The three best parts of Kuala Lumpur:

1. Watching my family experience a busy Asian market for the first time. They impressed me with their bartering!

2. The Petronus towers at night. Gorgeous!

3. Backhome hostel. Seriously, so cool.

Next up: Bali!

After we bid adieu to our traveling pals, we zipped over to the airport to meet my family. Of course their flight was delayed so we had some major time to kill at the airport in the middle of the night. They finally arrived and we immediately loaded up in a van. We drove through the wee hours of the morning and arrived at Father's Guesthouse in the Cameron Highlands. A friend had recommended the guesthouse to us and I would highly recommend it as well. The owner was extremely accommodating with pushing our tour back a day since everyone was dead on their feet.

We slept most of the day and then my mom and I ventured out for a foot massage. At this point they had been in South East Asia for less than twenty four hours, yet my mom turned to me and said, "You know, I think we'll have to do a trip like this again sometime." :) I hope so!

The next day we explored the highlands and a bit of the mossy forest (look here for photos of that). The Cameron Highlands are even more stunning in real life than they look in pictures, which is sort of hard to believe. The temperature is also quite a bit cooler than in urban Malaysia, so that was a nice break.

Next up - busy, colourful, sprawling Kuala Lumpur!

For my friend Josée's birthday, we took a boat to Kecil (the smaller perhentian island) for the evening. The boat ride was a lot more expensive than anticipated, but worth it. The boat driver seemed set on getting us there in as little time as possible so he was driving like a mad man. On the way back, he drove the boat in pitch darkness! It was a pretty memorable experience.

While on Kecil we hopped between a few different restaurants and ended the evening by watching fire dancers on the beach.

After spending a few days in Georgetown, we headed to the Perhentian islands. I hemmed and hawed about whether we should go to the bigger (Besar) or smaller (Kecil) island... and I have to admit I think I made the wrong call. I had read something about the waves on Kecil being quite dangerous, so we opted for Besar. It was sort of a deserted island which was equal parts awesome and boring.

We visited Kecil one night (photos in the next post) and it had a really fun vibe. Also, delicious food! I think accommodation is cheaper on that island too. Oh well!

So anyways, there was really not much to do on Besar but laze around on the beach. I am a huge fan of the beach so I really can't complain. It also meant lots of quality chatting with those two ladies above ^^, whom I miss a lot (come back to Korea, would ya?!).

Okay! Let's talk about our trip. Right after school ended, we flew down to Malaysia with a few friends. Up until then, we hadn't yet had a chance to travel with any co-workers, so I was pumped that it finally worked out (plus our friend Kevin from Canada joined us too).

We started off in Georgetown, Malaysia. We were all pretty fried from the end of the year, so it's honestly a bit of a blur. However, I remember walking around a ton, eating good Indian food, and being astonished by how much English everyone spoke (so different than in Korea!).

We didn't find that there was tons to do in Georgetown but I feel like it's ripe with potential. It has really beautiful architecture and so many cute little buildings just waiting to be converted into cool restaurants, shops etc. We stayed at Hotel Guest Inn Muntri. It was pretty plain, but affordable and good location. Across the street, there was also a really great little restaurant.

One day we headed to Penang National Park, which was a nice way to spend Canada Day. The boys zipped around on some scooters, which was apparently pretty nice too.

Next up: the Perhentian islands!

Some of Kev's Malaysia photos here.

Well, I never got around to blogging while we were in Canada. I was having too much fun snuggling babies, eating ice cream, playing bocce ball on the beach, etc. etc.

I have heaps of photos and stories to share about our time in Malaysia and Indonesia in July but I thought I'd start with some photos from Canada while they're fresh.

We headed out to our friends cabin again (see last year's photos here). I was honestly looking forward to it all year and it did not disappoint. We ate all sorts of delicious food, had tons of laughs, went for walks and picked blueberries and read books on the dock. After swimming in the ocean Indonesia, the lake felt like ice to me so I can't say I actually ever took a dip. But do I ever love that dock!

Here's to next year! :)

The school year ended officially today. I'm a huge tangle of emotions; sad to say goodbye to our friends that are leaving, excited to travel to Indonesia and Malaysia, sentimental about my grade three students moving up, elated to see family and friends in Canada... and, well, tired.

I likely won't be updating the blog until we're home in Canada in August. So 안녕히계세요 (goodbye!) for now. If you care to follow along on our trip, we'll be posting on instagram (mine + mike's). Have a happy July! :)