Standard report for our morning. Up at 7, packed, taxi to airport, through airport, and onto the plane. We’re a well-oiled machine now, most of the time.

On our way there, Nick was chatting with our driver who explained the weird setup between Peninsular Malaysia, where we were, and Borneo Island Malaysia, where we are now. Borneo residents can move to the peninsula, but peninsula residents can’t move to the island. He explained how different the cultures are and why they are part of the same country. Sure enough, when we landed we had to go through customs to enter Serawalk even though it was a domestic flight within Malaysia.

I expected Malaysia to be very similar to Singapore, but it has been way weirder and more interesting.

We got through quickly and had a quick ride to our hotel. Millie spent about 2 hours playing by herself and setting up a whole scene for her playmobil people. We hate to interrupt her solo playtime because she gets SO into it, but we were starving and wanted to see the city. It took us a while to get her to wrap it up and get out the door.

We walked along the side of the river, where most things are situated. Kuching is the largest city in Sarawak but still feels quite small.

We had dinner at a restaurant that looked hip and had good reviews. It was a strange little place and the food was not great. Each of the tables were old vintage desks. Cute in theory, terrible in practice. It felt like an apartment I would have decorated right out of college.

On our way out we walked past an “ais krim” bar. I love this translation of Ice Cream. It served “gula apong” ice cream, which is flavored with local palm sugar syrup. When in Rome. We got one to share even though Millie had a giant cone yesterday. It was very delicious, like a mix between molasses and salted caramel.

We walked across the pedestrian bridge across the river. The sun was starting to set and the weather was cooling down. Families and joggers were coming out and the city started growing livelier.

We walked up to the big beautiful government building that overlooks the river. Nick and I admired the architecture while Millie ran around on the lawn.

She made friends with a group of local kids. They spoke barely any English but asked her name and then all shouted “Millie come!” as they all ran around. They encouraged her to put her foot in for a round of “eenie meenie minie moe” to figure out who was “it” for tag. They said “Millie foot, Millie foot!” while pointing at their foot circle. It was very sweet how much they included her and tried to explain things to her with their limited vocabulary.

She became one of them for the hour they played.

And then as quickly as the relationship started, it ended. Their mom gathered them all up and made them leave. They shouted “bye Millie bye Millie!” all the way to the parking lot.

Millie had an outburst of bad behavior (yelling at us for water, refusing to walk to buy water) and then told us she was mad because her new friends left. Telling us her feelings and why she is feeling them is such progress for her. And made it much easier for us!

We got water and walked on, back across the bridge as the sun set all the way.

Everything was really hopping now. Kids and families everywhere. We stopped at a playground very near our hotel and Millie met a girl who is British and Russian, but has lived here for two years. They ran around and played so well together. We realized that while she has had lots of play time recently, this was the first time in ages that she’s made a friend who is a native English speaker.

We got to talking to her mom, who explained why they decided to move here from England. It started getting late and we decided to all leave at the same time to make it easier on the girls. Millie and her new friend Aoife made elaborate plans for tomorrow, and insisted we exchange phone numbers so they can hang out again. We’ll see if it actually happens, but they were very adamant!