KL Petronius science discovery centre and kids stuff

Traders hotel has it's own little poshed up Golf buggy to transport you around the park to the Suriya centre (which would be a less than 10 minute walk anyway). A fun way to travel.

I'd spent quite a lot of time researching things to do for kids in KL. We worked our way through the list. There were a few good things and it was good for a few days but I probably wouldn't rush back (whereas Hong Kong and Singapore definitely on the list to return to).

The aquarium was ok for 45 minutes but pretty lame compared to Sydney (Sydney's aquarium is rather amazing). The aquarium was handily located 5 mins walk from our hotel and there is a cheap foodcourt just outside with icecream so definitely a place to go but didn't captivate Mr 5 for that long.

On the other hand, the Petronius Science Discover Centre kept him entertained for hours. Would have been the whole day I think if we hadn't skipped a section because we needed to head to the toilet.

Above and below are a model of some sort of coal processing. We spent AN HOUR here. Toby just loved it, conveyor belts you winded around, buckets and scoops.......it was captivating for some reason. Just before this there was a 20 minute show on fire which he loved too.

We got to the centre not long after opening. there was no queue. Definatley best time to go, by the time we came out after lunch, the queue would have been 45 minutes to get in as you enter via a 4 person booth that takes you on a little journey through the universe.....

First up was a wind machine so you could see what it was like to be in a tornado. Toby did it twice. I did it once then grabbed the photos...

He wasn't so impressed by the dino but did spend about half an hour on this slid below. All up a great interactive activity, particularly suited to the 5 plus market.

One thing that I meant do the first day but never got around to (we were on holidays after all) was to go on the free buses that do little circuits around town to get our bearings. We did end up seeing a fair of KL in our tours though. Toby was probably a bit more comfortable in Malaysia as it was so western. He ate Spag Bol almost every meal, he really struggled in Cambodia with his suddenly limited food groups (rice, plain chicken....not much else). Even the supermarkets in Cambodia, there wasn't a massive amount he was keen on. Luckily I'd brought a few tins of spaghetti which he had for a few meals. Foodcourts were handy in KL so I didn't have to have spag bol every meal :)


And so that is the end of Toby, Nana and Julie's big overseas adventure for 2013. It was a blast.

KL loves Christmas and New 36 - Merry go Round

Check out how nicely the halls have been decked out at the Pavilion shopping centre. Although shopping isn't really my thing, especially with the company of a 5 year old, we had a bit of a wander around as we could walk to a few malls from our hotel. This one had the best Christmas displays. What a great time of year to come. Toby and I both LOVED it............whereas it would have been torture for Connah

Toby scored himself a free balloon and was desperate to go on the Merry Go Round. I decided to join him, I wouldn't normally, but as I hadn't cracked the 40 new things, I thought why not and it was great fun. I think I may have been the only adult actually riding a horse as opposed to standing next to a small child. All up it was a cool Xmas display in Pavilion.

The closest shopping centre to Traders Hotel, across the park is the Suria under the Petronius towers. They had a big tree out front and more inside. They also had a large supermarket that we got some supplies in and a good food court with plenty of variety.

Toby and I also went to the movies here on our last day. Two tickets and popcorn and drinks was cheap cheap chip. I'm pretty sure we got change from $10. Nice relaxing thing to do on our last day.

Traders hotel, KL

This was the view out our window. can you believe it? We thought it was fantastic in the daytime and then night came and there were colourful fountain shows for most of the night. It was very relaxing just looking at the view. I had spent a lot of time considering hotels and initially didn't book Traders but one close by without a view but a better looking outdoor pool. I'm glad I listened to Colleen's advice on booking memorable experiences on holidays - this was sensational. So good to have this view.

In fact Traders was an all round fabulous hotel, it was easy to see why it is one of the highest rated hotels in KL. They made up the sofa Toby is sitting on into a bed for him to sleep on and had some cute little touches like a chubba chub lolly on the towel to greet you on arrival.

