Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by Train
Different things inspire different people to go on different holidays. In our case, it was a backpack, a refund, and some hoarded money.
The refund was our flip-key deposit from our trip to Tokyo. The hoarded money was an envelope of leftover Malaysian Ringgit I discovered as I tucked our passports away. And the backpack was the over-featured monstrosity P insisted on getting to replace the broken-down airline freebie he’d been using for kindergarten.
I didn’t want to wait until the idea stopped making sense in my head, so a few weeks ago I had a quick flick through the relevant section of Seat 61, logged on to the KMTB website, and booked the first two sleeper births available on a Friday night out of Woodlands.
Then I hit AirBnB, found an apartment near Sentral Station in KL with a nicely flexible check-in policy (thanks, Victor!), pinned some KL-with-kids tips, and bada-bing, bada-boom, proceeded to the bit where the five-year-old asks over and over again if it’s time to leave yet for days and days and days, culminating in half-hourly calls at work telling me how he’s been sitting by the front door with his shoes on for aaaaages and when am I going to be home?
Here’s how we fared.
Who Went? Mum and one 5yo.
Review: Budget-friendly weekend hop to a place which presented little culture-shock to anyone living in Singapore. One-on-one time allowed us to make full use of opportunities for discussion, learning, and deep indoctrination, and to tailor the itinerary more narrowly for our interests.
Highlights: Petrosains, Petronas Twin Towers, Batu Caves including the Dark Cave educational tour, Central Market, roti and naan, riding the LRT and Kommuter trains and sleeping on the intercity.
Challenges: The overnight train trip between Singapore and KL is about eight hours’ long – not a full night’s sleep for a five-year-old, even if they do clock out almost immediately and sleep soundly all night (which is unlikely). This wasn’t too bad on the outward leg, where the distraction of the new and shiny kept him wide awake, but the re-entry to Singapore was less pleasant.
Based on our two overnight train journeys from Singapore to Malaysia so far (the other is detailed here), the trains appear to be delayed by at least an hour approximately fifty percent of the time. On these occasions, they will probably fail to communicate meaningfully with waiting passengers. I’m also not clear on how they decide whether you’ll complete Malaysian immigration at the checkpoint at Woodlands or haul yourself and your luggage off at Johor Bahru instead. Luckily we’d packed light, P amused himself admirably during the boring bits, and the one guy who did start getting antsy was quickly hauled off by police without any real drama.
Jennifer (And Three To Go) passed on a warning she’d received that the monkeys at the Batu Caves can be aggressive. We made sure to pack all food securely in the ridiculous backpack and weren’t hassled at all. The monkeys were definitely close by, but did not seem inclined to approach – I wouldn’t wave any food around, though.
Price Bracket: Budget! Our transport and accommodation came to SGD$150 for two. Food and sightseeing was covered by our stash of hoarded money.
Three More Photos:
Itinerary:
Day One:
- Normal work/school day
- Taxi to Woodlands Checkpoint in the evening, clear immigration and customs, board train at 23:30
- Overnight on train to KL
Day Two:
- Arrive KL 7:30am, breakfast at train station
- LRT to apartment, check in
- Tea and roti
- LRT to KLCC, view Petronas Twin Towers from ground and mall, lunch
- Petrosains, about which we’ve already spoken
- LRT back to apartment and roti shop for dinner, and bed
- Overnight in KL
Day Three:
- LRT to Sentral station and Kommuter train to Batu Caves
- Climb to Temple Caves, muse over meditative and community-building features of extremely steep, narrow steps, even though these were almost certainly a side-effect of the more practical issues involved with putting a path up a steep mountain on a budget
- Educational tour of Dark Cave in order to offset the eco-travesty of yesterday afternoon’s excursion to Petrosains
- Kommuter train to Sentral station for a late lunch, and LRT back to the apartment for packing, swimming, and playing in the kid’s playground
- LRT to Pasar Seni station, roti dinner and unexpected fireworks display plus dance performance, wander through the very touristy Central Market
- LRT to Sentral Station, bum around in waiting area trying to explain why “fifteen minutes” doesn’t actually mean fifteen minutes and “technical issues” could mean anything at all, making friends with people who had children and/or mangoes.
