Starting at the end.

So I thought I would start at the end.... seems easier when I am sitting here trawling through about 2000 photos. We just got back yesterday from a month's trip overseas. There were eight of us in our party. Simon and I and the kids and my Mum. Needless to say we had quite a bit of luggage.

We spent 11 days in South Korea, six days in Kuala Lumpar, the capital of Malaysia, and then the last 7 days on Langkawi, an island resort off the coast of Malaysia.

So to start at the end.....

Here we are boarding the plane at the Langkawi Airport on Monday (Oct 8) afternoon. It reminds me alot of the Launceston Airport, small and kinda quaint. Security is tight but not overly for a country reputed to be one of the drug capitals of the world or is it that I just think so because whenever Australians are caught with drugs on their person, it is big news here and I can now 'marvel' at the rife crimes I saw going on that they turn a blind eye to but clamp a life sentence or death penalty on a drug charge.

I digress of course but I tell ya.... visiting another country really opens your eyes and makes you appreciate home that much more.

The weather was perfect on Langkawi. 30 degrees everyday and 30 degrees everynight. It never changed. A little humid of course being so close to the equator but it didn't have the intensity and burning like our sun does.

I have Jonty's blankie around my neck. It came everywhere on the trip and I am so glad we never lost it.

The view over Langkawi, including many coconut trees. The flight only took 1 hr back to the Malaysian mainland.





SO here is all our luggage. We tried to travel light, seriously we did, but yeah it kind doesn't look like we did. This is at the KL International Airport, where we waited 5 hrs for our 8hr flight back to Melbourne, which was leaving at 10.30pm (1.30am Tastime).



Our flight back to Melbourne, was packed and I knew that there would be no room to stretch out to try and sleep. We were packed in like sardines. Everybody looks suitably impressed about the long flight. We had to pass through first class to get to economy and it looked so luxurious but I told Hallie that we have more fun back in cattle class. ;)



This is our leg room. I kept reminding myself that compared to other places, 8 hrs is really a relatively short flight as far as international goes.



Little friends for company.



On entering Australia, you have to fill out an arrival card for each person. Doing 7 took quite awhile. :) You can see a bit of Flynn's blue sleeve as he slept with his head in my lap. The card asks questions like, how long you are planning to stay, what is your occupation, if you came into contact with farm animals while away, (sounds random I know) in what country where you in, the majority of your time away, if you have anything to declare. Australia is well renowned for its border control and customs laws. You are not allowed to bring in shells, certain types of food, some wood just to name a few, incase it is carrying little critters that we don't want introduced into our country.

While we were going through immigration and customs after landing, the television show, Border Security was filming. Simon jokingly said I should put something in my bag so we get on the show. I was just really wanting to avoid the whole strip search thing. ;)



The lines to get passed immigration and customs were really really long and it was interesting listening to everyone complain about it. A whole heap of international flights had come in at once and about 800 odd people were tired and grumpy and just wanting to go home. We were separated from the people with foreign passports so all the lines were full of whingy Aussies. It was a little funny as there is nothing you can do about it so why waste your energy complaining. We had been travelling for 15 hours by now so I decided to spend my time dreaming of a nice hot bath instead.

We waited in Melbourne for about 4 hours before boarding our flight to Launceston yesterday at 1pm. We saw Jess and Bastian for a quick minute as she dropped off a bag for Mum. Can't wait to see more of them next month and over Christmas.

 Lisa and Kobe and my sister Lisa picked us up at the airport. It was SO good to see them. A month is a long time to go without seeing family and close friends.

Hello Tassie - oh how I missed your open spaces, paddocks and clean sweet smelling fresh air.