Tak, Thailand

Relishing the freedom and convenience of having our own rental car, we drove from Lampang to Tak, on our quest to get rural in Small Town, Thailand. Mr. Go found us the Ko Luang waterfall in the Mae Ping National Forest to visit.

It was a 2-hour round trip drive out of our way off Highway 1, zooming through switchbacks that were more trafficked than you might expect, and by larger vehicles than seems strictly safe.

It cost us 9 USD to enter the National Forest and there weren't many points of interest open at this time of year. But we found the waterfall and hiked some 500 meters to it.

There were a dozen Thai tourists there already and you had to (Maybe it was optional? Signs made it seem like a requirement) rent life jackets. Walking five steps down to the water took the temperature down 10 degrees cooler. I sat on the rocks in the middle of the river while Mr. Go and Babs swam.

Curious fish nibbled at my toes while my family swam over to the waterfall. We wandered down to a smaller waterfall 200 meters down, but it was too muddy to swim.

Refreshed, we hiked back up into the heat and drove the same windy road 1 hour back to the highway. We picked up a gas station dinner of vermicelli-in-a-cup on the way and hoped to arrive before dark, but the GPS pin on Airbnb was not correct, so we had to message our host and get clearer instructions.

Hot Tip: Don't trust the Airbnb GPS pin. Ask to clarify directions before you arrive, especially if you're driving yourself in a foreign country after dark.

The host greeted us warmly and had a couple of their home-grown young coconuts cut and chilled in the fridge for us. Her son, Mak, also 5, seemed very shy, but the next day, he and Babs played All Day Long. We sat on the farm and read, Kan showed us the different stuff they were growing. We were instructed to pick and eat whatever we wanted, so we tried some starfruit, picked a lime for lunch and Mak kept handing us sprigs of mint to eat.

We took a drive to the Hill Tribe market to pick up some groceries, then went to the Tesco, the big grocery store chain for some thinly sliced pork. Meals of rice and meat are so prevalent, I was constantly on the lookout for vegetables, so I fried up some bok choy in their detached kitchen and it was so relaxing to not have to go out in search of food.

Once it cooled off enough, we went for a walk in the evening. Mak was missing Babs, so his mom took him on a bike ride to find us along the road, then we all walked together.

They had to leave the next day for Bangkok, so we took their bikes out for a ride. The National Park nearby would cost too much to enter, and we'd done our waterfall already, so we just biked around.

We stopped to get a couple cold drinks and sat on the curb at the lady's little shop to drink them. When I showed the lady the picture below, she giggled behind her hand, and it added 5 years to my life.

On our wanderings through the rural neighborhood, we came across fields of cows. Not the same type of dairy or cattle in the U.S. These cows had a big hump on their back and gnarly horns. They also seemed super territorial. They watched us as we passed, pawing the ground and huffing.

There are chickens everywhere, either running around or chilling under dome-shaped woven baskets. Maybe they're for eating or maybe they're for fighting, we couldn't decide. There are dogs everywhere, too. Most are strays, but some have collars and homes they return to at night. I only had to chase one aggressive dog off and we were always very quick to pick Babs up if any dogs seemed cagey. We were told to bend down and pretend to pick up a rock, even if there were no rocks, and the dogs would scatter. We also primed Babs (who then taught Mak) to make herself big and say "NO," to any encroaching dogs.

In this neighborhood, we also stumbled upon a soup shack. We weren't hungry, per se, we'd just sat at a picnic table behind a lady's random roadside BBQ grill and had spicy sausage (Mr. Go's new favorite food-- it tastes like spicy fruit loops and I don't know why), but it had no signage and was packed with locals, so we stopped anyway.

We said the couple Thai words we knew and there was a lot of pointing and nodding. It was essentially rice noodles in broth with fish balls, bean sprouts and your choice of meat. All the tables were full, but some people waved at us and budged over so we could sit. Babs introduced herself and then had to smile between mouthfuls of food for a bunch of pictures everyone wanted to take of her.

Kan's dad, Poomchai, took care of us the last day. He gave us a bag of some weird grape-like fruit (it was longan). You have to peel the hard shell off to eat them and be careful of the pit inside, but they were super good.

One of the main attractions of a hotel/Airbnb is if they have a washing machine. We have a Scrubba bag to do our laundry in emergencies, but I tried to work it so every other stay had a machine. So we were very excited to do laundry at the farm.

Five minutes before I went to put our load in, the maid started using the washing machine. I asked her if, when her first load was finished, I could do ours before she put her next basket in. I think she believed I wanted her to do my load for me, and she totally would have with a smile and nod, but I just wanted her to show me how to use the contraption. Despite not speaking a word of the others' language, she then adopted Babs. For the rest of the afternoon they, as the Thai seem to love to do, swept fallen leaves off patios together.