- Board train around 23:30
- Overnight on train to Singapore
Day Four:
- Arrive JB around 7am, disembark for immigration and customs
- Arrive Singapore around 8am
- Taxi home
Malaysian Overnight Trains With Kids Travel Tips:
Pack light, but BYO toilet paper, snacks, and delay-related entertainment options. It’s pretty common to find children on board. Sheets and pillows are provided, and kids under four can share with an adult at no charge. I advise booking at least a month in advance if you have younger children who’ll need a lower birth as these book out fastest.
If leaving from Woodlands Checkpoint, give yourself at least an extra half an hour on top of what you think you’ll need in case there’s a traffic jam near the causeway – especially at peek hour. Immigration and customs opens about half an hour before departure. Boarding at KL is straightforward.
KL With Kids Travel Tips:
The Dark Cave educational tour is excellent for kids of, say, five and above. It takes about 50 minutes, is (brace yourself) dark at points, and includes live bats, spiders, millipedes and possibly snakes. None dangerous. Kids will find the jokes about rare trapdoor spiders using mayonnaise hilarious. The ones who aren’t scared of bats, dark, or snakes, that is.
Don’t follow your child too closely through the LRT turnstiles with those single-journey tokens. You’ll end up with an invalid token every. single. time. Instead, go through adjacent turnstiles in parallel.
Eat the roti.
Have a great weekend and/or Happy Easter!
The post Singapore to KL By Train appeared first at Journeys of the Fabulist and is sponsorship-free, as usual.
There is nothing more pleasant than finding hoarded money!! I’m a Malaysian and my last train right into Singapore was a disaster… I had the sleeper cabin right next to the entry/exit door which was also where the toilet was…. So you imagine my agony!!
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It’s not the best spot on the train. Usually it’s the last to be booked out, too, I’ve noticed!
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this post caught my eye as I was thinking of a train ride to KL from SIN too! Had never done so with young kids before. A little nervous about it. You made it sound easy though! 🙂
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I took the older one. The younger one needs a longer night’s sleep than that! (It’s only 8hrs.)
We’ve taken both of them by bus during the day as well. The bus was faster and there was an on-board entertainment system in the seat back. I’m about to write about that trip (not sure how much more there is to say about the bus leg, mind you).
Would love to hear your experiences if you make it!
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I prefer trains to buses – at least they can “walk” up and down the train vs a bus? 😀 Hope to share if we made that trip eventually! 🙂
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Yes, me too! We mainly picked the bus this time because the train was booked out, but actually in the end I was quite pleased with it. Not sure what I’d pick in future.
Walking up and down the train is definitely a big plus (although the youngest walked up and down the stairs of the bus to the on-board toilet quite a few times….)
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hey there! i’m loving your recent posts!
I also blogged about my recent tour in Malaysia for one day! we also went to batu caves, what do you think of Batu caves? Did you enjoy the trip?
here’s what my recent post is all about…
would be so nice to hear from you! 🙂
cheers! xx
deanna ( http://www.talkaboutbeauty.wordpress.com )
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Once made the trip when I was wandering around Asia and the South Pacific. Really enjoyed it and then headed up to the Cameron Highlands for hiking some of the back country. There were lots of beautiful butterflies. It was in 1967, however. Suspect a few things have changed. LOL –Curt
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I was floored by how much KL has changed just in the last 8-9 years. So yes, maybe a couple of differences since the 60’s.
You must be due another trip?
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That’s for sure. –Curt
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Reblogged this on Justjoe and commented:
It’s so cool that I can connect with people having amazing experiences.
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Mind if I reblog this?
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Not at all – I’d appreciate it 🙂 .
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I love this! Dare I bring the boys there?
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I think many kids would be into it. It just seems like a very magical thing – sleeping on a train and waking up somewhere else in the morning.
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What a brilliant adventure. I would do it for the rotis alone! 😀 We did an overnight train in Thailand many years ago, and it was just amazing! We must do something like that again soon! 🙂
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Yes, put it on your to-do list. If you liked the journey through Thailand, you’ll probably appreciate this as well – it’s a very similar train system.
And the rotis alone are definitely justification 🙂 .
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OK, it’s better than I though. If you can take the little one I can take my parents on the same route in November. They are almost as well behaved.
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Haha!
Yes, my Aunt and her friends took the train down from Bangkok a couple of years ago. That was a long haul to do all at once and I’m not sure everyone would find it comfortable, but if your parents are ok with living outside the four-to-five star travel bracket they should get on ok. There were just as many from the 50-70 age bracket as there were kids on the train.
