Tuesday June 15

We arrived at Baan Talay Home Stay in Tanjong Tokong at about 6pm. I was still pretty much a zombie, so I blankly stared at KD as he talked to me about our room. By this time I had lost my voice, and couldn’t speak above a very painful whisper. Somehow I managed to communicate who we were and get to our room. Timothy and I went straight to bed, and I think that Sean and Samantha went for a swim at the beach. Or maybe they just hung out with KD and his family.

I have to tell you about this awesome little Home Away from Home. We needed a cheap place to stay, so a fancy hotel was out o the question. I looked up hostelworld.com, and they gave me about 12 choices, all but two were in Georgetown. One I had already stayed at a few years ago. The rest looked like the typical youthful backpacker party hangouts. There were several things that caught my attention about Baan Talay. It was next Tanjong Bungha beach. It had a yard. It was a Home Stay. And, it said kids were welcome. The name of the place also obviously caught by attention subconsciously – it’s Thai. Loosely translated it means Seaside Home or Home by the Sea. KD’s wife is Thai, so that’s where the connection is. All the staff took really good care of us. Our room was a little small for the four of us, so they let us move to a larger room. They helped us with the kids. Samantha fell in love with the little kitty there, and both kids charmed all the staff and residents, too.

After I finished my nap, we walked about 200 meters down the road to the hawker stalls. We ate pizza and sushi. I really wasn’t up to making exotic food choices, so I just sat with the kids while Sean took care of us. Trying to communicate with my kids and hubby above the din of the hawker stalls was really hard. A couple of times Samantha was very cute, and replied to me in whispers, thinking it was a game. But after a while, she realized that it was just easier to pretend she couldn’t hear me at all and go on her merry way.

On the way back, we walked down the beach again, enjoying the warm tropical waters and the cool sand. It was tempting to take a night swim, but the practical parent in me had a conversation with Mrs Killjoy, and we decided that it was best to spoil the fun and drag the hubby and kids back home to bed.