Malaysia and Singapore: Legos and a Luge

Wow, was June busy!  It flew by with three trips in three weeks due to public holidays, work trips and half price plane tickets.  The first trip of the month was to Singapore.  Paul had a work trip and due to a public holiday in HK, the kids and I were off from school and work, so we had to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and Paul's paid for plane ticket.  We arrived in the evening, ate late, and went to bed.....

His beauty sleep mask came from a school activity on blindness that week.

...to rest up for Legoland!  An hour's ride away across the border in Malaysia is Legoland amusement park and the Legoland water park. 

We were happy to find the park wasn't crowded and we hit all the rides and major exhibits within the first half of the day. PE's favorite was the build your own car and race it building.  Mom and Dad enjoyed the air conditioning. 

 

My favorite part was all the major Asian cultural sights made out of legos (I love mini things!).  It was fun to see mini versions of some of the places we've visited already, like the Wat Arun in Bangkok...

 

And preview places we have yet to visit, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia that is #1 on my must-see list...

 

Petronus Towers that were impressively tall...

 

Esme takes a stroll through mini Malaysia and later gets eaten by a Lego lion.

 

 

We enjoyed the waterpark more than the amusement park, but don't have any pictures other than the entrance since cameras and waterslides don't mix.

 

The next day was spent exploring Singapore, which really was mostly spent in Sentosa island resort area for easy entertainment of the kids.  We didn't make it far before three Chinese tourists asked if they could take pictures with our kids. 

 

 

We took a chair lift up a hill so we could ride down the luge.  It was a hoot.  PE was a crazy driver. Esme was bummed she had to ride with a grown up.

 

Next up was the fish spa.  Four years ago when our friends, Chris and David Plaut, lived in Singapore and we visited, Chris took me to this same place. 

 

 

It was fun to bring the kids to it, though at first I worried it may be a waste of money if they were scared of the fish nibbling on them.  The so-called doctor fish nibble the dead skin off your feet and legs.  The first minute is hard to get through with the tickling and nibbling that feels kind of like electrical buzzing.  It's a little creepy, but fun to do.

 

They found my feet far tastier, or less wiggly most likely.

 

I loved catching the kids' first reactions in this video.

 

Later that night we had fun meeting up for dinner with Paul's college friend Byron, his wife Anne and their daughter who now live in Singapore. 

The next day there was only time for a quick walk around the Marina Bay area before the kids and I headed to the airport back to HK while Paul stuck around for work for a few more days.

 

We had a dramatic ending with a taxi cab chase to the airport when Paul realized my phone was in his pocket.  OK, it wasn't super dramatic, but enough drama for us.

Next stop Seoul!