Off to Aussieland

It was great to have dinner with Jaime and Shelagh as they awaited their flight to Australia. They seemed in great spirits as they approach the last leg of their Asian Odyssey. Perhaps it is because it will be an easy leg travelling in modern English speaking countries. Regardless, they were fun to be with as they departed Malaysia. Shelagh will find it difficult to head into the world of work with 2 weeks vacation a year. That's usually the routine until you build up some seniority in your chosen endeavour. At least she will have fond memories of her European and Asian adventures to get her through the 9-5 grind.

The limo to the airport was $55 ringgits and the cab back was $65 ringgitts. A word to the traveller arriving in the KL budget airport. Have Malaysian cash on hand. The only place to get the taxi coupon was when you entered the arrival area. Once you leave the arrival area (perhaps to visit an ATM) you can not get back into it to purchase a taxi coupon. Needless to say Shelley and I had a problem. Apparently nobody ever arrives at the airport and then decides to return from the airport without first taking off on a plane and then returning on another plane through the arrival area.

We could see the taxi coupon stand but could not get to it. We pleaded with the machine gun toting soldier to let us enter and he asked us all kinds of questions that were hard to answer such as where are your from (did he mean, where we are living, or where did we just arrive from) and where we were going (Subang Jaya, that was easy) and why were we at the airport (visiting our daughter) and where was she going? Eventually he let us in and escorted us to the taxi counter and we were on our way.

All in all it was a very busy day in Malaysia. We are both quite healthy and our enjoying our experiences.

One of the highlights of my day is to read the newspaper. It is always about Malaysia with very little information on what is happening in the rest of the world. It's a very insular read. I must sign onto the Ottawa Citizen website from time to time to get some news rather than opinions.

Todays lesson is on detecting palindromes: too hot to hoot

Are we not drawn onward to new era?

TTYL,

Jim