The final countdown - Final part

The holiday was drawing to a close and it was time to leave the tropical sunshine for the arctic darkness. Below a few photos from the last days.

Sam folding clothes.


Khuan-Ning.


Leong in one of his favourite positions, lying on the sofa. (And I hope that all of you follow the exhortation in the newspaper headline!)


Group photo at Penang airport.

(From left to right: Front row - Henry, Jia-Yen, Jia-Jun. Front middle - Peter, Kuan, Po-Po, Khuan-Ning, Thomas, Hwei-Ming. At the back - Sam, Leong, Jia-Qi)

Po-Po with her grandchildren. (The only one missing is Khuan-Hoong.)


The cabin crew greeting us on board the MAS flight to Frankfurt.

Tiina met us at Helsinki-Vantaa airport and brought us the winter clothes that we had left with her for safe-keeping. To welcome them back to Finland, Thomas and Henry both got new SaiPa hats.

Sporting the new headgear. (From top to bottom: Tiina, Henry, Thomas.)

The series of posts about Elk's Street's trip to Malaysia and Indonesia ends with a photo of what Elk's Street looked like on our return - quite a contrast to the tropic greens of the south-east Asian jungles!

The final countdown - Part 3

The dinner was held in the restaurant Feng-Wei, Penang. We've been to the restaurant a few times and while the food is good, the restaurant suffers from being rather noisy. This is either because there are too many people in too small a space, or maybe the result of the furnishing.

Jia-Jun at the restaurant.


Jie enjoying his time in the restaurant.

Theng-Theng.

H-M's schoolfriend, Chen-Liang was our driver for the next couple of days, during which we did a little sight-seeing. One of our traditional trips is to the buddhist temple in Air Itam, Kek Lok Si.

Chen-Liang and H-M.


A fairly traditional photo of the temple with the pagoda in the background.


Henry lighting joss-sticks. He decided to place them before the statue of the Laughing Buddha.

It was at this point in the holiday that I was struck down with a mystery stomach ailment. It was very unpleasant and at one point it seemed possible that I might not be in a fit state to travel back to Finland. Medicine helped me over the worst but it took nearly two months before I was completely recovered.

Thomas, Henry and Chen-Liang in McDonald's.

Thomas took a long time to get used to Malaysian food; he much preferred the western food he is used to, although he really enjoyed the tropical fruits. In the beakers is the drink Milo, of which both boys are great fans.

The holiday then continued with Elk's Street returning to Sungai Petani to get ready for the flight back to Finland.

The final countdown - Part 2

Having arrived at the Chee Seng Gardens home of the "Thin Aunt", we were all taken out to eat.

From the other posts about the Elk's Street visit to Malaysia it should be becoming clear that Malaysians' favourite hobby is eating, and then eating more. And Penang is the food capital of Malaysia. For short travel videos about Penang food, click here and here.

This time we were taken to eat an an Indian restaurant, Sri Ananda Bahwan. The evening didn't go entirely smoothly as Henry drank two Mango Lassi drinks on top of some, for him, spicy food and consequently got stomachache!

Edmund looking rather stern, flanked by his daughters.

Elk's Street were housed in Wing-Hoong's flat in the Leader Garden condominium.

Having breakfast in Wing-Hoong's flat.

The next day was a family trip to the beach, organised by Lai-Peng.

The gang getting organised on the beach.


Thomas on the beach.


The Chee Seng Gardens aunt on the beach.


Kuan on the beach, or should that be, on the phone?

As we set off a little late and the sun got very hot very quickly, the pale northerners left to cool down in an air-conditioned shopping centre. While H-M did her shopping, the boys had coffee and fruit juice in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café, and hung around patiently.

Thomas and Henry becoming part of a hat display. For those trying to remember which artist the photo vaguely reminds them of, the answer is René Magritte.

Then it was back to the flat for a short rest before the evening's family banquet.

The final countdown - Part 1

The return of Elk's Street to S.P. was on Christmas Eve, Jia-Jun's birthday, and the start of the last part of the visit to Malaysia. Below a few photos.

Jia-Qi in the kitchen getting the food ready.

The birthday boy admiring the celebration meal.

As can be seen from the photo above and the one below, there were lots of Christmas elves around.

