SE Asia 2025 complete!

So that’s that! We’ve had a lovely few months - a fortnight in Singapore and Malaysia, a month in Koh Lanta, 6 weeks in Hoi An and a final fortnight back in Malaysia and Singapore. 

It’s lovely catching up with family in Malaysia and Singapore. We either meet up at the start of our adventures when we are all super excited or at the end when we are heading home a bit exhausted - never anything in between! 

It was great spending a month on the island of Koh Lanta - doing lots of activities with a great bunch of families. My favourite memory is going down to the beach each evening to watch the sunset while the kids paddle in the sea - beautiful. 

I loved Vietnam so much. As soon as we arrived we could immediately feel the difference of it being just a few degrees cooler. I also love the feel of the place - friendly welcoming people, tasty food, affordable accommodation, great world schooling community and a diverse range of activities throughout the week. I think it might be my current favourite country!

Here are a few of my favourite photos:

Malaysia/Singapore part 1

Thailand

Vietnam

Malaysia/Singapore part 2

Singapore dash

We had a 36 hour splash in Singapore. We stayed in a nice little hotel in Balestier. There was a hawker market nearby which we took dinner and breakfast at. 

We jumped onto a bus into town to see the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands. 

We spent our last evening having a lovely swim, sauna and jacuzzi at Jas’ club. The jacuzzi is the hottest I’ve ever been in. It takes ages to actually get into it as it feels a bit like you are cooking when you are in it! We then had delicious curries at the club with family - a lovely way to end our travels. 

We took a 9am flight out of Singapore. Changi airport is a beauty. The kids loved the indoor nature displays. 

We had a mad rush through Delhi to get our connecting flight to Birmingham. We had to run and jump all the queues and we just made it. Phew!

KLCC

We are staying in KLCC slap bang in the middle of Kuala Lumpur for 11 nights before our final brief stop over in Singapore and our flight home. 

I’ve been watching the forecast for ages trying to decide how long we should spend in KL. it always looks sizzling - although once here we have found it ok as there are so many opportunities to go in the shade or head into some aircon. 

We are staying in a super cheap three bed apartment right next to Petronas towers. I think it’s cheaper as they are still refurbishing the pool on the roof!

The views are stunning. We are on the 46th floor and we can see the KL tower and the newly built Merdeka skyscraper - it’s the second tallest one in the world! It’s tall(!) and also very impressively lit up at night. Every night I go to bed with the curtains wide open looking out over the city with lots of lights winking at me. It’s especially awesome when the thunder clouds roll in and we get the best lightening displays!

Obviously on the first morning we took in roti canais with teh tarik in a local place behind our apartment. We ate 2 or 3 each and the bill came to 16 MYR which is about £3! We ended up back there quite a few times!

We signed up for an annual membership of the Petrosains science museum. We went to the sister one in Johor Bahru back in January and loved it. The one in KL is the main one and it’s much bigger. It has entertained us all for hours! So many fun bits to investigate. We liked the programmable robot, hurricane generator, drawing game, space section, the mind game moving ball, baseball thrower, speed hitting games and all the fun scientific games at the front. Boo loved the air blower keeping a ball up - the joy on his face was adorable. 

We’ve spent a lot of time in malls, especially the nearest one to us Suria. We’ve eaten in the food court there so many times. The veggie Indian was our favourite along with our daily Boost 5-a-day vegetable/fruit juice. Then we’ve watched the water fountain light display several evenings. 

We looked round a Buddhist Temple near us and ate their delicious veggie lunch. 

We did a couple of world schooling events with some of our friends from our Koh Lanta time. Olive did a science class and some indoor climbing. 

I got an insight into the administration side of Malaysia when I managed to knock my glasses off my head as I got into the MRT tube. They managed to fall through the gap onto the track. They survived but I had to wait two hours for the peak time trains to finish then a man in a high vis jacket was able to walk along the track to retrieve them for me. There was a clear process that needed to be followed and I needed to be patient which in true British style I was able to follow!

I’ve also tried to have a mini health kick before heading home. I’ve not had any meat for nearly two months which feels a lot better. I also managed to go for a few jogs round the nearby running track in KLCC park with the wave of other morning runners. I tried to get a session of Herbalife in as well but with no success - I needed to be a member, have a coach and buy much more than just a weeks worth of shakes!

Next stop a pit stop in Singapore before jumping on board our long flight home…