Finale Dinner

Finished 2 days of training with 60 people from the region, and we went for a Chinese place with a couple people from Hong Kong, who vetted it out the previous night. Food was great and service was impeccable, as predicted. I sound like a broken record by now, but this is food Mecca with a low price tag. 

Among great conversation, here are a couple pics of some of the things we had, too many to list:

Giant oyster:

Steamed red grouper

Pic of the place

Did I mention that lunch was equally as good?

Leaving, on a jet plane,

Don't know when I'll be back again....

But seriously, this was an awesome trip for so many reasons. One thing I didn't highlight was the multitude of great people I met this week. At least 4 times we were treated to fabulous meals by local people. They viewed it as an honor to have is in their region, and took us to the finest restaurants, ordered the right things, and treated. I have eaten more diverse food in a week than ever before. Not once did I see anything resembling what we eat in America, and I feel great. Maybe this is why life expectancy is higher in this side of the world. And I cannot say enough about the hospitality as a country - not once did I get a nasty look - nothing more than a few comments about how messed up America's political system is, which I agreed with. 

Many pictures to post, but here at KLIA about to board the world's newest and largest plane to London. Full flight too. 

Model above, real one below

Went to work today, and felt like I was in Florida.  First of all, our office is in the midst of 2 mega-malls, both 6+ stories of shops and dining, and one of which ironically is called The Gardens Mall.  And second, it feels like Florida - 5 minutes outside and you sweat profusely.

We were there for almost 12 hours if you count dinner and lunch in the mall.  But please don't make any pre-determined thoughts about "mall food" - here mall restaurants really do a good job of being unique, not chains, and absolutely awesome.  So far, 5 meals in a mall and 3 probably are in my top 20 lifetime.  Not to mention the price thing, which is broken-record-ish.  5 people with drinks at an authentic chinese place with about 12 courses and dessert = 150$ ?? That would have been 400+ in the US at PFu Changs, and this wasn't McChina.

Lunch was actually even more special - went to a Japanese place that cooks all of its food with tea - all unique and tasty.

 Pics to left are from lunch.  Didn't take any at dinner - too tired

Coffee in Room

Drinking my Nescafé in room since it is 5am. Not too bad for powder. Apparently this is what they think westerners want unless they specify local coffee. So if you ask, they have nice local stuff with condensed milk - remember that. 

Sushi Dinner

I think the points about food and cost here are well established, but this underscores it. We went to a fancy sushi place, and I knew it would be good because it was full of Japanese people when other restaurants nearby were mostly empty. It took about 3 minutes with the menu to realize that the prices were so low for the quality we got. I signed for 196RM, which is about 50$. Had we not gotten toro and 3 drinks, and since tipping is somewhat optional and not expected at 20%, I easily could have signed for closer to 140RM, which would have been 35$ for a ridiculous sushi dinner for 2 people. What we got (and only some of it is pictured) would easily have been 150$ in the US. And this was high end....

Guess:

Sorry vegetarians, I ate these poor baby octopus whole, and they were good.

Petronas and Lunch

Lunch for today - we each got Nasi Lamek, shared a starter and a veg. My drink had lychees in it. And yes, still stuffed nearly 5 hours later...

I took a bunch of pictures at Petronas, but here are a couple of good ones:

Taking a break from work to sit by the pool with a LIIT - I don't feel too bad because everyone in America is sleeping now :)

Morning Acitivity

Having a nice (hot & hazy) day so far - about to start working for my job, but we (co-worker) did some stuff this morning and had a great meal.  My day started at 4am when the melatonin wore off, but I was happy to get 5hrs of sound sleep.  Did some work and exercise before 7, then grabbed a coffee and we took a cab to Petronas Tower.  Tickets sell out quickly I read, so by 8 we were in line and it was a good thing. We went up at 9:30 and checked it out.  Too many pics to post, but I will add one below.

After that, we checked out the enormous park outside, then we went to a place inside Petronas Mall for early lunch.  This was something else, authentic and fresh food with a nice lychee drink.  Gorged ourselves on several entrees.  Entire bill for 2 with tip - 33$.  Yup, you can eat like a king here pretty easily.

Took an Uber back, for an adventure on the crazy roads.  Glad I am not driving.  Tons of old crappy chinese cars, 1000s of mopeds and motorcycles weaving around, and they drive on the left.  Feels like a video game sometimes.  Now back at the hotel with the laptop.

Will post a pic of lunch and Petronas from my phone..