Poomchai bought rice porridge (congee) for us for breakfast the next day. It came with a soft boiled egg (still in the shell) that I didn't know what to do with, so we just ate the porridge with grated ginger and spring onion.

At the end of our three night stay in Tak, we drove back to return the car in Lampang. Apparently we had driven outside of the agreement area and "damages" would be our "responsibility."

The nice car rental lady gave us a ride directly to the bus station, and we headed back up to Chiang Mai for a 1-night stopover before our next adventure, 5 hours north to the border town of Mae Sai.

Lampang, Thailand

Lampang is a 1-hour bus ride southeast of Chiang Mai. We went to Chiang Mai bus terminal 3 to speak to someone to buy our ticket, because we didn't trust ourselves to buy via the 'GreenBus Thailand' app, but we probably could have.

Smaller towns are a favorite of ours, and while we did run across two or three other groups of westerners, it was certainly far less than Chiang Mai.

We stayed at Kanecha's Home guesthouses, which was absolutely lovely and I feel comfortable highly recommending. We realized when we arrived that Grab was not available there and songtaeows to the attractions we wanted to see would cost us 2000THB. Renting a car was cheaper.

Grab, the Uber-esque ride service is not available in Lampang.

We had only 3 nights in Lampang, and 2 of the days were spent on day trips out of the city, so we had limited time to explore the city. But what we saw of it was lovely. Horse-drawn carriages pull Thai tourists around the city. We got curious stares from Thai people who I'm guessing probably don't see American kids very often. Babs did her tricks, saying chun chu Annabelle and khop khun kha to make them laugh and pinch her arms.

Our first night in Lampang, feeling a bit exhausted by rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we stopped in to Mr. Lasagna Lampang, which promised authentic Italian food (perhaps even cheese?!!?). My salmon salad was nothing special, but Mr. Go's spinach and mozzarella bake was refreshing in a way that made me question how dependent we Midwesterners are on cheese products. A European man came out from the back and sat at the bar drinking a beer, so Mr. Go stood up to say arroy mak. Turns out Simone, the Italian chef, also speaks passable English and we worked through a hilarious and delightful conversation in which we almost made plans to go with him out to his pig farm.

We'd seen a little girl popping in and out, and Simone said it was his daughter, Gisela, also 5, and told Annabelle to go on upstairs and play. So she did. We then chatted with Simone for another hour, during which time we lamented our tragic cheese deprivation and Simone brought us a plate of INCREDIBLE truffle cheese and HOMEMADE gorgonzola. I don't even like gorgonzola, but that cheese was incredible. He set a bottle of Limoncella on our table and we all drank.

When I retrieved Babs from upstairs, Gisela's Thai grandma was watching them in the play room and we chuckled together at the girls, who had been playing with makeup. Gisela's eyelids and lips tastefully colored, while Babs had painted her face to look.. .. like a cat.. .. ..

The next day we had a car delivered to Kanecha's Home (from this very nice company) and took off for Wat Chaloem Prakiat, a temple high in the mountains. The drive was delightful, there was hardly any traffic. We stopped off for coffee and to make sure we were going to the right place. The barista gave us a 2020 calendar, then another one and drew us a map to point us in the right direction.

You park at the base (here), get some meat on a stick if you're feeling peckish, then buy tickets. The price of the songteow up and back is included. Online research suggested kids cost 100baht, but the ticket booth people told me "baby free."

Prices seem to be subject to the feeling of the day, whether the tourist in question is dressed appropriately, and how cute the child is. Lucky for us, we take great pains to be culturally respectful and our child is incredibly cute.

We saw only 2 groups of English speaking tourists, the rest were Thai tourists. The climb up was slow and easy, they have metal stairs attached to the mountainside the whole way. We were there in the afternoon, the hottest time of day. I highly recommend going as early as you can in the morning, to avoid both the heat and the people.

There were plenty of people, but after the crowd at Doi Suthep, this crowd felt like nothing. The views from the temple were spectacular. You can ring the bells and gongs as much as you like. I didn't see any monks, but I'm sure they were there. Remember to take your shoes off before approaching a Buddha shrine. Walk slowly and speak quietly.

At the parking area, if you walk up the paved road behind the food stalls and ticket booth, you'll find a monastery with several temples that no one bothers to visit, because they're focused on the big temple. It was quiet and beautiful. [See above picture.]

We returned to Mr. Lasagna that night, hoping to pay back some of Simone's generosity with the cheese. We'd already had dinner at Aroy One Baht (popular with Thai people, very busy, cheap, small plates and pretty good too), but wanted to stop for a cheese plate for dessert (and see if our hints at wanting tiramisu were received).

