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Kuala
Lumpur, Melaka, Perak and Langkawi
Part 2
Continued
from Part
1
04.12.02: KL -> Melaka
Hotel Chong
Hoe, Melaka, 39 RM/night
Weather: sunny
with clouds in the morning, clouds keep growing, some rain (1h) at 2pm;
strong rain on the motorway for half an hour at about 4pm; dry sunny
evening
with some clouds
We wake up at 10am and I feel better
than yesterday. After changing the booking of my Langkawi flight and a
brief lunch (chicken rice and a fresh starfruit juice for about 7 RM) I
take a taxi to the Puduraya bus station. My bus is at 1:30pm. In the
bus
I notice that I forgot the camera in the hotel room, so I get a new bus
ticket to Melaka and go back to the hotel to fetch the camera. This new
bus is even cheaper at 7.90 RM.
Getting to Melaka takes three hours,
mainly due to the high traffic on the motorway (Friday is Hari Raya, so
I guess it must be Malaysians who are driving back home). I arrive in
Melaka
shortly before six and move into the Chong Hoe Hotel (room with bath
and
A/C for 39 RM). I do some photo shooting in the evening and spend about
one hour in an Internet cafe (4 RM per hour). Two of the three tourist
restaurants near the Christ church which were open three years ago have
now closed. Melaka itself hasn't changed.
05.12.02: Melaka -> KL
Hotel Season's
View, KL, 88 RM/night
Weather: sunny
with clouds in the morning, rain for five minutes at noon, then sunny
the
whole day; in KL it rains in the afternoon
I wake up at 10am and leave the
hotel
at about 11am. Again some photo shooting, mainly to get the tourist
sights
with the (late) morning sun. I have an icecream for lunch then continue
walking around Melaka taking pictures. At 1pm I stop for 45 min. in an
Internet cafe near the Chong Hoe hotel, mainly because the sun is so
strong
and it is getting unbearably hot. After some lunch in the tourist
restaurant
near the Christ church I shoot again some photos. At 3pm I catch a taxi
(10 RM - expensive for such a short trip) back to the bus station. The
bus to KL leaves at 3:30pm.
Shirley calls me to tell me that
she can't make it in time to the Myanmar embassy because of a traffic
jam
in KL. I'll have to go to Langkawi without my passport. Tomorrow by the
way is a public holiday (Hari Raya) and the banks are closed. I won't
be
able to get the money I need to give to Shirley's mom to "buy" her
daughter.
On the motorway it rains for about
one hour at 5pm. The bus finally arrives in KL's Puduraya bus station
shortly
after 6pm. It is almost impossible to get a metered taxi in Puduraya as
all drivers refuse to use the meter and charge a multiple of what they
should charge. The trip to the hotel is only 3RM by meter, but the taxi
drivers ask for 15 RM. Even in a radius of 100 meters from the bus
station
the taxi drivers will refuse to use the meter (you might be somebody
who
just arrived by bus). It's an unofficial coupon system. Anyway, since
the
distance to the hotel is short and the air is relatively cool (it just
rained) I simply walk to the hotel.
In the evening I go to the Sungei
Wang shopping complex. On the third floor there is an IT section. There
are many notebooks priced around 5000 RM (1300 Euro or $), even several
for less than that. There are even notebooks for 2000 RM (526 Euro or
$).
It's a line called 'desknote' made by the Taiwanese Elitegroup, and
they
are meant to be used as a replacement for desktop computers.
Consequently
they have no battery (though you can buy an external one), but have a
very
good TFT LCD screen and lots of interface options (weight is 2.5 Kg).
The
2000 RM unit comes with a 10GB HDD and a 533 MHz Transmeta crusoe
processor.
For 100 RM more you get a unit with a 1GHz Celeron. If offered in
Germany
at this price, these things would probably sell as hotcakes.
Tomorrow I'm driving with Shirley,
her sister Sarah, Lisa (the wife of Shirley's brother) and Lisa's mom
to
Teluk Intan - five people with luggage in a Proton Saga. 100% sure that
there is not enough place for the luggage of five people in a
Proton
Saga (he he he... somebody will have to take the bus).