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I’ll have to keep this in mind. I’ve been to BJ, but haven’t ventured to Kuala Lumpur yet. The train sounds like a great option.
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I definitely love the train. Maybe next time you’re in the region? You’ve been backwards and forwards a few times, so hopefully it won’t be too long?
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Awww. Made me home sick for Malaysia. We lived in KL for 9 years. Batu Caves and the tour? Were the cock roaches still there? Ha! Ha! Used to rock climb on the back side of the caves. (It’s shaped like a cake.) And the towers. The book store there. Never did take the train, though. Good for you.
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I assume the cockroaches are still there (although, strangely, not a creature we saw).
Although I’m sure, having become so familiar, you’d notice a lot of changes if you went back. There seems to be a fair bit of development going on all the time.
The climbers are still around near the caves.
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Bronwyn, we made this run on one of our RTWs, and I remember it was very pleasant. FYI, I just finished a book about global emerging diseases, and you might want to rethink your idea about monkeys and bats being harmless. ~James
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Oh, I don’t think they’re harmless! I sometimes do volunteer work for rabies control and eradication (I’m a vet) so no, far from it. I just meant these particular ones didn’t bother us on our trip.
We’ve been to McRitchie Reservoir in Singapore and had a monkey run up and take a bite out of our backpack so these guys were very well-behaved by comparison, and the bats were heard but not seen – you still had to take usual hygiene precautions, of course.
On the other hand, these bats eat up to six hundred insects per hour per night, helping to keep disease-carrying mosquitoes at bay, so it’s a delicate balance.
Can you tell me the name of the book? I might want to look it up at the library.
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I was once (or twice) traveled between KL and Singapore via train when I was young kid… The wait and the journey were insanely long, imo and hence I have never thought of taking a KTMB train ride again.
But after reading your sharing, I think I should. btw, I’m from KL, live in Sg now;).
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The journey by day would be pretty punishing for a kid, but overnight you can sleep it off, so for us it’s better than all that hurry-up-and-wait you have when flying the same route.
There was a bit of a wait when we got delayed, but luckily there were enough other kids booked on the same train and they all kept each other entertained, so it was nice. From this and our previous trip, it seems pretty common to find playmates on board.
Did we miss anything obvious about KL? Give us the inside story for next time!
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You are so adventurous to travel with your 5yo! I wonder if I’ll do that and even if I am adventurous, I will not choose our neighbour country. We have enough stories on the bad security there including recent news too. I have never taken the KL train ride. Now you are a brave one. I have no doubt that the rotis are good, better than Singapore’s?
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Hm, that’s a tough call. Maybe I need to hone my palate to Singaporean standards before I answer that question! (I admit I haven’t tasted much of my food since my kids were born.)
We also picked places based on convenience rather than by strict recommendation on the roti front, so I can’t give a comprehensive recommendation anyway. I’d say they were pretty competitive 🙂 .
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Haha! I know what you mean, I don’t really taste much either after the kids arrived. If you do go to good recommendations, those will be the places that are really inaccessible and hard to find. Most roti should be good in Malaysia.
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Yes, the secret inaccessible places are often quite good. (I guess they have to be to survive.)
Oh, now there’s a thought – if you know of any secret inaccessible but very recommendable places in Singapore, let me know. If you know of enough to do a post, even better! I know one. (That can be my contribution 🙂 ).
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You blow my mind. I still can’t believe you are able to travel like this with your kids– I don’t want to insult any Moms out there but it seems like it’s hard enough to just take a trip to the gas station with children. You ride trains in Asia, which was difficult enough for me to survive at 24. * Mind Blown *
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You may be giving me too much credit. We nearly didn’t all make it back from the shop today. Travelling by train through Asia is easier in some ways (like, for example, they don’t have the self-confidence to run off every five minutes in a foreign country and they are too busy looking out for snakes to bother their little sister til she screams).
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Sounds like a fun trip! How were the rotis?? 🙂 Happy Easter! 🙂
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Thanks!
The rotis were very good. Which was just as well since we basically lived on them all weekend (at one point I ordered murtabak, but apparently that’s too much of a stretch, even though I tried to sell it as basically “filled roti”).
