March 1st 2008

Tif and I arrived in Malaysia today to start our new adventure. It got off to a very good start when all of our luggage arrived, unlike when we went to Shangahai. We were picked up at the airport by Harald, my new boss, and I should have known everything had gone too smoothly. After getting to the parking garage (and let me tell you when they talk about heat and humidity Malaysia has it in spades) and loading up Harald's car with all of our luggage, and yes I had 3 suitcases and Tif only had two, Harald misplaced the coin showing he had paid for the parking. Well unlike in the states where it could have been cleared up fairly quickly this coin must have been an important artifact because it took an exceedingly long time and I think that Harald had to promise his first born to get a new coin but finally we were cleared to leave the parking lot. On our way from KLIA we discussed possible travel options for holidays (just a note Australia although close is still a 10 hour flight from KL) and the difference between Rugby and Australian rules football.

We arrived at Lanson place and checked into our room, which is a very nice 1 bedroom with a full kitchen. The AD of sales, Roweena, even though it was her day off called to see how everything was going and actually came in to see if we needed anything. I thought that was a very nice touch and got our stay off to a very good start. After Tif unpacked everything, a habit she has anywhere we go is to immediately unpack, we wanted to get lunch but the buffet did not start for about an hour so we decided to check out the grocery store around the corner.

Pasraya Hock Choon was a small corner store but it was still an experience. Small carts, narrow aisles and bunch of products we had never heard of before. Tif was able to purchase items for three meals and we picked up some neccessities such has diet coke, snacks and of course beer. Note: beer is very expensive over here.....a 12 pack cost 57 RM which is about 18 US dollars. I will probably have to cut down on my drinking. After that we went back and ate lunch at the hotel. I tried a little bit of everything including noodles called Aglio and Olio. When I tried this I could not believe how spicy it was. Tif looked at me like I was crazy and then I gave her some and she agreed that it was too spicy for her as well.

After resting for a little bit we decided to venture out to Ampang Park to look for cell phones. In my head I thought how hard would it be to get cell phones, well I found out it is not as easy as in the States. We went to several different vendors and tried to understand how the phones work and the pricing plans, there are no contracts only pre paid. After all of these different explanations I just broke down and picked a phone that was reasonbly priced and got 2 50RM cards to start. We will have to wait and see how they work.

After getting back from Ampang park we were quite exhausted and crashed on the couches until ordering dinner through room service. Then I went to bed and that is when I found out that the comforter we had would not cover half my body and there was nothing but a bottom sheet. When I told Tif about this she just started laughing and then called down to the desk to request a sheet. This was delivered and we ended day one.