06.12.02:
KL -> Teluk
Intan (Hari Raya - end of the Ramadan period)
Hotel G-City,
Teluk Intan, 50 RM/night
Weather: spotless
sunny blue sky early in the morning, clouds building up; it starts
raining
heavily at 2:30pm and rains for about one hour; sunny evening in Teluk
Intan
We wake up at 10am and check out
of the hotel at 1:30pm. Today we are driving to Shirley's hometown,
Teluk
Intan, a small town 180 Km to the north of KL. While driving Shaun,
Shirley's
brother, tells me that with Air Asia (www.airasia.com) I could fly much
cheaper to Langkawi - less than 200 RM return if I understood him
properly.
It's a discounter airline and they accept bookings through the phone
(maybe
also through the website). You get the ticket at the airport.
Tomorrow we will have the Chinese
wedding ceremony, which will take place in the house of Shirley's
parents.
It is the so called tea ceremony. Basically Shirley and I will give a
small
cup of tea to all married relatives of Shirley, starting from Shirley's
parents. In exchange the relatives will give us an ang pao - usually
some
cash in a red decorated paper envelope. With this exchange of gifts the
relatives signal that they acknowledge that Shirley and I are getting
married
and that they agree with our marriage. After this ceremony, in which no
monk or priest is involved, we are married for the Chinese. Right now,
even if we already got legally married, we are still not married in the
eyes of the Chinese.
Sarah picks us up and brings us
first to Shirley's home in Subang Jaya. Then she drives to the airport
to fetch Lisa and her mother. They are Taiwanese and left Taipei for KL
in the morning to attend our marriage. In the end we drive with two
cars
to Teluk Intan, arriving around 7pm.
In the evening we have a common
dinner in a restaurant (the two of us, Shirley's brother Shaun,
Shirley's
parents, Lisa and her mom). Lisa's mom as well as Shirley's parents
don't
speak English (apparently only the younger generation in Taiwan speaks
English), so I try to speak some Mandarin. I've started with a Chinese
language course in September and am only able to say some simple
things,
but with Shirley's help I manage to have some very basic conversation.
More important, I start to catch up with what people are saying - this
evening they all speak Mandarin, as Lisa and her mother don't speak
Cantonese
(otherwise I'd be out of luck).
Shirley tells me that this evening
I, the groom, am supposed to pay for the dinner. Now, the fact is that
when Chinese meet for dinner, they will share the food and there will
always
be one person, only one person, who pays for everybody. Usually
everybody
will offer to pay for the dinner and there will be a competition for
the
privilege to pay for the dinner. People will even have an argument to
be
able to pay the bill.
This summer (2002) for instance,
my Chinese relatives came to Europe for the German wedding and we went
on a brief trip to Austria. We spent one night in a hotel and to
simplify
things the next morning I decided to pay the bill for the three rooms.
While I was in the lobby asking for it, Chris, Shirley's brother in
law,
spotted me and quickly rushed to the lobby desk, pushed me away and
greedily
grabbed the bill and payed for the three rooms. In such a situation
usually
I'm out of luck, as I'm too shy or embarassed to start an argument to
be
able to pay for the bill. And this evening Shaun was faster than me and
grabbed the bill for himself. I offered to pay for it (at 150 RM
actually
a relatively very small bill for a dinner for eight people), but Shaun
stubbornly insisted to pay for it.
07.12.02:
Teluk
Intan
(Wedding day)
Hotel G-City,
Teluk Intan, 50 RM/night
Weather: sunny
with some clouds, hot; it rains in the evening at 8pm for one hour and
again shortly at 10:30pm
Today I'm having the wedding ...
In the morning we have breakfast in a restaurant where the humidity is
so high that when I take out the camera to take a picture, a layer of
water
forms on the lens. After breakfast we do some shopping in a nearby
market.
Then we drive to Shirley's parents home. The ceremony is supposed to
start
at 2pm. Since many guests haven't arrived by 2:30pm the ceremony is
postponed
to 5:30pm. In the meantime it starts smelling like cow shit. But it's
not
cow shit, it's a truck full of palm oil parking outside. Apparently
palm
oil smells like cow shit.
We go back to the hotel, where I
take a rest while Shirley goes to the hairdresser. At about 5pm we are
back at Shirley's parents place and at 5:30pm the tea ceremony
starts.