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Haha…”filled roti”! 🙂
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Hiya! I just nominated you for the Sisterhood of the World blog award. Congrats 🙂 http://spacemonkeytwins.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/thank-you-for-reading-have-an-award/
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Thanks! Very glad to be thought of 🙂 .
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I love KL and Singapore! The first time I visited I took the overnight train with a friend from KL to Singapore and we did have to get off at Jahar Bahru for immigration at like six AM. And the roti is wonderful!
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I’m sure the previous trip (to Tumpat) we went through Malaysian immigration at Woodlands (maybe I’m remembering it wrong?). I just felt sorry for these passengers near us who had a ton of luggage and they had to haul it upstairs, through the queues and back down again.
Good to hear from another train-taking person!
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We just had backpacks – so the luggage wasn’t a big deal 🙂 we had actually left our larger suitcases (as we were in Malaysia for a month) back in KL at the left luggage in KL airport. So that was nice to not have to deal with! Threw what we would need for a weekend in Singapore in the back packs and off we went.
I love train travel. It’s so relaxing and smooth!
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Excellent plan. You can leave luggage at KL for multiple days in a row, then? That’s handy to know…
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Yes – I would imagine its still there – there was a place in the KL airport to lock up your luggage for about a week. Those are actually really common in Asia – I’ve used the one in Singapore a bunch of times during a short stopover. Just follow the signs that say “left luggage.” Beijing also has one in Terminal 3, Tokyo Narita has lockers and I believe Bangkok has one as well. Those are the ones that I have used. I would guess other places have them as well. It’s great to not have lug all your luggage around if you are on a long trip and just want to take enough for a week.
I have also posted some of my gear home a couple times – for example, after I was done hiking in Chiang Mai and no longer needed my boots as we were going to Phuket, I just mailed my hiking gear home to save weight.
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Yes, we’ve mailed gear home as well. And we’ve used short-term storage (as in, for the day) but haven’t left the luggage longer than that. We should probably do that more often.
Actually, one thing we thought at the end of our trip to Japan was that we should have used the luggage forwarding services they have at the airport. They store the luggage and drop it off at your destination on the appointed day.
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Very impressed you both managed the caves..my two would’ve run a mile!! Wishing you and yours a very happy Easter! xxx
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Happy Easter to you as well! Hope you and your family have a great weekend.
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How fun! I just got back from a little trip with my oldest (6) to the flower fields and Amsterdam. We also went on the overnight train, but back to back (up one night, home the next). He did very well, and is taking a rare nap today to make up for the shorter sleep time. Unfortunately, we weren’t freaked out by any snakes, spiders, or bats. I did take a wrong turn and ended up in the red light district – oops – and the conversations in the souvenir shop were.. interesting. Good tips on the overnight train to KL as we may do this when we visit Malaysia, but we’ll be going to Penang which would require two overnight trains. What do you think – better to fly or do two overnights with a few days in KL?
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I have a dream trip which involves overnight trains all the way up to Chiang Mai, so you know what my answer’s going to be. 🙂
That said, the trip I’m currently researching skips that with an initial flight to Southern Thailand for practical purposes, so I guess it depends what you want to prioritise (in our case, not the Malaysian leg of the trip, obviously).
They’re all great places to go, though – you’ve just heard my report on KL, we went for a two-day weekend to Georgetown when P was a baby (I have a short rundown here:
https://journeysofthefabulist.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/penang/) and there’s more to see there as well, as I’m sure an organised soul like you already knows.
What would you do if you flew straight to Penang? What would you see that you wouldn’t see if you spent that time in KL? (Are you concerned about your carbon footprint 😉 ?)
The red light district sounds quite educational for a six year old… but Amsterdam generally must have had some great stops for a mother-son trip. Are you going to get time to write it up?
I should start collecting posts on overnight train journeys with kids, just for inspiration (but maybe not on red light districts, although I suppose we’ll be talking through all that sort of thing before too long so maybe I should).
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You managed to do so much! Sounds like a great trip, that reminds me it sure would be time for some one-on-one time again!
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I’m surprised at the comments we did a lot! It didn’t feel like it at the time. KL is very easy to get around, so those LRT trips are a hop and a skip – makes a big difference.
Yes, one on one time is good but easily forgotten in the daily rush.
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This does not only sound good, it makes me want to travel with you – you sound knowledgeable, organized, and fun. What a combination!
