The real holiday

So, the All Blacks won. Congratulations! Should be good for the NZ psychie and NZ'ers everywhere. But that is all the comment I can make as I didn't watch the game. I had a much more adventurous weekend.

Saturday was 'D' day for my root canal, and I had to go to a whole 'nother country to get it done. Well I didn't have to but chose to. I had spoken to two girlfriends about it here and they were most distressed that I was going over to Malaysia by myself to have this done. I put on a brave face and said that I was just going to catch a taxi over and then back again, easy! What I was astonished by, was the fact that neither of them knew that there was a taxi service which did this. And that it was only $10 SGD per person in a shared taxi or $40 SGD for the whole cab, one way of course.

And it was that easy.

I went to Queen Street, near Bugis, which is where all the local buses and Taxi's leave from for Malaysia. 10 mins wait and off I go. It took an hour from getting in the taxi to the taxi depot in Jahor Bahru (JB). Easy as. The best bit for me was not having to get out of the Taxi and go through customs, then get back in the Taxi drive across the causeway, get out and go through Malaysian customs and then get back in the taxi and head into town. Which is how it goes if you do the trip in the bus. Yes, it is cheaper, around $3.00 one way, but it adds about 40 mins to the trip, if not more depending on the time of day.

Upon arriving in JB, I was promptly ripped off. No international travel is complete without being conned. I hadn't been to JB for about 10 years and while trying to get my bearings a taxi tout got me. 10 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) to a shopping mall. Well, hell why not, I had no idea where I was. Turns out the mall was around the corner. If he had been on the meter it would have cost about 3 MYR, and yes they do use their meter. Oh, he just got me at a weak moment.

Shop I did. Well I wandered around the mall and tried on many clothes and shoes. But no go. But McDonalds was good for lunch.

I then ventured out just in time for a tropical downpour. Actually it was good timing, not that I knew this. I needed to be at the dentist in 30mins and thought I may as well find a taxi since there was no point in walking. Turns out that the dentist is in JB, but greater JB. About a 30min ride from central where I was.

Yay, made it.

Other than the tradition of taking my shoes off at the door, the clinic was fine. Clean, modern and everything I needed or I should say the dentist needed.

As I lay back in the chair, with the drill whining in my ear, I realised that I felt like I was on holiday. I had had a whole day without my son. This is the first time in over 2 years. It was liberating.

Since when did going to the dentist become relaxing and not nearly as fearsome as I remembered it to be. Lucky, I get to go back another 2 times.

The return trip was equally easy. I did have to get the receptionist at the dental clinic to tell the taxi where I was headed. It is hard to talk when half your face is numb. I was home about 8pm.

All in all it wasn't nearly as traumatic as I expected.

Long over due

Hello,


I did the most awesome exercise class on Tuesday and still can't walk properly. I just thought you'd find that amusing. 


There is this bunch of women who meet on a Tuesday morning at the botanical gardens here and do a class. It's about 6 women and an instructor, almost like a PT session but heaps cheaper. 


The instructor made me (us) run (I don't run), push up's moving from side to side, lunges. Frog jumps, what the hell? They suck and I am sure that's why I'm still sore, it is Thursday as I write this. Rowing with bands and all sorts of other unbearable torture. 


The bit that a lot have people would have disliked, is the fact that it is at 9am in the morning and the temp is already 30 with 80-90% humidity. 


It was a total shock to my system. I haven't done anything proper (well ever) but in terms of exercise, since before I had my son, so about 3 years ago.


I LOVED IT and will be going again and every time I hurt afterwards I will think of my personal trainer back in NZ. What a legacy she left me with. 


Otherwise it's all ok here. Hubby's work is trying to kill him and it maybe working. He has had a very full on week with 3 late nights and now he can't get out of bed cos of the flu. He has to get out of bed cos he has to have a dr's cert to have a sick day.


He sagely informed me that it was the 'Man flu' as he sat in the middle of the lounge while I was attempting to mop the floor around him.


My son is a delight today, but I won't go on as I may jinx things.


Off to Malaysia on Sat to get my tooth fixed. Seriously infected root canal a couple of weeks ago, which caused my face to swell. 


It's a 3rd of the price to have it done in Malaysia compared to here. I just hope that doesn't mean they only do a third of the work. 


The monsoon season seems to have arrived early. We are having daily thunderstorms (which I love). I am not so keen on the rain, but umbrella's do work here. That's a novelty. I will know that I have assimilated, when I start using an umbrella as a sun shade. No, not a parasol. 


Other ground breaking news is that the Nana, Hubby's Mum, is coming to visit. Should be interesting. More on that as it unfolds. Ok, time to go and do stuff. 

Picture of Mum with her suppurating abscess. Drawn by hubby with embellishments by son.

Holiday, what holiday?

Yay, we went on holiday. It's taken a few days recovery. Travelling with a 2 year old is intense. He has needed recovery too. The journey up was rather uneventful. We went to Tioman island which is an island 54 kms off the West coast of Malaysia. We caught the bus up to Tanjung Gemok, about 4 hours bus ride from Singapore. The travel agents will quote you 3 hours, but remember that there is 2 lots of customs and inevitably there will be a late comer which we all have to sit and wait for. Yep. Not the best when you have a toddler who you know is on a time limit. From Tanjung Gemok to Tioman it's about a 2 hour ferry ride. Again, you will be told that it is an hour and a half, but take that with a grain of salt.

We stayed at the Berjaya Resort. It was easy. The food was reasonable and they had everything you could possibly want. You didn't have to leave the resort, which is good as Tioman is not a huge, happening metropolis. It is a tropical paradise, perfect for beaching, snorkeling, diving and other water sports. On that note, I was very impressed that they banned jet ski's and other fast motor boat sports, all in the name of conservation and preservation.

Here is a dump of the photo's that we took.

This was the 2nd pool. It has a shallow paddling pool for little ones. The other pool had two water slides and a pool bar, but my son liked this one.

Ahhhh.

Caters to families.

The room was basic, but had air conditioning, fan and a TV.

This is what we looked out on from our room.

Perfection. The island you can see is called Renggis Island, lots of snorkeling happens there.

What a beach.

Obligatory palm tree.

My son didn't really grasp the idea of the beach holiday, which didn't make it a restful break. But it was a break none the less. Hubby got go snorkeling for 4 hours and that was his holiday. Bless. He swam with sharks and everything. I snuck in a few chapters of my book. It was wonderful to swim in the sea.

Oh, god. There are lots of celebrations going on in Singapore at the moment and there is constant drumming going on outside our windows. Starts at about 3pm and goes until 11pm. Frazzling.

The journey back wasn't nearly as smooth as the one over. The ferry was 2 and a half hours late and no one kept us informed, so we spent the time at the ferry terminal to afraid to go and explore in case we missed the ferry. This then meant that the bus was late and so on and so on.

We learnt a couple of things. 

Number 1.My son gets car sick and chose to show us by throwing up on my husband. We couldn't change either of them until the bus stopped, about an hour after the event. It wasn't pleasant.

It was after 10pm by the time we got home that night, and were shattered. It was a rough day. 

Number 2, take the plane. There is a plane that gets you to the island. It takes about an hour from Singapore to Tioman, which is a good thing with a toddler. Take the plane, take the plane.

Ok, have been distracted by the drums. Am off.