Kota Kinabalu

Most of the country of Malaysia is located on a peninsula shared by Thailand and Singapore, but there are two states, Sabah and Sarawak that share the island of Borneo with Indonesia and Brunei. We figured we couldn't really say we'd lived in Malaysia for three years without going to the island part of it, so for spring break this year, we flew to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah.  It's technically a domestic flight, but it takes about two and a half hours, and they asked to see our passports when we got there.  Our plan was to stay at the Shangri La resort on the coast next to the city. We stayed at the Shangri La in Penang for spring break the year before and really liked it. It's a very family friendly resort chain, with established family rooms, a water park, and kid friendly menus.  We had several friends who had stayed there, both with and without kids, and raved about it, so we figured we were in for a good time. Also, since ISKL's break is different from all the local schools, it was off season, so it wasn't too expensive to get rooms with club access which covered breakfast and dinner.  We arrived in the evening, just as the sun was setting and the food and cocktails were being served in the club.

Elena, of course, wanted to go immediately to the water slides, but things looked pretty shut down for the evening, so we promised her that we would go first thing in the morning.

We discovered that we had a beautiful sunset view from the porch off our room.

The next morning, Jeff took Elena to the pool right after breakfast. Viv and I wandered over in our own good time.

The water slides didn't open until 9:00, but Elena was happy to swim and read until then.

Whoever designed the place was a genius, because they put the ice cream shop right next to the water slides, and the girls figured out on day one that it opened at 10:30, so our first morning was swimming, reading, water slides, and ice cream.  They put out menus around lunch time, but I'm not a huge fan of trying to eat on a meal on a pool lounge chair, so we packed ourselves up and went in search of restaurant options.  We found a restaurant with covered sofas right on the beach, perfect! 

There was enough space for more than four people, but when people lounge to eat their chicken satay, you need a lot of space.

Our second day was a bit rainy, but that didn't deter Elena from practicing with her new full face snorkel mask.

And our new favorite lunch spot was covered, so we were fine there.

The sun obliging came back for post lunch ice cream.

Elena's cheeks got a little rosy the first day, so we invested in a new hat that could get wet and covered her face well. It was such a nice hat that I decided to buy one for myself too. It wasn't a cool enough style for Vivi (although I think it looks kind of like a Jane Austen hat), but she wasn't above borrowing mine for shell hunting.

When the sun go too strong, it was our sign to go back to the room, clean up, and head over to the club for snacks and sunset.  We also started bringing our Uno deck and had some pretty intense matches.

Even with a rainy day, the sunsets were lovely.

And the club had cake!

The hotel did a turn down service in the evening while we were at dinner, and they left us bookmarks, which was perfect for us. Each day there was a different quote from a book about Shangri La. The quotes cracked the girls up, and so we brought them all home. 

After a few days, we were ready to venture out from our beach paradise. There are several islands off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, so we got a boat for a couple hours to take us around. It was a great deal, because there was a guy to drive the boat and another guy who came ashore with us and showed us where the good snorkeling spots were.

Mostly we were just happy to be out on a boat again.

The first island we approached looked beautiful from the distance, but the driver slowed the boat down and pointed over the side to show us that the water was FULL of pink jellyfish. This was not where we were going to get off.

The first island we stopped at is one of the biggest and most popular, Sapi.

There were several good snorkeling areas that were roped off with buoys. 

One of our special snorkel masks broke, so we only have three. I let my three adventurers go in first, and I got some pictures.

While Elena had loved practicing in the pool, she was a little alarmed that the fish were right there! So she came out pretty quickly. I took Vivi's mask and went back with her for another try. Once she got used to the fish, it was fine, and she really liked it.

At the next island, we did the same thing. The three of them went first.

And this time, Elena was totally assured as my escort when it was my turn.

After all the snorkeling, we still had some boat time left, so we sailed around and looked at more islands. It was lovely.

We got back to the hotel in time for lunch at our favorite spot and some shell inventory.

And that was basically our routine for the rest of the vacation. Pool, slides and ice cream in the morning.

Lunch, shells, and lounging in the afternoon.

And club and sunset in the evening.

Maybe it wasn't the most exciting routine, but we are creatures of habit, and we love being outside. Everyone got at least one book finished, we played games, swam, and ate well. You can't ask much more of that from a vacation.

Fancy February and March

There is so much to do in KL, both in the city and in our community, so we have been keeping busy. I'm actually really grateful for a surprise four day weekend this weekend to celebrate the end of Ramadan which has given me the time to catch up on blogging about all our adventures. 

