We decided to split the journey into two days to make it a bit easier for Jace and for ourselves. Luckily last time we were in KL we discovered a great hotel called EV World Hotel Enstek, which is pretty close to the airport and in a nice area with lots of places to eat. The perfect place for a layover.

So we spend one night there and met a cool Czech guy now living in Australia who was traveling alone with his two year old daughter. He was on his way to Nepal to stay in an ashram with his Swedish wife, who was already there. Jace and his daughter Ingrid hit it off strait away and had a great time playing together. We had dinner together and he talked about how he and his wife used to travel the world by sailboat. It’s so cool and inspiring to meet people like him on the way!

Then on October 12th we had our flight with AirAsia to Sri Lanka. Two days of flying in a row are pretty rough. Not so much because of the flights themselves, but the packing, getting to the airport and waiting in the airport are tiring. We’re lucky all the traveling made all three of us a lot more flexible. In the beginning it took Jace about two days to settle, now he doesn’t need any time and just sleeps wherever we put his little Nomad travel tent, or… in the train, on the bus, in the airplane and even in the jeep during a safari

At Colombo airport we met Alena, a German student who was doing her first Asia trip. She had some trouble getting money at the ATM so we offered to share our taxi so she could get to Negombo and try one of the ATM’s there. Turned out she was planning to go to the same hotel we were so it worked out really well. The Marine Tourist Guest House in Negombo was disappointing to say the least (we’ll write some more about that in another post), so when Alena said she would leave Negombo the day after we decided to join her. We discussed locations and since Anuradhapura could be easily reached by train that seemed like a pretty good option.

The next morning we had to rush to get to the train station in time and we had had no time to look for a hotel at our next destination. That was a mistake we’ll try to avoid in the future! The train ride in third class was a lot of fun. The train went really slow and we had plenty of time to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. And everybody on the train was very interested in those weird foreigners with the red haired little boy. We got a lot of attention

The hotel owner in Negombo had suggested we take a train to Puttalam and from there private transport. Great idea, but finding transport turned out a lot more difficult than we thought. Once we got to Puttalam station we got assaulted by tuktuk drivers. Because we had so much luggage we actually had to take two tuktuks with the four of us. They drove us everywhere but where we wanted to go, which was extremely frustrating. We wanted to go to the bus station to find a minibus to take us to Anuradhapura, but they kept giving us ridiculously high prices and kept insisting that it was better to go by tuktuk…. three hours with and already very tired little boy. We didn’t agree. Finally we managed to get the price down to 7000 rupees. Still too much, but all we wanted was to get on the road.

As mentioned we didn’t book an hotel in Anuradhapura upfront. Alena knew the name of a guest house so we asked the minibus driver to drop us off there. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit too expensive. So while Mau and Jace waited at a hotel terrace with a drink and the iPad, Alena and I went out to scout for a more affordable place to stay. After we’d been to one or two places it started to rain. Luckily we brought our ponchos. After checking out yet another too expensive place it really started to pour and there was thunder and lightning as well. So we waited out the thunderstorm in the lobby of a very fancy hotel where we unsuccessfully used the incredibly slow internet to find a place to stay.

When the rain slowed a bit we decided to continue our search. I was getting a bit desperate. It was getting dark and we had no place to stay. This was exactly why I always want to book ahead! I thought that Mau had probably already decided to take a room at the hotel where he was waiting with Jace, and since it was getting dark we figured we’d try just one more place before heading back. We had to wade through a small river to get there. Later we saw a snake on the road, luckily we didn’t see it before! It didn’t look very promising from the outside and even less from the inside. There was water leaking from the ceiling and Alena and I both had a funny feeling about it. We almost turned around and left, but then one guy that was there finally managed to get his phone working and he called a friend to see if he had any rooms available. Apparently this was a good and affordable place to stay. And… even better, he could take us there in his car! No more walking in the rain, yay! We insisted that we had to get back to the other hotel first to collect Mau and Jace and all our bags (and to see if Mau hadn’t taken a room yet).

In the end we were so lucky we met this guy. His friend’s hotel, Bevary Holiday Home, was really nice and we got a very good deal on the price. Both our good Samaritan and the owner of the hotel restored our faith in the Sri Lankan people!

