SE Asian Adventure Part Deux- Chapter 2: Arrival in KL
The Kuala Lumpur airport has a rainforest walk way inside and high end shops lining all the corridors. I disembarked and headed to the nearest monitor to check on Steph's flight. She flew from Chicago to Dubai to KL on Emirates. The first monitor only had departures so I went to another. Departures. A third: also departures.
I realized that in this hall, behind airport security has no reason to list arrivals. I turn to the 21st century traveler's go to weapon: free WiFi. I took a photo of my computer with our day by day itinerary so I have her flight number and flight tracker tells me that it's on time but has curiously omitted the gate for arrival. I approach one of the women behind the info desk. She, like many of the other women in this Muslim majority country is wearing a head scarf and show her my phone with the flight number. With perfect English she tells me that Steph's plane will arrive at gate C23 I thank her, follow her directions and sit outside the gate. An hour is a very long time when you're waiting for your friend to arrive from half way around the world.
I wander to B23 in case I misheard the gate, but the airlines don't match up. I head back to C23, stretch, ask the ladies carrying "Welcome Johnson" and "Welcome Lee" cards if this is the right gate. Passengers begin to disembark or "alight" if you will according to regional vernacular (thanks British Empire.) I will say there is nothing more relieving than being in the right place to greet someone who also pent the last 30 hours en transit exit a jet ready to start an adventure.
First things first. Iced coffee, bathroom, ATM. Chase is being a bitch and promised me on the phone they absolutely, positively would not out a travel alert on my card and I would have to reply to their email once I failed to use my card in SE Asia. Shoutout to Bank of America and Steph who's card worked like a champ and we withdrew Malaysian Ringet.
We picked up Steph's bag (I should have let her check my multi tool) and found a cab, but we needed a ticket to get in a cab so we went back inside to pay 82 Ringet to take an hour cab ride to Jaclyn and Chengwei's. There are a lot of palm trees and big buildings in KL.
Jaclyn and CW live in a 4 unit complex for diplomats with no children. The railings are too wide and the marble floors that span the 4 floors aren't conducive for little ones. Their complex has a pool and they have a car since walking is at your own risk in KL. the car's GPS system speaks in Japanese and has a special diplomatic license plate.
Chengwei's mom is in town from China so she has the second extra bedroom and Steph and I get the 3rd with two twin beds. My bed's spread is made of Jaclyn's tee shirts from high school.
I'm exhausted but after a shower agree to get lunch at an Indian restaurant and try to stay up to avoid the jet lag. Steph and I get KL 24 hour hop on hop off tour bus tickets and Jaclyn dropped us off at a hotel. She didn't park exactly in the lines and th parking lot attendant was unamused. She tried to tell him she would only be there five minutes and he tried to make her pay for the spot. Luckily the bus cam and she could drive away. Since it's Ramadan, the fasting month, places close early for Muslim's to beak fast. We drove around to see what sites we wants to stop at tomorrow and alighted at Petronus Towers.
The ground floor is a mall, like many other big buildings in KL. Petronus is an energy company and because the spires on top of the towers are purposeless, the towers count as being taller than the Sears Tower since the antennae on top have a purpose and therefore aren't technically part of he architecture. We went to the bridge between where you can hear swallows diving, calling and eating the bugs that congregate by the spotlights. We also went to the 86th floor lookout where we were too tired to do much more than sit on a bench and watch the laser light water show in the pond below. Southeast Asia loves a good light show. We ate some egg rolls from the mall food court and took a long, meandering taxi back to Jaclyn's.
I realized that in this hall, behind airport security has no reason to list arrivals. I turn to the 21st century traveler's go to weapon: free WiFi. I took a photo of my computer with our day by day itinerary so I have her flight number and flight tracker tells me that it's on time but has curiously omitted the gate for arrival. I approach one of the women behind the info desk. She, like many of the other women in this Muslim majority country is wearing a head scarf and show her my phone with the flight number. With perfect English she tells me that Steph's plane will arrive at gate C23 I thank her, follow her directions and sit outside the gate. An hour is a very long time when you're waiting for your friend to arrive from half way around the world.
I wander to B23 in case I misheard the gate, but the airlines don't match up. I head back to C23, stretch, ask the ladies carrying "Welcome Johnson" and "Welcome Lee" cards if this is the right gate. Passengers begin to disembark or "alight" if you will according to regional vernacular (thanks British Empire.) I will say there is nothing more relieving than being in the right place to greet someone who also pent the last 30 hours en transit exit a jet ready to start an adventure.
First things first. Iced coffee, bathroom, ATM. Chase is being a bitch and promised me on the phone they absolutely, positively would not out a travel alert on my card and I would have to reply to their email once I failed to use my card in SE Asia. Shoutout to Bank of America and Steph who's card worked like a champ and we withdrew Malaysian Ringet.
We picked up Steph's bag (I should have let her check my multi tool) and found a cab, but we needed a ticket to get in a cab so we went back inside to pay 82 Ringet to take an hour cab ride to Jaclyn and Chengwei's. There are a lot of palm trees and big buildings in KL.
Jaclyn and CW live in a 4 unit complex for diplomats with no children. The railings are too wide and the marble floors that span the 4 floors aren't conducive for little ones. Their complex has a pool and they have a car since walking is at your own risk in KL. the car's GPS system speaks in Japanese and has a special diplomatic license plate.
Chengwei's mom is in town from China so she has the second extra bedroom and Steph and I get the 3rd with two twin beds. My bed's spread is made of Jaclyn's tee shirts from high school.
I'm exhausted but after a shower agree to get lunch at an Indian restaurant and try to stay up to avoid the jet lag. Steph and I get KL 24 hour hop on hop off tour bus tickets and Jaclyn dropped us off at a hotel. She didn't park exactly in the lines and th parking lot attendant was unamused. She tried to tell him she would only be there five minutes and he tried to make her pay for the spot. Luckily the bus cam and she could drive away. Since it's Ramadan, the fasting month, places close early for Muslim's to beak fast. We drove around to see what sites we wants to stop at tomorrow and alighted at Petronus Towers.
The ground floor is a mall, like many other big buildings in KL. Petronus is an energy company and because the spires on top of the towers are purposeless, the towers count as being taller than the Sears Tower since the antennae on top have a purpose and therefore aren't technically part of he architecture. We went to the bridge between where you can hear swallows diving, calling and eating the bugs that congregate by the spotlights. We also went to the 86th floor lookout where we were too tired to do much more than sit on a bench and watch the laser light water show in the pond below. Southeast Asia loves a good light show. We ate some egg rolls from the mall food court and took a long, meandering taxi back to Jaclyn's.