The Bucholz Blog: Hello again - the halfway point

Perfect late-night street food: pick a skewer and fry it up. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (near our apartment).

The endearing and ridiculous tuk-tuks of Malacca, Malaysia

We've reached and passed the halfway point in our Malaysian adventure. Given the relatively transient expat community here, we feel like veterans in a lot of ways. We've established some great friendships, have our favorite drinking, dining and hiking spots and have covered a serious amount of ground in our travels.

In a year, our little family has now ventured extensively around Malaysia and visited Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong and the latest, India. Tack on Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and South Korea for my work travels and I'm feeling like we've really made the most of year one.

We've visited the doctor dozens of times due to a lot of ear and sinus issues for us all. I think it's a result of both lots of pool time as well as polluted air.

Lev skipped the training wheels and is now racing around our parking garage on a second-hand bike. He's also reading like a champ and copping attitudes like a teenager. What a kid!

India has been on our list for a long time and we just took the Chinese New Year break to check out Kerala, in the far southwest tip of the country. It was a 3.5 hour direct flight from Kuala Lumpur.

As our taxi made its way through car, rickshaw and motorcycle-stuffed streets, we stared wide eyed at the friendly chaos around us. The majority of men and women dress traditionally, giving everything an exotic air. People are very friendly, frequently stopping to ask where we're from and to toussle Lev's curly blond hair.

The grounds of our super posh resort in
Kumarakan, India

In the rickshaw...stoked for adventure

We spent two days in Cochin, the largest regional city, and then moved from city to nature as we made our way to the beautiful lake Vembanad and backwaters of Allepey. Birds soared and fisherman used centuries-old means to fish with nets hand tossed on the water. The tranquility was immediately felt and the noise and fumes of the city quickly faded from our senses.

Lev works on the carpet sellers to get a deal

We spent a night on a traditional houseboat, complete with chef and cabin, gliding past remote fishing and rice farming villages. I decided to try an Ayurvedic massage in one touristy village and Anya and I are still laughing (mostly Anya) about my experience. Men only massage men in India and let's just say they don't bother with the modest cloth to cover your bits n' pieces. Finish the massage with a soapy rub down in the shower and I leave feeling like maybe I should have taken him to dinner or at least given my number. Maybe my puritanical roots run too deep.

The final three days were spent lakeside at a resort as close to paradise as any I've experienced. The Kumarakan Lake Resort is set on several acres of painstakingly manicured tropical grounds, with canals and bridges throughout. I feel like the staff to guest ratio wasn't much more than 1:3 and we were very well looked after.

Glamour girl in India

The view from where we docked the houseboat for the night

Traditional houseboat (just like ours)

A canal boat to get to our second hotel...confirmed snakes in the water!

We were fortunate to meet an expat American family (living in Qatar) on our first day and ended up hanging out with them the rest of our trip. They have two girls about Lev's age and parents and kids alike hit it off. We whiled away the rest of the trip with fishing, yoga, afternoon tea and a good measure of Kingfisher beer. Not a bad way to spend the week.