Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 1:43 AM
Subject: Asia 2007 Day 2 - part 2
Sorry I had to cut short yesterday, but I was far too tired to write anything.
My luggage did not arrive. I have notified the airline and they are searching for it. They did receive a report from Northwest that several bags were not transferred in LA. If mine are among them, they will put them on a flight to KL and deliver them to my hotel.
Kuala Lumpur has a very modern and large airport located many miles south of the city, surrounded by palm oil plantations. After waiting at the baggage claim area in vain with my neighbor on the flight from LA who was in similar straits, I went looking for my ride to the hotel. The hotel had arranged to have a car waiting to bring me from the airport. I was afraid the driver would have left after my delay, but fortunately he had not.
The ride to the hotel took around 40 minutes. I chatted with the driver, a large Indian man and a native of KL, about things I must see while here. He suggested a Hindu temple (no surprise), the Petronas Towers, and a few shopping malls.
It was around 2:00 PM I arrived at the hotel. The hotel is part of a large complex which includes 2 hotels, several cottages, a shopping mall, a water park including a large wave pool, an amusement park, and I am sure much more.
I felt the need to wander a bit to keep myself awake as long as possible – best way to get on local time. I walked the neighborhood surrounding the hotel which consists of 3-story concrete buildings with the sidewalks covered by the upper floors, shops on the first floor and apartments and businesses above. I needed to get some essentials, toothpaste and toothbrush (in my luggage of course), and some bottled water. Fortunately, there seems to be a 7-11 on every corner in Asian cities, and there was one a block away where I found American toothpaste. It is very hot and humid as you might expect. The city is literally built in a jungle, and the jungle seems to hang on wherever it can. The trees are huge, many coconut palms, what look to be banana trees, and lots of vines.
June is the driest month in this part of Malaysia, but it started raining while I was wandering. I understand why the sidewalks are covered now. I stood across the street from the hotel for about 20 minutes with some others waiting for the rain to let up – it must have rained an inch or more in that time, it was really coming down hard. It started to let up a little so I sprinted the 30 yards or so to the hotel – I was soaked by the time I made it under cover. Great, now I am 10,000 miles from home with only the clothes on my back to wear, and now they are wet! Oh well, back to the room to dry off.
I mentioned there is a shopping mall attached to the hotel. After drying off I went there to see if I could buy some clothes in case my bags do not arrive in time. No luck, unless I want to dress like a 16 year old Asian boy. I will have to look elsewhere.
I was far too tired to adventure out for food, and I wasn’t really hungry anyway. I went to the bar and ordered a Jack Daniels on the rocks, and then remembered that ice was a bad idea, so I had it neat. This did not help my struggle to stay awake, so I went back to my room and crashed around 6:00 watching an Indian soap opera in Hindi with Malay subtitles. I think I still knew what was going on.
A couple of pictures are attached. One the view from the hotel (not my room unfortunately), and the other is the neighborhood across the street.
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