Goodbye Malaysia

Of course that photo doesn't really represent Malaysia, only the bulk of our experience of it.  Outside the resort is the real Malaysia and its markets and street food and mopeds and tall apartment buildings that look like giant washing lines and long (dirty) beaches with beach stalls all the way up and down and deck chairs and jungle growing out of every free space, and cats (not sure why there are so many stray cats, when Thailand, which seems so similar in many ways specialises in stray dogs), and fishing boats and industry…

So, in the last moments before we head home I've been reflecting on our entire holiday. If I could re-live/repeat just 3 days from our entire trip (and of course I'd happily relive them all), I'd choose these  - in chronological not preferential order..

1) The day we went ski-ing with the Verde-Thon's in Drammen, then jogged up to the icy lake where Bjørn and Jon went swimming, then went out and played ice-hockey.  That was awesome. Except for the bit where we broke Bjørn's arm - I'd skip that.

2) The Lillehammer day that Jon and I ski-ed back from Nordseter and the sky was perfectly blue and clear and the snow was  delightful

3) The day in Geilo when we went dog sledding, then went snowboarding, then in the evening, with tired but happy legs, Harald took us out for a x-country skating lesson, then we all had dinner together at our apartment then went out to the ice-music session. That was a big day! 

Our Norway trip was everything we'd hoped it to be and more.  It was awesome to catch up with old 'family' and friends, and live with Norwegians and experience day to day proper winter conditions. I recon if I'd had to give up one of our weeks in Norway, with hindsight I'd give up the Hurtigruten trip - it was really good, but I so much prefer getting out and doing stuff rather than just sitting and watching the landscape go by. 

So it's sad to be ending our holiday, but there's lots to look forward to about being home.. clear skies, clean air, clean water, my fun job, paddles, runs, family dinner and friday night pizza. We're very lucky that we get to return to one of the best places in the world. If only it had snow.