Tragically, there was no tiramisu and Simone was busy cooking, but the waitress informed Gisela that Babs was in the building and she came downstairs to fetch her. We ate our dessert cheese gratefully. When I fetched my daughter again, her face was entirely smeared with makeup. We had a talk about it.

The next day we took ourselves 40 minutes northwest to the Elephant Sanctuary. For under 200 baht per person, we caught the morning elephant bathing and the optional elephant show. First, you take the trolley to the bathing site. The elephants come up with their mahouts on their backs and you can buy baskets of food to feed them, or just get up close and pet them. They're on the other side of a wooden railing, reaching their trunks out to you hoping for food. Babs was leery of getting too close, but she fed them gingerly and I got to pet their scruffy trunks.

A lady with a karoke speaker told us in Thai-glish about the elephants and we watched the mahouts balance on their backs as the big beasts dipped in the river, sucked water into their trunks and sprayed themselves. We sat at the river's edge and as the elephants paraded out of the river, some mahouts instructed their elephants to spray water at us, to everyone's delight.

The elephant show demonstrated how elephants were used for logging before the practice was banned in 1989 and how the Conservation Center now provides sanctuary for elephants displaced by humans. Elephants picked up objects dropped by their mahouts, placed hats on their mahouts' heads and even painted a couple different pictures, which you could then of course purchase.

We encountered the same group of American tourists at the center as we did at the temple the day before. The ladies (Texans and a Minnesotan) were on a guided tour and were very happy to see us again.

Back in Lampang, we wandered long enough to find the market. My favorite market of the whole trip, so far. It was blocked off so vehicles couldn't enter, not even motorbikes, and there were no elephant pants for sale. There were some new clothing vendors, but many second hand, too, plus hand-carved wood, hand-hammered metals and of course, a million food stalls selling fresh veggies, meats on sticks (do I even have to say it anymore?), quail-egg wontons, soups and fried foods of all kinds. We tried bacon-wrapped tentacle-looking-mushrooms (we'll pass on those next time) and some mini-pancakes. We got double-takes, people elbowed each other and nodded in our direction.

One afternoon, we went down to the river near a dam someone told us might be good for fishing. A stall was set up along the road with low tables on sitting-mats, so we stopped to eat. The chef immediately recruited the table next to us, one of whom spoke English, to help translate, a fact which we sort of resented-- we can use google translate and pronounce pad gaprao just fine thank you.

We pointed at some Thai words on the menu, hoping for the best, and Mr. Go was instructed to choose some things on sticks for some reason? The pork salad I ordered was actually just pork rinds drizzled with a sweet soy sauce dressing. Not what I was looking for, but delicious nonetheless. The table next to us discreetly took a selfie to get us in the background and posted it on Twitter. She also gave Babs a hot dog on a stick. The kindness we encountered in Thailand has been incredible. Though people are kind everywhere, if you're just open to it.

There were plenty of fishermen with their harpoon crossbows for Mr. Go to harass while Babs and I went to find some ice cream.

We extended our car rental so we could drive further south to Tak, where I discovered a farmstay on Airbnb that looked cute, and so we could continue our quest to get rural and immersed in Thailand.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a perfectly nice place and we enjoyed our time there. But cities aren't our favorite, and being catered to a level inside our comfort zone isn't our idea of 'experiencing local culture'. Menus written in English and shabby chic, whitewashed pallet decor is cute and everything, but I flew halfway around the world to see Thailand, give me bamboo and banana leaves and coconut shells.

After leaving our extremely luxurious digs in San Sai, just northeast of Chiang Mai city, we realized just how extremely luxurious we had it. We stayed at the Wangburapa Grand hotel, right on the mote road by Therapae Gate. A short walk takes you around the southeast quadrant of the city and all manner of restaurants, shops, walking streets and markets.

Wending our way through the little alleys inside the city, Mr. Go found a meticulous barber (we would later realize meticulous is part of the Thai way) and I found a storage-unit seamstress to make me a dress. (More on that later.)

We quickly came to realize that the shops selling elephant pants and brightly patterned dresses in one-size-fits-all style were all carrying the exact same things, imported from China for the European tourists who thought that was what an experience in Thailand meant: coming home with beaded bracelets and balloon pants. You know who I didn't see wearing elephant pants? Thai people.

I don't mean to run down on tourists, because I know that, while we strive to be respectful and blend in, we are also tourists. But as we made our way to some of the temples, we ran across Canadian tourists who, despite having been in Thailand for two weeks, were just learning how to say hello and thank you in Thai. We certainly didn't study Thai as much as we should have, or nearly as much as we practiced Spanish before our Spain adventure, but polite greetings were the first thing we learned, within our first two days in the country. The simple courtesy of saying arroy mak (very delicious) to our chefs has earned us respect (and one time, a plate of jackfruit, my new favorite food).