We begin by offering tea to the
ancestors in front of the home shrine (three times, bowing three times
each time). Then we offer tea to Shirley's parents, after that to all
other
married relatives. It's actually a very nice ceremony and it gives me
an
opportunity to introduce myself to Shirley's relatives.
After the ceremony we give ang paos
(small envelopes with cash) to the unmarried children. Then we more or
less rush to the restaurant, as it's already late. In the restaurant we
are on the first floor where we occupy about one third or a very large
room. We have nine tables with each ten seats (90 guests). In the other
part of the restaurant other people are having dinner.
About half an hour after our dinner
has started, a wedding music starts and a guy shouts into a microphone
something like "... and now let's welcome the wonderful wedding
couple..".
And in fact, surprise surprise a wedding couple walks up the stairs and
moves towards a table. A bit funny indeed - two wedding parties in the
same room in the same restaurant competing for attention. The dinner by
the way is quite good (10 course). When we leave the restaurant at 10pm
we notice that there is a third wedding dinner taking place in the
ground
floor of the restaurant. Interesting, three wedding dinners in the same
restaurant at the same time.
08.12.02:
Teluk
Intan
-> KL
Hotel Concorde,
KL, 143 RM/night, double with A/C and bath, four star hotel
Weather: sunny
and hot with some clouds; it starts raining while we are on the
motorway
at 5:15pm for about one hour
We sleep long and wake up at 11am.
We don't do much, briefly go into town where I shoot some pictures of
the leaning
tower of Teluk Intan, have lunch in a restaurant and then go to the
home of the inlaws. Lot of chatting with the relatives (the ones who
came
from Singapore and Johor Bharu already left in the morning). At about
4:30pm
Shaun drives us back to KL. There is a huge traffic jam, as lots of
Malaysians
are driving back home after the Hari Raya weekend. At 5:15pm it starts
raining heavily for one hour and we arrive in KL after 8:30pm.
After a brief dinner Shaun drives
us to the Hotel Concorde (thanks Shaun for driving us so much around).
The Concorde is the most luxurious place in Malaysia where we have been
so far. The rooms are ok, but it's quite obvious that the Concorde has
been built some time ago, as the furniture is quite old. In any case
the
room is fine (the toilet has a good shower and even a hair drier). My
stomach
is upset, so I decide to see a specialist tomorrow morning and fly to
Langkawi
with the 4:55pm flight. I call the MAS hotline and change the booking.
The telephone line works and I use to check my emails and my site. At
11:30pm
we walk to the nearby Citibank to get some cash. We sleep at 1:30am.
09.12.02: KL -> Langkawi
Cenang Beach
Resort (Motel), Langkawi, 60 RM
Weather: sunny
with some clouds in KL, rain at KLIA at 4:40pm for about 20 minutes,
bright
sunny day in Langkawi with a nice sunset
In the morning we have a common
breakfast
with Lisa and her mother (who also stay in the Concorde). After that I
visit a doctor in the Tung Shin hospital and have lunch with Shirley.
At
about 1:50pm I'm back in the hotel where I pack my bags. I'm flying to
Langkawi for a few days, while Shirley will continue her shopping and
friends-meeting
tour in KL.
At 2:10pm I fetch a taxi to KL Sentral
station (KL central railway station) where I will get the KLIA express
to KLIA airport. It's a new high speed train which has been operational
since April this year. The ticket costs 35 RM. If you hold a Malaysian
Airlines (MAS) ticket you can check in your luggage in KL Sentral -
quite
convenient, as this allows you to arrive later to KLIA. I have to
rebook
my ticket at the MAS counter and there is a 50 RM cancellation fee. I
take
the 2:45pm skytrain and arrive in KLIA 28 minutes later. Quite fast,
considering
that KLIA is about 60 Km from KL. Then it's one and a half hours in the
freezing airport (A/C is very cold there). The plane arrives to
Langkawi
15 minutes late.
