The Humour of Househunting

We have just returned to Miri from a week's house hunting in Ipoh.  I wrote, a few months ago, on how to go about finding your perfect house and this week was certainly a useful roller-coaster.

We had arranged to meet with four different estate agents, one on each day to view a range of houses. We had asked to see a minimum of five per agent as we know from experience here in Miri that agents in Malaysia think nothing of showing just one or two houses to try to lock in the deal on a property that they need to shift.  My husband had spoken with one lady the week he was in Ipoh and she said straight out that she never showed more than two properties as people didn't really know what they wanted and could just settle for what she showed them. Hmmmm....

This beautiful property is not quite in 'move in' condition.

This is a general, worldwide problem with estate agents; their priority is, quite rightly, to shift properties not match you to your dream but they can be self defeating in the way they go about it.  I remember looking at apartments in Venezuela where the agent wanted us to look at properties above the allowance ('oh but if you complain to the company they will pay more for a good house, the boss' family need a good house etc etc'), she got quite offended when my mother refused to play along and insisted the allowance was a non negotiable.  I spent an afternoon in Suzhou, China (for a posting that did not happen in the end) and none of the houses I was shown met with any of the criteria I was asked to specify.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the need to be flexible and have lived in some bizarre properties as a result of this, but why give a list of options if you cannot meet any of them?  The agent who lets our property in the UK keeps showing it to the most unsuitable of people then gleefully reports that they have had x no of viewings a week as though that, instead of actually letting the property is the measure of success.

House-hunting, wherever you do it, needs a sense of humour.  One of the Ipoh agents told us that she had the perfect house for us, 5 minutes walk from the office, 20 minutes drive to school, in a garden area in the centre of town.  We were very excited and looking forward to seeing this property which sounded ideal.  When we got there, however, it was a building site; it had no walls, it was literally just a roof with supporting columns.   The agent told us that we could specify everything about the house and it would be finished in the next 3-6 months.  When we explained (again) that we were looking to move in 2-3 weeks she looked rather crestfallen and said she could ask the owners to expedite the works!  My husband and I had to make sure that we did not look at each other, we would have burst into a kink of laughter and we were desperate not to hurt the feelings of the agent.  In fact one of the most stressful things, for me, about house-hunting, is working out how to reject unsuitable properties without being rude.

Some work required.....

We sent the agents a list of what we were looking for and we did see a range of houses but out of a total of 18 houses only 1 was suitable for us.  We said no to the one with the termite infestation and no cooking facilities (the owner would allow us to install an oven and hob at our own expense!) and the two properties where we would not be allowed our dogs. We also said no to the house with no parking and the two bed one bath apartment (beautiful but not really suitable for a family of 5+2). We looked at a few that were absolutely stunning but were not yet fitted and furnished.  We were promised that it would be done to our specification in the two weeks between signing the contract and the move but I have been burned by a similar situation in the past which resulted in a month long hotel stay while the work was done.

A perfect view.

An aunt of one of my husband's co-workers came up trumps and found the perfect spot for us, a lovely 5 bed villa with a garden, set by a lake in the mountains and a short drive from school and work.  We can watch families of monkeys play on the other side of the lake and the garden is filled with songbirds.  The owners are making some modifications (installing an oven and stairgates for us) and we should, fingers crossed, move in soon.

I have added this post to Amanda Mulligan's (life with a double buggy) Expat Life Linky - click to read more fascinating expat posts from around the world.

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Exigencies of Expat Life - Moving on From Miri

Sometimes expat life throws us a googlie.

My most vivid memory of a move is when, 6 months in to our 2 year posting in the Netherlands and my father came home and said 'what about Turkey?'  My sister and I immediately thought about Greek and Roman ruins and the fun we could have on a holiday there, my mother looked a little incredulous and said we had already booked our annual holiday.  This is when he admitted that we would be moving 3 weeks after we came back from holiday.  The announcement resulted in a flurry of packing, sorting out flights for the dog, selling the car and all the other hassles of moving.

