Malaysia, seriously.

[Bumbleybee]

Am living in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, we plan to come for a trip back to the UK at Easter next year, the dates would be something like 9th - 24th April.
We have a large 4 bedroom house, with pool and live in maid.

KL is a fantastic place to visit.

I would be looking for somewhere around Tenterden, Tunbridge Wells, Hastings or Lewes areas, and would have to be somewhere that could accomodate 3 children under 4, with one cot. With two adults obviously, the children aren't coming on their own!

Would anyone be interested?

OOh not me we live too far but I could resist a nosey.

Hope you find someone lovely :-)

lol ditto. actually we aren't that far from tunbridge wells, but sadly not for us.
wish I could though

Thanks, hope so too

This sounds fabulous! Unfortunately, we're 3 hours away from Kent.

That's a shame littlefish, just a bit too far.

bump

Anyone even vaguely interested?

Bump.

You know we are in Kent but a good 45 mins from Tunbridge so wouldn't be any good.

I can't believe you have no takers Bumbley.

In which direction Megg?

Come on, someone must want to come to KL...

Whereabouts in KL are you (idle curiousity)?

I would love to do a house swap but for 3 things, dh and ds are already going out this December, we are in East London not Kent and (crucially) my MIL would have a hissy fit if we didn't stay with her in PJ.

What a shame Bran, other than those things it could have worked so well (grin]. We are in Bukit Damansara, not far from PJ, are you coming with dh and ds?

No, I'm not going this year. Every alternate year we go for Christmas and I always tag along for that, but this year we're going to my parents for Christmas so DH and DS are doing a quick 10 day trip beforehand to see MIL and the rest of the family. Travelling 13 hours with an air-sick DS just to spend 10 days with my MIL and then travel 13 hours back just as DS has gotten over jet-lag is not my idea of fun, so I'll be staying home.

When we go for Christmas we usually go for 3 weeks and have a 'proper' holiday (ie away from MIL) as well. Last year we went to Perth to visit friends, other years we've been to India, Langkawi, Sydney and New Zealand.

DH's KL office used to be in Bukit Damansara, although they've moved to PJ now.

We should do a MN KL meet up sometime when I'm out there. We could claim the title of 'most exotic meet up' and I could win the title of 'most travelled for a meet up'.

very tempting!
we are in Saudi Arabia and keep talking about going to KL whilst we are out this way.
We have kept our UK house which is in Crawley, West Sussex. Used to do the drive to TW in about 40 mins depending on traffic.
House has 5 beds (3 x double beds, 1 x normal single and 1 x teeny weeny cute cosy cottage bed) Will have to get round to getting a cot as DC 4 due in February! En-suite bathroom to master and shower in guest room. No pool (or maid!) but have a hot tub in garden and jacuzzi in master bathroom)
If Crawley isn't too far for you I will speak to my DH and see what he thinks.

Hey mumoverseas, sounds good, Crawley wouldn't be too far at all. Are you sure you will want to be travelling with a tiny baby, as we are thinking about the easter holiday next year. Your house sounds great. Love the hot tub in the garden!

Here there are 4 bedrooms 2 doubles, both with ensuite, a children's room with bunkbeds and an adjoining bathroom which connects to another bedroom with single bed and cot.

It must be hot in Saudi now, how are you coping?

Bran, a KL meet up sounds like a top idea, and I am very happy to be on hand during your next trip for MIL free excursions!

hi bumbleybee,
DH home from work now (skived off early to watch F1 GP!) he seems up for it. We just need to check our dates ref school hols. DC1 here in Saudi (with DC3 who is 2) but DC2 at a UK boarding school. Pretty sure the dates will work quite well with us although we may have to juggle things a bit. No problem travelling with DC4. Due 28th Feb but from experience we know it will be a C-section 2 to 3 weeks early so should have passport and visa well in time. DC3 is almost 2 and has just had her 30th flight so we don't have issues travelling with little ones.
How old are your children? Is there a DD who would like the little tykes cosy cottage bed? Not done a house swop before. Have you?
Very hot here in Saudi, was about 45 degrees when I picked DC3 up from nursery at lunchtime! How is Malaysia now?

hi bumbleybee,
just checked and DC2 has to return to her UK boarding school Sunday 19th April (she breaks up Friday 27th March and will be coming out to Saudi then to get her visa re-newed) Do your dates have to be 9th to 24th or could you do a few days earlier? If not, we will still look into the options and I'm being kicked off now so my DH can look at flights! who do you usually fly with?

Hi Mumoverseas,

we have DS1- 4 years, Ds2 - 2 years, and DD - 7 months. Never done a house swap before, feel quite excited about it. Am sure that Ds1 would love the cosy cottage bed, he likes all things pink and girly!

The temp here is pretty constant, around 30, which is bearable, 45 must be hard work. It is supposed to be rainy season here now, but there doesn't seem to be a very clear distinction now between rainy season and hot season.

Could prob juggle the dates, Ds is only in reception so won't matter if he misses a few days, if you give me your prefered dates then I will check with DH whether he can do them.

Re flights, Malaysian airlines are okay, Singapore airlines are better, but it would mean flying to Singapore and then on to Malaysia.

Hi Bumbleybee.
DH really seems up for it and was checking out flights last night! Saudi Arabian Airlines apparently fly direct but our preferred route is Emirates via Dubai. DC2 in Uk and is coming out here around 28th March as we have to get her a new visa. Bloody stupid rules here! Once she has the visa she can leave but not re-enter again within a short period of time! (how daft is that!) so it would have to be straight back to the UK for her from KL so the Emirates option sounds best for us as we can all fly back from KL to Dubai, plonk her on a flight to LGW and we will then fly back to the land of sand! Our travel agent here is closed now for end of ramadam/eid but we are looking on website to sort out dates etc and will then speak to travel agents when they re-open next week. DC1 (totally disregarded his school hols yesterday which is naughty as he is doing GCSE's next year!) is off from Thursday 2nd April returning saturday 18th (our weekends are Thursday/Friday) so we would have to leave KL by around 16th to get him back to KSA and DC2 back to UK for 19th! We are happy to do less than 2 weeks at yours and of course you can do longer at our house but would like to try to squeeze in about 10 days if possible. Are you able to do a few days earlier? The other option we thought is staying somewhere else for a few days before you leave (we were looking at langkowi and penang very late last night!) any idea on connections to there from KL? Getting quite excited about this possibility!

Hi mumoverseas,

Have spoken to DH, we could leave on Friday 3rd April early morning, and return on 24th April if that would suit you.

Langkawi is beautiful, I would recommend The Andaman, expensive but worth it, Langkawi is a 45 min flight from KLIA. Another good place to go is Redang Island, a small island off the east coast, very good for snorkeling (?sp)and diving, it is a very short flight from a local airport. Haven't been to Penang yet, but the food is supposed to be fab!

Hope this helps. x

hi bumbleybee,
sounds fantastic! Feel a bit bad about kicking you out of your home early! To be honest, if we can sort out a few days somewhere else first we'd be ok with maybe 8 to 10 days in your house. We will now look into the Langkawi/Penang option. Diving sounds fab! Myself and the two eldest kids dive and DH is a diving widower which is fab as he can look after the two little ones! Was gutted in the summer as we went to the florida keys and I'd booked diving and I found out a week before we went I was expecting DC4 so had to watch DC1 and DC2 go off diving without me! Guess its my turn now!
I think we have a definite deal here! Not sure how the actual planning works, ie addresses and further details but suggest we take this off MN? If you are happy with this, my email is [email protected]
look forward to further planning!
Ursula