Malaysia 2010

Once you pop, you can't stop!

2010-04-02T07:01:00.007+02:00

When the initial chock that comes from seeing snow on the ground had finally settled, we began to take in more of our surroundings. Sweden should be very familiar to us both but it actually feels like a strange place on earth right now. Hard to put in words but it's just so very disconnected, dislocated (is that a word?) from the rest of the world.

Our apartment also feels odd. First of all it feels very small. And then white, why is everything white? When we opened up the door to our place for the first time since January it felt more like we were on an apartment show (lägenhetsvisning).

Another strong feeling we get is ... what next? We're sure we'll have great time here (we love Stockholm) and it will be fantastic to meet our family and friends again, but there is so much more out there and we want to see it, we want to see it all! So stay tuned, as many more sunny adventures will be coming. We promise!

But speaking of family and friends and everybody else around the world who was curious about our trip. We wanna thank all of you who paid our blog a visit, actually many of them! Your visits inspired and motivated us to keep the documenting going.

Here is some web statistic from the last two months that we pulled from Google Analytics.

Number of absolute unique visitors: 303
Total number of visits: 1 296 from 21 countries
Average time spent on site: 4:20 minutes
Total number of page views 4 876

Coming to a pirate near you

2010-04-01T13:37:00.004+02:00

The eagle has landed. Once again we have Swedish soil between our toes, or at least we would have if it had not been so frickin cold! What is this people? We thought we had an agreement. You were supposed to have spring up and running by the time we got back, were you not? Well anyway, freezing is nice for a change (not!)

So since it's cold and nasty it seems suitable with some DVD recommendations. Here is our top 3 list of films that we saw and enjoyed while we were away. Followed by 3 crappy movies that we were unfortunate enough to catch, do not repeat our mistake.

THE HIT LIST

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Not every day we see a stop-motion animated film but this one is a must if you're a fan of Wes Anderson, and you should be. George Clooney does the voice of Mr. Fox, a sly chicken stealing family man, (read fox) who gets in trouble with three angry farmers who are tired of sharing their chickens with Mr. Fox. Other voices are done by Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray. Great attention to details, this one you have to see at least twice.

El secreto de sus ojos
Won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2010. Well deserved we think. About a man who when retired tries to solve a murder that happened 30 years earlier but still haunts him in his sleep. Opening today we believe, if you live in Sweden and prefer the big screen.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
It's a comedy OK! And the link above is safe for work. Two friends with cash flow issues comes to the conclusion that making a porno is the answer to all of their problems. Lots of funny quotes can be pulled from this movie but taken out of context they make no sense so you just have to watch it yourself. Remember, watching it tipsy only adds more laughter. From director Kevin "Clerks" Smith.

Close but no cigar: Traitor, Gridiron Gang and Up in the Air.

THE SHIT LIST

Ginostra
So bad, just horrible. This thriller stars Harvey Keitel and Andie MacDowell. The lack of positive review quotes on the cover should have tipped us off but it didn't. Money and more importantly honeymoon time right down the drain.

Public Enemies
What happened here? Solid director Michael Mann plus great actors like Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Martins new favorite (not based on his performance here) Channing Tatum it should add up to a exiting and interesting movie. But no, it adds up to shit, diddly-squat a real sleeping pill. If we want Tommy Gun galore obviously we'll just see Miller's Crossing again.

Today you die
Not fair you say, you can't include a Steven Seagal movie on the list, of course it's gonna suck and therefor should be left out of competition. Right you are, we agree! However, this one is just so bad it's bad even for Mr. Seagal standards. The plot goes as follows Steven Seagal "portrays" Harlan Banks a former thief who is trying to go straight but needs to do one last... f this, who cares.

It's the final countdown

2010-03-31T11:32:00.004+02:00

After being on the road for 62 days, visiting 6 city's in 4 countries it's now time to travel back home to Europe and Stockholm.

Top 4 things we will miss when back in Stockholm (in no particular order)

Restaurant prices - there is no problem going from starving to full for 8 SEK (3 PLN).
Laundry service - so cheap you almost feel ashamed when paying.
Service minded and genuinely nice Malaysian people.
Freshly squeezed orange juice - from 5 SEK (2 PLN) a glass.

Top 4 things we now love about Sweden (in no particular order)

Drinkable tap water.
Right-side traffic without the jams.
Fast Internet connection.
Tunnbrödrulle

Top 4 things we won't miss about Malaysia (in no particular order)

Being followed around in stores by sales clerks
The traffic jams
The lizards
The Absolute Music 5 CD (or whatever was hot 25 years ago) that all stores insists on repeating over and over again.

Most useless thing we packed
Socks. Last time we wore socks it was still January.

Best restaurant we found in Malaysia
La Sal at Pantai Cenang, Langkawi. We have been there 3 times and between the two of us we must have tried half of the dishes on the menu. So it feels safe to say that you can't go wrong at this place. Don't miss out on the drinks either!

Central Market, Kuala Lumpur

2010-03-31T03:03:00.010+02:00

Housed in a sky blue Art Deco building dating from the 1930s, the Central Market or the Cultural Bazaar as it's also known, was formerly the place to go to for the people of Kuala Lumpur when they needed fresh produced food. Today the market focuses more on shopping with Indian, Chinese and Malay ethnic arts and craft shops. Prices never seem unreasonable here but we were told that you have to put your game face on as haggling is necessary. We didn't shop much for ourself per se but we did dig up some great (we hope) finds for close ones back home.

Surroundings of our hotel, just round the corner from the five star Sheraton hotel and suddenly you are hit with these great contrasts.

Inside Central Market, paradise for bargain lovers

On our way back to the hotel

Nelly playing hide and seek with a friendly waitress while mom and dad were eating dinner.

Shoping Spree in Kuala Lumpur

2010-03-29T16:03:00.007+02:00

The trendy shopping district Bukit Bintang is to Kuala Lumpur what Orchard Road is to Singapore but with one major difference. Everything is cheaper in Bukit Bintang. So after a steady breakfast at the Pancake House we hit the new Pavilion mall. It was a successful raid for the whole team. Nelly got away with most stuff as usual, she is after all our MVP. But mom and dad also scored. Dad got a new sweater from Ted Baker and a shirt from Paul Frank. While mom invested in a brand new laptop from Samsungs N-series.

Swedish flag burning in Kuala Lumpur

2010-03-28T03:23:00.003+02:00

As we're sure you know (cause apparently it's front page news in Sweden) a Swedish flag was set on fire outside our country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Protesters demanded action to be taken against cartoonist Lars Vilks and newspapers that published his caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Don't send the marines just yet though, we're safe from harm! But thanks for your kind heads up and shown concern. Here in Kuala Lumpur the event is not even reported by the news. If you try and search The Star Online which is Malaysias biggest newspaper you come up empty. All Swedish related news here are about Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

However it's good to know that the Malaysian government keeps a watchful eye on the media here. News that are not considered to qualify to be public knowledge do not appear in the papers and are not discussed on TV. We don't watch much Malaysian TV, but we spotted immediately that some Amercian movies are being censored here, for example the naughty classic "Sex and the City".

Nelly plus entourage on the move again

2010-03-27T12:58:00.009+01:00

We have crossed the border once again, gone from Singapore to Malaysia. The trip went smooth, just under one hour. Nelly is such a good sport when we're on the move and travelling with AirAsia is a breeze, Lufthansa has a lot they could learn from them.

Singapore was great, we were sad to go. Really expensive though, that's the down side but apart from that we loved it. They have a nice mixture of old and new that harmonize well! People are kind, everything is clean and the whole town just run like clockwork.