Anyway, in Chiang Mai, there are temples every 200 meters, all beautifully gilded in gold and carved with curving serpents. (And crawling with tourists.) Being properly dressed for Thai culture, but especially for visiting temples, means ladies cover their knees and shoulders, meaning I was sweltering uncomfortably for many days. But it's a small price to pay and as I mentioned, we do our best to blend in. We spotted tourists wearing shorts so short their butts were hanging out the bottom, not even trying.

We found the Buak Hard park on the southwest corner of the city, and an even quieter park just on the other side of the mote from it, and let Babs play there for a while before wandering around.

Trying to find restaurants on Google Maps only ended in frustration most of the time. Places that have a presence on Google often cater to Westerners, and reviews can be deceiving. Westerners are the ones who tend to write reviews, and "no English speaking staff" is often a reason to knock off stars for them, while for us it would be an indication of authenticity.

The big, once a week walking streets proved far too crowded for our tastes. (Walking Streets are essentially closed-off streets with pop-up vendor stalls selling food, clothes and other random souvenirs.) The Wua Lai Walking street was impossible to navigate. Being herded like cattle through stalls is not conducive to stopping to peruse the odd table here and there with unique wares worth perusing. Same for the Tha Pae walking street, though the earlier you go the better it is (though some stalls may not yet be open). It gets more crowded later on.

Chiang Mai seems to be a backpacker's party town. The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar area hosted mostly seedy-looking bars. We didn't spend much time there. In general, anything right on the mote road seems to be more expensive and more apt to cater to Westerners.

One of the most fun dinners we had was after we bailed on the walking street and wandered around to find dinner. It was going to rain, so when we saw a hunchbacked old lady whipping things around in a wok with three tables set up behind her, we ducked in. No English on the menu. Perfect.

We pointed at some pictures on the wall and the lady's husband got us some beers (Singha, the best Thai beer). He apologized for the slowness of the service, but we were like that's cool, don't rush the lady, she's old. Babs ordered herself a gai pad thai (rice noodles with chicken, egg and bean sprouts), while I had pad see-ew (fat rice noodles with veggies) and Mr. Go ordered the old standard pad gaprao (basil and pork with a side of rice).

The rain came down in buckets and the "restaurant" such as it was filled up to standing room only, with people hanging out waiting for the old lady to box up their takeaway. A sliding glass door partitioned the eating area from the living area of their home. The food was amazing and cost us a whole 1.50 USD per dish.

On every Chiang Mai block is an office with signs advertising elephant experiences, which cost upwards of 1,000THB/person. After our discussion with our pet-sit people, we opted to wait on the elephant experience for a different area.

New Year's in Chiang Mai, we stayed out until midnight. Front-desk staff said the 'fireworks' would start at 7pm. We were confused, but when we started seeing specks of orange light floating up into the sky, we realized 'fireworks' meant Chinese lanterns. People bought them and set them off, but companies were also setting them off, so a steady stream of lights bobbed against the stars all evening.

We wandered down into a Thai NYE festival, with the obligatory food stalls, but also a stage where young girls performed traditional Thai dance, a Thai band sang traditional songs, then a jazz band performed some covers of Strumbellas and The Beatles before going into original material. We sat and enjoyed for a while, then wandered through the market back to the mote, where at midnight, some small fireworks were lit off from several places.

January 1, 2020, we would take a bus south to Lampang, begin escaping the tourists for more rural areas and some of our best adventures to date.

Pet Sitting in Thailand

We took an early flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand and by pure luck found the airport bus that took us (for 30 baht/adult, kids under 6 free) to the Nimman neighborhood, closeish to our Airbnb villa. I showed the driver my google maps, with much pointing, nodding and smiling. When we arrived at the closest stop, he motioned, smiling, that we were to disembark. It was a good start and a sign of the friendliness to come.

Mr. Go wanted to move to Thailand immediately when we realized how many places require you to remove your shoes before you enter. What a good idea! It should be universal! Shoes are disgusting!

We walked down to the Old City, heading toward a park and thought a TukTuk drive around the mote would be cool.

Hot Take: tuktuks on busy roads aren't cool. Getting blasted in the face by songthaew exhaust made me realize why so many people wear those surgical masks. Turns out, the air quality in Chiang Mai is not great.

We were tired, so we ate at a well-rated Mexican restaurant (it was really good). I went out for coffee the next morning, as packets of sugary cappuccino mix and dried tea without bags (how do?) were all that was offered by our villa.

House/Pet Sitting

Our house sit (again through TrustedHouseSitters.com, more on that in this post) began the next morning. The lovely American couple offered to make us breakfast, so we Grabbed out there. They really were the loveliest people, and they and their two sons made us feel welcome. Their two dogs were the sweetest and their house was amazing. It felt like a luxury palace after the cramped, sketchy digs of the last week.