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Since I had been a bit sick (I’m suspecting the aircon on the train!) planning ahead went completely out of the window and we found ourselves in KL airport, with a 2 year old and no place to stay. After three hours of searching, debating, stressing and searching again (and keeping Jace busy in the mean time) we finally settled on the EV World Hotel in Sepang, about 20 mins from the airport. Because we had to be in the airport again early in the morning on the 10th, we didn’t want to go all the way into the city. As is usual when you have absolutely no expectations, it turned out to be a great choice! Very friendly hotel staff, great upcoming area, lots of restaurants and a very relaxed atmosphere. Would have been even more perfect if the hotel had had a swimming pool, because it was extremely hot, but all in all we had a really good time there.

But, all turned out well, even if it cost us quite a bit more than we’d hoped for. We found a website that could get us the visa recommendation letter (which you need to be able to buy your visa in Vietnam) within 2 hours with their ultra urgent service (of course for an ultra urgent price). I guess it happens more often that people need a visa at the last moment… We got to the airport in time and about 2 minutes before boarding we booked the first hotel that came up in booking.com when searching Hanoi. It turned out to be another lucky shot. The Rising Dragon Villa Hotel in the Old Quarter is actually really nice, with a great breakfast in the morning and friendly staff. They even upgraded us to a family room free of charge. So now we’re out and about discovering Hanoi and planning our next moves in Vietnam. Again, we have no plan, only a plane ticket to KL on October 10th. But we’ll talk about that more later. With Jace running around we don’t have as much time to update our blog as we would like and we have so much more to talk about, but at least the story of where we are is now up to date again

The post From Bunaken to Hanoi via Yogyakarta and Kuala Lumpur appeared first on FlipFlopGlobetrotters.com.

The flight over here was pretty uneventful. We left at 5PM, arriving in KL around 8PM and then had to take a taxi to our rental apartment which took about 45 minutes. So all in all it was a bit too late for Jace. Note to self: try to get an earlier flight in the future…. We were lucky he did manage to sleep a bit in the airport.

It was our first time with Jace in a big city, but he did really well and we enjoyed the change of scenery. The studio apartment we choose was very close to Maluri LRT station, so convenient enough to get to the city center. It was also only a 5-10 minute walk to a mall with a big supermarket, which was great for buying diapers, baby wipes etc. The biggest plus of this apartment was the view though! Unobstructed view of the Petronas Towers, wow, especially in the evening when all the lights are on.

When we first arrived they gave us another room, but when we complained that it didn’t look anything at all like the pictures on the booking website (and the tiny little fridge didn’t work), we could transfer to a bigger room. A much better room with a much much better view

We haven’t really done a lot to be honest. This detailed guide for Kuala Lumpur with kids tells you a lot more about what KL has to offer. We wandered around Bukit Bintang and China Town, went to KLCC and the Petronas Towers, went to Rainbow Runners dive shop (quite a tour to get there, first LRT almost to the end of the red line and then a taxi) to buy a new BCD for Mau, took Jace to the park next to our apartment to play in the playground, wandered around the neighbourhood and generally saw A LOT of shopping malls. Enough to last us a few months at least.

Jace loves being on the train, metro and monorail, actually he loves all means of transport so far. His hair color attracts a lot more attention than in Bali. We’ve even had a few people that wanted to take a picture with him. Oh well… He smiles a lot, waves at everybody and is his own curious self, so all is good. Although his main diet is still white rice and chicken, he’s trying out some new foods, so we’re happy about that.

It was nice to be in a big city again and I’m sure I’ll miss the easy access to all the stuff we can buy here, but I’ll also be glad when we leave. I miss the sunshine and the beach. We’re inside way too much! The apartment is on the 20th floor and has no balcony to sit outside, so when Jace sleeps we’re inside too. We usually go out for lunch and dinner and end up being ‘home’ late which messes with Jace’s schedule. He’s skipped his naps a few times or only did a 30-minute power nap in the stroller and goes to bed much later than normal. But he’s handling it pretty well and it does allow us to go out a bit more. Hopefully it will get back to normal when we reach our new destination. I’m not ready to give up those few hours of rest in the afternoon and the evenings when he goes to bed at 8!

Again we had A LOT of trouble deciding where to go to next. I really hope this is something that will get easier in time because it takes too much energy. At the moment there weather all over South-East Asia isn’t very good, so all the places we normally could have chosen now have rain and thunderstorms at least once a day. And since Jace already has a heat rash from the humidity here in KL we really wanted to go somewhere that’s a bit more dry. Sooo… after days and days of searching, comparing and spending HOURS on the internet we’ve finally decided to go to Sulawesi. North Sulawesi (Manado, Bunaken) seems to be a bit too expensive, but AirAsia has flights to Makassar in South Sulawesi for a decent price. So that’s where we’re going tomorrow. Back to Indonesia again. I knew we weren’t done there yet

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