I take a room in the Cenang Beach
Resort, a place recommended in the Lonely Planet. It's basically a big
restaurant with some A/C huts. 'Huts' is the right term, because the
accomodation
is quite basic. There is a bed, a cupboard, an A/C unit, some
electrical
sockets (useful to recharge the batteries) and... the toilet. This
consists
of a squat toilet and a pipe which can be used to take a shower. Never
mind, the owner promises to move me to a better place tomorrow and the
other places I called either had changed telephone number or were fully
booked. And the huts are on the beach - so I stay. The beach is full of
Malay tourists - my guess is that they used the Hari Raya weekend to
take
an extended leave. Probably tomorrow they will start getting back to
work.
The Pantai
Cenang beach, well, is so-so. It was nothing special three years
ago
and didn't improve. What can I say, there is no white coral sand and
the
water is more or less dirty. But it's very long and it should be
pleasant
walking along it.
When I check the available tours,
there are a number of options. One is the Three islands half-day tour
for
35 RM (leaving twice a day at 9:30 am and 2:30pm) which I did three
years
ago, where they basically bring you by boat to three islands, one with
a fresh water lake, one with a nature reserve and one with a nice
beach.
This tour is quite nice. The other option is to take an eagle feeding
tour
(90 RM), which includes visits to mangroves, a cave and a fish farm.
Then
there is a snorkelling/diving tour to a marine park nearby.
You can also do a tour around Langkawi
with a taxi (four hours, 60RM) which is probably what I will do
tomorrow.
I'll have a look at the various beaches. Probably I'll then do the
three
islands tour on Wednesday.
There are many Internet cafes along
the Cenang beach. The going rate is 6 RM/hour, with one place at 5
RM/hour.
10.12.02: Langkawi
Cenang Beach
Resort (Motel), Langkawi, 60 RM
Weather: sunny
the whole day with just a few clouds; no rain
I wake up at 10am and process my
email. Then I walk to the Cenang beach. It's completely deserted -
there
is almost nobody around (perhaps the Malaysians don't go the beach at
noon).
The sea
water today
is
surprisingly clean. After some photos and the lunch I decide to do a
round
trip of the island with a taxi. The trip starts at 2pm (cost will
be 20 RM/hour, the car is a minivan). We agree to visit all beaches,
see
a couple of waterfalls and visit Kuah.
The first stop is at the Pantai
Kok beach. This is supposed to be a better beach, and in fact it's
more or less ok, although not too great. You can walk for a while along
the beach (couple of Km) and every now and then there are some rocks
and
some resorts. These are upmarket resorts but the bungalows are not too
impressive. Near Pantai Kok beach they are building a harbour for
yachts,
We then drive to the Telaga
Tujuh waterfalls. The car stops at a parking (lots of shops there)
and I walk up a trail for about 10 minutes. Many monkeys (macaques)
along
the trail. The waterfalls are very nice and there are many people
bathing
in the ponds. A welcome break from the tropical heat. Easy to spend the
whole afternoon there, but I have no time. Maybe I'll return
tomorrow.
Next stop is the cablecar line whose base
station is a few minutes by car from the waterfalls. Here it
becomes
for the first time very obvious that Langkawi has undergone a lot of
development
over the past years. A lot of capital has been invested. There is a
something
called 'Oriental
village'
- actually a very nice collection of buildings with many shops and
restaurants
recently built. A bit Disneyland-like, but still nice. There is no fee
to enter this village. In the village there is the cablecar station.
Would
you believe it, they built an Austrian-style cablecar, one of those
usually
found in the Alps to carry the skiers to the pists, in a tropical
island.
The cablecar brings you on top of a mountain (Gunung
Macincang, 706 m) where you enjoy a great panorama
of Langkawi. Very cool feeling going up the mountain in this
cablecar
- gliding over the jungle. The return ticket is 10 RM. Great views on
top
of the mountain - you can even see nearby Koh
Tarutao in Thailand. After some photos I go down and we drive to
the beaches
on the northern coast, starting with the western ones.