TIP: Our people told me about this Chiang Mai House/ Pet Sitting Facebook group, a private group where you can find other house sits as well.

Mark took us for a tour around the neighborhood, pointing out good restaurants, where the markets were on which days (hard to keep straight at first-- every day here, only sunday here, only tuesday here).

The next 9 days were infinitely relaxing, and a great place for Babs to get sick, which she did. A high temp and a cough, though that didn't slow us down much.

Our hosts told us we would get odd looks for walking around the neighborhood, and we did. Everyone takes motorbikes or drives. The odd pedal bike here and there. But despite feeling a little fish-out-of-water, everyone we met was super friendly.

We got Thai massages from a Muay Thai boxer, a woman named Pon (Pawn) who was friendly and extremely strong. She graciously gave me the option of soft, medium or hard. I chose medium and shudder to think what the hard option would have felt like. "I hurt you, you tell me," she kindly offered and I nearly took her up on that. I was sore for days. Mr. Go said he felt like he'd just had a big cup of coffee afterward, jittery from increased blood flow.

Chiang Mai Zoo

The Chiang Mai Zoo was pretty neat. You could get closer to the animals than in American zoos, and their enclosures did NOT seem as secure. Going by the tiger, pacing in his enclosure, all that separated him and us is what amounts to a ditch that is definitely NOT wide enough to stop him if he really wanted to get to us. His eyes followed us as we passed. We walked a little faster.

We paid for a panda ticket, too. The panda enclosure is just one building with two separate spots for pandas. We got to see a panda munching on some bamboo. We'd never seen one before so it was something new, but I couldn't help but think, "Is that it? That's what we paid for?"

After the zoo, we walked the 500m to Huay Kaew waterfall. It was pretty. Probably a nice place to sit in the shade and enjoy the sounds of nature, but we didn't stay too long.

We walked down a dirt alley to find the restaurant I'd flagged on Maps which was more expensive than I thought. Without knowing any better, we ordered two papaya salads. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the spiciest thing I've ever had in my life. It was painful. Neither of us could eat much of it. Luckily Babs was smart and ordered gai pad thai and we split that.

Pro Tip: Order dishes mai pet (not spicy) pet ni noy (little bit spicy) or request only neung phrik (one chili).

Wat Phra Lat & The Monk's Trail

The Monk's Trail was a highlight. A 3km or so hike through a jungle trail to a secluded temple with beautiful rolling hill views. Go as early as you can. By 10am it was beginning to get crowded. Apparently there are some waterfall offshoots, but we must have missed the trails.

Make sure to tell your driver you want to go to the Monk's Trail and start at the bottom of the hill. If you say Wat Phra Lat they'll take you to the parking lot in front of the temple, as we saw one poor backpacker arguing ineffectively to his driver as we left.

Doi Suthep

Since we were on that side of the city, we decided to grab our very first songtaew (Thai taxi-- a red truck with benches in the open back) up to Doi Suthep, a main temple attraction.

The drive up nearly made me hurl, wending around mountain switchbacks far too fast with no seatbelt as the tropical air heated up to midday. Trying to look out the front windshield instead of the back or sides helped a bit. At the top, Mr. Go bought me some strawberries and we started the climb up the steps.

Foreigners have to pay 30 baht/adult for admittance to the temple, then we had to shuffle around all the other tourists snapping pictures. It was beautiful, all ornate gold sculptures and I appreciated its significance, but I just kept thinking about how we were contributing to the degradation of its secluded charm by touring it. How could anyone meditate their way to nirvana with tourists who can't read the "don't push bells" sign ringing the ancient chimes?

We got crammed into a songtaew with more and more and more people for the ride down (including a nice couple from Toronto & Sault Ste. Marie, MI). Mr. Go made fun of me to the other riders re: my motion sickness, then we hopped off at the zoo at the bottom of the hill to hit up the restaurant we saw the day before and regretted not eating at. We got laughed at for trying to speak Thai, but in a nice way.

Thai Farm Cooking School

I took a solo Grab (thrilling) to the nearby Ruamchok market (an excellent open-air supermarket with veggies, fruits & fried foods) and met the Thai Farm Cooking School people, who'd already collected the other 9 participants (All american and 2 british) from their hotels. We drove about 15km north to a farm where we learned about the ingredients and made 6 dishes. The day cost me 1500 THB, or about 50 USD.

There are plenty of Cooking School experiences in Chiang Mai, and I can't attest to them, but I loved my experience. I would recommend doing the full rather than half day.

I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate the dishes successfully, without access to the incredible fresh sweet coconut milk, Thai basil and green chilis. But I'll surely try. I brought a small bag of leftovers home for the fam. Babs is still not doing great with the amount of heat in even the most mai pet of dishes, but here's hoping her tolerance will improve. A girl can't live on rice alone.

