Greetings From Malaysia
Yes, you guessed it. I made it to Malaysia all in one piece. It was touch and go for a minute there, but I'm relieved things worked out.
The flight from Detroit to Indianapolis was a breeze. We were in and out in a flash. Less than an hour. There was a short layover and then came to flight to Los Angeles. A mid-length flight, to be sure, as it lasted about five hours or so, but it seemed to go quickly. There was an older woman next to me who was reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and that amused me pretty much, but time went quickly just listening to my iPod and watching the scenery. The flight to California from Indy is a pretty cool one. One minute, the topography is your typical midwest farm squares and the next minute, it's mountain city.
So the layover between flights two and three was longer. That was good, because we actually had to leave the terminal and check in (again) which meant we had to go through security (again). And we waited an hour in line just to do the whole checking in thing. We ate (should I now go all TMI on you and tell you I haven't gone to the bathroom since the morning before leaving? And that it didn't exactly get the job done?) which probably didn't do wonders for my stomach, but then we went to the gate and waited a fair while. Played Set. I did a quick assignment, read a chapter of my book.
And then came boarding for the flight from hell. First of all, it was, like, 1:35 PST, which was 4:45 EST so I was already exhausted. When I finally got to my row on this giant plane, the two other occupants were already there and they were old. Super old. And tiny. Combine them together and I'd still take them down. And I think I made the old lady mad because I had to scoot over her to get to my window seat (traveler's tip: on long flights, get an aisle seat) and, of course, one of my biggest fears in life is inconveniencing people, so I resigned myself to a long flight with no bathroom break.
So, the flight started, no hitch. And I immediately fell asleep and woke up several times with horrible cricks in my neck and shoulder and back but kept falling back asleep. I have a vague recollection of waking up to a flight attendant asking if I wanted refreshments and telling him, "no thanks". I'm pretty sure that was dinner because I definitely never got any of that.
I figured I slept on and off for about six hours, but I'm not sure that's accurate because my time zones were so slipped up and the remaining seven hours were full of rage and general claustrophobia. I did get to get up to go to the bathroom. I took the opportunity when both row mates got up to do the same. And I squatted a bit to get my legs moving. And then sat down, miserable and cornered. I watched six episodes of Better Off Ted, which took up about two hours but there were still a million hours left and my frakking TV wasn't working and when I accidentally called over a flight attendant to ask if they could fix it, she told me to try again in twenty minutes.
Yeah, like that worked.
The last couple hours were spent in abject misery, almost falling asleep but having my neck give out or my hand fall asleep. I am proud to say that my iPod only died at the last minute. Good, iPod. Good.
Getting off that plane was the most satisfying moment of my life. Until realizing we had another flight to board in about two hours. But hey! We were in Taipei and the gate was cool because it was off by itself and we could charge our electronics and check our email for free. And the flight from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur was super easy. My TV worked (I kind of love China Airway, now) and I watched Clash of the Titans (not a great movie, by the way. Super poor character development and poorly plotted), an episode of Glee, a random documentary about Roger Federer and his record breaking 2009, and part of an episode of Top Gear. And flying into the airport was wild because it was surrounded by a field of palm trees and you couldn't really see any runway so it felt like we were landing in a jungle.
And now here we are. We got picked up at the airport by the UPSI crew and drove north for about an hour and a half (but I got two seats to stretch out on so that was wonderful) and they gave us tea, sandwiches, and muffins, and now I have to be ready for dinner in little more than an hour.
I don't know where I'm going to put the food. Maybe tomorrow, when we go shopping, I'll look into buying something for constipation. TMI? Sorry, you knew what you were getting into.
The apartment is nice. There are four of us in each and each have two bathrooms and there are five beds. I somehow got a room to myself. The bathrooms have been a little problematic, though. One of the shower heads is busted and, in the other bathroom, a toilet got clogged in the first go-through (not me!) and was leaking. I can tell I'm not going to have fun with these toilets. They can barely handle one piece of toilet paper. But I guess I should be happy that they're regular toilets and not the kind where you squat. There were definitely a lot of squatting toilets in the bathrooms of the airports in Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
Also, did you know that often, instead of using toilet paper, they use a hose to clean themselves? Theoretically, it's not a bad idea. Probably more sanitary than paper, anyway, but I don't know if I could get behind it. Hosing my gentalia's never been high on my to-do list, you know?