We first stop at the Pasir
Tengkorak beach - a not too big but nice beach, in a bay surrounded
by the jungle. The sea
water here is cleaner than on the west coast of Langkawi. Then we
continue
our trip, this time heading to the Datai
beach at the end of the road. This beach is quite far away. We
first
pass by a golf club (the Datai
bay golf club). Langkawi has a total of three golf clubs. Very nice
golf club in a tropical forest setting. Then we continue. There are two
very expensive resorts here, the Andaman and the Datai. The Datai
resort basically reserves the Datai beach for itself and doesn't
allow
other non-hotel visitors. We continue until the end of the road,
spotting
several black monkeys along the road. Then we take a narrow jungle
trail
and after five minutes of very steep climbing the driver shows me a
beach
- a deserted beach
to the west of Datai beach. The beach is somehow nice and the water is
clean. We then walk to the rocks
at the eastern end and from there you can see the Datai
bay with the beach and the resort. The beach doesn't look too
impressive
from this point. Then we walk up again back to the car. It is now
5:30pm
and we have to rush a bit, as the sun sets at 7pm. On the way back we
stop
and I try to photograph the black monkeys, but these are afraid of
humans
and run away.
It's a long drive to the Black
Sand beach (Pantai Pasir Hitam). It is supposed to be a black sand
beach, but in reality there are simply streaks of black sand caused by
a spring that deposits mineral oxides. It looks as if the beach were
polluted.
In any case not impressing at all.
At 6:35pm we finally reach the last
beach, Tanjung
Rhu.
Impressive beach, the best beach of Langkawi. Very long and broad, with
almost white sand. The water is however very shallow. There is just one
resort, the Tanjung Rhu resort where the cheapest room costs 400 RM
(the
most expensive 1400 RM). Now, if this were Thai Baht... The Lonely
Planet
of 1999 reports that there are two hotels, the Mutiara with rooms
starting
at 150 RM and the Radisson with rooms starting at 600 RM, but the
driver
tells me that these two hotels have merged into the Tanjung Rhu.
Since it's almost 7pm we decide
to skip Kuah and drive directly back to Pantai Cenang beach.
My conclusion is that Langkawi has
some nice beaches, but not great beaches as in Perhentian
and the water is not as crystal clear as there. The main reason to go
to
Langkawi are not its beaches, instead it's the interesting interior
with
the jungle, the mountains and waterfalls as well as the wide range of
activities
offered (golfing, shopping etc.). Langkawi is being developed into a
prime
upmarket vacation resort.
11.12.02: Langkawi
Cenang Beach
Resort (Motel), Langkawi, 60 RM
Weather: sunny
the whole day with just a few clouds; no rain
I wake up and process the images
I took yesterday. At 12pm I leave the room - the Chenang beach is
empty.
Now wonder, considering the extremely strong sun and the heat. Most
people
are somewhere in a shadowy place. I have lunch and then book the Three
islands tour. I go back to the room and continue processing the images
until 2:20pm. Then I go to the meeting place and wait for the tour car.
At about 2:45pm the car arrives and brings me to the Teluk
Baru jetty, in the southwestern tip of Langkawi. There the boat is
already waiting for me and we leave at 3pm. On this tour there are a
group
of young Malays from KL (who are on an extended Hary Raya vacation),
two
Singaporean ladies and me.
The boat rides very fast across
the waves (lots of bumps and sea water on the face). We first head to
the
Dayang Bunting island where there is a huge freshwater
lake. We spend one hour on the island swimming in the lake, lying
in
the sun and playing with the catfish. In the lake there is a colony of catfish
who wait for food and are not afraid of humans. I put my feet into the
water and the catfish
massage
starts. Dozens of catfish come to check if my feet are something
eatable
(no they don't bite, just check with their sensor hairs). An incredible
experience. I even put my hand into the water and play with the catfish
(touch, caress, hold in the hand and so on).
Then we leave for the nearby Pulau
Singa Besar (big Singa island), where there is a wildlife reserve.
But we just see two peacocks and two horses. There is a nice white
coral
sand beach
and the sea
water is clear.
Half an hour later we go by boat
to the next island, Pulau
Beras Basah, opposite Pulau Singa Besar. We stop on a nice white
coral
sand beach for about one hour. The water here however is not clear,
actually
a bit dirty. Possibly this is due to the current which flows against
the
beach and carries dirt particles. At 5:50pm we leave and at 6:20pm I'm
back in the hotel.
In the evening I do the usual things.