Huay Tong Tao Reservoir

It costs foreigners 50 baht each to enter (6 & under free). We strolled around the reservoir, stopping to chill on a towel and let Mr. Go fish for an hour. There's a weird park with hay sculptures of gorillas that was fun, if overrun with tourists. We had lunch on a bamboo raft just off the shore and appreciated the misty rolling hills and cool breeze, and also the fact that we have such easy access to that kind of lake experience at home in Michigan.

In the afternoon, it starts to get hot and crowded and loses a bit of its charm.

After 9 days, our pet sit came to an end. We left the enormous, spotless house with the playroom of Legos and went on to adventure in Chiang Mai city.

One Week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Last time we made an oversea flight it was on a budget airline, so the fact that United fed us so well blew my mind.

When booking our flight, we chose the gluten-free meal options. The "special" meals were served first, so even though we were sitting pretty far back in the plane, we got our dinner first. Highly recommend ordering a "special" meal (kid's/vegetarian/etc/) for that fact alone.

Our plane from L.A. departed at around 9pm, pretty late even for East Coast standards. We then had a changeover at San Fran, so we didn't get on our big leg until about midnight. Babs fell asleep as soon as we were airborne, but they were serving food, so we woke her to eat. They then handed out ice cream and sandwiches for later, then we didn't see a stewardess again for the next 8 hours (bad for thirsty people who can't sleep).

We watched a few movies, then got as much sleep as one can while squished between a spread-eagle child and a large stranger.

Upon landing in Kuala Lumpur, we took the KLIA Ekspress, with direct service to KL Sentral, the central train/bus station. I suspect we could've taken the KLIA Transit, which makes a couple stops on the way to KL Sentral, for cheaper.

Exiting the train station into a blast of tropical heat while jetlagged wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever experienced. But I specifically booked an Airbnb for the first 4 nights at a condo a short walk from the station.

We would later come to realize KL is not friendly for walking. Everyone rides motorcycles or takes Grabs (the Uber of SEA). Every condo we stayed at in KL had security guards at the door. This was a perfectly nice place, except that the surrounding 2 blocks were filled with rotting refuse, including the occasional flattened rat.

We were in Brickfields, right next to Little India, and the meal we had on the way to our Airbnb, hot, tired and confused, was one of the best Indian meals I'd had up to that point. Spicy as hell and once we took a good look around we were sure it was going to make us sick, but we'd later come to realize this was par for the course. The open-air kitchen, lack of utensils and napkins, and the handwashing station at the back.

For the first few days, we tried to go out and explore in the mornings. Waking up at 1:30am, waiting 6 hours for a breakfast joint to open, then getting tuckered out by 2pm. Afternoon naps, even though we always desperately wanted to, were a bad idea, as Babs would sleep through dinner and the cycle would repeat. We had to force ourselves to stay awake to get our bodies on the right time zone. It took 5 days or so for Babs, a bit longer for the adults, who are early-risers anyway.

We were blessed with some cloudy days our first week, which made exploring infinitely easier. Our trek about Chinatown concluded with us choosing the very shadiest back-alley noodle cart for some egg-noodle soup, thinking egg noodles were gluten free, which they aren't. Stomachaches resulted.

Side Note: This article has great info on what is/isn't gluten free in Malaysia.

The KLCC park by the Petronas towers was lovely, especially since we were there at 7:30a.m. before it got too hot.

Cities aren't our thing. In KL, shopping malls were the main attraction. Even one of our Grab drivers said there's not much to do here but shop and eat. Malls are a good way to escape the heat and no one seems to mind mall food.

We planned a trip to the Twin Towers Medical Centre in the Petronas Towers to get a Japanese Encephalitis shot, but the doctor we spoke to said it was unnecessary unless we were planning on hanging out in rural areas where there were pig farms. (JE is transmitted by mosquitoes who have had contact with pigs I guess??)

He pushed the malaria tablets pretty hard and told us we'd have to go to a different hospital (Gleneagles) to get the child dose. We fully intended to do so, but after some more research, we simply decided to use all the preventative measures and avoid high-risk areas.

The biggest culture shock for me was going into a bathroom stall at the mall and finding a toilet sunk into the floor. I call them squatty potties, and they're very common in Asia. If there's toilet paper at all, it's usually outside the stalls and doubles as paper towel to dry your hands. The "hose" located next to the toilet is a public bidet and I have never touched one, nor will I ever. I'm sure it's as hygenic as us Europeans sitting on the same toilet seat as innumerable other humans, but I just can't. Perhaps it's only the fear of the unknown.

