Whew! La Verne here! Selamat Datang from Malaysia! 24 hours, 3 plane flights, 4 airplane and 2 airport meals later, we find ourselves in Kuching, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo Island. We left 2 nights ago out of LAX on a flight that took us, to our surprise, first to Taipei (the homeland!) for a few hours (of course, we ate- a yummy bowl of steaming wonton soup with rice noodles) before moving on to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it is known to Malaysians (of course we ate again, this time a delicious chicken curry rice plate.) The Kuala Lumpur International Airport is a gleaming modern fortress of glass and steel, with floors so clean and shiny that my rubber-soled sandals kept getting stuck on them. From KL, we caught a flight to Kuching.What a day, or days I should say, since we crossed the international dateline and lost 16 hours, or something like that. First off, I must say that I am a big fan of Malaysian Airlines. They were deemed one of the top 5 airlines in the world in 2005 by a survey I'd never heard of. The plane was pretty comfy, ample leg room, and each seat had it's own little screen complete with movies, tv shows, and other entertainment on demand. Even though I was super tired, I was so intrigued by the movies that I watched 3 of them (8 Below is sooo good!) that I only slept about 4 hours on our first 13 hour flight! No wonder I'm in such a haze right now. I also liked the eggplant purple seat covers on the plane.
So far, everything has been pretty seamless. Our luggage showed up (one of the first ones off of the carousel!) and our tour escort, Thomas, met us when we popped out of baggage claim and
promptly dropped us off at our hotel in the city center. The people whom we have met in Malaysia have been especially warm and welcoming.The shower just now felt sooooooooooooo good (I'm convinced that my hair sucks up more airplane smell than other people's hair) and we have a nice relaxing evening ahead of us. Tomorrow, we will have our first venture into the town and Malaysian culture!
Thoughts from Jack...Here are some photos from our quick walk around town on our first night. Night life in Kuching is pretty mellow, but there were still a number of shops, restaurants and bars open, with locals hanging out.
We even spotted a wine shop a couple of blocks from our hotel. Most of the wines were from Australia (which makes geographical sense), but everything was priced really high -- about double retail price in the U.S. At those prices, wine is probably an extravagant luxury.
Here was a bit of a surprise: The McDonald's by our hotel is actually halal! It seems that even the strictest religious dietary restrictions are no match for the golden arches…
"Kuching" means "cats", and here is La Verne with the cats at the center of the plaza.
Alrighty, we’re totally beat from all the traveling… it’s time to snooze.
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