The island of Penang sits just off Malaysia’s west coast, connected to the mainland by bridge. A multicultural melting pot, it’s been British colony, opium trade port, Japanese military base, and electronics manufacturing centre – just a slice of the island’s colourful past. Today, the capital George Town’s Colonial District is a UNESCO World Heritage site,…
I’m angry. Livid. Enraged. Indignant. Infuriated. Exasperated. Furious. I’m just so angry! I’m angry that, on Sunday, Australia could have a government that will brag about being able to build dual carriageways, and pay for parental leave for the wealthy, by cutting the number of human beings to whom we grant asylum, and support with…
For the past few weeks I’ve been an imposter, of the blogging kind. Steve and I have been holidaying in Malaysia (hello, if you’ve been following!), tripping about with our four-year-old-twins. It seemed like a good time to turn Raising Explorers into a travel blog, just for a while, to try to pass myself off…
Kuching, in the state of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo, is a fantastic place to visit with kids. Not only does the city itself offer an array of activities – I wrote about them in my post about the Top 5 things to do in Kuching – but there are some brilliant things to see and…
As our plane rose into the dusky evening over Kuching, bound for Penang, four-year-old Blake gazed wistfully out of the window, and said, “Oh, I miss Ka-Ching.” It’s that kind of place. The river flows quietly by, the people smile and say hello as you pass them in the street, and dozens of cat statues…
Still in Sarawak, Borneo, our first night in the cabin at Permai Rainforest was spent listening to the sounds of the jungle. Mostly insects. Man, those insects were loud! But it was a soothing cacophony. Better than freight-train snoring, anyway. I’ll let you guess who is generally responsible for that. Come morning, we awoke to…
Sarawak sits on the north-western coast of Borneo. It became a Malaysian state when, in 1963, the British decided that it was too much effort and expense to lord it over govern the colony any longer and so the area joined with the new nation of Malaysia, also an ex-colony of Britain. The tiny sultan-ship…
It was a steamy morning in Kuala Lumpur when we jumped into a taxi and headed 13km out of town to Batu Caves. Despite being early, the place was already buzzing with activity when we arrived. There were a few other tourists around, but we were overwhelmingly outnumbered by those making a spiritual visit, rather…
There’s much to see in KL, as in any big city, but it’s the blend of cultures in Malaysia that sets its cities apart from many of their South East Asian counterparts. In a day in KL, you can visit traditional Malay markets, Little India, Chinatown, and colossal westernised malls… that’s if you can get…
We’re off! We’re on the road for our first great overseas travel odyssey with backpacks, and four-year-old twins. Well, technically, it’s our second great travel odyssey with kids – we spent a few weeks in California last year – but that was in a hire car, with suitcases, and an esky, and fold-up chairs, and…
Raising Explorers 