Our hotel Sheraton Imperial in Kuala Lumpur is great which is a breath of fresh air cause we really didn't care much for the one we stayed at in Singapore, The Rendezvous.

Here at the Sheraton in KL we have for example a walk-in closet which we turned into Nelly's master bedroom. She's sleeping there right now at the time of writing this, exhausted after a long day. Another great thing about our room is the huge window that goes all the way down to the floor, perfect when traveling with a small one. The view from 27th floor keeps Nelly occupied, sometimes for over 5 minutes. It takes a lot nowadays to amuse her after two months of adventure in Asia.

Singapore by day - Singapore by night

2010-03-26T16:02:00.011+01:00

After exploring Chinatown we took the subway to Clarke Quay for a nice slow cruise on the river.

The Singapore river divides it's host in two equally beautiful parts, the River Planning Area and the River Valley. Practically all land surrounding the river is commercial hot spot. Thus making the river cruise a perfect starting point for those who want to get a quick overview of Singapore.

Singapore by night

After a nice dinner at Clarkes Quay it was time for one last adventure before we'd call it a night.

The Singapore Flyer is the world's largest observation wheel, each rotation takes 30 minutes.

It was a real bitch getting there though cause the free brochure we found at the hotel said the closest subway station was City Hall but failed to mention that you then have to take a special shuttle bus. When we learned this we asked some guy who apparently was a complete idiot how long the bus ride was and he said we could easily walk it. Wrong! We did maybe half the distance but by then we had completely run out of curse words so we had to surrender and jump into a cab.

The hassle getting there turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Night time must be the perfect hour to take the ride actually. The land is dark and there's nothing but glittering city lights beneath your feet, it's urban beauty at it's best!

Chinatown - Singapore

2010-03-26T15:37:00.006+01:00

Last full day in Singapore for us today. And even though we love the place, the great distance between Stockholm and this part of the world makes it a little uncertain when we'll see it again. Therefore we decided to be really busy bees and try to see as much as possible starting with Chinatown.

The Chinese people are by far the largest ethnic group in Singapore, composing approximately 75% of the population, which makes it perhaps a little bit silly to talk about a Chinatown part of town. However there's a certain district here called Chinatown that does retain buildings of historical and cultural significance. Large sections of it have been declared national heritage sites.

Sentosa Island

2010-03-25T11:38:00.011+01:00

This morning we got a great start at the Coffee Bean Café, located not far from our hotel, the Rendezvous.

Since we arrived in Singapore we have tightened our belt strap and done free stuff like visiting the Botanic Gardens and exploring Little India. Today we felt it was time to let the dollars roll again. We took the train to Sentosa Island, Asia's favorite playground. There are an endless array of activities here, we had our eyes set on the Underwater world and the dolphin show.

The Underwater world has a really cool 83 meter long under water tunnel. We had ourselves a close encounter with sharks, sting rays and scary jelly fishes. It's not every day you see a shoal of piranhas swimming by if you look up! But to call this place a "world" is very misleading, it's more like a big room if you ask us. So we had 90 minutes left to kill before the dolphin show would start. They don't let you leave the underwater "world" to explore the rest of Sentosa Island so we had to stick around because the entrance is not the kind of fee you'd be willing to pay twice (read we were robbed).

Since we would have to wait for the dolphins we decided to do so in the what I guess you would call the VIP lounge. They have like 10 seats with comfortable armchairs. We get there and learn that there's a cover charge to sit there, you have to spend at least 10 Singapore dollars per adult, (50 SEK or 20 PLN). Fair enough, we do so on coffee and a sorry excuse of a cake. Martin jokes that he hopes it's gonna start raining now when we've paid extra to sit under roof. Two minutes later it's pouring down. Martin wishes for a million dollar and a house in Italy but it seems the gods are not granting us any more wishes today.

After a wait that seemed way longer then 90 minutes, the show finally starts. Ten minutes later the show wraps it up. We're still in chock. If you're gonna call it a show you really have to put on something longer then 10 lousy minutes. At the Singapore Zoo a show was 30 minutes plus (so go there instead). Not much left for us to do but leave. Obviously it's still raining. So kids at home, let this be a lesson to you all, be careful of what you wish for, it might come true.

Oh, and here some graffiti we spotted on our way back, seen in VivoCity, Singapore's largest waterfront shopping mall.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

2010-03-24T15:04:00.008+01:00

No modern big city is of course complete without a set of lungs providing necessary oxygen to the people. Singapore's lungs is the Botanic Gardens and for more than one and a half century it has been "connecting plants and people" to quote their own slogan.

Walking around here at random equipped with some vanilla ice cream is a true pleasure reminding you that the best things in life can be, if not free, at least affordable.

It's perfect for picnics, dates and concerts. A part of the park near Symphony Lake is dedicated to the memory of Frederic Chopin, the Polish composer considered one of the greatest masters of Romantic music.

Singapore Zoo

2010-03-24T09:25:00.013+01:00

Yesterday we explored the world acclaimed Singapore Zoo, known for its "open zoo" concept featuring animals in their natural habitat. It feels like you're in a rainforest with sidewalks. What a fabulous day out! We spent the entire afternoon there and still probably only covered around 60% of the place.

As we are very much into the "when in Rome" mode (plus we need to save a buck or two), we decided to go by MRT (subway) and then bus 138. It took us approximately one hour to get there but it felt right to use public transport when it's so reliable as it is here.

The zoo is spotless and beautifully landscaped. It is a huge place and large parts of it are surrounded by a lake, which makes it even more spectacular. Most of the animals are not caged so you can see them from a short distance which adds to the whole experience. At times we felt very small, especially while watching graceful but deadly white tigers. And we tried to be on our best behavior when we visited the elephants, because they don't forget you know. We also gazed at a jaguar, were up close and personal with a giraffe and starred eye to eye with a playful sea lion at the zoo's amphitheater. We also saw a jackass but that was a human and a completely different story.

Another favorite was the orangutans and chimpanzees. They looked like they were enjoying the day in the sun, chatting with each other, not far from what we humans prefer doing on a lazy afternoon actually. It was very touching to watch orangutan mothers taking care of their small children, giving them their entire attention with a loving look in their eyes.

Little India, Singapore

2010-03-24T03:36:00.006+01:00

First thought that run through our minds when we exited the subway station in Little India was: it smells like curry. No kidding, it does!

It's a very charming ethnic neighbourhood in Singapore (if you don't mind curry that is). Totally different from the rest of Singapore, far from poshy Prada and Gucci flag ship stores.

Little India truly feels like a slice of India. Lots and lots of vegetables stands, beautiful jewellery stands and Bollywood stands frame the busy streets. But if you want peace and quiet you can do what we did and stroll down Serangoon Road and you'll reach the beautiful Hindu temple Sri Veeramamakaliamman dating back to 1881. Inside you'll find images of Kali wearing a garland of skulls and ripping out the insides of her victims, but also more peaceful moments such as Kali spending time her sons Ganesha and Murugan.

t

Poor in Singapore

2010-03-23T13:16:00.003+01:00

We’ve gone from riches to rags, damn it’s expensive here. There will be no more pretending we’re wealthy. Prices in Singapore have very much resemblance to what you would find on price tags in Sweden, and we’re not used to that anymore, not after eight weeks in Malaysia. Probably there will be no fancy dinners for us here; we’ll save that till next week when we’re back over the Malaysian border again. Check this out: first thing we did in Singapore was buying a subway pass, very economical and environment friendly!

