Eleanor and the Malaysian Experience

I had grand plans to blog during our two weeks in Malaysia but ended up procrastinating, eating unhealthily and playing a disturbing amount of Hero Academy. It then took us a week to get back in the swing of things and for me to recoil from the shock of returning to work. So here I am on the warm Saturday afternoon, prepared to write a mammoth post on our recent experience of international travel with infants. Perhaps next time I'll learn to split things up into smaller updates.

For our leg from Brisbane to Singapore we flew with Emirates, who we had never travelled with before. I was quite impressed with the food and service, but thought that the pilot was a little liberal with his use of the seat belt sign. Not usually a problem when we are flying, but when Eleanor was in the bassinet (typically when she's just fallen asleep) the flight attendant would insist that we take her out to use the child seatbelt. Rather inconvenient and the bassinet wasn't all that useful in the end, although we did appreciate the extra leg room.

When we landed in Changi we expected to see our stroller at the gate but for some reason it was checked into luggage to be transferred onto our next flight to KL. In the end I carried Nelly across half the terminal before we found this funky stroller/trolley combo at the information desk that we could use. I love Changi airport!

It wasn't suppose to be a long stop over in Singapore but we ended up spending a long time on the tarmac as the control tower dealt with a back log of planes trying to taxi and take off. The cabin ended up getting quite warm in the afternoon sun and Eleanor probably found this to be the most uncomfortable part of our trip over. Even so we both agreed that we are very lucky parents to have such a tolerant baby. As usual, the actual flight to Malaysia was over in a blink of an eye and we were pushing the stroller out to see Ah Mah waiting in the arrival hall in no time.

Car seat regulation for infants and children isn't quite as strict in Malaysia as it is in Australia. Not all that surprising given how common it is to see families of five screaming down the highway on a single motorcycle. We debated the benefits of buying or bringing a car seat to use in our two weeks and ended up asking mum to buy the cheapest one she could find. Funnily enough we spent the first week of the holiday just holding her on our laps, which she thought was rather novel and quite comfortable to sit on mum and dad in the car.

It never turned out to be an issue and I'd say that in most cases, traveling with a baby on your lap in the car should be fairly safe. I mean, it's not like you're going to let the kid drive right?

The other concern that we had was with the living room in Kajang. Mum's design for the house probably didn't have little babies in mind considering the open fish pond and three flights of stairs. We were pretty vigilant in the first few days as Eleanor had just recently learned to crawl, but her exploration was hindered by an obsession with candy wrappers and red tassels that were tied to the furniture for Chinese New Year decorations. She did express a passing interest in the fish during their morning feeds though not so much that we had to put her buoyancy to the test.

On the eve of Chinese New Year we attended a reunion dinner for Ah Kong's side of the family at a restaurant. There were plenty of children there and a lot of them were interested in Eleanor as the new baby in the family. I think Nelly was a little shocked at first but didn't seem to mind their attention after she came to terms with being patted and pinched by aunts and cousins. Two in particular that Eleanor became enamored with were her Aunty Yvonne and Aunty Elaine.

For the first day of New Year (celebrations and festivities of some sort usually continue for fifteen days) we dressed up in new clothes and spent the day with family at home. Eleanor received a beautiful, albeit painful to put on, chinese dress. Of course I couldn't resist taking a few photos of our beautiful baby girl. The rest of the keepers in the album can be seen here.

On most mornings we would head out to some hawker store somewhere to indulge in some local delicacy for breakfast. Eleanor would often get morsels off our plates (assuming it wasn't too spicy or oily for her) which she would devour quite happily to our delight. A short list of Malaysian dishes she sampled included; tosei, cha siu pow, bak kut teh, kek lapis, faux meat, assorted noodles and several servings of steamed rice. After chowing down she would quite often fall asleep amongst the hustle and bustle of the diners around her. Eating and sleeping, she's a natural Malaysian.