A few years later it happened again.  When we left Turkey we were supposed to spend 2 years in the Netherlands, 4 months into the posting my Father came home to announce that we would be relocating  in the summer.  I was in my first year at university and was just getting to know people.  My new friends thought I was an international girl of mystery.  I had left uni to travel home to Turkey at Christmas, the Netherlands at Easter and then on to Venezuela that summer.

My mother was always capable, completely unflappable and wonderfully heroic.  I am not sure if she ever felt overwhelmed by these sudden changes in plan, if she screamed or got stressed about the hassle it caused her she always did it quietly and in private.

My wonderfully calm, brave and versatile mother. (in 1970's post war
Port Harcourt, Nigeria)

I thought, when my husband and I moved abroad that we would be extremely unlikely to relocate with minimal notice - schools typically recruit their Principles 6 -12 months in advance of the appointment but yes....it has happened again.  Last week I got a call from my husband who was on a trip to his head office in Peninsula Malaysia.  We were being offered the opportunity to relocate to the company head office in Ipoh, 2 hours north of KL.  We had been planning on staying in Miri for 3-4 years but this offer was too good to refuse.  We chatted on the 'phone, decided to go for it and the announcements were made this week.

So, in about three weeks time we will be relocating the kids, dogs and car. We are flying to our new city to do some house hunting next week (one of the advantages of an in-country relocation).  We sat down the other night to make our to-do list and it was scarily long given that we will effectively have 2 weeks to pack the house and close things down here.  9 months is not the shortest posting I have ever had but this is certainly the fastest move time I have had to contend with. So I will channel my mother and stay calm (all the time being eternally grateful that I had not yet got round to buying the swimming pool I was planning to surprise the kids with).  Ipoh here we come!

Bye-Bye Miri

Added to Amanda Mulligan's Life with A Double Buggy Expat Life linky - click for stories from other expats around the world.

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Shopping in the Markets in Miri

While the supermarkets are very handy for all sorts of dried produce the fruit and vegetables that are available for purchase are of mediocre quality.  I find that the best range of fresh produce is available in the markets.  As I recently started weaning the baby I have needed access to really high quality fruit and vegetables so I have been even more reliant on the markets than normal.  Very few stall holders speak English but they are almost all friendly, helpful and welcoming.  It is not unusual for me to be given some little extras as a gift for the children, some Rambutan, a slice of mango etc.

All sorts of fresh fruits are on sale

Pineapples are very popular, these are small, some are much larger

Small fruit and vegetable markets are available in a number of suburbs around the town, the stall holders arrive early with their produce and most of the good stuff is gone by midday.  Our baby is definitely not a morning person, she likes her lie ins when she can get them so we tend to avoid the morning markets.

Midin, edible firms are extremely tasty fried in garlic

All sorts of things are on sale from soft drinks to rice

The Central Market is a good stop for pork meat - this can be difficult to find in some supermarkets as it has to be sold from a separate, halal, section and only certain cuts are available.  From the butcher stalls in the market I can buy just about any piece of the pig I want.  I am not certain quite what I would do with a pig's head.  I seem to recall reading something about 'head cheese' in Little House in the Big Woods but luckily I do not need to set about making that in order to see us through the winter!

Pig head anyone?

I like to stop off at the large market/supermarket complex on the way in to collect the older children from school.  There is a full range of market stalls here selling everything from midin (edible ferns, yummy sauteed in garlic) to the excellent Bario rice grown in the highlands of Borneo close to the Indonesian border.  Some stalls specialise in fruit, others in fresh fish, caught daily and brought in straight from the boat.  Other stalls sell just about every bit of the chicken you can think of.  I did eat chicken feet once, on honeymoon, and it is not an experience I wish to repeat!

Fish is varied, fresh and plentiful

Other stalls sell school uniform, local souvenirs and even pet supplies.  On our last visit there I found some pet hedgehogs for sale.  A friend tells me they make excellent pets but I am not convinced the dogs would be too welcoming.

