Happy Chinese New Year.. welcoming the snake

I am quite glad the Chinese New Year is almost over.

Mostly because this year we had to travel to Kota Bahru in Kelantan to see the great grandparents.

In the past we had to travel to Kuala Lumpur only, which was quite pleasant.

Going to KB is quite a different ball game.

First : Getting there-- the flights this time of the year are crazy expensive. And we have 2 choices: take a propeller plane ( Firefly ) or 2 flights by jet plane.

I was nervous taking the propeller flight, and in any case we had waited till too late so there weren't any flights left leaving from Singapore. So we booked Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur, transit for 2 hours then a connecting flight to KB.

Leaving Changi Airport was a breeze and quite fun.. the kids had fun running around in the large, spacious and cool airport.

It was arriving at KL that was a bit of a shock. We were expecting to land at KLIA, but were actually arriving at the low cost terminal ( LCCT) part of KLIA. It was worlds apart! First we had to trek across the tarmac. Followed by a further 15minute walk to the actual terminal. All the time looking out for passing vehicles that were transporting baggage. The terminal was crazy! Crowded and seriously lacking of facilities. And hot. Going over to the main terminal wasn't an option; it took 30minutes to travel there each way by shuttle bus.

We survived the 2 hour wait, had a horrible meal and then travelled to KB.

KB is also quite unlike KL.. it's generally quite underdeveloped and run down. Many parts were still kampung with run down homes. And this being the festive period.. not much was open.

Still... the sole purpose of the trip was to see the relatives, have a few meals with them. We fulfilled our duty. Madison did really well during the trip; during the CNY eve dinner celebration she was so sporting! She volunteered to go up on stage to participate in their games, chatted to the relatives and had a lot of fun. Annika was the one to give me grief this trip; she was tired from not sleeping well, the food didn't agree with her so she hardly ate, and she fought with Madison ending up with her in tears and whines.

I was really glad to come home. When we touched down back at Changi Airport I felt such relief.

We had another family dinner with the rest of the family back home on February 12th, which also happened to be Geok's birthday.

Since then, life is almost back to normal, with the kids back at school and the rest of us back at work.
MIL is visiting for the rest of the week, after which she goes back to Melbourne. She's been away for the past 2 months visiting us and her parents in KB.

Happy CNY to one and all! ( And Happy V day as well! )