Penang awesomeness - Day 1!

You know you made a good decision about where to stay when you walk out of your Air BnB and you are opposite Malaysia's finest chocolate house... What luck! We thought it would be rude not to visit.  Needless to say, the children were pretty chuffed! 

What was really good about this place (apart from that it has some of the finest chocolate known to humanity) was that it had a little timeline in English of the story of how chocolate is made. The cacao is grown in Malaysia and there was enough information for it to be interesting, without being overwhelming. It was really fun to hold a cacao pod and see the beans inside... 

We read together all the processes of chocolate production from field to shelf...  

Then we went to go consume some chocolate. Well, I had a coffee... of course. 

and Miles had a good laugh! 

Caden had a hot choc! It was mighty fine! 

Miles chose an apple crumble cheesecake... I ate a bit, my God it was good! Really good! 

We found a shopping mall very close to our place and Caden was delighted to add to his horrible histories collection with three books that he doesn't yet have! The topics he will now be reading about are The Blitz, WW1 and all about Pirates! 

We saw a few amusing little things like this Shut Happens sign! He he!  

Since it's Coronavirus time, we were scanned for our temperatures twice on entry to the mall and made to disinfect with hand gel at various points around the mall. So many people are wearing masks. We are not wearing them, I only have one mask each and I don't know if it's actually worth it. If we end up in a crowd/airport or something bad where there is a lot of people I will get the masks out then! They will be most effective at that time! They cannot be reused. The virus can get in through the eyes too... I'm telling the kids to just wash and wash and wash their hands but also trying to live normally and not in fear! I am pretty worried though if I am honest. It's becoming increasingly clear that we aren't going to make it back to Europe in 4 weeks with the way things currently are! The question is going to be more, where do we stay, do I go back to Thailand for a month with my partner and sit it out or stay in Malaysia for as long as I need to? It is hard to know right now because I don't have enough information. My decision will be based on how likely we are to be quarantined, put into another country or catch the virus, which despite feeling robust health-wise, I don't fancy having to deal with!! There is also the concern of the measures that the country we are in takes if the SHTF (shit hits the fan!)... what may they do if things are very bad? So hard to know.. I trust France about as much as I trust Thailand or Malaysia so again, no idea! I am in the process of upgrading our travel and health insurance! 

Meanwhile back at the ranch... Miles was enjoying a chicken burger for lunch! This kid! Noone would ever believe he used to be 100% raw and loved avocado and green juice! He LOVED my green juice smoothies... even the really dark green flavours.. now he recoils at the sight of lettuce... 

More amusement.... 

They were so happy to find a lego shop... This is Kai apparently... 

It was important to mention that Lego has made stranger things and they even have little lego aliens... kinda cool! 

 

Caden gave me hell last night when our taxi dropped us at the wrong place and we had to walk a blisteringly long way (12 minutes !!!) So I agreed to buy him new shoes. I have invested in Birkenstocks for him! He is delighted! You can't tell from this photo but he really does love them haha! 

We saw a Japanese shop selling all kinds of bird's nests for bird's nest soups 

and other delicious (!) meals! 

Then they went to the cinema to watch Trolls! They are pretty happy! We are so excited to be travelling together. Whatever happens with Corona, they have me back and I have them back and we are so happy about it! It's been a joy to be together all day today and just focus on each other! 

Travelling from Koh Pha Ngan to Penang

I'm writing the blog in a topsy turvey way! We have been on Koh Pha Ngan for about 10 weeks but in that time, I haven't spent a lot of time with the kids. They were with a nanny to begin with and then with a Thai babysitter for the last two weeks in the day, all day. We have had a few days together. Actually I found it hard to be away from them. They have had a Thailand experience all of their own but I wasn't really there to document it much. I have been training in Bodywork and taking a self development course that was not worth the effort but you live and learn. The good thing is that I now have bodywork to add to my skill set as a naturopath and that can only be a very good thing. 

So we left Koh Pga Ngan on the 5am ferry... this is how they travelled to Surat Thani... 

We were pretty excited to reach the Thai mainland... we saw dolphins in the sea... it was SO exciting! I was expecting a hellish journey by bus across the Malaysian border. We took the bus from Surat Thani bus station to Hat Yai.. it was a bit crammy but actually it was fine, we all had (just) enough space each, we had snacks... it was good enough. There was even air con! That was the saving grace! 

We all felt a little surge of excitement as we reached Penang and crossed over the sea bridge... we are all visiting Malaysia for the first time! We have high hopes because there are so many things to do on this island and we are all in great need of museums, architecture, good conversations, walking and talking and soaking up the culture. We've missed home ed! 

Reichstag Bundestag

When we visited Berlin in 2016 on our first interrailing trip, I had learned that visits to the Reischtag dome were possible and had planned to do the trip. When we arrived, we were told that it was necessary to book in advance and so we couldn't find a space anywhere near the time we had in Berlin. This time, I booked months in advance and included us in an English speaking tour. 

After a difficult day walking around Berlin in the rain, trying to find somewhere that was open, the kids had a meltdown near the Brandenberg tower and said they would refuse to go in to the Reichstag. To cap it all off, there was nowhere indoors for us to wait and it was drizzling and very cold... I got the third degree from each child for about half an hour. In the end, it was clear that an English speaking tour was out of the question so I told the staff and they kindly let us through 5 minutes early to simply look around and avoid the queues. The staff at the Reichstag were fantastically helpful and very kind. 

Looking happy at the Brandenburg gate

Obviously there are rarely any photographs of the fall outs... so some time elapsed here and now Caden is inside the Reichstag. 

It was worth the wait... what a spectacular design! It's a marvel! 

We could see parliament taking place way below... Caden said he could see Angela Merkel. He also said he thought he saw Macron, which spurred another meltdown because he wanted to meet him. Tough day! 

On our walk home, there were an extraordinary amount of police around, riot vans and cars stuffed with police everywhere... 

We stumbled upon a demonstration outside the Hauptbahnhof! We asked a lady and she told us that it was the anniversary night of the broken glass, Kristallnacht. One big event in Germany on 14 Nov. 1940 that was to be the catalyst for the Holocaust.  She told us a judge in Germany had, that week, ruled that the Nazis may walk in protest through the city. Freedom of speech. Also she said that she and the demonstrators were there to peacefully exercise their free speech that Nazis are not acceptable in Germany. It was moody, but really interesting. I didn't feel fully safe so we got through and went home, too many police to assume it would definitely go well! 

Science & Technology Museum Berlin

We found the building next door had a plane on the roof. 

A cross section of a car. 

The first computers... this was in the technology part of the museum and we saw a timeline of computers and home technology. 

We were guided by a robot, we told him where to take us and he did so, explaining all about the feature on the way. We saw the enigma code decipher. 

We had some fun with centrifugal forces and blew a few coins. 

Mirror silliness. 

We played with colour.. the science museum is a really good one. 

We played with electricity. 

and spinning light...

an electromagnet and we tested our own voltage

Caden becomes a seal..

Pendulum dynamics

Pulleys

A spinning ring... 

And Zoltar - from BIG. We didn't dare put the money in!