Our other staple activity that Nelly had to put up with were the endless games of Mah Jong. She only tried to eat the tiles a few times and would usually distract herself with smashing packets of fortune cookies into a fine powder while we played. I can't wait till she's old enough to join us at the table to play for real.

In terms of culinary experiences there was one stand out event and it didn't have anything to do with the food. Mum suggested that we try a dim sum place in Subang which was supposed to be decent (I still think we get far better dim sum in Brisbane) so we trekked out there to give it a go. Half way through the meal we all commented on a peculiar ionized odour that we assumed was just the fly zapper. A few minutes later the lights went out, but the fans and the kitchen were still running so the patrons shrugged and continued eating with a solitary focus on food that Malaysians develop. It wasn't until we heard rapid popping, followed by smoke and then flames coming from the fuse box that the dining room put down their chop sticks and began to vacate the premises. Alison grabbed the baby and had to push her way through a mob of self-centered middle-aged women blocking her way from the exit as the room began to fill with smoke. I was tasked with saving the stroller but in all good conscience could not leave without rescuing the last custard bun from the table. Thankfully everyone got out without injury and the staff managed to extinguish the flames. In addition to the excitement we even got lunch for free as the owners refused to take our money. The surviving custard bun disappeared shortly after on the drive home.

The next few days of New Year were punctuated by family coming to the house to visit. It was really nice to see nieces and nephews and introduce them to Eleanor in turn. A lot of my Aunts came by with festive treats for us to enjoy along with Ang Pow (red packets of money) for Nelly. She didn't quite get what to do with the packets at first but she soon learned to take them gracefully before shoving them in her mouth. This was also the first year that Alison and I were responsible for handing out Ang Pow to the kids, which was a daunting task with so many nieces and nephews. Better start thinking about that second kid to even things out a little.

The eighth day of New Year was another special event at home. This was the day for offering thanks to the Jade Emperor and was described by Elaine as the equivalent of Thanks Giving for the Chinese calendar. To prepare for this mum prepared dishes of fruit, veg, duck, chicken, crab to offer. Oh... and there was also a whole gigantic roast pig that was ordered to be placed in front of the offering table. Alison and Eleanor dubbed the pig Crackle in honour of her ever so crispy skin.

In the days leading up to the eight day we were also busy folding paper ingots to be burnt as an offering. One of my fondest memories of Chinese New Year as a kid was when our fingers would be stained with gold glitter and red ink from folding paper money, so it was lovely to share this experience with Alison. At midnight on the eighth after we lit sky lanterns for our grandparents and prayed for good fortune in the coming year, we built a mound of paper offerings (money, clothes and houses) and set it on fire. When the inferno burnt itself out to the sound of fireworks and sky lanterns filling the sky throughout the city, we proceeded to consume choice portions of Crackle that Ah Kong expertly butchered. Nothing like a little pyromania to get the appetite going. Nelly even woke up to join in the fun.

Trips back to Malaysia are usually a good chance to catch up on some cheap shopping as well. In prior years this has often been for electronics or DVDs of dubious origin. We didn't feel the need to do that this time and focussed our consumer efforts on purchasing racks of clothing for Nelly. Most of this was at a wholesale building for clothes that mum discovered in Kenanga. By the end of the trip I think little miss Eleanor accumulated a respectable collection of shopping bags.

As always with holidays, they come to an end oh so quickly. Ah Mah and Ah Kong were both very sad to see their little treasure leave, but at least they can look forward to coming out here to Brisbane in April for Nelly's first birthday party. We said our goodbyes in the low cost terminal of KLIA as our flight to Singapore was on Air Asia, tickets which Alison will proudly state only cost 8 dollars each.

It's amazing how much Eleanor has grown in just two weeks. She's a lot more social and made quick friends with many adjacent passengers on the flight home. The act of crawling and climbing low objects has been mastered and she has now advanced on to standing up herself with the use of nearby furniture or her parent's legs. I can only imagine what our next trip to Malaysia in September will be like when she is able to walk and has more teeth to chew new dishes to try. Can't wait!