After checking in at The Rendezvous Hotel we took the subway to Orchard Rd. All poshy brands are represented here; it’s Patrick Bateman heaven. Gucci is like Starbucks in Manhattan, one in every corner. But we didn’t shop much, no point really since we can find most of the stuff for similar prices in Stockholm, and we’ve never been that brand horny anyway. Plus our luggage already weighs over 50 kilo, (Nelly’s fault mostly).

Instead of shopping we will focus on doing what you can’t do back home, explore the sights that make Singapore beautiful and unique. We have heard good things about the Singapore Zoo, the Botanic garden and at Sentosa Island they have a dolphin lagoon, so that’s on top of our agenda now. More details coming as soon as we find an Internet Café that doesn’t charge 5 SEK (2 PLN) per minute.

Nelly’s new favourite hobby is standing up in bed (using the head board), and then on purpose losing balance, falling down in different constellations accompanied by a cheerful warning scream.

She’s remains the star wherever we might be. Still the center of attention in every store we enter, subway car we ride with or café we rest at. She’s gonna miss all the appreciation she receives daily from everybody when we are back in Sweden. Babcia and dziadek get ready to step up and entertain the diva!

Leaving Langkawi

2010-03-21T05:04:00.015+01:00

Bags are packed, postcards sent, rental car returned, hate to say it but we're leaving Langkawi. We've been here for more than 6 weeks now and it has been fantastic! This is the island were we got married and where our daughter celebrated her first birthday so it feels emotional to leave. But like the song says, "It's easier to leave than to be left behind". Plus we're on our way to a new exciting place, tomorrow we'll be in Singapore!

Our last night in Langkawi we spent at Bar Rhu. Nelly stayed home with her kind nanny Gaya, we're gonna miss her a lot. She is the reason that parts of our stay here felt like a real honeymoon.

Bar Rhu is another must visit if you've ever in Langkawi, great drinks, good food, stunning view. What more can you wish for really? Pool table? Well they have that too. Yesterday they also had a live band performing covers. The highlight for us was when they played "(they long to be) close to you" one of our personal favorites.

"Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you"

Meanwhile back in our apartment at Chogm Villa.

Bar Rhu at Tanjung Rhu beach.

And a glass of wine later...

Beer and Loafing in Langkawi

2010-03-20T07:00:00.009+01:00

We found yet another great restaurant in the 11th hour. It's called The Loaf and you will find it in the picturesque Telaga Harbour. The restaurant overlooks the beautiful marina with the Andaman Sea on one side and Mount Mat Cincang proudly towering 700 meters behind.

No stay in Langkawi should be considered complete without at least one visit to The Loaf. But do yourself a favor and visit the place twice because they serve both a delicious dinner and a great steady breakfast. We've been there two times now and we do not regret it. The Loaf gives our other favorite restaurant here in Langkawi a run for the money, we are not even sure which one's our fav anymore.

La Sal vs. The Loaf

Round 1: The view
Tough one, both have beautiful view, at The Loaf you can see the mountains and the marina, while at La Sal you can admire the beach and the stunning sunset.

Winner: La Sal

Round 2: Food
At La Sal the entire dinner is top notch. The Loaf serves fantastic starters and main courses, however the Tiramisu failed to impress us.

Winner: La Sal

Round 3: Money, money, money...
Knockout victory by The Loaf, ding, ding, ding!

Dinner Friday evening @ The Loaf.

Breakfast Saturday morning @ The Loaf.

George Town, Penang

2010-03-19T01:59:00.021+01:00

We've been talking about going to George Town since we arrived in Langkawi six weeks ago. But for various reasons we never got around to, until this Wednesday. We blame our guide book for not writing a selling enough description of this charming place. Now after we've been there we only wish we would have discovered it sooner.

George Town is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. From its humble beginnings as a swampy British colony in the late 18th century it has developed massively, yet somehow kept the historic touches and can now be described as a busy modern city with the small-town charm intact. Here you'll find an interesting mix of nationalities, religions and cultures co-existing harmoniously.

Since teleportation isn't invented yet the communication network between the two islands is as good as it gets. You can choose to go by ferry (3 hours) or plane (25 minutes). For obvious reasons we chose the later. The trip went as smooth as smooth gets and not long after leaving our apartment in Langkawi we found ourselves checking in at G Hotel. We liked our new found "G-spot" right from the start. The homemade ice cream they treated us to didn't hurt.

After a nice shower we took a cab to Chinatown, a short while later we ordered some local Chicken Ginger with rice and BBQ Pork with noodles, delicious and the bill read only 12 Rinngit (24 SEK or 9 PLN).

Nelly was getting tired, it was time to head back to the G-spot. We found a cab and this time we instantly liked the driver so we made plans with him to pick us up at our hotel the next day for some sightseeing. In Malaysia taxis are cheap which makes them a convenient way to explore a new town.

After Nelly took a nap we went out again for some Bibimbap. That's a popular Korean dish with rice, egg, vegetables, carrots and sliced meat, very tasty. Later on we went back to the hotel for drinks in the lobby. It was still happy hour and all three of us felt very privileged to be there. Especially Nelly who was cruising around all over the place in her own very characteristic and flirtatious way.

Next day we called our taxi driver Ahmad who we met the day before. He picked us up right away and took us on a tour of the city. He showed us Little India, Chinatown, Fort Cornwallis, Pinang Peranakan Mansion and the very impressive Buddhist temple Kek Lok Si. Ahmad proved to be a terrific guide who knew Penang like the back of his hand so if you ever need a pleasant cab driver/guide send him an e-mail: ahmad.badrul@yahoo.com. We will definitely contact him next time we visit Penang or "The Pearl of the Orient" as the slogan says. Hopefully that's very soon cause our stay here felt way too short.

Nelly admiring herself.

The relaxing lounge Lobby at G Hotel.

Nelly takes a short break from raising hell in the lobby at G Hotel.

-These coasters go down real easy, are you sure it's just carbon paper?

Super cool make-a-wish fountain at the Dhammikarama Burmese Temple. One of the oldest temples in Penang, founded in 1803.

Guy with dragon tattoo in front of a dragon statue at the Dhammikarama Temple.

Vietnamese temple.

Bicycle taxi passing through a narrow alley in Chinatown.

The century old Pinang Perenakan Mansion (privately owned but opened for public).

Balcony at the Peranakans, also known as the Babas and Nyonyas.

Nelly and our Chinese Charlie Chaplin look-a-like guide at the Pinang Perenakan Mansion.

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion displays the typical home of a rich Baba 100 years ago.

Kek Lok Si tempel (or in plain English the Temple of Supreme Bliss). Construction begun in 1890 and hasn't ever really stopped. Sky's the limit!

Our nice taxi driver Ahmad taking a well deserved break with Nelly.

The pool at the G Hotel.

Finally after two busy days it was time to fly back to Langkawi. Check out the rhino on the woman in the seat in front of us.

Getting sentimental

2010-03-16T12:36:00.007+01:00

This afternoon we went to the small marina Awana Porto Malai Langkawi. It's a charming place with a few small restaurants and shops, as well as a terminal for ocean going cruise ships. We stayed there for a few hours chilling and admiring the beauty of the Andaman Sea and its magnificent islands.

Since we are about to leave Langkawi soon, we get easyily sentimental these days. It's a really peaceful island and we have had a wonderful time here. When we got back home to Chogm Villa we said good bye to our host Rob who had to fly to the Netherlands. He is such a kind guy who works hard to make his guests' holiday as great as possible. It doesn't matter what kind of problems you might face here, he fixes it for you right away, always with a big smile.

