It is hard to believe we have spent another year house sitting. From New South Wales in Australia, to Puerto Rico, then Thailand to India. That was 2022 – done ^TICK

A few months back down under to regroup and reset with friends and family and we are off again.

We have decided to do things a bit differently this year. Each year we have been house sitting we have started at the beginning, gone from house sit to house sit and made our way from one country to the next, optimising our time and following a course which eventually leads us back to New Zealand, about a year later. This year we will return to Australia between big trips. So this trip will only be 3 months long.

So start in Malaysia, only a nine hour flight from Queensland Australia where we have been recently based.

KLIA Express, direct from the airport to Sentral Station

First stop Kuala Lumpur, one of our favourite cities. We are very excited to be back in Malaysia. The food is outstanding and the people are always so warm and welcoming. We stayed in a small basic hotel right outside the main entrance of the NU Sentral Mall, which is part of Sentral Station. The public transport is so efficient and really easy to understand. It is a very simple commute from KLIA international airport straight to Sentral Station, and right to our accommodation. The warmth and smells that great us are overwhelming, sparking fond memories – WE ARE BACK!

We had 3 nights here, re acquainting ourselves with the cuisine. Eating our way around all our old favourite places. We were very close to the Indian quarter and found restaurants with all the Indian delicacies we were enjoying while in Chennai.

Kuala Lumpur is a super modern city, but still holds the charm of the old world. China Town and Little India are like walking back in time, yet you go to the Petronas Twin Towers or the Berjaya Times Square and you are immediately transported to the, almost , futuristic state-of-the-art centres with everything on steroids! We love both, maybe erring on the side of the oldie-worldie but loving the super modern, bright and shinny too.

We spend a lot of time walking around and pointing out places we have been before, restaurants we have been in, 7Elevens we have frequented and found the cheapest beer. But also discovering new things, new sights, especially as we have not been here since COVID and we do notice a change. China Town seemed very quiet now – still busy by our terms, but not that frantic business that was the total manic vibe of the place. There were not as many street hawkers or market stalls. Our old ladies pushing carts full of ice and cold drinks were nowhere to be found. It must have been pretty tough here during the pandemic, very sad.

China Town
Petronas Twin Towers
Brickfields Little India

In amongst the chaos of this busy incredible city is the Botanical Gardens. A beautiful piece of green-belt right there, hidden away from the madness. We spent a few hours here and thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace. It is a little run-down in places, but still a great respite from the heat (in all ways) of the city.

It’s a lot hotter here than what we have been used to for the last few months, we are very thankful for our air conditioning in our room. It’s a welcome relief to get onto the trains for the cool of their air conditioning. It is so cheap to ride the trains and as I said, so easy! Just have to find the right train line you want to go on, use the touch screen to say where you want to go and boom, out comes a little blue token and off you go! All over the city, anywhere you want to go for about equivalent to $1.

A few nights back here is like coming home, it had to be done, but we have puppies to look after!

Our next stop is Langkawi, an Island off the west coast right up by the Thailand border. We have been there once before for a week vacation, this time we will be there for 2 months. We love the city, but we have had our fill, lets slow our pace down a bit and get ourselves back to some Island Time!

See you in Langkawi!

Thank you for reading our story 🙂

A huge part of what I love about travelling is experiencing the different cuisines. I have become a lot braver in recent years and have started ordering things which I have no idea what they will be when they get to the table. The other night at Moranos, our favourite cafe bar, I asked the waitress what Soutzoukakia was. She had limited English and wasn’t able to explain, but she did say that it was “beautiful” so if it is beautiful then surely worthy of a try. It was really good! Meatballs – long sausage shaped meatballs, with the most amazing thick sweet tangy tomato sauce.

With us being in house sitting mode, we can’t pretend that we are on holiday constantly – Oh wouldn’t that be great though? Unfortunately the funds wouldn’t stretch to that luxury! So trips to the supermarket each week is the normal for us – just like home. But it is not a hardship! It’s like a tourist attraction for us, the humble trip to the supermarket! We just love looking at all the different things on the shelf, the fresh produce department, the meats, cheese, bread, spices, even the canned goods! The beautiful mouth-watering cakes and then the weird and wonderful things that we can’t even start to guess at what they could be! Sometimes it’s hard to work out what things actually are, and good ole google translate comes in handy. We love seeing things which are common for us but are in a different language. In France we were quite regularly “Missing In Action” – just at the Intermarche AGAIN!

It is funny how we seem to slot into using the food which is usual in the country we are in. While in France, we always had cheese and bread. Almost every meal had a cheese and bread component, even though I felt I was cooking similar to home. Now in Greece we are favouring the locally eaten produce. I am fascinated because this has not been a conscious decision, it seems to have just happened. So here in Greece we are living on pita bread and hummus, tomatoes, feta and olive oil, and drinking Ouzo (anise flavoured aperitif). The fresh produce here is outstanding and so reasonably priced. Tomatoes like you have never tasted before! We bought butter the first week and have hardly touched it, yet in France we were going through it like crazy – nothing beats a fresh baguette with butter, so simple yet so divine! I suppose it all depends on what is available.

In Asia we ate out almost all the time, it is so cheap that it was almost not worth cooking at home, and boy can they get the flavours right, so much better than anything I could cook at home! But this didnt stop our trips to the supermarket. Probably the most fascinating grocery shelves we have seen. Oh and the food markets in Asia – WOW, so much to see and smell! Little lady sitting cross legged on the bench chopping meat, with the biggest cleaver, in front of her while babies sleep behind her, chickens with heads, chickens with no heads, live, unrecognisable seafood in buckets swimming on top of each other, little girls selling plates of dried crickets and grasshoppery looking bugs! Its a feast of all the senses.

Some of the house sits we have done in Asia have had quite primitive cooking facilities, so eating out has been a good option. But at USD$1.50 for 2 fried eggs on toast with coffee, or $2 for a bowl of stir fried veg, who wouldn’t. It is such a social thing too, the motorbike kitchens all gather in the same area and start cooking, you sit on tiny child sized plastic chairs, or on mats on the ground, and all sit around eating and laughing and being together. So cool!!

Eating on the street in Cambodia

Brazil! Brazil was the carnivores dream! Meat meat and more meat! All you can eat meat! Yumm. 600g streak. Pork roasted, stewed, chops, ribs ….. burgers and more burgers. We did miss the fresh veg and salad there but hey! When in rome! Delicious! And we drank Cachaca! (fermented sugarcane juice – blows your head off)