Sunway Lagoon Resort

May 1st is a holiday here, another in a long list of holidays that mean nothing to us but afford Erik a day off of work. Our friends, the Wilsons, invited us to join them at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the long weekend so we all piled into our cars and set off.

When leaving Singapore for Malaysia, you are required to have 3/4 tank gas. This is so that people won't drive to Malaysia on a daily basis to take advantage of really cheap gas. We had just under a half tank, so we thought if we put 10 liters in we'd be ok (we though it was 2/3 tank required). As we approached the border, we started seeing every 15 meters or so signs asking drivers to top up to 3/4 tanks. After about 5 of these signs, another sign announced that it would be a $500 fine if you don't comply. Of course there are no gas stations in sight, and let's be honest - those 10 liters just pushed us a fraction past 1/2 tank. I started to get quite nervous, but Erik, whose Indian name is Calm Waters, kept saying, "We'll be fine. They won't check it" even though they did the last time.

Sure enough, they didn't check it. Whew! So we were off. We did a driver and kid swap halfway through so Wendy and I could talk and keep the younger two kids. Since we all neglected to bring directions, we were at the mercy of signs for the resort (fortunately a well known one) but there were never warning signs, just signs we'd see 50 meters out and go, "Quick! Cross those 3 lanes and take the exit!" It took about 5 hours, but we made it!

We spent the rest of Saturday exploring the huge complex (several buildings of the same hotel connected to a waterpark and a mall). Sunday morning we hit the waterpark right when it opened at 10. Even though it was open until 6, we only made it til about 3 before we were all too waterlogged and sun weary. It also had become incredibly crowded!

Monday morning we went to the "dry park" within the water park where we discovered immediately that sunscreen and humidity are literally oil and water. I've never seen 9 people that wet from just walking around. Hitting the flume helped though! We only lasted until about 12:30, when we decided to get changed, eat lunch, and get a head start on the traffic out of Malaysia. We anticipated huge crowds at the checkpoints back to Singapore, but it was the traffic going to Johor Bahru that was worse. Once we passed that, there was no wait at the checkpoint at all. We almost got stuck without any ringget (Malay money) to pay the tolls, but some nice Singaporeans at a rest stop did a money exchange for us. Altogether it took closer to 6 hours to get home, but it was all well worth it.