Tomorrow we are off to George Town (Penang) for two days and then we will be back to Langkawi for our final three days here. Next week we're getting into city mood again, starting with six exciting days in Singapore, followed by Kuala Lumpur again.

Don't go chasing waterfalls...

2010-03-16T02:22:00.007+01:00

"...Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to..."

Remember that song by TLC? We should have taken their advice. But we wanted to see the waterfall that was described in the guide book as a geological marvel, so we drove to Telaga Tujuh which is about as far away as you can drive on this island. Once there we found out that it's dry season (no shit Sherlock!) so the only geological marvel left to see was dust and dry mud. Luckily for us we were at least told before we attempted to climb the umpteen steps. Plus we got to see a really cute monkey so the trip wasn't a complete waste.

We had to think fast and come up with a new plan, but if there's one thing we've learned on this trip it's that plan B can sometimes outshine plan A, and this proved to be true again.

With nothing to loose really we decided to stop at the Perdana Quay in Telaga Harbour. Our host Rob had described it as a nice place with a Mediterranean flavor. Usually we try to keep it local when we are abroad, a "when in Rome..." mindset you could say. But we've been in Malaysia for so long now that European food sounded very tempting, and that's how we ended up at a Spanish tapas joint.

The harbor was dominated by a gigantic super yacht named Moecca Douglas. It was the biggest god damn boat we've ever seen and the closest we've ever gotten to filthy rich people. We were so curious about the boats owner that we almost forgot to eat our tapas. Tom Cruise? Kylie Minogue? Nicole Kidman? We hopped to get a small glance of someone famous but all we saw was the seven man strong cleaning team, polishing their asses off. Some of us (no names mentioned) were even considering to go through the boats garbage that was bagged on the dock cause apparently "that's were you find information". While "the other some of us" went on a spy mission with our Nikon D90 and made friends with an Australian sailer. He didn't reveal anything but it's always nice to talk to people from Australia. Overall the day turned out really great and we didn't miss the waterfalls much, we just wish we would have spotted the rich bastard but he stayed incognito.

Swing, slide, snapper

2010-03-15T04:54:00.008+01:00

Yesterday we didn't really feel like leaving our apartment. Maybe we were still slightly hung over from the day before or maybe we are just comfortable like that, or perhaps it's a combination of both. Anyway, Nelly was bored, started to make a racket which forced us to get up off our asses. There's a playground not very far from where we live and we've been meaning to go there, so yesterday it felt like the perfect time to do so.

Nelly not being used to swings, slides and whatnots was very hesitant. It may have been the heat also cause last night the temperature hit Finnish sauna levels here in Langkawi.

Later, while the sun was (finally) setting we strolled to the nearby harbor ordered two XL orange juice (and they were really XL) and some fresh caught Red Snapper. Once we got back home Nelly took a shower with mommy and then she slept like... well like a baby actually.

Safety first

2010-03-14T04:51:00.003+01:00

Check out Nelly's baby car seat! Somehow we get a feeling this was top of the line shortly after we were born. Maybe not the biggest seller right now, what do you think?

Nevertheless Nelly loves to go by car and she always finds something exciting to look at.

Any given Friday in Langkawi

2010-03-13T05:48:00.016+01:00

Another day, another night market. People are rushing from different parts of the island in order to purchase their food supplies. Some of them are "big"...

and some of them are very small.

There are many hungry souls on their way, so it calls for lots of preparations.

And even if you're not entirely grown up, you can still help your busy parents, and it doesn't hurt if you look cute while doing it.

Finally after a long day it's time to go home and get some well deserved rest.

One Mai Tai too many

2010-03-13T04:44:00.011+01:00

Last night around sunset we decided to go to Charlie's Place down by the Royal Yacht Club. We've been there before and even though it may not be the most exciting place in Malaysia it's decent enough to deserve another visit. Not everyday can be a fantastic adventure worth writing home about, right?

Luckily for us the night would turn out so much better then expected. Right after setting foot at the Yacht Club we ran into Eva the captain from Damai Indah who we've been out cruising the Andaman sea with twice now. It was so great seeing her again, she must be the nicest person this side of the equator. Eva and her friend Uli joined our table and we all had a great time. Beata had perhaps one Mai Tai too many, but she had no choice! She had to take one for the team so to speak, because I was driving and couldn't have as many Cuba Libre as I normally want and we couldn't let Eva drink all by herself, could we?

Eva took care of the bill, and this is only days after she treated us to a luxurious cruise, can you believe that? She's just too good to be true! What have we ever done for her, nothing really. Except writing a very positive review of her cruise on Tripadvisor, but she already have plenty of those.

Today is the day after and now we're (read Beata) paying the price for having such a great time yesterday, but it was definitely worth it.

Chasing dolphins

2010-03-11T01:53:00.019+01:00

We are so lucky! Check this out, last week when we took a cruise with Eva we ended up on Capricorn, a boat she chartered. Beautiful boat sure but it's not Damai Indah, Eva's own boat. We had a great time on Capricorn but Eva super generous as she is felt bad that she couldn't offer us the cruise she wanted to, so she told us (and all other guests on board) that if we were still in Langkawi when Damai Indah is back from repairs we could take the same cruise again for free!

Obviously that's an extremely kindhearted offer and we just had to jump on it, so yesterday it was time to chase the sunset again, and as it turned out we even got to chase some happy dolphins. Eva spotted them first and as soon as she did she maxed the music volume, cause according to her dolphins love music, especially Boney M. Damai Indah did a couple of eights in the water, we all applauded the show the dolphins put on for us, and it was magical. It was the first time we've ever seen dolphins in their natural habitat.

There's something unusual about Eva, she's a brave woman who has chosen to live her dream in a business occupied mostly by men. You can't stop wondering how many people she has inspired to make a change in their life, and to take a step towards their childhood dream.

It was not only a beautiful day with view like a screensaver, but also the day we got to meet Anna and her family from Tasmania. Sometimes it just happens - it clicks from the start and you know that you can be great friends. We realize that there's quite a distance between Sweden and Tasmania but if we made it here, we are going to make it there!

After sunset we reached shore and wrapped the day up with drinks at Casa del Mar together with a young couple from Västerås, Sweden. Finally we stumbled into a cab that drove us home.

Many thanks to Eva, Anna and everybody else we shared laughs with during this amazing cruise.

Dirty laundry heaven

2010-03-10T05:02:00.003+01:00

I've heard Martin pop the question "Where have you been all my life?" twice. Once to me in a restaurant in Warsaw, shortly after we started dating, and once to the frickin' laundry service here in Kuah!

So what's there to love? A few things, it's just so convenient, super cheap only 3 Rinngit per kilo (6 SEK or 2 PLN), speedy delivery with a smile plus you get everything back perfectly folded just like your mom (read Martin's mom) used to do it.

Help save the cockroaches

2010-03-10T03:35:00.005+01:00

We saw this clever sign when we visited the Langkawi Wildlife Park a while back. It's so Malaysia, not only are the people here nice and considerate to tourists, they care about everyone down to the smallest cockroach. That's good karma!

Why we adore taxi in Langkawi

2010-03-09T07:34:00.012+01:00

A few days ago we decided to go to the Craft Cultural Complex. Since we don't have our rental any more, we called a taxi. After approximately 30 min. driving we arrived at the Complex and our taxi driver surprised us by asking: shall I wait for you? We hesitated a little since we knew that it might take more than an hour, but he said it was OK! After an hour waiting he welcomed us with a smile and we continued exploring the island for three more hours. He took us to several places, waited each time patiently, always with a kind smile and not a word of complain and we paid RM100 only (which is 200 SEK or 70 PLN).