And on that disturbing image, I'll bid you so long.
The flight from Detroit to Indianapolis was a breeze. We were in and out in a flash. Less than an hour. There was a short layover and then came to flight to Los Angeles. A mid-length flight, to be sure, as it lasted about five hours or so, but it seemed to go quickly. There was an older woman next to me who was reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and that amused me pretty much, but time went quickly just listening to my iPod and watching the scenery. The flight to California from Indy is a pretty cool one. One minute, the topography is your typical midwest farm squares and the next minute, it's mountain city.
So the layover between flights two and three was longer. That was good, because we actually had to leave the terminal and check in (again) which meant we had to go through security (again). And we waited an hour in line just to do the whole checking in thing. We ate (should I now go all TMI on you and tell you I haven't gone to the bathroom since the morning before leaving? And that it didn't exactly get the job done?) which probably didn't do wonders for my stomach, but then we went to the gate and waited a fair while. Played Set. I did a quick assignment, read a chapter of my book.
And then came boarding for the flight from hell. First of all, it was, like, 1:35 PST, which was 4:45 EST so I was already exhausted. When I finally got to my row on this giant plane, the two other occupants were already there and they were old. Super old. And tiny. Combine them together and I'd still take them down. And I think I made the old lady mad because I had to scoot over her to get to my window seat (traveler's tip: on long flights, get an aisle seat) and, of course, one of my biggest fears in life is inconveniencing people, so I resigned myself to a long flight with no bathroom break.
So, the flight started, no hitch. And I immediately fell asleep and woke up several times with horrible cricks in my neck and shoulder and back but kept falling back asleep. I have a vague recollection of waking up to a flight attendant asking if I wanted refreshments and telling him, "no thanks". I'm pretty sure that was dinner because I definitely never got any of that.
I figured I slept on and off for about six hours, but I'm not sure that's accurate because my time zones were so slipped up and the remaining seven hours were full of rage and general claustrophobia. I did get to get up to go to the bathroom. I took the opportunity when both row mates got up to do the same. And I squatted a bit to get my legs moving. And then sat down, miserable and cornered. I watched six episodes of Better Off Ted, which took up about two hours but there were still a million hours left and my frakking TV wasn't working and when I accidentally called over a flight attendant to ask if they could fix it, she told me to try again in twenty minutes.
Yeah, like that worked.
The last couple hours were spent in abject misery, almost falling asleep but having my neck give out or my hand fall asleep. I am proud to say that my iPod only died at the last minute. Good, iPod. Good.
Getting off that plane was the most satisfying moment of my life. Until realizing we had another flight to board in about two hours. But hey! We were in Taipei and the gate was cool because it was off by itself and we could charge our electronics and check our email for free. And the flight from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur was super easy. My TV worked (I kind of love China Airway, now) and I watched Clash of the Titans (not a great movie, by the way. Super poor character development and poorly plotted), an episode of Glee, a random documentary about Roger Federer and his record breaking 2009, and part of an episode of Top Gear. And flying into the airport was wild because it was surrounded by a field of palm trees and you couldn't really see any runway so it felt like we were landing in a jungle.
And now here we are. We got picked up at the airport by the UPSI crew and drove north for about an hour and a half (but I got two seats to stretch out on so that was wonderful) and they gave us tea, sandwiches, and muffins, and now I have to be ready for dinner in little more than an hour.
I don't know where I'm going to put the food. Maybe tomorrow, when we go shopping, I'll look into buying something for constipation. TMI? Sorry, you knew what you were getting into.
The apartment is nice. There are four of us in each and each have two bathrooms and there are five beds. I somehow got a room to myself. The bathrooms have been a little problematic, though. One of the shower heads is busted and, in the other bathroom, a toilet got clogged in the first go-through (not me!) and was leaking. I can tell I'm not going to have fun with these toilets. They can barely handle one piece of toilet paper. But I guess I should be happy that they're regular toilets and not the kind where you squat. There were definitely a lot of squatting toilets in the bathrooms of the airports in Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
Also, did you know that often, instead of using toilet paper, they use a hose to clean themselves? Theoretically, it's not a bad idea. Probably more sanitary than paper, anyway, but I don't know if I could get behind it. Hosing my gentalia's never been high on my to-do list, you know?
And on that disturbing image, I'll bid you so long.