Day 6: Return home

Another nice day in Malaysia, but this time we were going home. Again our flight was not without some hiccups. Just after we boarded the plane in Hong Kong the captain chimed in with an announcement. He relayed the information that due to heavy air traffic on the eastern seaboard of China our flight would be delayed at least 2.5 hours. To make matters worse, it was also announced that you could leave the plane, but if you did so, you would not be able to get back on. Great...here we go again...we ended up leaving 2 hours and 40 minutes late and had our dinner (with Haagen Daz!) on the plane on the ground. In addition to the flight delay we had noticed, in looking at our luggage tags, that 1 of the 5 only had Hong Kong as the itinerary for the luggage, the other 4 had Hong Kong and Shanghai. We alerted the staff at the counter in Hong Kong and they called someone on the walkie talkie and looked the claim number up on the computer. They assured us it would arrive with us in Shanghai. We were skeptical...and for good reason as when we arrived in Shanghai, we had only 4 of the 5 luggage arrive with us. What a surprise!!! So we waited in line with three other passengers that suffered the same fate and 30 minutes later were told that the luggage had not yet shown up in the system and they would call us when it was found. We left a luggage short and small hopes of seeing it again. Fortunately, Saturday morning we got a call that it had been found and was being delivered. Ron struggled to give directions in Chinese to the person delivering the luggage, but it arrived an hour later at our house...whew...that was a surprise...and a nice one. So we all eventually arrived home with all luggage intact and can look back on what was a great vacation.

Day 5: Underwater adventures continue

Sorry for the delay on day 5, we have not been able to access our blog tools here in China...not sure why...

More cool photos and video at: http://picasaweb.google.com/krfraser5/MalaysiaTrip2008Part2
Well, we finally got some rain...but not until just after 4 pm. It lasted for about 1 1/2 hours and created the most spectacular sunset of the week, with tall fluffy clouds full of deep pinks, purples, and oranges...but of course the camera was back in the room...so you'll just have to believe me! This day started out the same as always with lots of sun, so it was a great day for snorkeling. We hired a private charter for a 3 hour tour...yes a 'three hour tour'...so we could snorkel in places that were less traveled. Well, the idea paid off as we went to two reefs that were much better than the first day we went out on Sapi Island. One was on the backside of Mamutik Island, the other near Gaya Island, which is the largest of the five islands near our resort. The kids did great going off the boat with their gear and did not have any problems in the open water. We saw all kinds of great sea life. Our favorite was the clown fish, which were numerous and consistent in trying to push you away from their sea anemone home. We also saw a sea snake and some very large and colorful clams. Some more cool pictures and video have been uploaded to the website. Here are a couple of our favorites from the day: