, corner, side walks and roof tops. 

Once we got dropped off in the hotel we marveled at the lobby. We went to our rooms and dad was a bit disappointed but we got over it. We looked around our hotel, inspecting every nook and cranny. We saw the pretty pool, but were slightly upset when the letter was read and we learned about the construction.

We went out of the hotel and went to eat at a food center. We had the famous chicken rice in which the well known Anthony Bourdain enjoyed, beef soup, chicken curry, watermelon juice, and sugar cane juice. We all loved the sugar cane juice as it was delicious. It wasn't the best meal because we were scrounging around for the money to pay for everything as dad had not yet changed. The shops here only accepted cash. After a good meal we set off for the Asian Civilization museum. 

We walked down the street, across the river, and across to the museum. We walked into the museum and bought some tickets. We walked up a flight of stairs and made sure to grab the little activity to do on the way throughout the museum. We walked through the list of all the different religions mentioned inside the museum. We walked through exhibits about Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Daoism - Chinese - the main 7 religions in Asia. 

We learned about that and then we learned about the sunken ship containing many Chinese bowls from the Tang Dynasty around 500 - 900. There were many artifacts still intact from the Tang shipwreck, and they are kept preserved.

After the museum, we went towards the Merlion Park with the merlion fountain. We were disappointed when we saw such a small one but then we learned that they're upgrading the larger one.

We then witnessed the light show from the bay and we saw our previous Singapore hotel - Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

The next day, we woke up and got dressed. It was going to be a long day. We ate our breakfast and took city bus to the Sultan Mosque, located on the grounds of the palace last sultan. It was beautiful and imposing structure. We had to take off shoes and put on skirts and robes to cover up. After picture time, we exited. 

We figured out where we were, we walked down Arab Street and saw Haji Lane and took many pictures there. It was a very picturesque street if I do say so myself. 

We walked back and continued towards the church.

We walked towards St. Andrews Cathedral and looked at its magnificence. Amaka pointed out its resemblance to the Notre Dame, Paris. We took multiple pictures. It was so beautiful with white walls and a black ceiling and gothic style windows. We marveled at it.

We went towards the hotel and went into a temple. It was fascinating.

We had to remove our shoes to enter. Afterwards we went into Chinatown and bought some wonderful souvenirs to remember our time in Singapore. We looked and bought and finally, we went towards the same food center as the previous day and all got sugarcane juice.

After sugarcane juice we went towards the Buddhist temple with Buddha's tooth. After looking around the colorful religious pieces, we heard chants: it was worship time.

We walked around and realized we left the book in the cathedral! We decided to finish with the temple and as we were walking out, a service was happening. We went out and after the kids were dropped off at the hotel, mom and dad went to the cathedral to retrieve the library book. 

The kids swam and once mom and dad came home, we decided on what to eat and had a scrumptiously filling dinner at a nearly Japanese restaurant. With the help of the waiter, we were pleased that everyone found something in the menu. Tomorrow was flight day.

We woke up at 5:30 to get ready to go to the airport. We finished packing and met the taxi driver at 6:30. Afterwards, we drove to the airport. We got checked in and were ready for the 14 hour flight to San Francisco. The flight was long but we all enjoyed a few movies. 

We arrived in San Francisco safely. We had about 5 hour layover. So, we went into the Delta Skyclub lounge and had a wonderful time.

Out flight to Minnesota was calming and once we arrived home, we either crashed to the bed in exhaustion or stayed up because it was daytime in Singapore.

Langkawi

After Waking up and enjoying a rigorous breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpor, we finish packing our belongings into our suitcases. We enjoy our last hour in the fancy  hotel. Then we take the taxi with our luggage to the airport. There, after checking in two of our suitcases ,we have to check in a third due to weight issue. After dealing with that problem, the rest of our airport  experience is a smooth ride.

The airplane trip to Langkawi lasted about an hour 5 min. We touched down and headed to the baggage claim. All the luggage came and was fast and efficient.

When we reached Casa del Mar we learned that our bedrooms were not going to be connected the first night because someone had overstayed their visit. Casa Del Mar is a small hotel/resort that si on the beach. where flowers and many palm trees thrive, as well as a pool. Each room has a specific name such as Cermin or Bakau.

During our stay in Langkawi we swam a lot in the pool and took some nice walks on the beach. We got out toes in the sand and got tanned by the pool.

We watched movies - Epic! and The Croods. We drank hot chocolate, colored in coloring books, and played with model magic.

We walked to the ice cream shop for some refreshing ice cream from the heat. We went to a busy seafood restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the food and had a lovely meal.

We took quite a few walks down the white, sandy beach. We found shells, a starfish, and the water was a lovely temperature.

The sunsets were beautiful, though I do admit I wasn't awake early enough to see the sunrises. The sun set quickly, but by the time it was behind the little island mountain, there was a pretty sunset left with all the colors of the rainbow in faint pastel colors except for the vivid red and orange.

They were preparing for an airshow while we were there. We left on the day of it. Every few minutes, there were loud roaring military jets above us. They were sometimes really loud and we felt as if they were flying way too close to the ground. While in the pool Chimdi and Chizo developed a strategy to block out the noise. If the sound is unbearable, put your ears underwater and the sound will become muffled. It was more exciting to see the groups of jets forming a square with 4 jets or an 'X' with 5.