Copy the photos from the memory card to the computer, have dinner (this
evening there is a nice barbecue
on the beach) and check my messages and my site in an Internet
cafe.
By the way, the Internet access
in the shop opposite the Chenang Beach Resort (opposite and 10 meters
to
the south) has just one computer, but a very fast connection. In the
same
shop they also rent motorbikes for 35 RM. By contrast, the Internet
cafe
100m or 200m south of the Chenang beach resort has many computers but a
very slow speed.
12.12.02: Langkawi -> KL
Hotel Concorde,
KL, 143 RM
Weather: sunny
with some clouds, more clouds after 3pm, rain for 20 minutes at 3:30pm;
clouds in KL
After checking out at 12pm and
having
lunch I take a taxi at 1pm to the Telaga
Tujuh waterfalls (20 RM one way). This time I manage to reach the
top
of the waterfall (just follow the trail which leads up). Apparently the
taxi driver directed me to the bottom of the waterfall two days ago. At
the top of the waterfall there is an area with many wells
where people can swim (actually jacuzzi-style ponds where the strong
waterflow
massages your body). I end up staying there until 3pm then go down to
the
bottom of the waterfall. Around 3:30pm I'm on the way back when it
starts
raining. I manage to reach the parking with all the shops and wait
there
until the rain ends (20 minutes). Then I try to catch a taxi. Well,
there
are no taxis there. I ask a guy how to find a taxi and he offers to
bring
me back for 20RM. He tells me that in the low season hotel room prices
drop substantially. Right now we have a period of high season (the Hari
Raya weeks when many Malaysians take a short vacation).
We reach the hotel and I get my
things and another taxi to the airport
(driver charges 12 RM for the trip). The flight leaves more or less on
time and we arrive in KL at 7 something pm. After getting my luggage I
manage to catch the next KLIA express (35 RM) at 8:15pm arriving in KL
Sentral at 8:43pm. The taxis there use a coupon system and I pay 9 RM
to
get back to the hotel. After taking a shower I catch a taxi to Bukit
Bintang
street where I have a dinner and use an Internet cafe for one
hour.
On the street one guy gives me a
business card with the address of an escort service and another one
offers
me a lady. When walking back to the hotel along Jalan Sultan Ismail at
11pm I run into several prostitutes waiting for customers.
13.12.02:
KL
Hotel Concorde,
KL, 143 RM
Weather: sunny
with some clouds, more clouds in the afternoon, rain for a few minutes
At 11am I go to the Citibank, get
4000 RM from the ATM and change it into US $ (will need the money for
Myanmar).
I'll carry $1200 cash to Myanmar. Should be enough for the two of us
for
two weeks. If not, I'll use the credit card. Shirley found a Myanmar
Handbook
from 1997. A bit old, but it is the only travel guide about Myanmar
which
we could find in KL.
Today is the wedding photo day.
Traditionally in the Chinese marriage the couple does several wedding
shots
with different dresses. At about 1pm I reach the photographer's studio
in Jalan Ipoh. Shirley is already there and is been made up by a
visagist
(she looks like a geisha). The photo session goes on until almost 8pm
and
over the course of the afternoon we wear several dresses, suits,
jackets
etc. We even wear a traditional Japanese wedding dress (I look like a
samurai,
Shirley wears a kimono) and the traditional Chinese wedding dress.
Shirley
says it looks nice on me, because I'm tall. We will choose the photos
to
print on Dec. 29th, when we are back from Myanmar. (Photo albums are
very
expensive by the way - 700 RM for an album with 21 A4 size photos -
that's
how the photographer makes money).
In the evening we don't do much.
14.12.02:
KL
Hotel Summit,
Subang Jaya (KL), 168 RM
Weather: sunny
with some clouds in the morning, very clouded in the afternoon, very
little
rain
We check out in the morning from
the Concorde and check in at 2pm in the Summit hotel in Subang Jaya.
It's
a four or five stars place next to the Summit shopping complex.
International
class, rooms are nice, but the A/C is stuck at maximum power, so the
room
is quite cold. After we have lunch with a friend until 4pm, do
some
shopping, then at 7pm we have the wedding dinner with Shirley's friends
in a Vietnamese restaurant in Subang Jaya.
