Colors of Asia: Hanoi is Yellow

While in Hanoi I started to think about how certain cities in Asia just seem to be a certain color. Not every city I have been to has a color, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) doesn't really have a dominant color. Sometimes the color is found in the cultural dress of the people, sometimes it is the natural environment, and sometimes it is really just pretty darn obvious.



Based on the sites of Hanoi, the color yellow was the only thing I could think of. What do you think?









I only had one day to walk around the city the rest of the time was for work, all I can say is I will be back, this time with the kids!

Sarawak Malaysia with Kids: Visiting the Orangutans

We had left the hotel at 7 am in order to be at the Semengoh Reserve by 8:30 to see the morning feedings and we were ready to head back to Kuching and Damai Beach to get some lunch. The walk into the forest to see the Orangutans had been good, but the kids were tired and starting to get hungry. We were on a group tour, so we had to wait for one more couple who had not yet returned to the van, when we heard some sounds in the distance. A bit of brush rustling and shifting and we saw her. She came out alone at first and gave us the once over. She looked back into the woods and out came her young child.



Seeing a wild Orangutan up this close was a rare treat, but we were also a bit unnerved. The guide recognized this Orangutan and said she had a habit of being a bit protective of her young children and that we should remain calm and non-threatening. Okay I thought, I am able to do that. Jeff, on the other hand started to call our kids, who were very interested in seeing her up close back to a safe distance.



She kind of hung out for a while, not doing much or going anywhere, just looking at us. After about 15 minutes she piled her babe up onto her back and she walked down the hill. It was about this time the last members of our group started to walk back up to the van, ironically, they had walked further into the woods in an attempt to catch the apes up close and we had stayed back because of the kids.

The Semengoh Orangutan Reserve is about a 45 minute drive from Kuching on the island of Borneo and is open most days with a long lunch on Fridays. It is a great opportunity to see some of Asia's native aninmals in the wild and in a protected environment. It is a fun and safe day trip from your hotel and a great way to show the kids some of the attempts to save this majestic creature.

Getting there: You can travel by taxi or hire a “guide” through your local hotel. We did the latter and included a stop at a Crocodile Farm (a post for another day for sure!) From what we have heard, Semengoh is much smaller than the Sepilok Reserve and the chances of seeing Orangutans tends to be less in Semengoh, but we lucked out that day.

Would we go back, you bet, now it is just a matter of planning the next trip!

This post is part of Photo Friday over at Delicious Baby. For more great photos check them out here.

Travel Plans: Upcoming Asia Trips with the Kids

The Vagabondmom, and my co-workers, determining our next stop at Expo in Shanghai, 2010















This week I am in Singapore. In fact, I am in Singapore for 10 days, one of the longest stretches at home in about 3 months and the month of October looks like it is going to be a bear and a half for work related travel. This week however, is one for catch up, a bit of home maintenance, some doctors visits and time to dig out the map and start planning our family trips for the next few months.






October offers us a short break for the kids, this 5 day weekend, we plan to leverage on some work I need to do in Penang, so my trip will be planned around the kids holiday. Being on the road without the family stinks, when they can come along it is so much better. While there in Penang we hope to schedule a meet up with @ccburns and his wife Tracy and their super cute kids.







November offers a short weekend, the Deepavali Festival and the kids get one day off from School. I need to be in Kuala Lumpur for a scrapbooking weekend, where I will teach a class for a bunch of super cool scrappers in the Bangsar area, I figure I will bring Hubby and Kids along for the weekend as well!





December is our big trip to Siem Reap. We will be going with friends from our condo here in Singapore and we plan on taking in the Angkor ruins, doing some volunteer work and spending some time hanging out with a great family. Our trip falls over the New Years holiday, so I am sure some party will be attended as well.

I can't wait to get some more posts up here this week, making up for lost time, but I plan on loading some pictures of China, Japan and Malaysia as well as a post on Kuching Malaysia this week!

Photo Friday: The Vagabondboy

A trip to Phuket Thailand, Spring 2002

In the first nine years of my life, I think I traveled to exactly 2 foreign countries. Canada and Mexico. I think I did not go beyond those 2 countries, and my own home country of the USA for an additional 10 years. At the age of 19 I stepped out of my comfort zone and went to Germany with stops in France and Austria. Not a huge step into the un-known, but quite enough for me.


Taipei Taiwan 2002

Now, contrast that with my Son’s first 9 years. He was born in Taiwan. Traveled to China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, the continental US and Guam, as well as Singapore and Japan all before he was 2 years old. A few more years he has made trips to Thailand an annual event, with side trips to Malaysia, Indonesia and the island of Borneo as well as semi-annual trips back to the US and a trip to Mexico. Not bad for a kid who does go to school from August to June and whose parents work full time.


