Malaysia 2006: Arrival and Day 1
Getting to Malaysia is a fairly long, involved process involving 14 hours to Taipei and another 4 hours to Kuala Lumpur. I don't know how people survive trips to Australia... that's gotta be torture. The saving graces were that the flight wasn't completely packed, food on Malaysia Air is pretty decent for the swill that they serve the economy class cattle, and for this ABC, the airport in Taipei has fairly decent beef noodle soup!
Kean picked Sophia and I up from KUL, then drove us into KL. First order of business was to survive the sudden rainstorm, then dash in for some kaoy teow and some wonton noodle soup. Then off to Curve to see Kean's work, then to meet with Jianhui and her relatives, and to see Jianhui and Kean's sisters' new restaurant (also located in Curve), Ying Ker.
Did some shopping at the shopping center connected to Curve, bought some dragonfruit, saw Kean's sister's house, then back to the restaurant. Traffic in Kuala Lumpur was ... interesting. Bad and chaotic in its own way-- a distinctly different flavor than Los Angeles or Houston. Dinner was excellent, although a bit overwhelming due to the sheer number of people. Finding out the restaurant was only open for a few days also explained a lot-- it really felt like a family affair. =) Sophia had at least met a few relatives before; aside from Jianhui and Kean, combined with my inability to speak Cantonese or Mandarin, I was pretty screwed. =P (this is a theme repeated throughout the duration of the trip!)
That night, everyone headed to Petronas Towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur for pictures and a bit of exploring. We got there right as they were closing, which limited things a bit. Fortunately at 10pm at night, the humidity earlier in the day wasn't quite as oppressing, and the towers were very impressive. Sophia should have some better pictures with the wide-angle lens she had.