The first day we got there lunchtime was almost finished so they offered us the buffet half price, fantastic. we were happy, they had a few more people finishing off the buffet, win win. The breakfasts were also a spectacular buffet. We thought we'd miss out on the last day as we had to leave the hotel before it opened but instead they let us order anything off the breakfast menu at no extra charge. Just such an easy place to stay.  The view from the pool on the thirtysomething floor was of the towers too. Spectacular. Being KL and prone to storming, an indoor pool was actually a good option.

They had a couple of pastry chefs visible every time we were down there, amazing at breakfast and at lunch though we didn't make it to dinner there.

It rained a couple of times when we were there, mainly later in the day, even that looked good.

Navutu dreams Siem Reap

So I thought I was done with Cambodia, but I just have to talk about our hotel again. Oh my goodness. It was so good. The three pools, the food - delicious and very reasonably priced. It was so good we ate there every night I think.

It was a small hotel, probably only 20 or so rooms and it was a bit out of town, but that was really good for us, so quiet and peaceful. We went past so very many hotels that were great high rises on main roads. Not this one! Our neighbours were rice paddies. Though apparently the dirt road out here isn't too flash after rain.

Finally the drinks, at $5 a cocktail, it was easy to try a few out. The first one below, passionfruit caprioska was particularly good. So good I bought the ingredients for both as my spirits allowance on the way back into Sydney.

Kuala Lumper - Bird park

Our first full day in Malaysia we went to the Bird Park. I thought public transport was the go but this turned out to be an experience.........let's just say we took a cab home.

The bird park was FANTASTIC, there were numerous averies to wander through not to mention the chance to hold a couple of birds, how cool is this?

Below are some birds you could feed in one of the averies.

I find it hard to go past a chance to see Flamingos. They are so cool.

Most fun of all, a good old fashioned bird show. How clever are these macaws?

A fantastic day out. A great place for kids but I loved it too.

Cambodia - Last temple continued

So as you can see this one was a bit more "crumbly" than some of the others, though this is the way I like it. Less people, less restoration. My least favourite was Angor wat, fully restored, loads of people.

Columns on Toby's unplanned turn left tour, would have been a bridge into temple from the side originally.

Toby was in really fine spirits at this one, running ahead to see what was ahead.

Fueling up with a lemonade below with what is one of two libraries in the top right corner of the same picture.

Family picture at an outside corner.

The local restaurant just outside the gates. I love this style of restaurant which is everywhere in Cambodia. Perhaps it's the plastic. Just like my solving of the too rapidly breaking, too hard to fit in the dishwasher bowl dilemma we recently had at home. My solution, a pile of colourful plastic bowls which stack perfectly next to each other. Now three times as many bowls fit in and we haven't had a breakage in months.

Next morning we flew out to Malaysia.

Cambodia temple guided by Toby

The temple we nearly didn't see, Beng Mealea. We had seen quite a few temples by this stage after all. Although none for a day and a half and we had come so far, so why not. (it meant we never did get to wander around the centre of town but we drove through it on the way to the airport, I'm confident time at a temple was the better option - there were plenty of shops in the centre of town, nothing wrong with it, just not as good as another temple..)


After a rest on the drive over, Toby was full of beans and ready to lead the way. This temple is one of the less busy ones, for one it is over an hour of driving from Siem Reap. There were barely any hawkers and it was less restored than some of the temples. Some say this was the one Angor Wat was based on.  Like all the temples, there is a long straight walk down into it (with some local kids playing)

The main entrance was a bit crumbly but Tobes was keen to go through. He RAN towards it and started scrambling up. In fact he led the way the whole way around the temple, when we got to the end our guide said we should go right and Toby said "No, Toby says we go left" and the guide said sure, so we got to see the temple Toby Style.

It was quite high up in the end, and we got into the gateway a local kid told us it was too hard and that we needed to go around. He was right.

So in around the sides and this is what we got to climb over to get through (or you could go the easy board walk way around).

Yep we even went through the below.

Inside was pretty cool and the afternoon light was good.

First day at school

This year Toby started school. We asked Jake what he remembered about his first day and he said having a milkshake so we stopped on the way to school for a milkshake and then Toby was away. He marched right up to his buddy when the time came and almost dragged him out to meet his teacher. Very confident! Go Toby!