Elf Kuan, Elf Henry, Elf Thomas, Elf Jia-Qi

The following day Elk's Street and the S.P. crowd went for a short trip to The Tree Top Walk at Sungai Sedim.

Finding it is not completely straightforward but for Malaysian standards it is surprisingly well signposted; the trick is to turn off the highway at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, after which the signs are quite clear. Tropical jungles are not like European forests, where visitors can walk freely picking berries and mushrooms as they go (if the season is right). The undergrowth is so dense that visitors would need a machete to walk through a jungle. Oh, and not to mention all the snakes, leeches, and other creepy crawlies.

Jia-Yen and Thomas on the tree-top walk.


Some of the group on the jungle walk. But what are they looking at?


Malaysian jungle.

The following day, it was off to Georgetown, Penang to visit relatives. First stop was to visit H-M's Aunt Doris, who had just moved into a new apartment at Villa Emas, not far from the new shopping centre, Queensbay Mall.

The apartment block. Extra points if you can spot Henry!

The huge building boom and dramatic increase in high-rise buildings has been one of the changes I've seen in Penang. On my first visit, Komtar dominated the skyline of central Georgetown, and the Rifle Range flats stood out.

The way the island has been covered in concrete is not necessarily for the best - there are serious infrasture problems. This is seen most obviously in the constant traffic jams, difficulties with water - both flooding as water runs off the hills and supply of clean water - building quality problems, and issues with landslides. With Penang having been chosen as a U.N. Heritage site, I hope that more attention will be paid to sustainable development of the island.

Some of the gang in Doris's flat - Theng-Theng, Jo-Vi (boyfriend), Po-Po, Kuan, Aunt Doris.

Doris and H-M.

Jie, Doris's grandson. Jie's parents are working in Scotland and Jie is living with his grandmother.

From Bayan Lepas we then moved towards Tanjun Bungah to see the next set of relatives.

Langkawi - Part 2

As mentioned in "Langkawi - Part 1" not all our time was spent around the hotel. We also went on some sight-seeing trips.

Elk's Street's day usually began with some fruit in the hotel room as a light breakfast, followed by some time in the pool. Around 10.00 a.m. the sun was sufficiently high that the pool was no longer in the shade, so it was time to move on. Breakfast was normally across the road at the Cactus open-air restaurant. This was for reasons of cost. The hotel operated with western price levels and by crossing the road, food prices dropped by three-quarters. The Cactus food was ok, but slow, slow, slow!

We ended up booking all our trips through the same tour operator, Tour Link Holidays Sdn Bhd, who provided a good, reliable service. We didn't really take any of the ready-made packages but negotiated trips to those sights we wanted to see. Since our group was large enough to need its own minibus, this was no problem. The only disappointment was the restaurant Yunic Tan, the boss, recommended - not good enough for our Penang-based experts! (Penang is the home of the world's best Malaysian food and every Penangite is a food expert.) Yunic's own restaurant, Xin An Vegetarian Café, where we stopped on our way to the ferry back to the mainland, was, however, very good. The vegetarian in our group was pleased and the food was good enough that the meat eaters had nothing to complain about either.

Our first trip was to the Langkawi Cable Car. We set off rather late, so when we got there, the queues were very long. Our driver didn't have any of his mates in the queue, so we just had to wait and stand in line. Kuan got the task of queueing while the rest of us took a look around the "Oriental Village".

In my eyes, this had the architectural flair of Sainsbury's but I'm not one for shopping. There was a building with a geological exhibition, which was quite interesting, a bored-looking, tethered eagle was there to have its photo taken with tourists, and the village was set around a village pond. Feeding the fish helped keep the children occupied while Kuan was queueing.

Thomas, Henry and Jia-Yen feeding the fishes.

The cable cars.

It was quite windy so the ride was more exciting than some people anticipated!

Jia-Qi enjoying the ride.

The group at the Top Station (Jia-Yen, Thomas, Hwei-Ming, Po-Po, Kuan, Jia-Qi, Henry). Note the wind-swept hairstyles.

Having got down safely, we had ice-creams before getting back into the minivan. The next stop was a craft centre. The children got to try their hand at batik painting. They were sufficiently enthusiastic to be there long enough to complete the painting. I decided we'd buy the work, so now we have a nice souvenir. The wax outline was done by the experts and the children filled in the spaces between the lines.