In honor of my third culture son, who is celebrating his 9th birthday with an Indiana Jones Adventure birthday party this weekend, here are some highlights of some of the explorer's trips around the world.



Shanghai China, Summer 2002







Macau Fall 2002


Japan Fall 2002





Guam 2003






Penang 2004

Singapore Zoo


Phuket 2006


Mulege Baja Mexico 2007



Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia 2008


Disneyland 2010




Sharing these as part of Photo Friday on Delicious Baby visit her page for more great Photo Friday posts

Singapore with Kids: Singapore Science Center

As you may recall, I mentioned that our summer plans had originally been geared towards the US. After nearly 12 years overseas, we planned on taking the kids home to bond with the grandparents and cousins for an extended trip. Well one gallbladder and a bout of severe pneumonia later, we are still in Asia.










We will be heading to the US next week, but we had a lot of bundled up kid energy and extra time so we are doing some "staycation" activities in Singapore and a side trip to Kuala Lumpur. The kids are sleeping away at the hotel now, so I thought I would take a quick minute to post about the Singapore Science Center. Tomorrow I will post about the Malaysian PETRONAS Science Center (Petrosains) in Kuala Lumpur by way of comparison.
















The Singapore Science Center is actually the third most visited attraction in Singapore behind the zoo and the night safari. Not surprising really when you figure that the Singaporean focus on education and science. The kids have gone to the center a couple of times and always enjoyed the center and the water park and play area outside. This weekend was the first time I got the opportunity to check it out as well and we went to see the exhibit on Pixar animation.


The center itself is split into separate “galleries” each having multiple interactive displays and exhibits. We spent the bulk of our time in the Maxwell wing, looking at the exhibits on Climate Change and Microbes. After Declan’s stint in the hospital with pneumonia, the virus section was fascinating for him! There are also sections on the human genome, space, nanotechnology and math. The exhibits are designed to match portions of the Singapore educational system so while some exhibits are not interesting to a 7 and 8 year old as the intended audience is more for high school student, you couldn’t get them away from other exhibits (like the kinetic sculptures).




Growing up and getting to OMSI in Oregon as a kid I always enjoyed the hands on activities that were presented as part of the educational experience. It was just never that fun when I got back to school. I like the idea of teaching the cool stuff and funky side of science to get children engaged. The Singapore Science Centre could be a good day of fun. Bring your swimsuits and get in the water at the end, play and learning all wrapped up together and I love seeing the kids play with science and hey if I end up with a scientist or lab geek when these kids grow up… I think that would be alright by me!

Borneo with Kids: Miri's Lambir Hills Park aka tours with the headhunters!

Last October (2009) the Vagabond Kids and family set out on a new adventure, to a spot we had not yet done, a place we had not yet traveled. We went on a family vacation to Miri Malaysia on the island of Borneo.

Borneo (so far we have only traveled to Malaysian Borneo) is quickly becoming one of our favorite spots for a quick get away. It is an hour plus by plane from Singapore and still has some native forest left (as compared to much of Indonesia and all of peninsular Malaysia), pristine beaches (for now) and native cultures unlike those on the peninsula.



Jeff, aka Vagabond Dad, is always looking for a new place to see, someplace before it hits the big time. This time, the new spot that cropped up was a couple hundred bucks on an Air Asia flight, two hours in air and a Marriott hotel later and boom, we were in Miri.


Miri is just south of the very oil rich Sultanate of Brunei and is also home to the first oil well in Malaysia. Miri is also a bit of a "hot spot" for Bruneian and expats working in Brunei (Brunei is an Islamic country and no Alcohol is sold there). While we were in Brunei a good size group of British Army-men and their families were camped at the Marriott for a weekend of pool, beer and camaraderie.

Lambir Hills Park

Miri is still a sleepy town, much of it is either oil or timber industry and has not yet become a popular tourist destination in Asia. Much of the tourism that is there, is of the adventure type and Miri serves as home base prior to departing out on a jungle trek and a welcome shower and soft bed upon your return.


We weren't really interested in a big hike, and frankly I am not sure the kids are quite ready for it, but we did want to take the kids out and show them some real forest. Jeff and I grew up in small towns in Oregon, where forests are thick-day hikes are common- and an appreciation of the wild is part of being a kid. Needless to say, Singapore, you don't get that.


We found that there was a nearby day hike, less than an hour drive from the Hotel in the Lambir Hills National Park. The park has multiple waterfalls, suspension bridges and a swimming pond at the end of one of the trails. There are multiple trails in the park, the easiest is about a 25 minute gentle walk towards the swimming hole. There are two ways to get to the park, you can either hire a taxi for the day which would run you about US$35-40 or you can hire a guide and driver. We went ahead and hired the guide and it was a great way of doing the park. The guide, plus car and driver, was only about $60. US, so for the additional $20 we figured it was worth it.




