We started February off with a double Valentine's Day celebration, one for just me and Jeff and one for the family. Jeff and I did a staycation at the W, which has one of our favorite views in the city.

The W doesn't have a club level, but they offered some appetizers at the lobby bar. It was fine, but not enough for a meal, and so we optimistically made our way over to the WET Deck. We didn't have a reservation, so I wasn't sure if they would have space for us on a weekend evening, but there were a couple tables set up near the DJ area, and they put at us at one of those.  We'd been there before when the DJ was not so great, but the one that night was fantastic, and it was really fun to sit there and watch him work while enjoying our dinner.

And, of course, the best part was watching the sun set and the city light up.

We wanted the girls to enjoy the city views as well, so the next night we took them to Fuego, our favorite steak restaurant with a view. We've been a couple times, but it was the girls' first time, and it was a hit.

Vivian has decided that her blond highlights phase is done. It was a fun phase, but I love the way she looks with her beautiful, natural brown hair.  She keeps getting more grown up by the day, but she'll never turn down a chance to be a kid, so when we went to see the new Ant Man movie, she, of course, had to get a promotional cup, just like her sister.

The main thing taking up Viv's time though has been getting ready for IASAS drama. There are six IASAS schools, one each from Bangkok, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta, Singapore, and KL. Each school has a drama "team", and Vivian was the only freshman to make the ISKL team. We were super proud of her.  The culminating event is a dance and drama "cultural convention" or CulCon, which ISKL hosted this year. It was fun to see some of the promotional things go up.

But it was especially exciting that it was being hosted here, where we could see the whole thing. Viv and I walked into school the day the other schools were scheduled to arrive to find an actual red carpet to welcome the arrivals.

It came complete with a photo spot,

and "paparazzi".

We got such a kick out of it. To add to the fun, we were hosting two girls from the school in Manila, so we picked them up in the afternoon when they arrived. Because of the nature of international schools, we weren't sure where they'd actually be from. It turned out they were both originally from South Korea, but the one girl had lived in Manila most of her life, and the other girl had lived in Virginia for several years. Neither one of them had been to KL before though. It was a rainy day, so not great for sight seeing, but we took them to KLCC, and they had a lot of fun admiring the towers from below and watching the water fountains in the park.

ISKL kicked off the CulCon by performing their original play. I know I'm biased, but it was really good! And it's so impressive that they wrote it themselves. Another fun perk of the CulCon being at ISKL is that I could meet Vivian after the performance to give her flowers and tell her what a star she is.

Elena was excited to get in on the action too. We went to see the double header of the dance show our house guests were in and the drama production from the school in Jakarta, which was a version of Puffs the play that riffs on Harry Potter.  Elena insisted on a red carpet photo op.

She absolutely loved the play. The Puffs are meant to be the Hufflepuffs, and every time they meet someone, they say HI very enthusiastically. Elena was thrilled to be able to meet these "celebrities" in person after the show, and they were very kind and said HI to her a bunch.

Then we got to see our house guests perform in their dance show, and they were incredible! We had flowers for them, and we got more celebrity photos.

It was such a great experience. I'm so thrilled that Vivian got the opportunity to participate in something so special, and that we all got to participate as well by extension.  Next year it will be in Manila, and Vivian is really hoping that she will make the team again and get to see her new friends. For now, she pretty much lives in her IASAS team sweatshirt.

Elena is into the arts too, but more in the traditional art way. Her after school activities this semester include a comic drawing class, a sewing class, and a "little architects" class. She's already made a couple pillows, some comics, and a few model buildings including a "cake pop" house.

She also loves her regular art class and was happy to show off some of her work when we had student led conferences.

Work is still keeping me ridiculously busy. It sounds like I will be teaching the same two courses again next year, so I'm hopeful that all of the time I've put in this year will pay off next year, and I'll be less of a workaholic. Despite all the demands of the job, there are definitely some rewards. The other day we had a teacher work day. When there are no students on campus, lunch is provided for us in the cafeteria. I took my meal out on to the balcony at the end of the humanities commons and enjoyed my lunch with a view of the KL skyline. Life here is busy, but good.

And there's always time for fun. I have my monthly pokeno game, and this past month, I won some face masks, which the girls insisted on trying out. I had to get a picture, but it took a couple attempts because I was laughing so much.

I also love that Viv is wearing her Rogers the Musical shirt and Elena is wearing Viv's old Camp Shakespeare shirt. Drama all the way!