We could even buy these friendly fellows!

This post is part of Life With A Double Buggy Expat Life Linky - click for more stories from around the world.

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Malaysian Weddings - Malay Style

I wrote a little while ago about attending the Chinese/Christian wedding of one of my Husband’s colleagues here in Miri.  Malay weddings are very different.

At the start of the year I got a ‘What’s App’ message from a school friend to tell me that she was getting married at the end of January and asking if  the family and I could make it over for the celebrations.  One of the perks of having been to a boarding school is that I now have friends around the world and there is almost always someone (or their family) to visit.  My friend lives in Sarawak (in Kapit in the interior) but her family and new husband are from KL so the wedding was going to take place there.  Because we were not certain the girls’ passports would be back (they arrive the day before I flew) I booked to travel over on my own, arranging to stay at a nearby hotel and get taxis to and from the venue.  I must admit to being a little apprehensive as other than the bride I thought I would know nobody.  As it turns out some other girls from school were also there on the day so we had a mini reunion. 

Muslim weddings are legal in Malaysia in the same way that a wedding performed in a church is legal in the UK, guests other than close family are typically not invited to attend the actual nikkah ceremony which in my friend’s case took place the day before. 

Seating is informal and guest lists are huge.  Pretty much
everyone who knows the couple turns up.

The wedding reception is typically spread out over a number of hours and the bride and groom are not necessarily present during the entirety of the time.  It is normal for families to hire a large venue and arrange for catering on an industrial scale.  On arrival guests are greeted by family members and then directed to the main room.   The food is set out along the sides of the room and guests help themselves to whatever they want before sitting down at a table of their choice.  I was a little concerned about this because when I arrived there was no one there that I knew but I was invited to a table and ended up talking with some neighbours of the bride’s mother before catching up with school friends.

The wedding party was seated at a top table and family groups would go up from time to time to congratulate the happy couple and have photographs taken.  There was some entertainment, a women’s percussion band alternating with a male religious choral group, children’s entertainment outside included bubble displays.  The whole atmosphere was extremely friendly and informal, an opportunity for everyone to wish the families good luck on their new venture.  Guests were dressed fairly informally but conservatively, about one degree of formality above normal, certainly much less so than a typical European or American wedding but it was clear that people had made an effort.  The bride and groom and their families were, of course, dressed sumptuously. 

Guests are not expected (and do not expect) to stay for very long, enough time to eat and then congratulate the bride and groom or their families.  Before leaving it is traditional to hand over an angpow with a small monetary gift to an auntie and to receive a small wedding favour as a memento of the day.  

Posted as part of 'My Expat Family' monthly linky hosted by the wonderful Seychelles Mama

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Versatile Blogger

Many thanks to my very good friend Antoine Vanner of the Dawlish Chronicles for a nomination as a 'Versatile Blogger'.  Antoine is a writer of historical naval fiction with a twist.  His hero hails from the late Victorian era and utilises all the emerging 'tech' of his time.  Nicolas Dawlish,  finds himself on various postings around the world (but to date we have only shared one - we have both lived in Turkey) and thrust into some very unsavory situations indeed.

The 'versatile blogger' is a cross between a linky and a blog hop designed to introduce readers to a variety of new and interesting blogs.  There are only 5 rules,  I have to adhere to:

• display the badge;
• write a post linking back to the nominating blogger;
• find 7 interesting things to write about myself ... (hmmm);
• Nominate other bloggers (to a maximum of 15) and say why they get my nomination;
• Let the nominees know they have been nominated.

Thank you Antoine for my nomination!

