15 January 2008
Greetings, all, from modern, efficient, we're definately not in Africa anymore, Asia!
Our travels were long but went well, and we are happy to have moved on to a new place and a new experience. Our first hint that we had indeed left Africa came as we got off the plane for our overnight layover in Dubai. It was midnight, we were tired and giddy, and we were bussed from the plane to the terminal in busses that looked like hovercrafts! The terminal itself was absolutely bustling at 1am - full of people, all the shops still open, bright lights, moving walkways, and Dunkin Donughts, Starbucks, McDonalds, bookstores... wow. We wandered around wide-eyed for a while, then found a little piece of out-of-the-way carpet to curl up on and try to sleep, like hundreds of our fellow travelers. Caught a flight out at 10am, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 9pm. Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it's known and as I'll write since it's so much shorter, was even more of a shock than the Dubai airport. First of all, when we arrived and got a taxi to our hotel, somewhat late at night, there were still people out walking around the city, seemingly unworried about getting mugged! They were out sight seeing, and looking for resturaunts or bars or whatever, which is just something you don't see in most African cities.
Our first day was just spent sightseeing in a slight daze - both because of being jet lagged and just overwhelmed by our surroundings. KL is a maze of huge, shiny skyscrapers, shopping malls, there's a monorail and a subway system, and a wealth of resturaunts, bars, street stalls, vendors and street performers. It was incredibly entertaining to simply walk around. And there are quite a few American influences - things we haven't thought about in two years, like pop tarts, eggo waffles, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, pepridge farm cookies, A&W root beer, free refils on soft drinks... wow. It's a different world here! We spent three dazed days in KL and went to see the KL Petronas Twin Towers (the world's tallest buildings, kindof), the Islamic Art Museum, some big parks and a hibiscus and orchid garden, a tiny piece of old rain forest in the middle of the city, and all kinds of other exciting things. We somehow stayed our temptation for American food, and at more local cuisine instead - Thai, Japaneese, Chineese. I really need to work on my chopsticks skills, but should be a pro by the time we leave.
Yesterday we left KL behind and headed out to the island of Borneo - the third biggest island in the world, home of rainforests, orangutangs, the worlds biggest (and apparently stinkiest) flower, the world's only freshwater dolphins, and all kinds of other things. We'll explore here for the next week or so, and it seems like there will definately be enough to fill our time with. This place too, is quite modern (we're currently in the city of Kuching - the cat city!), and I think it's here to stay. I think we've adjusted quite well, though we are still easily wowed by things like the new i-pods, and tiny laptops. It's entertaining at least!
Until next time...
Andrea
Our travels were long but went well, and we are happy to have moved on to a new place and a new experience. Our first hint that we had indeed left Africa came as we got off the plane for our overnight layover in Dubai. It was midnight, we were tired and giddy, and we were bussed from the plane to the terminal in busses that looked like hovercrafts! The terminal itself was absolutely bustling at 1am - full of people, all the shops still open, bright lights, moving walkways, and Dunkin Donughts, Starbucks, McDonalds, bookstores... wow. We wandered around wide-eyed for a while, then found a little piece of out-of-the-way carpet to curl up on and try to sleep, like hundreds of our fellow travelers. Caught a flight out at 10am, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 9pm. Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it's known and as I'll write since it's so much shorter, was even more of a shock than the Dubai airport. First of all, when we arrived and got a taxi to our hotel, somewhat late at night, there were still people out walking around the city, seemingly unworried about getting mugged! They were out sight seeing, and looking for resturaunts or bars or whatever, which is just something you don't see in most African cities.
Our first day was just spent sightseeing in a slight daze - both because of being jet lagged and just overwhelmed by our surroundings. KL is a maze of huge, shiny skyscrapers, shopping malls, there's a monorail and a subway system, and a wealth of resturaunts, bars, street stalls, vendors and street performers. It was incredibly entertaining to simply walk around. And there are quite a few American influences - things we haven't thought about in two years, like pop tarts, eggo waffles, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, pepridge farm cookies, A&W root beer, free refils on soft drinks... wow. It's a different world here! We spent three dazed days in KL and went to see the KL Petronas Twin Towers (the world's tallest buildings, kindof), the Islamic Art Museum, some big parks and a hibiscus and orchid garden, a tiny piece of old rain forest in the middle of the city, and all kinds of other exciting things. We somehow stayed our temptation for American food, and at more local cuisine instead - Thai, Japaneese, Chineese. I really need to work on my chopsticks skills, but should be a pro by the time we leave.
Yesterday we left KL behind and headed out to the island of Borneo - the third biggest island in the world, home of rainforests, orangutangs, the worlds biggest (and apparently stinkiest) flower, the world's only freshwater dolphins, and all kinds of other things. We'll explore here for the next week or so, and it seems like there will definately be enough to fill our time with. This place too, is quite modern (we're currently in the city of Kuching - the cat city!), and I think it's here to stay. I think we've adjusted quite well, though we are still easily wowed by things like the new i-pods, and tiny laptops. It's entertaining at least!
Until next time...
Andrea
posted by aliberatinsa at 6:47 PM
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