Our favorite thing in KL was the Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple. We walked into the office to make sure we were allowed to walk around and the monks there said, "Yes, of course. Come in, have some breakfast." Unfortunately we had just eaten (at the sketchiest restaurant I've ever been to in my life (until a little bit later)). But we spoke with the monk, Hemaloka, for almost half an hour as he showed us around the place. It was a humble temple, but getting to chat with Hema, who is from Sri Lanka, and definitely invited us to stay with him there, was beyond lovely.

He asked us to share the pictures of us together with him, and had us add him to Whatsapp on the spot. He messaged us later to thank us and to invite us back (they were having a festival the next day bu unfortunately we had travel plans).

Our second location in KL was up in Batu Caves, the neighborhood, not to be confused with the actual tourist attraction. Once safely locked in our Airbnb condo, I cried in a corner of the kitchen until Mr. Go comforted me. The area looked like a slum, the building's hallways were dark and creepy and I'd failed to realize before booking that there was no wifi.

It turned out wonderfully. Everyone we met in the apartment building was super kind, smiling and saying hello to Babs (she makes us so much more approachable). That area doesn't see many white faces and we attracted a LOT of attention, but it was all curious and friendly. We ate at a few Chinese restaurants that were close by, the waitress would try to speak English with us then go back to the open kitchen and giggle with the rest of the staff. There was a rat scurrying around under the tables and a stray cat begging food off us.

Afternoon thunderstorms are common, and we always packed our rainjackets in our backpack.

The Batu Caves was neat to visit, but packed with Chinese tourists. With all the other Buddhist and Hindu temples in Malaysia, we decided we probably could have skipped that one.

To escape the heat and to keep Babs fully entertained, we took a bus (from the Gombak station) up to the Genting Highlands. From the Premium Outlets, you take a gondola the rest of the way up to essentially Malaysian Disney World (though it's on a smaller scale).

Filled with amusement parks of various kinds, it was a full-day adventure. All-day ride wristbands were 60 ringgits, or $15 USD. We were there when it opened at 10am and left in the early afternoon when lines for rides grew to a 45-minute wait.

You can step off the Gondola at the Chin Swee Caves Temple for free. This is tricky because if you're going down, getting back on the Gondola is dependent upon someone getting out of a car, and at 4pm when everyone is trying to get home that can take a while.

The drive down the mountain in our Grab was the scariest car ride I've ever had, and the only 1-star review we've left for our dozens of Grab drivers so far.

The food in Malaysia was very good, but every dish is based around rice. Nasi lemak is a dish every restaurant has and is a fried chicken chunk with rice, hot chili sauce on the side, peanuts, half a hard boiled egg and a handful of dried, salted sardines. It's a safe choice if you don't know what anything else is, but at the end of the week all I wanted was a plate full of fresh greens.

We got ourselves (via bus and Grab) near the airport, to catch an early flight to Thailand the next day. All I will say about that is: whatever you do, avoid the Night Queen Motel. It is unfit to shower in.

More on Thailand next.

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Traveling to Malaysia with Kids - Prep

This year, to make it a real challenge for ourselves, we decided to go to the other side of the world. My initial plan was Thailand, but the tourist visa process after 30 days can get a little complicated. So to avoid that completely, we decided to shift our focus a little further south. U.S. citizens can travel to Malaysia visa-free for up to 90 days.

We secured a house-sit for an expat couple in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for 9 days, so we'll get our jaunt up into Thailand for about 2 weeks before heading back to Malaysia.

More on House Sitting abroad Here.

Vaccines
The BIGGEST drag in prepping for this trip has been figuring out vaccination needs.

Yellow Fever is a concern if you're traveling from (or have 12+ hour layovers in) a country with associated risk, as of now that's parts of South America and Africa. So this wasn't a concern for us.

Typhoid: 1 injection or a 4-series oral, Typhoid will run anywhere from $70-$160 and that's not including the travel clinic's consultation fee. Many Walgreens carry this one and if they don't, many can order it and have it in next day for you.

Japanese Encephalitis: I'm so tired of saying this word. A 2-series, each shot costing between $241 and $322, the JE vax was about to run my family $1500. I called 5  clinics, made and cancelled a bunch of appointments and annoyed my family doctor with questions. Then Mr. Go had a brainstorm: What if we waited and got the JE vax when we GOT to Malaysia? It's bound to be cheaper, right? RIGHT!

The Twin Towers Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur offers all the vaccines for a fraction of the price (170 MYR = $41 USD). I emailed them some questions and got prompt answers. No appointment is necessary, but if I Whatsapp message them before coming in, it can cut down on wait time. Also bonus: for reasons beyond my understanding, at the TTMC the JE vax is only 1 shot, not two. Babs was suuuuuuper happy about that. I'll post about that experience in a couple weeks!