7 'Interesting' Facts about the Ersatz Expat

1. I have lived in 8 different countries (The Netherlands, Norway, UK, Nigeria, Turkey, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Malaysia).  I have moved internationally approximately 10 times, it is difficult to say exactly how many because my parents moved a lot and at a certain point, we are not sure when, I stopped living with them but still visited their home overseas.  Not counting moves to different accommodation at university I have lived in over 25 different houses, many of them were my home.  
2. I have never lived in my native country.  I carry an Irish passport, my father is Irish and my Dutch mother nationalised as an Irish citizen on marriage.  We have, however, never lived in Ireland although I visit when I can and keep in contact with family there.  My husband and children are British and I did live there long enough to gain the right to citizenship, I even managed to pass the rather bizarre life in the UK test (bizarre because the obscure questions have nothing to do with life in the UK) but I never got around to applying for citizenship before we left.
3. I can communicate, in theory, 6 different languages (English, Dutch, German, Spanish, Turkish and Russian) but my abilities lie dormant in that I find I have to 'need' the language before I can bring any competency to bear.  If you asked me to use them right now I would be struck dumb. I am always in awe of my mother who was fluent in 4 languages (Dutch, German, French and English) and functional in another three (Norwegian, Turkish and Spanish).  I try to watch programmes and films in most of these languages from time to time to keep a 'muscle memory' of the cadence and rhythm of the language.  
4. I once ran for Parliament.  When we lived in the UK I was a local councillor and was asked to run for Parliament in the 2010 elections.  I was unsuccessful but when we return to the UK I will revive my political ambitions.
5. I have adopted pets in 5 different countries.  We had a dog in Norway but he died before we left.  We adopted Jimmy, a huge scruffy blond dog in Nigeria and he followed us through four international moves.  Eliza was a street rescue in Venezuela who ended her days a few years ago with my father in the UK.  Bessie was a wedding present from some friends in the UK, an old, old girl of almost 14 years she moved with us to Kazakhstan and now Borneo.  Perdita, our newest dog, is our little steppe hound rescued from the cold streets of Astana and enjoying the beaches on the South China Sea.  In my time I have also owned several cats and a parrot.  
6. I have taken a case to the House of Lords.  In the days when it was the highest court in England and Wales I was the solicitor on a case that was appealed to the Lords.  The law lords were some of the most erudite and insightful men I have ever had the pleasure to watch.
7. I have been on safari in Nigeria.  Jos safari reserve is not a well known or popular safari destination.  I can give you the complete run down as to why!

Versatile Blogs:

So here is my list of versatile blogs (I have kept it to 10) - in no particular order....

1. Experimental Expats: Rob and Diane, a Canadian/American couple who are retiring to Malaysia.  
2. Diplomatic Dog:  My favourite online pooch.  I met Nellie in Kazakhstan and she is now busy representing the UK in Guyana.
3. Seychelles Mama: Blogs about day to day family life in the paradise that is the Seychelles.
4. Mint Mocha Musings: A newsreader and now hotelier's wife muses on life in Hong Kong and China.  
5. Your Expat Child:  A website stuffed full of resourcs on relocating with children and a fascinating blog on life in South Africa by Carole...
6. The Diplomat's Wife: Is an entertaining read on life as a diplomatic family and a great resource of information in her 'Notes from the Field'.
7. Expat Life With A Double Buggy:  British Amanda blogging on life as a Dutch mom. 
8. Expat Partner Survival Guide: Clara is another perpetual expat, currently on the cusp of a move to South Africa
9. Lou Messugo: Phoebe is a British/Australian living and loving life in the South of France
10. The Dumpling Cart: An eclectic mix.  Tasty bites of stories from around the world.  

Chinese New Year - Sarawak Style

Here in Sarawak we celebrate almost every festival you can think of – with a mixed population it could be no other way and one of the lovely things about being here is seeing how much populations embrace and enjoy festivals that are not theirs. 

Malls sell all sorts of decorations for the New Year

Including some amazing balloon creations

Of all the festivals we celebrate over the year, however, Chinese New Year is one of the biggest.  Decorations have been in the shops since before Christmas and the malls have been hosting Lion Dances and fairs selling special treats and clothes. People have been looking forward to the long break (two days’ public holiday tagged onto a weekend).

