Midnight arrival in Kuala Lumpur

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Trip Start Aug 19, 2006 Previous
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  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

We made it. Marta's off to her new office here in Kuala Lumpur (KL for friends) so I have some time to let you all know we're alive and well.

After a hectic last week in Prague (with two days less packing time than planned due to me being stuck in London Heathrow's security scare the weekend before) we boarded the flight to Amsterdam on Saturday to visit my parent in their lovely new house. It was good to rest for two days and meet the family before embarking on our monster trip to Malaysia; on monday at 10:00 we got on the train to Schiphol, and 33 hours later, Wednesday morning at 01:00 local time (with 6 hours difference) we got to our KL apartment and collapsed.

The trip went really smoothly, with an EasyJet flight to London Gatwick and three Emirates flights, from London to Dubai, Singapore and finally KL

0 Plane

. International travcel may seem glam and sexy on the airline ads, but once you're in the seat with a 9-hour flight before you it's decidedly less wonderful... more like a long wait.

Emirates was a good choice; decent food, ok service, nice entertainment system, and the internet pre-check-in facility meant we had good seats all the way. We lucked out with children too - all the wailers were far away.

The stopover in Dubai was very interesting too - we only caught a glimpse of the city from the sky, but basically, it's a lot of sand and dust, blinding heat, big highways, and districts full of cubist houses with high perimeter walls around them.

Dubai airport did not live up to the hype at all - the shopping mall was smaller than that at Gatwick, and I didn't check prices but the choice didn't seem that varied. They are building a huge extension (replacement?) to the airport so perhaps it's all yet to come. Then when it was time to go it turned out that the screens are to small to hold all the flight information - 15 minutes before final checkin they still did not have our gate number on the screens. Strange.

00 Do Not Disturb

More interesting were the people milling around the airport - Emiratis in white flowing robes, looking like oil millionaires (perhaps they were), women in full black chadors sheets from head to toe, with just the eyes showing. We wondered how they get through customs dressed like that - it turns out they go to a female customs officer and very briefly flash their face at them.

After a brief stopover in Singapore it was another 45 minutes in the air to KL International Airport - which looked a damn sight more impressive than Dubai with gleaming glass, steel and marble everywhere and a cute little jungle in the middle of the terminal. A taxi driver courtesy Marta's company was there to whisk us the 70 kilometres into town, an hour's drive along a 3-lane highway. Along the road: endless rows of palm trees, neatly mown grass, huge billboards, special signs pointing to shelters for motorcyclists for them to hide during tropical downpours, signs pointing to mosques for pious travellers.

Our apartment is on the seventh floor of a new building in central KL, minutes away from the Bukit Bintang ('star hill') monorail stop and several large malls. We have a small living room with TV, satellite, DVD player, a small kitchen, two bedrooms each with a bathroom (showers only) and thankfully airconditioning throughout. Downstairs there's a pool and a French restaurant that bakes bread daily. The immediate surroundings are a little seedy, but the main roads are near and bustling.

On arrival we went out to find an ATM and have later dinner - south Indian rice and curry and freshly pressed juice at a streetside stall - lovely

000 Dubai iabuD

. The next day after a long comfortable sleep we went off to find breakfast and wandered around our area, just before dusk at 18:00. We were in a mall havig fresh bread with philadelphia when the skies burst open and we saw the first tropical storm, with buckets of rain coming down and people sheltering or running to the metro station. Good time to be inside. Later on we walked down to the city centre, visiting Chinatown, full of stalls with illegal DVDs, watches and Gucci bags. We had dinner at a Chinese open air restaurant - incredibly good, fresh food (I had beef with ginger and spring onions) that makes my mouth water even now I think of it. Great, healthy, fresh food is everywhere - I think we'll like it here.

Sign of the day:
"Be forewarned - death for drug traffickers under Malaysian law" (KL airport sign)

Marta's creepy crawly corner (things that made her go eek today):
1 cockroach, 1 small gecko lizard

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

01 Living room	02 Bedroom office	03 Anti-eek	04 Apartment view
05 View by night	06 Looking down	07 Handbags are go

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