Last August, we escaped the intense summer heat by heading to the breathtakingly beautiful Malaysia.  A trip that would have been incredibly expensive and long from our native Canada was now totally accessible from our new country of residence with a direct 7 hour Emirates flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL).  Our entire family fell in love with Malaysia, the food, the people, the ambiance… the adverts were right, Malaysia is “truly Asia”!

KUALA LUMPUR
Once in Kuala Lumpur,we enjoyed touring the city with our two young children  by traveling with the Hop -On Hop-Off  Bus.  We figured this was the best way to see  the sites in the city with the kids.  They were excited to be on a double-decker bus and we didn’t have to drag whining kids around from site to site!  We spent the entire day “hopping off” at the sites we found to be child-friendly.

To do with the kids in KL:

• Go up the Menara KL Tower for great views of the city.
• Visit the little bird & reptile zoo found at the entrance of the tower (included in the price),  our kids loved touching the reptiles!
• For more animal fun, visit the Bird Park where your kids are surely to be in awe of all the birds flying around what is one of the largest free-flight walk-in bird parks of the world.
• Visit the Central Market, some nice antiques, paintings, crafts for the adults.  Children and parents can all enjoy the Cute Fish Spa for a mere 5 RM!  Kids can create their own batik painting in one of the shops! – – – >
• Visit the numerous temples.  Our kids especially liked the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple for it was filled with beautiful colours!
• Go to Petaling Street in Chinatown and let the kids bargain for some souvenirs (my boy scored some binoculars which he used on the remainder of his trip!).  Make sure to sample some of the local food, there is plenty of delicious street grub to be had.
• Climb the 272 steps to the Batu Caves and see the wild monkeys who inhabit them!  Kids will definitely be impressed with the 43 meter tall statue of Lord Murugan at the base of the steps.

There are some great family friendly daytrips to enjoy outside of KL:

• Go ride, feed and bathe with the elephants at the Pahang Elephant Sanctuary
• Enjoy an evening of watching millions of fireflies light up the sky along the Firefly Park Resort
• Visit the National Zoo – Zoo Negara, just 13 km out of the city.

MELAKA
Once we had our fill of KL, we hopped in a taxi and headed south to charming Melaka.  Taxi fare was approximately 140RM ( 46 USD/28 GBP) for the hour and half journey. All sites in Melaka were within walking distance and taxis were widely available.  The children were very excited to see the rickshaws and absolutely had to ride one, therefore we enjoyed our first tour of Melaka on two hired rickshaws.

To do with kids in Melaka:

• Ride a rickshaw through the UNESCO heritage sites.
• Take the Melaka River Cruise
• Go for a buggy ride through the Taman Botanical Gardens (think battery powered chairs the elderly use) slow and safe for a kid to drive.  For young children, take a double and sit in the back seat while your little one takes control of the wheel!  They’ll love you for it.  Make a pit-stop so the kids can visit the cool dinosaur statues in the garden’s forest.  30mins buggy ride is 10RM for a single seater and 18RM for a double.   The rental station is right beside Botanical Cafe.
• Go cool off at the Wonderland Waterpark.
• Visit the crocs at the Ayer Keroh Crocodile Farm
• Visit Jonker street at night during the weekdend when the street comes alive!

Daytrips outside of Melaka:

• Spend a day at the A Famosa Animal World.  Enjoy a bird show, zoo safari, cowboy & Indians show, hand-feeding monkeys on Monkey Island, Elephant circus show where you child might be the lucky one chosen to be picked up by an Elephant!
• A Famosa Resort also has a Waterpark, Golf Course, and Cowboy Town theme park, so might be worth spending the weekend!

For great advice on traveling with children visit babygoes2.com.  The website offers advice on all you could possibly need to know about traveling with little ones!

Also worth visiting is My Little Nomads, a Lonely Planet featured blogger who writes all about travelling with children; filled with fantastic reviews and tips!