We decided to get Typhoid in the states, because it's transmitted by improperly handled food and that's something we want to be ready for the moment we land. We figured we could wait on the JE vax, since JE is transmitted by mosquitoes and in the heart of KL they're not as big of an issue as the more rural areas. The skeeters that transmit JE bite at dark, so we'll employ more caution at dusk until the vaccine takes full effect (about 1 week after receipt).

But finding a clinic to give my 5-year-old a typhoid vax was easier said than done. Walgreens won't vaccinate kids under 7 and the oral typhoid vax is for kids 6 and older. The closest clinic was a 500-mile round trip overnight jaunt. The International Society for Travel Medicine has a directory of clinics, but a Google Maps search of "Travel Vaccine Clinic" will turn up some facilities not on the ISTM list.

Weather
Malaysia is pretty much right on the equator, meaning the temperature doesn't change much during the year. Highs will hover around the mid- to high-80s while lows plummet to about 70 Farenheit at night. Oh and being a peninsula on the ocean, it's super humid! That, combined with the cultural restrictions below, means things might get sweaty.

Culture
Malaysia is a fairly conservative culture. Metro areas like Kuala Lumpur have fewer implied restrictions, but if you don't want to get stared at in rural areas, women should cover their knees and shoulders. Especially in religious temples.

I plan on bringing a scarf to cover my shoulders and leggings to go under my dress and shorts. Time will tell if that will be enough, but it will be easy to buy clothes, especially in the 32-million-population Kuala Lumpur, once I poke around and figure out from the locals what's appropriate.

Packing
I'm in the process of making a spreadsheet, but this blog post has been super helpful and informative. There are plenty of things I'll be waiting to buy until we get there, which is both freeing and stressful. I do like having everything I might possibly need at my fingertips at any given moment, but when restricted to 2 bags, that's not possible.

20 days until we leave from LA on this new adventure!! 😬


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Pressure Canning Fish (and other foraged foods)

Welcome to my TED Talk: Homesteading 101. While I'm nowhere near my grandma's skills, putting an armful of jars on a shelf satisfies the part of me that acknowledges the U.P. winter is coming. It's alWAYS COMING.

Pressure Canning or Water Bath Canning

Asparagus - After foraging literally 30 pounds of the fibrous vegetable last year, I fridge-pickled 9 quarts (a bad idea--took up so much fridge space), then bought my pressure canner because I couldn't eat another spear for the next two months.

Pressure canning is a great option for this because it breaks down the tough fibrous parts to make them smushy soft and great for pureeing into a creamy soup.

Fish - The process is the same for most fish (except tuna) and is so easy! No liquid required, just jam the fish in the jar with some salt and a clove of garlic if you're feeling fancy. The only downside is the processing time is 100 minutes. That's right: 1 hour and 40 minutes of watching the pressure gauge to be sure it doesn't dip below 11 PSI because you REALLY don't want to have to start over again.

It's totally worth it, though. Instead of having to fillet out the Y bone in Pike, canning cooks the living daylights out of it and the bones just dissolve! (Plus it makes a killer fish dip with cream cheese and fresh garden dill.)

Blueberries & Blackberries - Hot Tip: Use your blackberries to make wine. Canning them just turns them to mush. The blueberries hold up a little bit better, but tend to turn your muffin/bread batter a bit purplish when you mix them in.

Apples - Hot Tip: Canning apples makes them pretty mushy anyway, so save yourself a step and just can them as applesauce. You don't even have to peel them. Chunk them, cook them down with some cinnamon and ladle them into jars.

Venison - The same process as for fish, but only 75 minutes at 11 PSI. That's right, chunk up all the subpar cuts for canning. They will become soft and moist.

Beets - I use my Instant Pot to pre-cook them to tender-crispness, then either hot water bath or pressure process pints for 30 minutes. Use a pickling brine instead of plain water for a snappy snack.

Radishes - Can them in a pickling brine. It's great on salads for a vinegar/salty flavor that's totally unique.

Carrots - Chunk them, ladle boiling water, add 1 tsp salt and process for 30 minutes for quarts. Garden-fresh carrots for your hearty winter soups? Nothing could be better.

Tomatoes - Blanch, peel and chop them with green peppers, onions and vinegar for salsa. (I hybridized these two recipes.) Then when you're full up on salsa and STILL have 45 pounds of tomatoes, can stewed tomatoes with a couple basil leaves. Use in lieu of tomato sauce in chili and pasta dishes. So flavorful!

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Let your jars cool gradually under a couple towels for insulation. Once cool, REMOVE THE BANDS. Tug gently on the lids to be sure they're sealed. If any didn't seal, store in the fridge and use them within a couple days.

Once you get past the fear of blowing up your kitchen (read and understand the instruction manual first and you'll be perfectly safe), canning is super fun. The more you do it, the easier and less messy it gets. And sending friends home with a jar of home-canned salsa (especially when using home-grown tomatoes and cilantro) is super satisfying.

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