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I’m not sure you’d get the same impression if you were actually travelling with me.
Although my father always gave off the impression that he knew what he was doing, even when he was completely lost. (I guess technically he still knew what he was doing – driving about completely lost.)
Even today I mistrust competent-looking people.
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Bronwyn I think it is awesome that you had this one on one time with your son. Back in the day my J would have loved such an excursion although again in Canada one can’t hop a train and be somewhere with monkeys, bats and snakes in the morning…well other than the zoo. Great post.
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Bears and moose, yes, but monkeys not so much?
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Only when riding the bears and that is only when the circus come to town. 🙂 the thing about bears and moose is that it tends not to be a very kid friendly outing if you run into them.
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I guess not…
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That sounds like a great trip. I’m glad I’m able to live vicariously through you from my spot in suburbia.
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Living vicariously through others is one of my favourite pastimes. 🙂
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Sound like a fun trip 🙂
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It was a great little trip. Just the right size for a weekend.
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Sounds like a fab trip – you packed so much in, very impressive! Never been on an overnight train before – would love to now, sounds like a great adventure.
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Oh, you should definitely go! Your son would love it, I’m sure. I think parents of young kids especially appreciate it because the kids often sleep better with all that rocking back and forth, and consequently, so do their parents.
Adults who usually have a full night’s sleep might wake up more tired than usual in the morning (also from all the rocking back and forth), but you can’t please everyone and at least it’s more interesting than a hotel room. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks so.)
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Your so good at the one on one trips…we never do them, I’m not sure why not? We are taking the boys on an overnight train to Vienna on Tuesday night so I am now wondering how it will go!?
Looks like a great trip was had and very budget which is perfect, I do love the food in KL
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I have it on local authority that the nasi lemak is the best.
(I want to hear all about your overnight train trip to Vienna – good, bad, whatever.)
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Ok!
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How fun to get a mother-son trip! And he is at the perfect age for all you did! Thanks for mentioning my post about skipping the Batu caves, I think z would have been too young after reading about your time. I’m glad the monkeys were nice!
Great tips all around! 🙂
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She might have been ok with the Temple Caves (they’re temples – not sure what she thinks of those? but at least it’s not dark and full of wildlife), and I did see a boy her age on one of the other Dark Cave tours, but I don’t think he was getting much out of it.
You’re in the region, so you probably would be better off braving the monkeys when she’s a touch older. There were definitely plenty there so I was glad you’d pre-warned us so we could make sure to pack all our food safely away.
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Sounds like a fabulous trip!! How did you go travelling with one kid? I am hoping to go away later this year with just my daughter (to Singapore actually!) who will be 4 by then but worried that it will totally drive me crazy to be 1:1 for 5-7 days!!
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I find P behaves better one on one, plus he can read 🙂 so it was probably more relaxing than a normal weekend at home.
I think it hinges on personalities and parent-child dynamics, though. Does your daughter prefer extended one on one time or sibling play? Does it often get too crazy for you with both/the whole group, or does it get maddeningly boring/too much pressure on you to be everything unless they’re all around?
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Good questions! She loves to do everything with her brother which is what worries me most as there is no way I am ready to take them both overseas by myself and the logistics that would entail (he just turned 2) and hubby can’t take time off. She is well stimulated when we travel though so that can make things easier. I struggle without me time, but I struggle without lots of trips to look forward to as well! Hmmm it is probably worth the risk. what’s the worst thing that can happen?!
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You’ll probably survive 5-7 days 🙂 . You might have to work extra hard to wear her out for an early bed time so you can get a rest, but you’re right that the stimulation of travel can make up for not having a sibling around to play with.
Besides, the kids at the parks here are pretty friendly and usually encouraged to play with whoever’s there. Even the adults interact with others’ kids more often than is usual in Australia so that takes the pressure off a bit, too.
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Oh! And I was also able to make him carry his own backpack! That made a difference, too.
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The Dark Cave sounds terrifying. To my mind, bats are essentially flying rodents and therefore completely unbearable. You’re a braver woman than I.
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Not terrifying at all. We could hear bats and we saw a couple in the distance, that was it. They only eat insects. Of course, I can’t account for phobias 🙂 .
P really loved it and wants to go on the longer Adventure Tour, but you need to pre-arrange that and I think it’d be more suitable for an older kid.
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