It was a good day for everyone: Nelly and mom were happy to have daddy sitting next to them, the taxi driver was pleased with his clients and we were satisfied with the price. Good deal for everyone!

And finally a piece of advice - under no circumstances take taxi 468 - the taxi driver is a very hostile man, the only unpleasant person we met in Malaysia during the entire stay. He must be the worst taxi driver since Robert de Niro.

There are parking tickets in heaven

2010-03-09T05:24:00.009+01:00

This morning like every other morning Nelly woke us up at 7 a.m. sharp (oh, she's punctual). The refrigerator was as empty as our stomachs, so we packed our shit and drove to Starbucks.

Nelly likes it there and the feeling is mutual. The staff is (just like 99,9% of Malaysian's population) very friendly and helpful and they always have time to play around with cute babies which is perfect cause it gives parents a chance to unwind.

After our java break we strolled to Dataran Lang (or Eagle Square in English). We've mentioned before that the eagle is the symbol for Langkawi. The Malay word for eagle is helang - shortened is "lang". Kawi means strong or rock. Hence the word Langkawi means eagle rock in colloquial Malay.

The Dataran Lang park is dominated by probably the most prominent landmark of this island, a huge statue (not Statue of Liberty huge but still pretty damn impressive) of a proud eagle spreading its wings ready for take-off. The wing span is over 70 feet.

When we got back to our car we noticed that the front window had been decorated by the local police. The traffic fine read "for causing unnecessary obstruction on a road". The claimed offense is a joke if you ask us, who are they to speak when they themselves put up big road signs in the middle of the sidewalk. Talk about obstruction!

But anyway what can you do, we're just gonna bite the bullet and pay. Although it feels somewhat embarrassing because the car is not the rental, it's our host’s car that he was kind enough to let us borrow for free.

VIP means Very Important Plutt (Nelly)

Nelly by the pool - The Movie!

2010-03-08T04:10:00.007+01:00

Check out this short but sweet film of Nelly doing her morning exercise with mommy in the swimming pool. It's just another stunningly beautiful morning here in Langkawi, Malaysia.

100% Dundee

2010-03-06T09:28:00.011+01:00

Today all 3 of us paid Taman Buaya Langkawi a visit. It's Malaysia's largest crocodile park. So this post is croc galore if that's your type of thing. We mostly found it nerve-wracking to tell you the truth.

For one thing they have this bridge that crosses a pond. And that small... puddle really, is home to 400 hungry crocodiles. It's exiting and absolutely terrifying at the same time, mostly the later.

Then after crossing the bridge it's time to check out the crocodile show. Paul Hogan get bent! What you get to see is 3 courageous but foolhardy Malaysian mini "dundees" who does various death defying tricks with 4 big crocodiles. And when we say big crocs, we ain't talking about the Bambi cute version depicted on this sign.

No, we mean 4 x 1 ton predators, each with more teeth than the tooth fairy at their disposal. Apparently these beasts don't appreciate being poked in the eye with a stick. But somehow our brave mini dundees didn't read that signal cause that's exactly what they did to the crocs, just to provoke them to show their deadly teeth for the amazed tourists.

We have to say the whole thing left us with a bitter taste in our mouth. We felt guilty that we with our entrance money contributed to the mini dundees salary. Cause really we think they would be way better of even as unemployed. No one should have to put their arm inside a crocodiles mouth just to pay the rent, but that's exactly what they did, for our amusement's sake.

Life's a bitch

2010-03-05T13:46:00.007+01:00

We keep hearing complaints from friends and family back home that it's the coldest winter since Elvis left the building and how everyone been carrying around the same cold for weeks while waiting for a bus that never comes, and so on, and so on. Stop complaining people, we also have problems, not everything is peachy here in Malaysia. So with that said, please stand back and let us bitch a little.

First of all it's really hard to keep beer nice and cold in this heat.
The local Starbucks uses regular milk in the latte, not Barista milk.
If you do not park in the shadow it takes the air con at least a minute to cool down the car.
When you eat mango, your hands get really sticky (unless you have a napkin of course).
During our vacation so far it has rained for more than one hour.
Our swimming pool can get crowded (we spotted at least five people this morning).
We have been eating seafood for over a month, how much more can you take?!
And finally, it's hot! The heat makes you tired and it takes at least one nap a day to recover.

Wow, so glad we got that off of our chests, it actually feels a little better now ;-)

Sailing away

2010-03-05T04:17:00.019+01:00

Yesterday we went for a 6 hour afternoon and sunset cruise and spent the day drifting among the 99 islands of the Langkawi archipelago. We appreciated the fact that we were taken to secluded areas away from the tourist hot spots, for hours we were the only boat around except for a few local fishermen.

The drinks were freely flowing all day long and the freshly cooked food was delicious. After a few hours of cruising we jumped from the yacht into the water and swam to the uninhabited beach in the middle of nowhere! Instead of exploring the beach as some of the other passengers did, we just stayed in the water, holding each other and drinking champagne. It's cool to feel rich for a day!

After this "exhausting" adventure we got back to the yacht and while Eva (our captain) and her staff were cooking dinner for us, we were laying on the cushions on the deck relaxing and enjoying the stunning scenery.

The dinner was served at sunset and we were still amazingly enough the only boat around. It was quiet and peaceful, the wind was cooling us off while we were eating dinner and enjoying the breathtaking view.

Martin chatting with a lovely Scottish couple (Glasgow Rangers fans) who got engaged on the cruise.

Day trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand

2010-03-01T02:29:00.016+01:00

This past weekend we felt like going to Thailand for some island hopping, said and done. Early on Saturday morning we took a cab to Telaga Harbour. The cab driver was a little late when he picked us up so he drove it like he stole it.

When we arrived at Telaga the hassle of pass control started. We have to OFFICIALLY depart from Malaysia and then OFFICIALLY enter Thailand yada yada yada, it's the usual bureaucracy that we all love to hate. The paperwork took a while, perhaps because it involved a young school boy driving away with our passports on his moped to an unknown destination for some "very important and necessary stamps". We also had to sign a paper stating in red capital letters that we have been informed that drug smugglers are sentenced to death! That's good to know huh, made us nervous even though we only had baby food in our bags.

In the waiting room there were more Swedes than flies in an outhouse and we appreciated their company just the same. By now after a month in Malaysia we're so used to that strangers are kind and greets you like a friend. The room was packed with at least 14 Swedes, not one of them said hi to us or shared Nellys curious smile.

The speedboat lived up to its name, three 225 horsepower strong engines made sure that we arraived at Koh Lipe less than an hour after leaving Malaysia.

Koh Lipe is a lovely island, the beach is stunning! Beautiful, green-blue water with sand soft as silk, amazing. You can easily picture yourself enjoying the sun with a drink in your hand and some hot company by your side. That's when you don't have a one-year old with you, who refuses to play on the beach and needs to be carried around all the time! Our daughter is the most kind child ever to travel with, but she needs some basics which help us all get along, for example ability to use her stroller. There's no such possibility in Koh Lipe! The entire island is about the beach and the sea, there is nothing which even remotely resemblances a sidewalk.