At the wedding dinner (most guests
are Malaysian Chinese friends of Shirley) I'm told that I don't look
like
a typical German, because I'm not fat. Hmmm, do all Germans who visit
Malaysia
have a beer belly? After we pack our things as tomorrow we are flying
to
Myanmar.
The Summit Hotel is not good value.
The shower is not good (not enough water, either too hot or too cold),
room is freezing due to the A/C stuck to maximum power and a breakfast
is not included. Plus the location is bad (Subang Jaya and not KL).
This travelogue continues with the Myanmar
2002 travelogue.
29.12.02: Yangon -> KL (flight)
Hotel Concorde,
KL, 168RM
Weather: sunny,
no rain in Yangon; sunny with clouds in KL, hot and humid
We wake up at 5:15am (in Yangon,
Myanmar) and leave the hotel at 6:10am reaching the airport (a bit out
of town to the north) at 6:25am - only a 15 minutes drive on the almost
empty roads of this very early Sunday morning. Normal drive time is
approx.
30 minutes according to our driver. At the airport we give $250 for the
second part of trip payment to the driver and go through immigration
and
check-in. We have to pay an additional $10 each airport tax (travel
agency
in KL told us the airport tax was already included). We have a cup of
tea
in the cafe above the departure lounge. The 8am MAI (Myanmar Airways
International)
flight takes off at 8am sharp. I've never experienced a flight which
would
take off sharp on the planned time - but it's probably no big
accomplishment
considering the situation: ever seen an international airport with just
two or three planes in it ?
We arrive on time at 12pm local
time in KLIA and are in the Hotel Concorde at 1:30pm (taking the KLIA
express).
I download my emails and messages. Shirley goes out and meets her
sister
Sara for shopping. I finish browsing through the messages, then take a
taxi to BB Plaza, have a brief lunch at a KFC and have a haircut at
Kimarie
(55 RM). Then I buy some groceries and have a look at the IT section.
There
is a Sotec subnotebook with a DVD/CDRW combodrive for just 4200RM. Then
I spend some time in an Internet cafe. I eat something again at the
Esquire
Kitchen, then head back to the hotel. In the evening I try to recover
without
success the photos from Inle lake.
30.12.02:
KL -> Munich
Hotel Concorde,
KL, 168RM
Weather: overcast
sky in the morning; sun shines in the afternoon; no rain
After breakfast we take a taxi to
the Citibank where I get cash with my VISA card. It's a Citibank VISA
card
and I'm taking the money from a Citibank ATM. Since in Germany I loaded
the card with cash, there should be no transaction fee for this
operation.
This money is for Shirley's mom, as I need to pay for Shirley. We take
a taxi and go to the Maybank near the BB Plaza shopping complex and
deposit
the money into Shirley's account.
After we go to the 2nd floor of
the Sungei Wang shopping centre and I have a second look at the Sotec
notebook.
The screen is just average - the colours are not that brilliant and
that
kills the deal. My Toshiba Portege 300CT may be outdated, but
íts
screen is excellent. After some more shopping around we take a taxi and
go to Sarah's office. There Sarah gives us her car.
We first drive to Shirley's home
in Subang Jaya where she gets some stuff. Then we take the motorway and
drive to Putrajaya (arriving at 3pm). This is supposed to become the
new
administrative centre of Malaysia. Putrajaya basically consists of big
residential areas, green parks, mosques and government buildings. There
is a lot of work in progress - it looks like an unfinished town. We
explore
the town a bit (with Shirley complaining of the sun and the heat, and
indeed
it's very hot), then drive back to KL at 4:40pm.
In KL we hand over the car to Sarah
and drive to the hotel. Dinner is at 9pm in KLCC in the Lazar Grill
restaurant
(116 RM for the three of us) on the first floor.
I pack my things and around 11pm
we drive to the KL Sentral station where I fetch the KLIA Express at
11:45pm.At
the airport, when checking in, it turns out that the total weight of my
luggage is 41.4 Kg - 6.4 Kg more than the 35Kg allowed on my ticket.
The
additional fee is substantial (648 RM). Luckily, when I suggest to
carry
one item as cabin luggage, the check in clerk agrees.
Copyright (c) 2003
Alfred Molon
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