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12 Time zones


maddmaxx

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Based on recent events, I would avoid flying in or out of Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines, if at all possible.  (MH17 and MH370)

:P  Absolutely not flying Malaysian Airlines.

Flying China Airlines (nationalist) via Taiwan.  Going the trans Pacific route rather than the middle east route.  I'm reasonably sure it's safe to fly over Canada.

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Here we are 24 hours later in the airport in Taipai Taiwan.  after 15 hours on a hot cramped plane I'm off in search of a rest room with washup facilities to clean up and change to another shirt.  Another flight of 4 hours to go.  I cannot in all honesty recommend a non stop from the east coast to out here.  My previous trips have been from the midwest or west and the trans pacific flight was limited to about 10 hours which is bad enough.  Economy seats on a 777 leave you immobile for the duration unless you walk a lot.

We went north over Canada, back down over Alaska, Russia and Japan.  The food however was great.  Later

 

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The airport wifi is just too slow to upload any pics.  It will have to wait till I get settles in KL as we will be boarding the next flight in just about 1/2 hour.

And 34 hours in I am in my son's apartment for 1 day.

For those inclined to humor:DSCN0320.thumb.JPG.9db480c9a2d6e6d15efc2

Pouring rain in KL today.  

 

 

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It's 2:30 in the morning here and I'm up.  This means that I am almost completely adjusted to the time zone shift. :P

I've been her almost 12 hours already.  How to report my first impressions? It's hard for me to know what's unique because I'm a country boy looking at the big city and everything looks different.  I now know why my relatives were so intrigued when I took them for a hike miles deep into my country.  Last night was mostly the joy of getting a shower and a change of clothes after what amounted to 36 straight hours of travel.  We went out for dinner in what turned out to be a tower sized mall.  Sorry, no pics of that yet as the bulky camera was not something I wanted to carry.  Picture a mall near you and substitute foreign names for some but not all of the shops.......you're there.  Driving is on the left here and completely suicidal.  I felt like I was in one of the early rounds of GT4 on a playstation.  Walking is also done on the left, the same as in Japan.  You will learn this quickly if you attempt to go up a down staircase.  For the first couple of nights we are staying at my son's apartment about 6 miles away from city center.  First pic, the night time view from his deck.  Almost all of the buildings you see to the left are new construction and I hear the sound of banging and work even at this time of the morning.

DSCN0324.thumb.JPG.3bfc67d83f4d0e43a7202

The country is less than half Chinese but the government is almost 95% muslim.  Graft and corruption is normal here.  Some people are very good at their jobs and others........well for example let's examine customs.  After passport control we picked up our luggage and went in search of customs.  After a while we found ourselves at the exit of the airport being picked up by the kids.  Customs.......never found it.  

later.

Amd....umm.....sorry no cats yet.

Edited by maddmaxx
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We will be going here today.  http://www.sunwaypyramid.com/

Yes, it is one of the largest malls in the world.  It seems that much of the shopping and many of the restaurants in KL happens in places like this.  It turns out that if I take the big Nikon everywhere that I become a target for the snatch and grab gangs so I will take the smaller camera in a pocket.  I will attempt pics of the food though so you can see what you're missing.  It does not seem that I'm going to lose any weight here.

Since I was up before dawn I was able to listen to the Farj prayers called at 6am while taking pre dawn light like this.  This is the KL Tower from about 6 miles away.  Found here https://www.menarakl.com.my/detail1.html if your interested.DSCN0325.thumb.JPG.a2c154e98bb3f1f37be09

 

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Don't know what that is, but it looks awesome.

The upper pic was bits of chicken on a bed of rice all in a pineapple bowl.  To the left you can just make out a small bowl of thai chili which was served with small leafy cones of chicken prawns and rice again.  Behind is a small bowl of flat bread and a large bowl of red curry. 