Once we understood that, we decided to continue looking at the bright side of life and find a luxury hotel, which would compensate the no-stroller inconvenience. I guess it wasn't meant to be! We ended up in the "delux hut", smelling everything but lux, equipped with cold shower only and toilet with no possibility of flushing (there was, however, a shower-like-device providing a close enough function). We are a tough couple and it takes far more than this to break us .... until we saw a few centimeters wide holes where the walls meets the floor, big enough to welcome an entire army of insects at any time. And that was a deal breaker! We changed the date on the return ticket and speeded back to home sweet home Malaysia.

To go through the passport bureaucracy a 2nd time the same day was a bitch but the good news is we passed and didn't have to check-in at Bangkok Hilton.

Dinner conversation

2010-02-26T13:26:00.010+01:00

Today we met three kind souls (one very sleepy one). We were relaxing with a Tiger beer and some orange juice, just waiting for our take away dinner. While we're admiring the cute baby you see in the picture the man with white mustache declared with great pride in his voice that "I'm sleeping with her grandmother". Now that's what we call an ice-breaker.

Always stay tuned

Our local fruit dealer, prices are bananas!

Mr & Mrs Lenngren - wedding pictures

2010-02-26T07:23:00.027+01:00

As you may or may not know we got married on 6th February at Westin Resort & Spa here in beautiful Langkawi Island, Malaysia. These pictures were taken by an outstanding photographer Aloha Lavina who travelled from Bangkok to document our magical day.

Happy Birthday Viggo!

2010-02-26T01:05:00.011+01:00

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. Hello Viggo can you hear me? This is Nelly broadcasting on my parents' blog.

I don't know how much time I got, my parents could spot me sitting here any second and then the fun will be over. For some reason they never let me play with the laptop, last x-mas they made outrageous accusations that I broke the keyboard while playing Baby Smash. Anyway all I wanted was to wish you Viggo, my dear friend, a Happy Birthday!

As you know I'm a lot older than you and already have a great deal of experience when it comes to birthdays, and let me tell you, you're in for a treat! On birthdays one gets even more attention then on any given day, and presents! A present is something new wrapped in paper. And by no means don't forget to play with the paper. I'm sure you'll find it just as much fun as I do.

As you know I took my parents on a holiday to Malaysia, they are quite OK travel companions when they don't worry too much. I'm having a really good time here, especially in the pool, have you checked me and my zebra out on the photos? Another new thing I've discovered here is fine dining. Have you tried rice? Oh man, I'm telling you it's delicious! It's a local dish that's also very fun to play with.

Are you standing up yet? I sure am and it opened an entire new world of possibilities for me. I overheard my parents say that I just tripled my zone of terror, do you have any idea what they mean? Anyway standing is great stuff. You can get a hold of a lot of things that used to be off reach. So if you are not standing yet I can highly recommend it. Ask Tilda if you need any further instructions.

Oh shoot, I think I hear mom and dad waking up, I better log out or else I'll be in trouble again.

Happy Birthday man!

Nelly

Night market in Kuah

2010-02-24T14:02:00.009+01:00

This evening we went to the night market (pasar malam). The market focuses mostly on food and gets our stamp of approval. We recommend it if you want to try samples of real Asian dishes. Everything is dirt cheap, around 1-3 Ringgit (2-6 SEK or 1-2 PLN). It's nice that it's a night market, cause when the sun sets it's not so frickin' hot anymore.

One really tasty little dish that we wanna single out is the doroyaki (see second picture from the top). It's a sweet Japanese cake with different fillings like coconut milk for example, they were delicious!

We also bought a couple of DVD's, you get new stuff (like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) for less than 7 Ringgit a piece so we suspect that everything may not be a 100% legit, but what the hell. For that price the subtitles can at times be a little sketchy. For example when Robert Downey Jr tells Jude Law that he "made a rapid recovery", the subtitles said he made a "radical copy", but that's Malaysia for you. Charming.

Birthday girl

2010-02-23T13:04:00.014+01:00

Happy Birthday Nelly also know as Plutt, a.k.a. Mini, a.k.a. Terror, a.k.a. Princess, a.k.a. Miss Lenngren, you are exactly one year old today! Your birthday was supposed to be on 9th March, but you were in a hurry to turn our world upside down.

Here in Malaysia most things feel upside down compared to safe Sweden. Cars are driving on the "wrong" side of the street, complete strangers are kind, the media coverage of the Winter Olympics is non-existing and the temperature is heavenly 30 degrees plus.

Still, life here is easy to get used to. Daddy doesn't have to go to work in the morning (mommy loves that too!), instead he can join the Lenngren girls and splash around in the pool, every morning and every evening. Speaking of pool, hope you like your present!

We think that it's amazing how fast you embraced our new lifestyle here in Malaysia (the Malaysian people certainly embraced you). You are a pleasure to travel with! On our three days journey to Kuala Lumpur you didn't complain or cry even for a second - always kept your curious look and cute smile, even when mom and dad lost theirs at the Bangkok airport.

At times you are real pain in the ass (you know that, don't you) but you make our world complete and we love you more than life. However, we would not mind if one day in the near future you would choose to sleep all through the night.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

The only way to travel

2010-02-21T02:25:00.006+01:00

Yesterday we (minus Nelly, also known as Osama, who was busy back home with the baby-sitter planning her next "terrorist attack") sailed away on a 6 hour long cruise. Or wait, make that 6 hour short cruise, cause time sure flew out there in the big blue, it was such a beautiful day it felt more like 6 minutes long.

The Langkawi archipelago with it's 99 tropical islands is a natural paradise. To discover it from the seaside while cruising the Andaman Sea is an unforgettable experience. We saw spectacular views of unique rock formations, lush green rainforest, fine lonely beaches, hidden lagoons and eagles (apparently the name Langkawi means eagle rock in Malay).

We got over our fear of sharks (just for a day) and dared to jump from the yacht right into the sea. What can we tell you, it felt great! Not even for a second we thought that the water was too cold and on a plus side we spotted no sharks.

Obviously we appreciate comfortable traveling but "the net jacuzzi" on the outer side of the yacht bumped up the meaning of comfortable to a new level. While the yacht was smoothly sailing, we were relaxing in the net, bubbling around and sipping cocktails which were served frequently (we kind of lost track of how many).

Check us out!

Year of the tiger

2010-02-19T05:31:00.006+01:00

Today marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. We won't miss it too much. Sure the dragon dancing and the colorful decoration is exotic for us and quite interesting to see. But the loud-off-beat-my-grandma-got-more-rhythm-in-her-left-toe-nail drum music we could easily live without. We don't wanna offend 19,64% of the world population but really it's just a lot of noise. The sound of garbage men collecting the trash early on a Monday morning is more melodic and harmonizing. We still love your food though!

OK now it's cliffhanger time. Big day for us coming up tomorrow, with lots of exiting stuff happening, more on that in the next post, stay tuned.

Living on the edge

2010-02-17T03:37:00.014+01:00

Life as a parent consists of many routines and yesterday we decided that we were ready for a real adrenaline kick - cable car ride.

The cable car ride is amazing. You get a spectacular view of the rainforest and an awesome panorama of the Andaman Sea. There are two stations on the way up but we decided to go for the scary top one without wasting our time on the "chicken's stop".

On the top station 708m above sea-level you get a 360-degree panoramic view of the Langkawi islands, Kedah and Southern Thailand. Once we took our photos we continued to the Sky bridge which is an architectural wonder. The bridge is 125 m long and it is a link between the top station and Machincang mountain range. The valley under the bridge is breathtaking but kind of scary. We felt a bit shaky walking on the bridge with Nelly, she on the other hand was very cool. At times it felt like she was a bigger attraction that the bridge itself - let's just say that many photos of our daughter were taken and many hands were shaken.