Lion Dance Competition (nibbling the greens)
at a local mall 

The colour red is everywhere.  As the date has got closer more and more houses and shops have been sporting red lanterns and replacing their door-mats with red ones.  The children asked us if they could decorate our house like their friends, we did not want to go all out but we did buy some plants (we love greenery in the house anyway), some lights and blossom sticks.

House are decorated for the New Year

The supermarkets have had special New Year promotions and many  of these include free gifts – a mug with your chocolates, free angpows (red packets) with spends over a certain value.  Tangerines are a traditional gift (their name in Chinese sounds like the word for luck) and many houses buy miniature orange trees (the word orange sounds like the word for wealth) to display outside the front door.  

Decorated plants for sale

Plants are everywhere – lucky bamboo, blossom, orchids, ginseng, pineapple plants and so on, many tied with red ribbon for luck.  The garden centres have been full of mini trees for weeks but, rather disappointingly, the fruit is inedible as the growth has been forced with high dose fertilizer to coincide with the New Year.  Children are given gifts to bring in the new year, usually a present of money in Angpow packets and one friend gave each of my children a toy goat to celebrate the year of the goat. 

Toy goats - for the year of the goat...

Before New Year it is traditional to ‘clean the corners of the house’ and then on New Year’s Eve families traditionally gather for a meal.  One of the traditions with the meal is to use chopsticks to throw the ingredients high into the air, the higher they go the more luck the family will have. We went to spend the evening with friends and, driving back the streets were completely deserted.  Family members exchange gifts and it is traditional to wear new clothes in bright colours (often red).

Fireworks at the stroke of midnight - our quiet suburb
erupted in a blaze of sound and noise

On the stroke of midnight the city erupted in a blaze of fireworks and the bangs of firecrackers.  The firecrackers are usually strung on a string which is then hung up from a pole.  As they explode they shower the pavements with red paper/confetti so the entries to the houses are covered in a sea of red.  The displays lasted for at least an hour and the sound was phenomenal (they are designed to be loud to scare away evil spirits for the New Year).  The firecrackers are meant to be banned but are smuggled in over the New Year.  Local Facebook groups have been advertising them for sale for weeks but this can cause problems as the police monitor the groups to catch the sellers, still people do not seem to have any problem finding enough to set off and create an amazing display.  Our older children slept through (we were tempted to wake them but they were sleeping so peacefully) but the baby cooed with delight and the dogs cowered in the bathroom thinking Armageddon was nigh.

The result of all the fireworks - the pavements are awash in red confetti!

On the first day of Chinese New Year many who are religious will visit the temples.  They are decorated with a lot of red and burn  huge sticks of incense, some long and tall with faces on the front and some in the shape of pineapples.   

Incense sticks outside a temple

The first two days are spent visiting friends.  Open house is a tradition amongst all groups in Sarawak where you invite others to come and spend time with you to celebrate your special festivals.  In the lead up to the New Year we received many invitations to visit with our friends.  All had buffets of delicious food and treats prepared to feed the guests and angpow packets for the children.  Some had even arranged for lion dancers to provide entertainment and to drive away bad spirits. 

A roving group of lion dancers touting for custom

The lion dances themselves are absolutely spectacular.  they are performed by local martial art groups and some of the acrobatics have to be seen to be believed.  I understand that there are 6 different lion 'personalities' that can be used in the dances, the differences are shown by the different colour fur and different decorations on the lion costume,  I have not yet been able to work out what they are! It is quite funny to see a truck will pull up, the gongs and drums start up and a lion will pop out to do a spectacular dance and entertain the crowd before jumping back in and moving on to the next engagement. The very best troupes are booked a long time in advance and the dance itself will be done by masters.  Some less accomplished lion dancers will form roving troupes and go street to street to find custom.  

Gong Xi Fa Choi and best wishes for the year of the Goat.

NB apologies for the photographs, my telephone camera is not too good!

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Travel Hacks for Road Trips with Small Kids

I was contacted by one of the lovely people at RelayRides (a peer-to-peer car rental service with an expanding US airport rentals arm) asking about my favourite travel hacks.  As expats with kids we travel, a lot, usually by plane.  Our favourite way to travel, however, is to pile the family into our car and drive; and of course we like to make it as easy as possible. 

