The trip up north

Long holiday is always perfect for geological fieltrip. This time, we headed up north.

Started off at 1.30 am on Saturday and reached Sg Petani at 6 am.

While we adults catching up on sleep, the kids were fresh and observed longingly at the view from our room. They even rummaged through the luggage to get their swimming attire.


We moved to the northeast to Padang Terap at noon. I did some surveying. Back to Sg Petani and had Nasi Kandar dinner.

The kids generally behaved quite well, I mean they were their usual selves though a bit excited over the new place. I brought a lot of papers for drawing and some color pencils and crayons (which ended up being used to decorate the side table...sssshhh, we already cleaned it).

Had a good sleep. We went up to Alor Star and later to Gunung Keriang. Someone brought me to look around, while hubby brought the kids to a park there. I never knew that 'look around' meant a little climbing along a trail up to almost the top of the hill. Panting, I finally shouted to my host that if I was slow, that was due to I was 4-month pregnant. He almost had his eyes fell from the sockets. I heard about some people in Perlis do bussines by whacking crystals, or deposits from caves but I never thought that the sights of them selling their stuffs at G. Keriang was too heart-breaking. I'm working to conserve caves, so you know what I mean. I didn't get a chance to take pics, anyway I don't really wish to see that again. Had KFC lunch.

Went back to Padang Terap, and I did more work there. Back to Sg Petani, and seriously we were really keen on having authentic Kedah food, but all we saw was Nasi Kandar and more Nasi Kandar.
I think I had not fully recovered from climbing stairs, and a bit of crawling in Gua Tempurung on Wednesday. The 'walk' up to the cave entrance in Keriang took a toll on me. I wished for a private jacuzzi, but the university does not pay for that. Well, a nice warm bath would be great but hearing the 'battle' hubby was fighting with the girls, I settled for a 10-minute hot shower. Before kids, I think I never savoured any 10-minute shower that way! I hope you know what I mean.
On the last day, I 'kasi can' to the kids and let them take a dip at the pool. They didn't really like it, mayde due to its being a bit crowded. And I saw little black things floating in the water. I was glad the kids were done in less than 20 minutes.

We moved up to Padang Terap again, and I did some samplings. We were invited by a couple of friends (husband and wife) to Kulim. The wife just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl that early morning and was already home. We arrived at 7 pm. I just let hubby napped, while letting the girls tired themselves up with new friends (the couple's 3 other kids) and toys.

We made our journey back at 12.30. A slow and steady drive and arrived my in-laws kampung at 4.30 am. We decided to stay and only drove to PJ in the evening.

Glad that it went well, though I would have to go back to Padang Terap, hopefully before the new baby is here. I'm still trying to get used to the new version blogger, I hope my pics arrangement is ok.

Have a great weekend everyone!