Making it in KL: Settling In

It seems hard to believe that it has already been a week since we visited Hong Kong. It was our first vacation in our new home country. We visited one of my best friends, Mollee, and her family. They are expats as well and moved there when we moved here to KL. It was unreal that both our families were making this life altering journey at the same time. With everything being so close in Asia (travel wise) we took this opportunity to see how the other half lives. I can say without question that we absolutely loved it. Arriving in Hong Kong after a quick 3 hour flight, the first thing I noticed was all of the smog. I know that the weather forecast was rain all weekend so that didn't help, but it definitely was not clear. We took a shuttle bus (1`like a tour bus) to the hotel. This was nice because I was able to see some of HK and take a few pictures. Of course Reid heads to the back of the bus. Bill, who can get car sick, decided to sit somewhere in the middle so I sat in the back with the kids. I tried to take some pictures of Reid and me on the bus, but you will see he was not interested. It wasn't long before both kids were asleep. I was able to see the huge, and I think the largest, container shipyard in the world. It was actually very pretty for lack of a better word. All of the different colored containers stacked on top of each other for what seemed like miles. All of the landscaping and plants reminded me a lot of KL, but with a little Colorado added. They had more trees resembling pines like in Houston. It was very beautiful seeing all of the hills and mountains right up on the coastline. We stayed at the Trader's Hotel in the Western District which is older than than the more hip Central area. After settling in we met Mollee and Carson in Times Square for dinner. Reid was so excited to see Carson and I was sooo excited to see Mollee. I took a picture of the moment I saw them. We ate at an interesting place called Star Seafood or something like that. It was decorated like something out of my big fat greek wedding....lots of fake flowers. The kids loved it because as with most Chinese places they have live seafood for you to choose from. Thankfully the kids are old enough to make the conenction that someone was going to choose "Nemo" for dinner. It was neat to see some of the huge crabs they had. We attempted to have a dim sum dinner, but they only had a few kinds to choose from. We chose shrimp and they were pretty good. Georgia was a pill after traveling all day and we couldn't drink wine fast enough. I'm sure we were quite the site as the only non-Asian with kids screaming and talking loudly. We snapped a few photos on the way out. Reid and Carson seemed to hit it off and we headed back to the hotel. Times Square seems like a very cool place to be without kids. Bill and I put HK on our list as a couples trip...very much like New York. Georgia had a terrible night sleeping and I was so afraid she was going to crawl out of the baby crib the hotel let us use. The mattress seemed bery high and she has started to climb EVERYTHING! Friday in HK was Disneyland day. We took a taxi which was about 200 HK dollars (ok maybe 300). When we arrived Bill and I wondered if it was even open. It looked like no one was in the parking lot and it was eerily quiet. We joked about "Sorry folks. Park is closed." from Vacation. That gave us a good laugh. Sure enough we just hadn't wlkaed far enough to start hearing the music. It was exciting to begin our first family vacation and Disney one at that. The weather was perfect and it was a weekday so there were hardly any lines. We got to ride all but one ride. Mollee brought her helper, Gena, so we could leave Georgia and Marlo with her when needed. It was a really great day. To top the day Mollee made reservations at the Disneyland hotel for the character dinner. It was a buffet and some of the characters came to visit. We were little disappointed as we expected more characters, but it was Mickey, Minney, Pluto, Goofy and maybe one other that I have forgotten. The buffet wasn't too bad. Tons of seafood so if you could eat a ton a raw fish you would definitely get your money's worth. After a long and fabulous day we took a taxi back to the hotel got everyone bathed and ready for bed and crashed! Thankfully Georgia slept much better. Saturday we headed to Discovery Bay where the Mongori's live. We took a 25 munute ferry which was very nice to their little get away. It was such a wonderful day. We got to see their house and have lunch, play at the park on the beach, play in the plaza with all of the other DB'ers and have dinner there. It felt so good to be Mollee. I have been homesick. Just needing some real life hugs from someone. Mollee filled that just fine! I was happy to get to hang out with Joe as I really have had the opportunity to spend any time around him. They certainly seemed to have settled in well and Bill and I both agreed that DB would be a yes on our list to expat. Something about living on the water makes you feel at ease. I had to say good-bye to Mollee that night in Discover Bay and it was very difficult. We didn't make a big deal, but said our goodbyes and thanks and got a great big hug. I had tears on the way home as it was so great to see her.
The next day just seemed like a long day of traveling. It felt good to get away from KL for a few days, but felt great to be home..to our new home. Going away to Hong Kong put the travel bug in me. We are too close to too many things in Southeast Asia and we should take advantage every chance we get.

Since that trip I feel like I have a life here now. We've made a vacation, we have help around the house, we have friends, our kids have friends... I feel happy here. I actually love living here and I hope it only gets better as we travel more, find other places to eat and hang out, develop lifelong friends who, like us, will probably move on to some other place in the world. What would make our stay perfect? If I could have a hug from home! With my parents traveling the last couple weeks I haven't been talking with them much. Now that we are finally catching up I soo want a hug from my mommy. I know she feels the same and we ALL look forward to our trip home December. How nice it will be to not only catch up but get a great big hug from everyone!

Bill is off on on another trip. He arrived home yesterday at noon from Singapore with a coworker and they left eraly this morning for China. I'm hoping he will be home quick as he leaves again next week for Jakarta. Beth our helper is fabulous. She is a huge help and we are so thankful to have her. It makes my life so much easier. She keeps a very clean house, the kids are warming up to her, and is genuinely a nice person. This week she washed my car and did all of Jason's laundry for him. Ahhh...I don't want to lose her ever!!!!!

Next up...our 5 year anniversary, signing up for pilates, finding a wine spot to meet the girls at night, and planning our next vacation. We would like to make a trip to Langkawi in November.
On our way to Hong Kong