Day 0: PER to KUL

The tired and grumpy baby edition.

And that’s not referring to the grumpy and tired baby waiting to board behind me, heck I sympathise entirely. It’s way past everyone’s bedtime, and who at Malaysia Airlines decided that 2.10am was a reasonable time to fly?

I’m talking about the muppet waiting next to me, who has his mobile volume turned up and all the sounds trned on. I’m getting every beep, whorp, woowoo, and ding, and in my rather tired state not enjoying the soundtrack at all. I may not have documented this previously, but consider this a new pet peeve: just turn that shit off.

I’m killing time, waiting to board, and at least Perth Airport has entered the 21st century with free wifi, though it’s probably to compensate for the total dearth of duty free shopping on offer. They’ve also fitted benches with power points, so I’m topping up the juice in my mobile.

So, Kuala Lumpur, or hereafter for the sake of my fat fingers, KL. I’m not sure why exactly I’m going there, while it has long had a marginal appeal for me, it’s never been on my must visit list. This trip is all about a bunch of little things lining up: the realisation that I had 2 weeks of non-accruing leave that I had to take this year; the feeling of needing a break (probably symptomatic of the previous point); the fortuitous timing of pal ST’s trip to KL and the wonderous pics of food that followed; and it being a cheap destination ($550 airfare and about $50/night for 3.5 star hotel). So here I am, hunched over my laptop between the tired baby and the whoop-whoop phone guy.

All tiredness aside, the signs are fairly positive: at check-in I was told the flight isn’t full and I’d probably have a spare seat next to me; and getting through border security with the new electronic scanning was a breeze — no little card to fill out, I didn’t even have to talk to a customs officer (though I did, with an amazed “Is that it?” response to it all). This is also the first no-transit international trip I’ve done, just the one direct flight and I’m in KL, and one direct flight home. No bounces, no Changi, just hop on and hop off.

So what does the next week have lined up for me? A whole lotta food for starters, as Malaysia is where Chinese, Indian, and Malay food all comes together. Be prepared for gluttony. When I’m not eating, I’ll be shopping, relaxing, seeing some sights, and waking up an appetite (the forecast is also for 31 degrees and 80% humidity so I’ll be sweating a little, too). I might even try to get my head around the local culture, as Malaysia is a diverse, multicultural place where the Muslim majority are generally cruisy about a lot of things, the Guinness is allegedly the best outside of Ireland, and Milo is almost mandatory (it’s apparently the biggest consumer of Milo per capita).

So stay tuned.