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We’re Going to Malaysia!

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we're going to malaysia family travel blog adventure travel with children

Air Asia had a fantastic flight sale on, we are going to Malaysia from The Gold Coast for just under $800 for all 4 of us. The flight sale was about to end, so we clicked the “buy” button. At that price we really couldn’t turn it down. We leave to travel the world in just over four months, earlier than planned, but still plenty of time to finish organising everything at this end.

Why did we pick Malaysia to start our family travel adventure?

 Price And Convenience. Our nearest airport is Cairns, very few direct flights leave Cairns, we’ve often found ourselves flying via Brisbane or Darwin, sometimes even Sydney. We enjoy flying, but hours in the air aren’t good for anyone, so a direct flight, at a good price, from an airport that isn’t ridiculously far away ( by Australian standards), is a winner. It will take just over 24hrs non stop driving to get to The Gold Coast airport, we’ve done it before, it’s not so bad. We’ll have sold our lovely four wheel drive truck by then, but we’ll work something out, I like the idea of hiring a camper van and spending a few days driving down.

Weather In July most of South East Asia will be in the middle of its wet season. Malaysia doesn’t get that so much, rainfall and temperatures are pretty steady all year round. We really didn’t want to find ourselves in floods in Bangkok or Ayutthaya.  This way we can head north into Thailand by train and be there at the best time of year.

We’ve Never Been There Before. Always a good reason to go somewhere! We’ve never been, so it’s about time we did. Malaysia has never been high on my bucket list, it didn’t get a mention in our original trip planning ( where are we going to go?) but I’ve had my nose in the Malaysia Lonely Planet for the last few days and it looks FABULOUS! Lots of variety, easy to get around, expensive for South East Asia, but still good value and brilliant food. Both the boys are pretty keen, they’ve been reading along with me, Boo will have his 7th birthday a few days after he arrives, we’ve promised him something special.  

Find our Posts on Malaysia With Children Here

Update: we arrived in Malaysia over a week ago, here are our Malaysia posts so far. Kuala Lumpur, Getting Around and a Rollercoaster Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves, Petronas Towers and Petrosains Kuala Lumpur Chinatown, Temples, Street Food and Hedgehogs World Travel Family is currently in Malaysia and having lots of adventures, we will add more posts as we go, check out the South East Asia, Malaysia link in the right hand column or sign up for email updates to follow our journey.

Onward From Malaysia

We will have a 3 month visa, plenty of time to explore all of Malaysia. While we’re there we’ll do Singapore and Brunei, pop over to Malaysian Borneo to visit the orangutangs ( bucket lister!). After that we could easily catch the train up into Thailand or maybe fly to Bali and explore more of Indonesia.

Komodo Island is very high on the bucket list. I’m not sure if we need to have an onward flight out of Malaysia, sometimes it’s required for entry into a country, sometimes it’s not.

We’ll work that out when we come to it, we can always book a refundable or flexible ticket and change it later. So that’s all I have to say today, we’re going to Malaysia and I’m excited!  

\My new backpack has arrived from the US and I found a great pair of trekking shoes in a sale, so things are moving along nicely. If you’d like to stick around to find out how our family travel adventure turns out, please enter your email address in the box below and follow us around the world. Thanks!

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Velysia Zhang

Wednesday 20th of May 2015

Thanks for the share. Totally agree! thanks AirAsia for always giving such a good deal :)

http://www.littlenomadid.com

deliciousalex

Wednesday 28th of January 2015

Hi Alyson. Found your blog a few days ago and have been catching up on your travels for the past few days. A great blog with great information and totally inspiring. We are planning our trip at the moment and I have a question about Air Asia, as I have read that you used them? I love the cheep flights, but read some horrific reviews re cancelled flights etc. What was your experience with them? Would love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, we wish you an amazing ongoing journey. All the best, Alex

alyson@worldtravelfamily

Wednesday 28th of January 2015

All of our Air Asia experiences have been excellent Alex, never a problem. We never pre-book seats and we've always been seated together, I see a few complains about that too. Good luck!

Michael

Tuesday 26th of August 2014

Did Malaysia require a follow on or return ticket for entry, last time I had a round trip and didn't ask? I really want to get into the "one way" ticket travel and country hop a bit better by saving more $$$ ;)

alyson@worldtravelfamily

Tuesday 26th of August 2014

No Michael. It's usually the airport you're flying out of that requires a return ticket because they will shoulder the cost if you are refused admission and are turned around. We've never been asked flying into a country and only once exiting a country. That was in the US, unsurprisingly, flying to El Salvador. The Lady had the regulations wrong anyway, you don't need an onward ticket for El salvador, we won! Always pays to check it out properly and know your rights. In practice people just buy a refundable ticket at the airport if they run into problems, we never have. You seem to be reading my whole blog, thanks so much, highly appreciated, come chat on Facebook!

ge ann

Tuesday 13th of August 2013

reading everything i can on your site..i dream to travel with my daughter someday.

Alyshea

Tuesday 5th of March 2013

Hiya! I stumbled upon your blog by accident - I was searching for more info on paleo eating as i'm on week 2 of the paleo diet. Just thought I'd let you know that I live in Kuala Lumpur and if you'd like any info about coming here, what to see, what to do and what to EAT - drop me an email :) alyshealow@gmail.com Safe flight and enjoy the holiday! x

alyson@worldtravelfamily

Tuesday 5th of March 2013

Thanks Alyshea, that's great, what a lovely offer, if you know anywhere in Kuala Lumpur with cheap family accommodation I'd love to hear about it! The Nest has been recommended to me, but I was hoping for cheaper. Thanks again, Alyson

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