Getting our his and her travel-theme sleeve tattoos in KL!

The Tattoo Parlour Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur

On the last day of August this year, we were back in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia after a month in beautiful Vietnam (you can read about Vietnam in my previous post). We had just a few days to spare in KL before our next adventure – two nights in Macao (the Las Vegas of Asia) and three nights in Hong Kong - before we flew onto South Korea for a ten day visit to see our son and his wife Sujeong, and our grandson Aaron, and the rest of our lovely family in Korea.

In Kuala Lumpur, we checked into one of our favourite hotels outside the city, very close to the place Trav had researched and found to do the tattoos we have been talking about getting this year to celebrate our 34^th wedding anniversary.

We wanted to mark this anniversary by getting his and her half-sleeve travel tattoos in black and grey that would represent our love and our nomadic lifestyle.

I'd rather be getting tattooed!

We wanted a compass and a map as the main theme with individual touches such as our astrology signs of Scorpio and Pisces. We wanted palm trees to represent our love of tropical places and three little birds in flight to represent our three boys flying the nest. I wanted a quill pen to represent my writing and Trav wanted a diver to represent his passion for scuba diving.

These are our final approved designs. Mine on the left. Trav's on the right.

We consulted with the very talented young artists and tattooists at The Tattoo Parlor Malaysia at Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur. It took many hours of consultation and skill and patience for them to fine-tune our ideas and to get the tattoo designs just right for us. During this time, while tattoo artists Bruce and Oren Lee were busy designing, Cheryl the owner of the shop looked after us, bringing us coffee and food. The atmosphere in the shop was really friendly, fab, and fun.

Tattoo artist Bruce Lee positions the design template onto Trav's arm

Tattoo artist Oren positions the design template on my arm

With the design templates in place that tatttoing can begin!

Then the tattooing began and after over eight hours in the shop, including five long hours in the chair and under the needle, Trav and I finally had the tattoos we had wanted so much and which meant so much to us. We were more than thrilled with the results. I do have a few tattoos already but this was Trav’s first tattoo. I'm so proud of him and we both agreed that the pain was worth it!

The outline is being tattooed and I'm in a bit of a sweat!

The amazing results - photographed raw - after five hours under the needle!

Thank you to ace tattooists Bruce and Oren at The Tattoo Parlor Malaysia!

We love our his and her’s travel tattoos and we will wear them with pride.

Now that our tattoos have healed they look even better!

 Do you have a tattoo/s? What do you think of our new tattoos?

In my next post, I’ll be sharing our fantastic trip to Macao and Hong Kong and explaining to you how the trip very nearly didn’t take off!

Love, Janice xx

Singapore Universal Studios and Batam Island

Towards the end of July, after chilling out on an island called Koh Chang in the eastern part of Thailand, we decided we needed a change of scenery and also a bit of fun. You can read about our month on Koh Chang in my previous post.

So we took an Air Asia flight from Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur with the intention of taking a flight over to Singapore the next day, where we could catch a ferry over to nearby Batam Island.

Air Asia is a budget airline and we fly with them often using Kuala Lumpur as our transit hub in South East Asia. We keep an eye on their flash sales and have managed to get some amazingly cheap deals. In fact, we often make decisions on where to fly next on the basis of their cheap and available flights.

But sometimes, as is often the case with budget airlines, they are occasionally subject to cancellation or delay. Unfortunately, our flight with Air Asia from Pattaya was delayed several hours and when we eventually got back to KL and our favourite Holiday Inn hotel, it was well past midnight and we were tired and hungry and a little grumpy because we’d missed our complimentary food and cocktails in the club lounge!

The next morning, when I checked-in online for our Singapore flight, I suddenly realised that the flight we had booked was mid-morning and not mid-afternoon. So after a crazy mad dash to the airport in an Uber Taxi - we managed to get to the gate just in the nick of time - only to be told the flight was delayed. Phew!

Batam, although part of Indonesia, is very easy to get to from Singapore via a subway ride from the airport and a ferry from the harbour. It is also an extremely affordable place to stay compared to the expense of Singapore and it also has a Holiday Inn Resort and Spa. And, as we had enough hotel loyalty points to stay there for free for a few days, we decided it was just the spot for some R&R before heading back to Singapore and finishing off our trip with some fun at Universal Studios.

The weather in Singapore was hot and humid and overcast when we arrived but we had a great view of the famous city skyline from the ferry as we headed over to sunny Batam.

Our hotel on Batam Island was lovely – with a fabulous pool – and I had what I now consider to be my best-ever spa experience there at the Tee Tree Spa with a full body aromatherapy massage and facial treatment. Bliss.

Back in Singapore, a few days later, feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, we checked into another Holiday Inn not too far away from Universal Studios.

We have been to Singapore once before – two years ago – when we took a pre-Christmas trip from KL for shopping and sightseeing. Back then, we took in all the famous sights like Marina Bay and Raffles Hotel and we went for a Singapore Sling cocktail at the Long Bar. This time, we made the theme park our focus of attention. Universal Studios Singapore is very like the one in Orlando Florida – a bit smaller perhaps – but lots of rides like ‘The Mummy’ are exactly the same and so much fun that we went on that one twice. We found the waiting times for the main attractions much shorter than those we encountered in Orlando – maybe an hour rather than three hours without the expense of an express pass.

We had a wonderful day out – although it was blisteringly hot all day.

Feeling rested and rejuvenated by our trip we headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a quick twenty-four hours - just long enough to meet with our next Air Asia flight. This time we were looking for a bit of adventure and culture - so we were headed to a top destination in South East Asia. A country known for its breathtaking natural beauty and unique heritage - and, excitingly, somewhere we'd never explored before. Join me here on the blog again very soon to find out about our next exciting month-long destination!

Love, Janice xx