Henry getting instruction and starting off the project.


Thomas and Jia-Yen continuing the work.

Jia-Yen was a natural talent at batik artwork and she was allowed to work on a large painting destined for sale.

Jia-Yen hard at work.

After the Craft Centre we headed to Kuah for an early dinner.

The next day's trip was labelled a mangrove riverboat cruise with eagle feeding and a visit to a bat's cave. The minivan dropped us off at Tanjung Rhu, where we picked up the riverboat.

For readers wishing to splash out and looking for a quiet place to relax, the Tanjung Rhu Resort comes highly recommended. Unfortunately, like The Datai and The Andaman, the other top-class hotels on Langkawi, it's out of Elk's Street's reach. But on an earlier visit the Chairman did get fish and chips from The Andaman - but that's another story.

Speeding down the river.

Once in the right place, the boatman revved his engine to attract the attention of the eagles, a sort of dinner bell, and then he threw some chicken bits overboard. The eagles swooped down to pick them off the surface of the water; a very impressive sight. Getting a photo was quite a challenge, the eagles are fast and my old digital camera very slow. Below, one eagle that got caught.

A "Lang" from Langkawi.

We then continued onward through the mangrove to the bat cave. The bats were hanging from the roof of the cave having their afternoon naps. After a visit to another cave, we were taken to a small fish farm, where the brave could have their thumbs sucked by a stingray, before exiting the mangrove and taking the sea route back to Tanjung Rhu.

A typical mangrove forest.


A mangrove monkey.


The exit from the bat cave; best attempted before high water.

Our stay in Langkawi was very short, only 3 nights, so there was no more time for further trips. There are many other things to do.

The next day, the minivan came to take us to the ferry terminal and our journey back to the mainland.

Group portrait in front of the vegetarian restaurant. (Thomas, Hwei-Ming, Henry, Yunic (tour guide), Kuan, Jia-Qi, Po-Po, Jia-Yen)

The symbol of Langkawi is the eagle and here to finish this report is a photo of the eagle statue at Eagle Square in Kuah, taken from the ferry terminal.

Langkawi - Part 1

One of the first highlights of the holiday was a 4-day family trip to the island of Langkawi. The trip was partly arranged from Finland, with the Chairman in charge. The first problem was finding a suitable place to stay. After hours of internet surfing, calls to relatives and much deliberation, the choice was narrowed down to two - the Frangipani Resort and Holiday Villa. The latter got the nod as it was considerably cheaper.

The group heading out to Langkawi consisted of Peter, Hwei-Ming, Henry,Thomas, Po-Po, Kuan, Jia-Qi and Jia-Yen. Unfortunately, Jia-Jun couldn't join us as he didn't get permission from the doctor following his latest operation.

Elk's Street and the Sungai Petani gang set off by bus to Alor Setar, where they were met by Kuan and a friend. After a lunch of Wan Tan Mee, Kari Mee and, one of Henry's favourites, chicken feet, it was off to Kuala Kedah to catch the high-speed ferry to Langkawi. Below a few photos.

Waiting at the Kuala Kedah ferry terminal.

Jia-Qi and Hwei-Ming on the ferry to Langkawi.


The ferry moored at Kuah Jetty, Langkawi.

We were met at the jetty by a minibus driver to take us to the hotel on the other side of the island.

Henry and Thomas with the bus driver. Note the name of the group.

Once in the hotel, people started making use of the facilities, as can be seen below.

Thomas, Jia-Yen, and Henry enjoying an ice-cream by the pool.


Jia-Qi doing the same.


Po-Po on the balcony of her hotel room.


In the hotel swimming pool. From left to right Peter, Henry, Jia-Qi, Kuan and Po-Po.


Thomas in the swimming pool. He cannot quite swim yet but is almost there. Apart from a small deep area, the swimming pool was 1.2m deep, so pretty safe for children.

The hotel is situated on Cenang beach (Pantai Cenang) which is west facing, allowing people to watch the sun set over the water.

The setting sun seen from Cenang Pantai.

Thomas on the beach with a thunderstorm approaching.

Collecting cockles on the beach (Henry, Jia-Qi and Kuan).


Building sandcastles on the beach (Hwei-Ming).

But not all the time was spent lounging around the hotel. For further information about what we did, read Part 2.