A week in a lighthouse in Lista

It was a week of walking, birdwatching and exploring new places we haven't been to further south than Mandal. We booked a week's stay in a coastal lighthouse in Lista, famous for it's bird ringing station. It's also only a short drive away to Hellvik and Farsund.

A long weekend in Mandal

This was our third roadtrip since arriving in Norway, Sirdal/Hovden and Helgoysund/Rylfylke being the first and second long jaunt on the road. This trip took place during the second half of the kids' winterferie or winter break. They had a week off school, we decided to make a short trip away from home to spend a few days south of Stavanger.

Our original destination was Kristiansand, supposedly 3.5hrs by road on the E39 (main highway connecting the two cities) but we decided to take the North Sea route along the coast instead which took longer than planned. After Eigersund, we decided to continue on Route 44 through some fjords and hilly terrain which lengthen the journey by another couple of hours. |

The scenic roadside view was worth the hours though. By the time we reached our base at Sjosanden Ferriecenter, Mandal around 1500hrs, we were still another 50km to Kristiansand. One good thing about being at a feriecenter during low season (beach and coastal areas normally have their low season outside of summer; hill countries the opposite) is that there's nobody else around. Though you are left with bare necessities ie. restaurants are closed, skeleton crew on the grounds, extra quiet environment; we practically had the place to ourselves. This of course was perfect for us.

The children enjoyed running around playing snowfights and making snow angels. Though they'd also have the same fun high up in the mountains of Sirdal but it'd be more crowded with almost everyone in Norway skiing at this time of year in Sirdal.

We had a small hill nearby for us to trek up and down during our stay and enough snow to throw around. The children loved the place so much that they made us promised to stay there again on our next long break. They of course say this everytime we stayed at cabin ... perhaps it's just the holiday that they like rather than the place itself.

They did enjoy the snow here more than they did the September rain in Helgoysund or the similar wet days up in Sirdal back in July. Next long break is Easter in March and later summer holidays when school will be closed for the duration of the summer.

We've booked ourselves a week's stay at a lighthouse in Lista for Easter, a week in a small village Oldervik near Tromso in May and still hunting around for the perfect summer hide away ... possibly someplace in the woods by the water.

Short break back in Malaysia

We left for Kuala Lumpur via KLM 19th December 2012 and return to Stavanger 08th January 2013. We spent 18 short days in Malaysia.

 By the time we left for Norway we had :
a) spent a few days at Grandma's place in PJ
b) procured Ali's Malaysian identity card at Putrajaya ... this completed within 48 hrs or arrival
c) spent a weekend in Kuala Terenganu to enjoy our favorite dish nasi dagang and keropok lekor
d) spent a few days at fixing up Tok Wan's place and unpacked most of the items shipped from Miri back in May.
e) visited Ayah Long at his house in Bukit Beruntong finally.

It's always nice to go spend time at home with family ...

Kids' Cycling Weekend

A weekend free of activities is not easy to come by, it was with great delight and relish that the family finally afforded two days of activity free weekend after a September chock full of stuff.

On Saturday, free of tuition, replacement classes and dentail appointments and other even lesser chores we packed up the two bikes and drove off. Destination : Bulatan Park. This was the first time ever the kids got to road test their bikes outside the confines of our home since we bought the bikes in June. All this while all they had been doing was to practice their bike maneuvers around the house. They went about the Shell Traffic Games lanes over and over and over again as if to finally release all the cycling angst they've held within all this months.

On Sunday, we decided it's time for more open road cycling. With the two bikes packed up, we headed to the old Kuala Baran Ferry road, on the other side of Batang Baram. Both Ali and Aisya had a field day cycling on the open road, almost traffic free. The overcast skies helped shield them from the sun ... the breeze from the coast and open areas add a tad of a challenge. With an hour break at the old jetty, they both cycled a total of 8kms roundtrip. Aisya wanted more but reluctantly gave in when Ali decided that he'd had enough paddling for the week.

To top off an already perfect weekend, at least from the kids' point of view, we lunched at Mac D in PermyJaya ... between the two of them they gobbled 5xDouble-cheeseburgers!!! Rather unsure whether that's something I should be proud of.

Aisya braked too hard on the way back and tipped over.

Aisya had more than enough practice at home, as cool as a cucumber on two wheels.

Ali meanwhile with less practice was still nervous and trying his best to cycle a straight line.

Both the kids finally getting the hang of their wheels and actually relaxing and putting out a smile.

Growing up in a kampung setting, I counted myself lucky when Mom finally relented to my requests for a bike when I was 12 ... after I delivered the grades. With a bunch of friends our days were more free then, we cycled all over roaming the countryside leaving the house as early as 5am and returning as late as dinnertime. Sometimes just roaming around, sometimes trying out far-away fishing holes. Those were exciting and more innocent times : we didn't have parents chauffering us around then watching our backs 24/7.

Kudat for Raya Hols

"Selamat Hari Raya 2011" from our Kudat Marina Resort room.

Someone's not happy about something picture from The Tip of Borneo.

Playing gong at the Rungus longhouse.

Checking out the honeybees.

The obligatory tourist pic at the honeybees kampung!

Another fine day at the beach

Making sand-sculptures and generally splish-splashing around on the beach ... a fine day indeed!

Baraya Laut weekends

What could be better that a warm sunny day at the beach ... a beautiful beach at that?