China Town

Can't get over how cheap things are here. Dinner for 2 with beer roughly 26$. Clothing and souvenirs are cheap too. Pic of the street we were on:

Attempting to sleep tonight...in a bed for first time since Friday night...

Fast Food Pics

 

 Lots of American food influence, and more where these came from.

FYI - whatever these are, they cost about 85 cents here.

Still Chugging

So how's this for a speedy recovery?  Arrived this morning after hardly any sleep, and the plan was to stay busy.  So far so good.  3 miles on the treadmill, some time at the pool, went to the mall with my co-worker to try some authentic food, then went to a Hindu temple that was a subway ride across town.

Now watching the Malaysian Badminton team compete in Rio while I type this - can't tell what they are saying because English stations aren't that common here.  A couple things about the activities for the day:
1) Food is really cheap here.  The currency here is 4 to 1 dollar.  Our entire lunch, which was 4 things to share, was 30MYR, which is 7.50$ total.  The subway round trip was 5MYR, so 1.25.  And so on and so forth.  Better get some clothing here while it is cheap.

2) I didn't know what to expect the people to be like.  But I will say that it is a melting pot, with seemingly little concern for culture clashes.  Chinese, Indians, Muslims, and native Malaysians seem to co-exist here.  Along with that are many westerners, none of whom I've seen look threatened.  In fact, we are probably not being vigilant as much as we should be, but I think the strict punishments for crime are a deterrant.

Example - Getting caught smoking at the train station is $2500 or prison, or BOTH.

I don't have a picture, but at the airport the sign said that trafficking drugs into Malaysia is punishable by death.













Will post more pictures right now in a separate post.

Some Pictures

Hotel pool

No idea what this is

First Impressions

Cannot believe that I made it here and feel relatively ok.  The trip door to door was about 28 hours.  Broken down as follows:
-Left 7pm for 11pm flight from BOS (too early it turns out)
-Flight 1 arrives in Dubai the next day at 7:30pm local time, layover 2hr
-Flight 2 arrives in Malaysia 8:30am Monday
-Customs, baggage, transit to hotel = 2hr

It is convenient that the time is exactly 12hr off from the east coast.  So I left my phone and computers on my time and just change am to pm.  Surprisingly, I feel fine and actually fell like it is supposed to be daytime for me.  Staying up until 3am daily for the few days prior to the trip helped.  The plan is to chill at the hotel and unpack, then go do something fun this afternoon.  Follow that by maybe early dinner, maybe a drink, some work (light), and then bed at "normal" time.  I will take a melatonin if necessary, but given that I haven't slept much on the planes, it shouldn't be hard.  Now I have no idea what time I will get up tomorrow and how I will feel.  The liklihood that I get up at 6:30 or 7 and feel fine is slim, but I will try.

Overall, so far so good for this kind of commute.  I wouldn't want to do it every month, but certainly would dig it 2x a year if the job called for it.  Lots to see and do on this side of the planet, and everything I do for the next 4 days will be a new experience.  I wish I was staying longer...

Meals on board

2 meals - dinner at 1am and breakfast a few hours later. Airline is good but cramped in economy - business looks awesome though. Kind of crazy we flew over Iraq and Iran...

3:40am

Already feeing like I have no idea what time it is but cannot sleep. Crammed on a (nice) plane but unable to get comfy. Just popped a melatonin to see if that works...

Not a bad menu - domestic ? I don't think so

These luggage tags

All in the suitcase luggage tag slip - this one went to London with us. Proof that luggage as a wedding gift survives over time...

Off to Malaysia for less than a week for work.  I figured it might be nice to write some things down this time.  I had to dust off my passport, as it has been 5 years since I left America.  I've also never been so far from home as I'll be in just 24 "short" hours.  I can't say that this trip was easy to plan or book either.  It all started as a potential trip to do some training in APAC (Asia Pacific in business terms), which was supposed to be in Thailand.  After I booked it for 2000$ (company $)  they promptly cancelled it.  About 2 weeks later they said it is on again, and the week of my birthday, and in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur to be specific.  I had to book several different airlines, none of which I typically fly on.  So here I am in Boston, sitting where I normally do for JetBlue, but instead about to board a 12.5 hour flight to Dubai on Emirates Airlines.  It is supposed to be nice, so we'll see how that goes.  After a quick layover, on to KL, arriving 2 days after I leave (with the 12 hour time diff).

I will try to post a few things and keep everyone abreast of the trip.