In the lower pic you are looking at the side of a fish curled around the plate.  The tail would be to the lower left and the head at the upper side.  This is just the dried baked outside of the fish as all of the meat is in chunks around the plate, again in a spicy sauce with a dash of sweet this time.  All of the dishes are served to the entire table on a turntable in the middle and we all share.  They were worried that Thai food would scare away Americans.  Little did they know.  I'll eat almost anything.  This was a high end Thai restaurant inside the Sunway Pyramid mall next to the luxury hotel.  You can go there and never leave for an entire vacation.  There is a water park out back, bowling alley, archery range, 900 stores and a hockey rink along with more food than you will ever need.  I didn't provide pics because the link is in a post above.

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The upper pic was bits of chicken on a bed of rice all in a pineapple bowl.  To the left you can just make out a small bowl of thai chili which was served with small leafy cones of chicken prawns and rice again.  Behind is a small bowl of flat bread and a large bowl of red curry. 

In the lower pic you are looking at the side of a fish curled around the plate.  The tail would be to the lower left and the head at the upper side.  This is just the dried baked outside of the fish as all of the meat is in chunks around the plate, again in a spicy sauce with a dash of sweet this time.  All of the dishes are served to the entire table on a turntable in the middle and we all share.  They were worried that Thai food would scare away Americans.  Little did they know.  I'll eat almost anything.  This was a high end Thai restaurant inside the Sunway Pyramid mall next to the luxury hotel.  You can go there and never leave for an entire vacation.  There is a water park out back, bowling alley, archery range, 900 stores and a hockey rink along with more food than you will ever need.  I didn't provide pics because the link is in a post above.

Must be chili - I see beans.

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No.  Hell no.  Did I say no.  There is a tour up and across the flying bridge then up to the 87th level but I won't take it.

Now for some non touristy pics for Page.

The nights pub crawl and a street market/vendors for all sorts of stuff.  All sorts of stuff. The gentleman drinking the tower of Carlsberg is a friend of the groom from Scotland.  Our party also included a very large Tasmanian so the liquid was flowing freely.

DSCN0919.thumb.JPG.cf620324ff90803275d56DSCN0916.thumb.JPG.a7f8e58e2fd807f5d48e6

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I have to find a bycicle to take a pic of.  I think I saw one today but I wasn't quick enough with the camera.  The two wheeled transportation of choice here is a scooter or small motorcycle.  Most riders are riding with a jacket on backwards as a form of poor man's leathers.  It has to be the national uniform for motorcyclists here.  They have the largest death toll in the world for cycle riders.  They are insane in traffic.

 

But it's 1am on the 5th here and I must get some sle

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Still here, but with the wedding only one more day away we have been working in the kitchen to get ready for about 200 guests.  Yesterday we did go to the restaurant where the post wedding meal will be served to those guests.

I am certainly not going to lose any weight while I'm here.

I may get to wander over to watch practice for the Grand Prix but at this point it's not clear that they will let me wander by myself and today everyone else is so busy.

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And some pics from today's kitchen chaos.  The top pic is the wet kitchen where grandma and at least 3 helpers have been cooking for 2 days already.DSCN0348.thumb.JPG.74a0df6fd1726474a2740

On this side of the wall is the dry kitchen with the counter near the dining facility, oven, microwave/convection and various machines for coffee etc.  The containers with the white tops in front are some cool Malaysian vacuum sealed containers to keep food fresh.  They contain the results of mrs. maxx and my baking from this morning.  The family thinks we could stay and open a shop.  They eat most of it as soon as it's baked.  There are at least 5 families living here at the moment.  The latest just arrived from London.

DSCN0347.thumb.JPG.01c376b7f73a9fe4eddc4

 

 

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These are grown in Japan, seemingly in a square box to force the shape, and shipped here.  The cube makes for a more efficient shipping package.  This was a sample, but the real ones taste just like chicken.     (watermelon really)

That's funny, we have watermelon growing in our greenhouse and my daughter heard of square melons and wants to try this.  One of the videos we found of the Japanese melons said they weren't very tasty, essentially inedible, but sold for decoration.

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That's funny, we have watermelon growing in our greenhouse and my daughter heard of square melons and wants to try this.  One of the videos we found of the Japanese melons said they weren't very tasty, essentially inedible, but sold for decoration.

When I saw that one I thought the same but my family assures me that they can be eaten.  I've trusted them on almost everything so far and only a few items have slipped by that I wish hadn't.  There was this river clam with the consistancy of a rubber band............

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