On our way down while Martin was admiring the solid construction of the cable car, I happened to mention that according to me the scary part is the fact that there is one only cable which keeps the gondolas up and no second security cable!
He looked at me, holding our daughter a bit tighter and said: Thanks for sharing!

To keep the story short we made it back to solid ground again and went for a snack. Four huge glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice plus Nasi Goreng for two (which is chicken with fried rice) costed us 26 Ringgit. That's about 17 PLN or 50 SEK. We've now been here for so long that it acctualy felt a little too expensive.

Check out our daughter entertaining herself and everyone else around while we were eating.

Three reasons to celebrate

2010-02-14T15:32:00.008+01:00

Today's Valentines day and it's also exactly one year since I went down on my knee and proposed to the love of my life Beata. It goes without saying it calls for some kind of celebration. Today's also Chinese New Year which is a pretty big thing over here. Most shops are closed and restaurant tables are booked. Luckily for us we had already reserved a table at the Phan Thai Restaurant not far from Pantai Kok on Langkawis west side (we live on the east).

We started with drinks, my memory is a little fuzzy right now I must admit, I vaguely recall a Cuba Libre, a Tequila Sunrise, and I think we ordered a Singapore Sling as well. Food was good but not great, I guess what you really pay for at a place like this is the view, and that's priceless!

BBQ very nice!

2010-02-13T14:55:00.010+01:00

Today we called our baby-sitter again. We haven't used her service since we got married even though baby-sitting is THE greatest invention since sliced bread. Knowing that Nelly was in safe hands we jumped in our car and drove west to Pantai Cenang. After a slow hand in hand stroll along the waterfront we found a nice place called La Sal where we ate the best god damn appetizer since we arrived to Malaysia: kataifi prawns.

The sunset played the role of dinner entertainment, the atmosphere was really quiet just what we were looking for.

In the water right in front of the restaurant they had an under water fence that blocked... well naturally we thought it was there to block sharks. But when I asked the waiter if they had problems with sharks he answered "No problem, shark barbecue very nice". So there you go, maybe we should stop worrying about sharks, the locals sure did long time ago.

Oh, and the fence was there to keep Jet-Skis away :-)

After dinner we slow danced on the beach to "Just the two of us" by Grover Washington Jr.

Meanwhile back in the apartment Nelly was playing hide-n-seek with the baby-sitter.

Half Swede half Poolish

2010-02-12T05:31:00.007+01:00

This morning we took it real easy (vacation style). Just went down to the pool and let Nelly play around some. She was skeptical at first, like she always is but then she lit up.

It is an interesting neighborhood we live in! It feels like we got into a little society of its own, which created its own rules and if you happen to ignore them or misunderstand them, you will get a gentle yet determined warning so you behave next time. Our neighbors are nice and they insist on always greeting one another when there's an eye contact. It seems like it is important to them to keep the feeling that they know each other a little bit. They learned our names right away and they use them often, so you "almost" get a feeling that you belong. Not that we have any problem with any of this it's just ... I don't know sometimes it feels weird to be forced to be nice to strangers all the time (god I'm Swedish). It really is a closed apartment complex where we live, I'm not gonna go so far and say it's like in that movie "La Zona" but you never know what's gonna happen if you suddenly broke one of all the unwritten rules they have here.

The Life Aquatic

2010-02-12T05:12:00.010+01:00

Yesterday we took the car to Underwater World Langkawi located right in the middle of the tourist delta Pantai Cenang. It's about a 30 minute ride from our place. It was fun to see real live versions of everything from our Finding Nemo DVD. My favorite character the seagulls were not present, but then on the other hand, if Nelly could speak she would fill that void in a second going "Mine, mine, mine" all the time.

Paradise beach

2010-02-10T09:31:00.015+01:00

We got wheels. We've rented a car so that we'll be free to go wherever we want. The car looks like something from MTV's Pimp my Ride show, only before Xzibit picks it up and drives it down to Mad Mike and the rest of the West Coast Customs crew.

Anyway, it's rolling and today for the premier ride it took us to Tanjung Rhu Beach which is breathtaking perfection!!

The water feels great, it's warm but cold enough to cool you off. The only problem is that I'm panically afraid of the sharks who happily lives here. Not that I'm implying that I'm the most delicious bite in the sea, but you never know what kind of diet they are on!

Later on we tried some tasty local food served right by the beach, treated ourselves to coconut juice (which to be honest looks much more exciting than it tastes), followed by noodles with prawns and paid for everything 28 SEK (11 PLN) jippi!!

On our way home we picked up the laundry and robbed (cause it's really dirt cheap) the local fruit market. Now it's time to enjoy the mangos, the watermelons and the what nots on our balcony. What can I tell you, life is good!

Various pictures from Westin

2010-02-10T01:55:00.012+01:00

Our gorgeous daughter!

The love of my life (big one and mini one)

We are still waiting for the pictures from our wedding. We shall receive them after 22nd February.

Everyday people

2010-02-09T10:59:00.006+01:00

We have moved out from Westin where we had our wedding. We're still in Langkawi but now in a 3-room apartment at the Chogm Villa apartment complex. This will be our base until 22nd March. But from here we plan to make several short trips. More on that later, when we know, you know. Life now seems much more like everyday life to me. For example today I had to drop off all the dirty laundry we had, it cost us 5 SEK per kilo (2 zl). Then I had to go grocery shopping. When I got home Beata made us pancakes.

Tonight we're just gonna stay home and chill, we have wine and we borrowed a couple of dozen DVDs from Rob our nice host so I think we're all set. Tomorrow we'll rent a car so that we can start exploring the rest of this beautiful island.

Picture below is our view from the balcony.

Newly wed!

2010-02-08T14:26:00.012+01:00

Saturday will be a day to remember, it's the day Beata and I got married! Lots of pictures were taken, but they are not at our disposal just yet, they're being developed by our professional photografer Aloha (whom we flew in from Bangkok). So we, as well as you reading this will have to wait patiently to see pictures from this magical day.

It was in some ways a very stressful day with a packed schedule. Early in the morning we had our first photo shoot down by the beach, after that there was just a small window before there was time for "the villa shoot" in our beach villa at Westin hotel. After that Beata had to sit with the make-up artist plus fix her hair and dress. By 18.30 we got a ride in something that can only be described as a golf car (Nelly loved it) to the pier where the ceremony were about to start. Just one more photo shoot with the sunset as background and then the ceremony started.

"Bottles & Cans" by Angie Stone feels like "our song" so that was the one we'd chosen to play as we walked up to the... I don't know his official title but the jolly guy who was about to conduct the marriage ceremony. He talked for a while about mutual respect and what not, I don't really remember because I was mesmerized of how stunning Beata looked with the gentle Malaysian sea breeze toying with her hairdo. Nelly was of course also present, wearing a pink and white princess dress plus a ribbon in her hair... well she ain't got much hair, but you get the idea. Right after the ceremony our babysitter Gaya took her back to the villa so that newly wed mom and dad could enjoy their dinner.

The always smiling Westin personnel set the table (we're still on the pier that you can see on top of this blog). The food was unbelievable. My memory fails me right now so I can't tell you exactly what we ate. But the starter was tuna something, and then a juicy steak with mashed potatoes & grilled vegetables. And the dinner ended with a creme brulé look-a-like-kind-of-thing.