Jeff showing off little minnows









Our Guide was a local Dayak, and the Dayaks are the indigenous people of Borneo and contain around 200 subgroups. The most infamous of the Dayak tribes were the headhunters, which our guide told us his family was part of that subgroup. We were assured however, that they had not taken any heads for at least 20 years, so we were in safe hands! All jests aside, one of the advantages of having hired the guide we walked through the park and were given some of the local flavor of the park and he showed us how the local peoples used different plants as medicines, how children would make helicopters with certain seeds and how the Dayak people were much more in touch with nature. In many ways much of that culture is gone (and not just the headhunting). The current Dayaks are leaving the forest and going to work on the oil rigs or in the timber plantations so it was interesting to get some of the traditional information while it still exists.









Man this was cold water!














At the end of the trail we sat down to a picnic lunch that we had packed and enjoyed a bit of a dip in the swimming hole. We were by ourselves for an hour or so before another family we had met at the hotel also went for a dip. It was a neat opportunity to get out of the city, to enjoy some trail time and to show the kids what being outdoors really means. After another drive back down the hill a little grubbier and tired we made it back to the hotel and the kids burst back into action in order to hit the pool in time for the Inflatables... but that is a post for another day.

Kids in Singapore: A Day at the Zoo

I love living in Singapore, it really is one of the greatest cities in the world. One of its best features is not unsung, but it deserves all of the credits it gets. Yes, the Singapore Zoo is high on my Top 10 things to do in Singapore list. Even better if you have kids.




Four Cousins at the Zoo













Open every day, from 9-6 the Singapore Zoo has to be one of the best zoo's in the whole world; free and open animal exhibits,creative use of space, ability to feed certain animals, interactive guides through out and oh yeah a totally kickin' water park on the back side. (If you still have strength you should check out the night safari!)








The water park

















Our strategy for the zoo is to get there early. Particularly on weekends… here’s a little secret about many Singaporean's; they sleep in on weekends. So, if you get to the Zoo around 9am you should find yourselves with the animals not crowds of people. Besides, by 2pm in the afternoon, it gets pretty darn hot even with the well designed zoo. So we try to get a big part of the zoo done early in the morning and hit the water park at the back side of the zoo in the afternoon to cool off.










White Tiger Exhibit























One of the great things about the zoo, other than the Polar Bear Exhibit (a long story), is most of the animals are native to SE Asia. The zoo has exhibits featuring the White Tiger which are totally amazing to see these creatures this close. The exhibit is also interactive with information about the Asian Tiger, its diminishing habitat and information on the white tiger (did you know that all white tigers are cousins to each other as they all have the same ancestor?). The zoo also has the Malaysian Tapir, a huge Orangutan exhibit, SE Asian Otters, Asian Elephants, Komodo Dragons, Proboscis Monkeys, Hornbills… in addition to the standard Lions, Zebras, Rhinos and the like.
















Feeding the tortoise










The kids love feeding time, in some places it is a talk by a keeper and in others for a small fee you can feed the animals. Some of the more popular animal talks/feedings are the pygmy hippos, the giraffes and rhinos, but we love the giant tortoise. Less crowded for Singapore $5 (about US$3.50) you get a bowl of fresh fruit and you get to walk around and interact with the tortoises while you feed them. My sister and her family visited us last summer and this was a highlight of the zoo for them.



















The whole zoo is a great place to hang out, you can have breakfast with the Orangutan, see a few shows, play in the water and head over to the night safari for dinner and a whole new zoo experience. I am torn between this or Sentosa being my number 1 for things to do in Singapore with the kids. What do you think?


Here are a few more fun pics from the zoo... click on them to see a larger size

From Vagabond Kids

From Vagabond Kids

From Vagabond Kids

From Vagabond Kids

Singapore with Kids: Universal Studios Singapore (Soft Open Review)

Universal Studios Singapore

Vagabond Dad and Vagabond Kids. Vagabond Mom, well, behind the camera of course!




The Dueling Coasters at Universal Studios Singapore which remain un-opened due to technical problems.










Last Friday, the day before the May Day holiday, the kids had a day off from school. Seemed like a great opportunity to go off and explore Universal Studios Singapore while the local kids remained in school. So, we set off from our house, arrived around 10:30 and waited to buy tickets. The lines for tickets were a bit long with a few kiosks remaining closed. Once we entered it looked fun. Good decorations, shelter from what was a scorcher of a day and nice layout... until you got into the park. First negative: much like HK Disney after it first opened, the trees and landscaping have not yet grown to give shade and cover on really hot days. After a few years this should be resolved and it should not be as super hot as we were. Please bring sunscreen for the kidlets and grownup folk though!



