Today is our twelfth Wedding Anniversary
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A smooth journey back to Kunming today - taxi/plane/plane/taxi. Missing Malaysia already...!  We left Redang Island today by ferry. The two hour journey took us to Terengganu City, passing the gorgeous Crystal Mosque.  We'll stay in Terengganu for a night in a hotel near the airport, to catch our homeward flights tomorrow morning.
JD was keen to learn how to scuba dive this holiday - something JiaJia and I enjoy doing when we can. So we arranged for a Dive Shop to give him an hour of training. Scuba trainer Aaron gave JD an onshore briefing before practicing "Mask clearing" and "Regulator/BCD management" in the shallows. Then they headed 6m/20ft down to the coral beds to explore while I looked down on them, floating up on the surface. JD loved it and Aaron said JD was "fearless" and a "natural"!
We took a boat to Long Beach today, around the other side of Redang Island. We'll be staying in Paradise Resort for our last few days here. The hotel is only a little better quality than our last one but the beach is literally outside our room and there's no Mosque to wake us up!  There are also new areas to explore, including a beach full of shells.
We decided to have a rest day today. JD has a dozen nasty bites on his legs and back ("sand flies", the doctor says), while I have gout and sunburned ankles (from a kayaking trip with JD!). So we wandered (hobbled!) into the local village for some "real" Malaysian life.  One thing we weren't expecting was to stumble on five 2.5-meter (8ft) long water monitor lizards! These huge monsters are a common and protected species in East Malaysia. Scared the life out of us at first.  Local Malaysian food is a lot cheaper than the touristy dishes in the hotel. We had three meals and three drinks in a roadside cafe for the same price as one meal in our hotel! Just as tasty, too.
We took a boat-based snorkelling trip today to explore some other areas. On the way back, we stopped at this pretty sand bar for photos! 
 Well, "Turtle Beach" is just amazing! We swam out from shore to interact with huge (1m/3ft) sea turtles. Or there are closer coral reefs just begging to be snorkelled, with hundreds of fish such as clownfish ("Nemo"), zebrafish, neons, sea cucumbers, parrotfish, angelfish, sea snakes etc. The water is crystal clear and the sand is white. The beach is public, but somewhat out of the way and therefore nearly deserted at times. We had a blast!
 We flew to Terengganu today. We had planned to jump on a ferry there to our island destination but, on doing more in-country research, we realised that the "3 ferries a day" in our guidebook had now been cut down to one a day - and our flight arrived after it left.
We visited Kuala Lumpur's aquarium today. It gave us a taster for our diving later in the holiday, especially the glass tunnel underneath a huge tank of sharks, skates, stingrays and sea turtles.
In the evening, we found the city's night market for some local food. Jiajia was on the lookout for exotic fruit to buy, while JD tracked down some model aircraft as souvenirs of his travel. Once back at our apartment we had a cooling evening swim in our rooftop pool.
We have rented a great apartment in Kuala Lumpur - two bedrooms, kitchen, living room, shared gym and swimming pool etc. And it is just ten minutes walk from the imposing Petronas Towers.   JiaJia, JD and I flew off to Malaysia today for a fortnight's holiday in Kuala Lumpur and Redang Island. The only direct flight from Kunming to KL is with AirAsia - a budget airline. So a cheap and cheerful four hour flight.
JD is something of a plane buff and seemed more excited about the thought of air travel than the holiday itself. We spent most of the journey listening to him regale us with various facts about the Airbus A320! JD has been working really hard these last few months. The pressure to do well (from the Chinese education system, and from his very competitive class teacher) has been immense. A typical evening has seen him (and Jiajia) working until 10-11pm to finish his homework. JD's Chinese has always been his weakness. Unlike his classmates, he operates in a world where language is split - whilst his schoolwork and homework is all in Chinese, his home life and entertainment tends to be in English. Tough.  After recent grades in mock Chinese exams of 44% and 65%, we were simply hoping for something over 70% for his final exam. But, to our surprise, he managed to get 84% in Chinese, and then 93% in Maths. Finally, a much needed reward for all his hard work. Well done, son!
 PROFUNDAL: "Living in the part of a thermally stratified lake that extends downward from the upper part of the hypolimnion."!?
 I've been struggling this week with fatigue, a sore throat, a cough, loss of appetite and headaches. When I also got fever for 2 days, we assumed it was another bout of COVID - it's doing the rounds amongst our friends at the moment. But a lateral flow test yesterday came back as negative which was something of a surprise. My symptoms have been exactly the same as when all the family got COVID last time, 6 months ago - or did we? There was no easy access to any tests then, so we just assumed we all had COVID. But maybe we had something else - like a bad case of flu? Anyhow, the medical advice is the same - rest, keep hydrated and it should get better within a week or two. I hope it doesn't affect my intention to snorkel and scuba in Malaysia in two weeks...
JD had his end of year English Exam yesterday which included questions like this.... (good luck!)  |
 AuthorPaul Hider started this blog to share his rather odd life living in China for over 20 years. Since returning to the UK in 2024, the blog now records his more "normal" lifestyle! Past blog entries
May 2025
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