We have been very lucky on two fronts, firstly all our children  (now 8, 6 and 5 months) love the car and secondly we have always lived in places where we can drive to some amazing sights- by age 9 months we had already taken our son to 11 different countries in the car. Now we are based on Borneo we are looking forward to driving around Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei.

Jump in a car and you can take your own little comforts everywhere.

Using our own car is, for us, an easy fix to travelling with young children.  We don’t need to worry about lugging child seats everywhere for use in taxis and we don’t need to over limit what we can bring with us and, in some circumstances, our dogs can come too, even better we can charge our electronics while we drive.  So here are our top tips for road trip travel hacks.

Cars allow all the family to come...

Tent and camping equipment

We don’t typically plan our routes in any great detail or book rooms in advance.  We like to point the car in a direction and drive, picking up a room when we get there.  This usually works well as, if you turn up to a hotel with vacancies at 9pm it is usually possible to negotiate a reduction on the standard ‘walk in ‘ rates as they want to fill the rooms.  We like to keep a tent with us though in case we can’t find a room and have to camp wild (much more comfortable than sleeping in the car) or sometimes alternating camping and hotels to save money but still have access to good, private, showers.  Babies love camping – they seem to view the tent as a giant play pen, a place where everyone is on the same level.

Babies love camping - this makes road trips easy!

Pop Up Cot

I hate travel cot/port-a-cribs they are usually anything but portable and pack down to be heavier and bulkier than my suitcase for a three week trip.  If we are away with a small baby for a day or two we let them room in our bed but any longer and it is handy to have their own sleeping space.  A pop up cot typically weighs about 2kg, packs down smaller than a dinner plate and can be used in a room, in a tent and as a shady play pen on the beach. 

Cold Water Sterilizer and bottles

Not all destinations will have access to an electric mains or microwave so a cold water sterilizer is the perfect way to make sure any bottles are safe to use.  We have a ‘lock n lock’ box that is completely water-tight, we leave it on the floor of the car to swap bottles in and out of throughout the day, it fits two so one can be in use/washed clean and the other kept sterile.  The sterilizing solution is good to use for 24 hours before it needs to be refreshed.  When our older two children were babies we had access to single cartons of pre-prepared formula milk which were sterile until opened and decanted into a bottle so we used those.  For trips in Borneo with the new baby we will take a kettle that plugs into the car to make fresh formula.

Kids can be comfortable and safe in their own car seat...

Audio Books and Music

We refuse to let the kids watch videos in the car – we have always used trips as a chance to chat and enjoy the scenery.  Sometimes a little boredom can be a good thing - it makes them come up with all sorts of games to pass the time.  An audio book is, however, a great way to help pass the time on a long motorway journeys  and can help a driver keep going through a night time journey if everyone else is asleep. Our kids love the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and all the Harry Potter books.  Now our older kids are starting to enjoy different types of songs and music we get them to help us put together a playlist before we go anywhere – then we can all wind the windows down and belt out our favourite road tunes!

Water Filter

We usually rely on bottled water when we are out and about but we carry a powerful hand held filter (it claims to make raw sewage safe) in case we run out in the middle of the night. 

Cars take you everywhere - from a Kazakh resort...

Camera

I can always snap something on my ‘phone but our outdated iPhone 4’s do not have good cameras.  I try to keep a point and click in my handbag.  Having the car means that I can drag along my heavy but good quality DSLR, I keep it in the smugglers compartment so it is out of sight and take it out as and when I need it.

...to the palace in Budapest

A good atlas/ GPS/ travel APP

We have, so far, avoided getting a GPS – we try to pick up good maps for the countries we are going to and, if we need a specific address, we use the maps function on our ‘phones to search it out.  This can sometimes go wrong.  No good atlas is going to show you where you can park your over height car in Budapest (we spent three hours driving around looking for a hotel that had above ground parking) and a European Atlas is not going to have a road plan of a third tier regional Italian city showing how to not go the wrong way down a one way system.  A few weeks ago I took some visitors to the capital of Brunei only, on getting to the outskirts, to remember the map was in the other car and we had no idea how to get from the ring road to the centre.  Things like this always work out in the end, however, and are usually something to laugh about afterwards.