After dinner we were offered a ride back to the villa but Beata and I felt like walking. When we got back home we found out that the Westin staff had "prepared" it for us while we're gone. There were roses from the front gate leading up to our bed on which we found a present to us, as well as a beautiful heart shape made out of even more roses. I don't know what they were implying ;-) . Plus we got champagne and chocolate covered strawberries, it was beautiful. And since Nelly was sleeping we had all the time in the world to enjoy it, which we did out by our own private pool which was decorated with roses, candles and balloons. It was magical. A perfect ending to a very special day!

Many thanks and best wishes to everyone in Langkawi who helped us with the event and to all our friends and family back home who thought of us on this special day.

From hell to heaven

2010-02-05T15:45:00.017+01:00

Kuala Lumpur was no hit for us. Not that I dislike the city, I'm sure it's great, problem is I was busy doing one of the following.

worrying about my daughter
cleaning up vomits
talking to the hotel doctor

This morning when we're on our way to the hotel reception to check out and leave for the airport she threw up again. God I hope it was the last time. Poor little thing.

Anyway, long story short, we've traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi and checked in to Westin Hotel, and tomorrow we are getting married here!!! And this place is a big slice of heaven, I kid you not. Finally this is starting to feel like vacation! What a place Westin is, you really have to be here to believe it. Our villa is huge, (if tipsy one could probably get lost in the bathroom). It has it's own private pool, and from the pool we have a panorama view of the sea. And what's even more important, Nelly seems fine again. Please, please, please stay well angel. Tuesday and Wednesday are not days that Beata and I ever wanna experience again, they were tough! The luxurious surrounding that we are now enjoying at Westin feels very well deserved.

Nelly feels fine again!

2010-02-04T16:57:00.006+01:00

Today was a great day. Nelly was feeling fine all day long, smiling as always and flirting with everyone we met. In fact, everything felt so back to normal that mom and dad could hire a baby-sitter for the evening and enjoy a nice late dinner at the poolside restaurant.

We didn't get to see much or do anything special in Kuala Lumpur at all, but what a relief that she feels better again!

The Frequent Flyer

2010-02-03T08:50:00.020+01:00

This is our fantastic Nelly traveling! Picture taken at Arlanda while waiting for boarding.

She succeeded to charm everyone she met on her 3 days long journey to Kuala Lumpur.

In Frankfurt she made a new friend in Maxi.

Beata's friend Zielak and her husband Daniel, who live in Frankfurt (can you belive our luck!), took care of us when stupid Lufthansa failed to. Zielak and Daniel were fantastic to say the least, words can not express how grateful we are to them for everything they did for us under our 48 hour stay in Germany. We hope that 'll get the chance to reciprocate.

Unfortunately our little Nelly is still sick, 2nd day now. We're doing everything we can to make it go away as fast as possible. The doctor at Mandarin Oriental Hotel has been great, hopefully the medicine will start working soon so that Nelly will smile again like she usually does.

Nelly

2010-02-03T07:24:00.003+01:00

Our wonderful, precious Nelly is sick.

First impression of Kuala Lumpur

2010-02-02T12:32:00.007+01:00

Wow, people here are really friendly and service minded. Nelly is already a super star over here. After checking in at our hotel it was time for dinner. It was getting late, Malaysia time (for us it felt more like afternoon). Anyway while we are eating I can't tell you how many from the staff that came by our table to play with Nelly. One of the waitresses started playing hide-n-seek with her and also carried Nelly around while mom and dad enjoyed their food. Nelly was introduced to the entire restaurant staff while we ate and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Something similar would never in a million years happen in Sweden.

Lufthansa, no thank you!

2010-02-02T12:30:00.008+01:00

I like planning and I like to do it right. As we travel with our 11 months old daughter, we decided to keep on the safe side when possible. For example we bought plane tickets for the trip early, and by early I mean September last year!

We had three basic requirements:

to be able to take a baby stroller to the gate (very convenient and necessary to be able to handle a long trip, especially if you have to change your plane and wait a few hours in between your flights).
to book a baby cot on the plane
max. one stop on the way to Kuala Lumpur (in our case Frankfurt).

After paying quite a lot extra for all the luxury mentioned above, booking the seats and a baby cot for five months in advance, I was hopeful that even though the trip is long, it is going to be quite smooth.

Unfortunately I was way off! Once we reached Arlanda, we had to fight to be able to take the stroller with us and when we finally succeeded to convince the check-in personnel about our right to do that (directing them to Lufthansa’s own rules and customer service), they found a way to punish us: we were made to throw away 25 jars of baby food because our suitcases were too heavy.

One might think that the beginning of the journey was rough enough, but one would be wrong! Our flight from Arlanda was delayed two hours and when we finally reached Frankfurt we were told that our Kuala Lumpur flight (which was also delayed by the way and still at the airport) refused to wait for us ten minutes!! And that is how we missed the 13 hours long flight.

After watching lots of American movies I had this illusion that as compensation we are going to be moved to business class for the rest of the trip, offered nice drinks and fly the next possible flight. Well.... business class my ass! Not only we didn't fly the next day, but we also didn't get seats next to each other and had to fight like lions in order to get a baby cot for Nelly!
The best offer that Lufthansa could come up with was to make us wait in Frankfurt for 48 hours and they were willing to pay for one night at a hotel! They refused to pay for lunches, dinners as well as the second night in Frankfurt while we were waiting for the flight they booked for us.

As if this was not enough while we finally were flying to Kuala Lumpur, we got to know that we had to make a stop in Bangkok and leave the plane for one hour, just to go through a stupid security control again and get back to the same seats…

I’m not sure what was my mistake – that I planned everything too carefully or that I have chosen Lufthansa!

Some dates that might be of interest

2010-01-22T19:56:00.005+01:00

We leave from Stockholm January 29th and arrive at our first stop, the five star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur the next day. We’re staying here 6 nights and leave February 5th.

On February 5th Air Asia flies us to Langkawi and the super luxurious Westin Langkawi Hotel. This is where we will get married! Febuary 6th at sunset (7 p.m. local time). Remember that Malaysia is seven hours ahead of Europe, so if you want to raise your glass around the same time, during lunch would be appropriate.

On February 8th we will continue our odyssey. But we are however staying in Langkawi, Chogm Villa apartment to be more precise. This will be our base for the majority of this adventure. From here we’re positive that we’ll make shorter trips, but exactly where and when we can not answer at this time. Borneo, perhaps? Krabi in Thailand, most likely.

After six weeks in Lankawi I’m sure we’ll be ready for something completely new and refreshing again, so on March 22nd we fly to Singapore where we will stay for 9 nights.

Then, sadly that marks the end of our adventure in Asia, on April 1st (we’re not kidding) you can expect to see us in Vasastan Stockholm again, ridiculously tanned and happy of course!

One became two, two became three...

2010-01-21T20:55:00.008+01:00

As our wedding day is approaching, we hope to find the recipe which is going to guide us and keep us happy together.

I guess it might be the one! The poem is called "Time Tested Beauty Tips" and the author is Sam Levenson who wrote it for his grandchild.

For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things,
have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed;
Never throw out anybody.

Remember,
If you ever need a helping hand,
you'll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older,
you will discover
that you have two hands,
one for helping yourself,
the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman
is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries,
or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman
must be seen from in her eyes,
because that is the doorway to her heart,
the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman
is not in a facial mole,
but true beauty in a woman
is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
the passion that she shows,
And the beauty of a woman
with passing years-only grows!

The beginning

2010-01-20T22:27:00.004+01:00

You have reached Beata, Nelly and Martins blog. For the next couple of months there will be a strong focus on Malaysia here because that’s where we’re heading! Next week we’ll be on our way to Kuala Lumpur or as the locals call it KL.