Hi! Remember me?!

You know, when you get very behind in your blog posts it's hard to know where to start. Do you know that feeling? Kind of sucks huh? I mean I want to tell you about so much...

There is travel content
There is knitting content
There is "life in Bangalore" content
Two of my daughters have had birthdays (Happy Birthday my dears!!!!!)
We had a wedding anniversary
We have been in Bangalore for six months (eek!)

and last but not least we have family visiting!

Well, I guess I could just dive in and start, right?

Fine. Will do.

So Let's start with a bit of travel.



In June we went to Singapore. It is such a stark contrast to Bangalore! It is pristine, clean, organized, quiet, orderly... truly everything that Bangalore is not. There were no cars honking and everyone stays in their lanes while driving. amazing. We took to calling Singapore "Merlionland" because it is sort of a grown-up Asian Disneyland-esque kind of place. I had the impression that I was in a Gotham like city, although a very cheerful one.

Singapore Skyline

And then there was the shopping. OMG. Shopping!!! Shopping malls were everywhere, huge, and filled to overflowing with people. Anna and I decided that we would be happy if Bryan took a job there (unlikely- but we can dream...), although I now realize that I don't think I could take a long term assignment there. It is just a bit too surreal for me, as well as incredibly expensive! Bryan has written a more detailed account of our travels that you can read about here.

Here are a couple of my photos from Singapore.

Chinatown in Singapore

Orchids at the Singapore Botanical Gardens

Now, after our weekend in Singapore we caught the night train to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We almost missed the train, and it was my mistake, but thanks to my on-the-spot husband and a bit of dumb luck, we got on just in time. The train ride was uneventful- which is good- and after a bit of sleep we woke up to bad coffee and a sandwich (unidentifiable I'm afraid), and the Kuala Lumpur train station.

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is in a different country from Singapore and this was obvious at first glance. While not quite like India, it has some of the same feel. Things are a bit more run down and the city has a bit more more of the chaotic feeling that we have come to love about India. It is predominantly Muslim and everywhere women wore headscarves and long flowing robes. As a tourist, the major contrast between Singapore and KL (Kuala Lumpur) really is accessibility. Singapore had large tourist centers filled with brochures about all of the different areas and activities that were there. KL had... a not so accurate map. So it took us a bit more time to find what we wanted to do. But we did have a good time and again, Bryan has blogged about it a little more here.

KL photos:

Shopping in KL...

Wanna buy a Rolex?

Shopping Center in KL

Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur...

Lord Marugan at Batu Caves

After Kuala Lumpur, we travelled to Langkawi which is a group of islands off of the northern coast of Malaysia. Langkawi is absolutely beautiful and I would love to go back there for a week to relax and do little. Nice.

Ahhh...

Then we were back to Singapore for a last evening and day before our return to Bangalore via Tiger airways, thankfully we didn't need to sleep on this flight!



FYI- to see all of my photos from this trip you can go to my Flickr set here.

Next time I will tell you about crafty/knitting things!