Small Buggy and a carrier

We like to make the kids walk as early as possible. When they are babies it can be helpful to have a small fold buggy that fits in foot well.  We also keep a carrier (we like Baby Bjorns) in the car for trekking up mountains, through caves or into the jungle.  When the kids get a bit older we use a back pack style carrier.  This is really handy because there is space under the seat to put a cool-bag full of sandwiches.  We try to dispense with a  buggy as soon as possible – by the time our middle daughter was 18 months we spend five weeks driving round Europe without one.  We used the carrier to help her out when she got tired but she walked a lot of the time all by herself – good training for her!

A carrier helps when little feet get tired

Books/Toys

A holiday is not a holiday without some good books to read. In years gone by we would have to devote a lot of space and weight to enough books to see us through a trip but these days we have kindles and iPads.  I keep guidebooks on my kindle (and have them on the kindle app on my ‘phone to check when out and about).  There are often some good free information apps with details about destinations and some of the museums in Europe have excellent free apps with information or audio guides on the exhibits (the Museum Cluny in Paris is a good example). 

The kids are usually allowed to pack a few books, some colouring pencils and a diary (so they can keep a history of our trip).  If we have an evening in a hotel we might let them watch a video on the iPad but they are usually too tired or, now they are older, want to read up about where they are going or have been.  We talk about what we are planning to see or where we are planning to go and they are allowed (within reason) to add their requests into the mix.  A few years ago when we were in Slovenia our son asked to try horse-riding so we found a stables that would let him have a go.  When we were in Turkey our middle daughter asked to see ‘anywhere with carvings’.  This helps the kids really enjoy their holidays and feel that they are getting as much out of them as we are. 

Having a car gives you the flexibility to let everyone do what they want.

Medicines

Of course we pack prescription medicines but if we are traveling somewhere we might not be able to get child friendly medicines I will also pack some sachets of children’s paracetamol.  Forgetting this can make for some interesting and frustrating experiences.  Last year our daughter came down with tonsillitis in Bishkek and, of course, only spiked a fever late at night.  When we went to get some calpol we realised that we had forgotten to pack it.  The 24hr pharmacy had no children’s syrup available so we had to work out the correct dosage of paracetamol per kg.  After that we had to split the adult tablets, grind them on a spoon and mix them with some juice.  Luckily we were able to buy some kids syrup the next day. 

Plug in Cool Box/ Picnic Basket

Each morning we will stop off at a convenience store and buy some bread rolls, cheese, ham etc and make up sandwiches for lunch, that way we don’t have to worry about tracking down somewhere to eat.  We have a cool box that plugs into the car – this means that we can keep drinks and snacks like chocolate and fruit nice and cold for when we get back to the car after exploring something interesting.  Post six months the babies have always just chewed on some of the bread or eaten a piece of soft-fruit or vegetable so we don’t need to worry about heavy jars of processed baby food, I usually wash the fruit then stick it in the sterilizing solution for a few minutes so we know it is safe to eat.

Picnics are a perfect time to stretch legs...

Numbers for Emergency Services

While most countries in Europe/Eurasia will allow the emergency services to be accessed by 112 it does not work everywhere and some countries have different numbers for different services such as ambulance, fire, police etc.   It is worth knowing the numbers for each country you are going to be in.  10 Years ago we were driving in Sweden when we witnessed a particularly nasty RTA between a car and an ambulance.  Being first on the scene meant that we had not only to give assistance to the victims but also alert the emergency services. 

Roll on the Borneo Road Trips...

We have a holiday for Chinese New Year next week so we might drive somewhere to get away from Miri for a few days.  We probably won’t take the tent but will have just about everything else with us.

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