The Madagascar Carousel.































Knowing this was a soft launch, I was not too picky (or tried not to be) but it was not clearly marked which rides were not yet finished and which were not opened due to other issues. The Madagascar rides were closed other than the carousel which was too short, too cheesy and not worth the 15 minute wait. Trust me don't wait longer than 15 minutes for this ride.

Once you got into the land of Far Far Away things turned for the better. Generally crowd control needs to be resolved at the park and attendants need to do a better job at directing people, but overall it was pretty good. A fun little coaster ride in the land of Far Far Away, and a GREAT 4D show with Shrek 4D. I had not been overly impressed up to that point, so I was presently surprised. Much better than some of the Disney 4D types of "shows".


The best part of the whole park up to this point was the bathroom at the far end of that portion of the park. CLEAN.... with attendants standing outside ready to clean it again. From a parents perspective, very nice indeed





















We then set our sights on Lunch in the Lost World and had very good Chicken Rice in the main room. Singapore "choping" of seats was rampant, but otherwise when you figure we got a 1o meal voucher for each of us, we ate for almost "free".



We did the rides in Lost World after lunch and the Water Rapids ride was a super fun time, wet for some of us, more than others. (For more pictures you can check out the Vagabond Kids Facebook page). Trust me you should see this picture.



It was then to Egypt and the Mummy Ride. A highlight. Shorter than many indoor roller coasters, but what a blast. I won't give away the ride, but it does have a height limit on it for younger kids, my petite 7 year old just made the cut. The stage show of Waterworld was a good time for all with stunts and explosions and even a water plane or two.

Overall, with the exception of one ride (the carousel) I enjoyed the park. It was small the rides were short (so say the kids) and the heat was a factor (bring sunscreen). Once the dueling coasters get up and running we will be back and if they can resolve crowd control...seriously I think it was just new staff unaccustomed to the stupid questions they were asked, the park will be a good attraction for Singapore. Now, does it surpass my favorite park in the world-no I have by biases still strongly in place, but it is as good (or will be) as Disney HK... and for me...that is saying something.


More pictures on the Vagabond Kids Facebook page. Come join us there! Facebook Pictures here

Malaysia with Kids: Batu Caves- Or How the kids hiked up 272 steps in Kuala Lumpur

Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur.






At the top of 272 steps is Batu Caves, one of Malaysia's (or at the least, Kuala Lumpur's) most famous tourist attractions. The caves are located about 13 kilometers from downtown KL and can be reached by bus, taxi or hired car. Last spring the vagabond kids and vagabond dad accompanied me while I spent a week for work in KL. One of the highlights of the trips was by far the morning spent at the Caves. Batu Caves was even featured in Season 11 of the Amazing Race!


Batu Caves is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Lord Murgan (the God of Victory and Kundalini in the Hindu faith) and is one most sacred sites for Malaysian Hindus. Every year in late January, early February, the temple becomes filled with devotees during the Thai Pusam festival where Icons are carried up the temple steps (remember there are 272 of them) and devotees often pierce their skin and tongues and carry these heavy idols up the stairs as a test and form of self sacrifice to the gods. (For more information on Thai Pusam click here).



Inside the caves Indian Idols and Mythological Creatures abound.

The day the kids and Vagabond Dad went was a nice morning in June. While at the temple they were able to get blessed by a Hindu priest, visit the petting zoo in front of the temples and visit the caves filled with Hindu idols and religious mythological creatures by way of paintings and statues filing the caves. The kids had a blast watching the Hindu dancers practice dances and even invite tourists on Stage too. I heard that Vagabond dad was invited, but the kid's don't have any photographic proof and he denies that he was a dancing fool!




Dancers at Batu Caves

























The day was finished when the kids hiked back down the hill, tired and hungry and they retreated back to the hotel for lunch and a swim in the pool. Batu Caves is a place that as an adult, my first trip was underwhelming. Looking back and looking at it from the kids perspective I realized I missed so much. What a great place to visit and catch a glimpse of Indian Culture and Religion (in particular that related to the Tamil people). When we travel back as a family to KL this summer I plan on doing Batu Caves again with a whole new mindset!







After being blessed by the temple priest.

A note of caution about the temples and the stairs, the steps are steep and it does take a while to climb and I don't recommend taking toddlers as there are many places a little one could fall and or trip around this area. Also, as you can tell the idolatry around the temple does contain half dressed semi-human forms. Finally, there are a number of Macaque monkeys around the temple and they are very aggressive if you are carrying fruit or snacks (particualrly in plastic bags) as many of the locals feed the monkeys and they have become accoustom to begging and stealing food.