John's Malaysian Misadventures

People who obviously don't know me too well cautioned me that Malaysian food was spicy. That's akin to warning Lindsay Lohan alcohol will be served at a party. I don't think I've had a bad meal here.

My first meal in Malaysia was in a place I think is called Tomyam Pattani. It's in the Kompleks Makanan Persiarian Gurney. I had a spicy chicken dish with seafood soup. And the orange juice was fresh squeezed.

The following night I joined the team from work at a seafood restaurant called Bukit Tambun Seafood. Like most restaurants around here it was open air. We sat under a tin and leaf roof while they brought us more and more food. They served fluorescent purple drinks. It was dragon fruit juice from the dragon fruit plantation next door. They had huge tanks where they kept the fish, crabs, and other critters until meal time. What I found most amusing was when they brought out the crabs. They provided a few thick sticks that we used as hammers to crack open the crab shells. I felt like a caveman beating my food with a stick so I could eat it.

Since we went there straight from work I didn't have a camera with me.

Saturday morning I went for a short stroll to get a Malaysian SIM card for my phone and eat lunch. This time I stopped at Zealand Bak Kut Teh Seafood also on Persiarian Gurney. I had the butter curry chicken with vegetables. I normally don't like greens, but these were actually very good.

I certainly will never starve here.

My Malaysian misadventure started around 1 PM on Tuesday, July 27 in Austin, Texas. I boarded the plane and sat there. Severe thunderstorms in Houston prevented us from leaving sunny Austin. I do commend the Continental Airlines crew. They kept us comfortable and up-to-date. We had a four minute window to be in the air when we did get the green light and the captain got us airborne with time to spare.

I arrived in Houston with plenty of time to spare as my connecting flight didn't leave until 5:40 PM. I wasn't very impressed with Houston-Bush. The corridor to the international terminal looked like a great place to get mugged and there just wasn't much in the area in terms of finding food or other items.

It's been a few years since I've left the country by plane. But I didn't expect the herd of ICE agents with a dog questioning everyone who boarded the plane. He didn't seem to believe me that I only had about $100 in cash on me all while I had a German shepherd's nose in my crotch. But another agent was hassling the group of Philippine orphans too (I'm not kidding).

Despite being sandwiched in the dead center of the plane for the nearly 12 hour flight to Moscow-Domodedovo airport, Singapore Airlines made it quite bearable. I watched Clash of the Titans (possibly the worst movie I've seen in a very long time) and three episodes of The Big Bang Theory (never watched it before but it's my new favorite show).

Connecting in Moscow was quite an adventure. The airport is located southeast of the city. All I could see was smog and Soviet-era buildings. The temperature was 34º C which is unheard of in Moscow. The hot, sticky weather and nearby fires blanketed the city in smog. The airport was littered with the gutted husks of Russian and Ukrainian built planes. I'm told the Russian airlines cannibalize parts off the old planes to keep their new ones in the air. Truthfully we do the same thing in the United States, but we keep our dilapidated planes in Arizona and California and overnight the parts. It's probably the only thing the Russians are more efficient than us at.

All passengers had to leave the plane in Moscow. Somewhere along the long jetway between the plane and terminal was a woman with a stack of cards. She was saying something in Russian that sounded like "transit". Transit passengers needed the card she was distributing. I took one only to hand it back to someone else at the end of the jetway. She also took my boarding pass and passport. She looked everything over and handed back my passport and boarding pass. I got to the x-ray machine and metal detector. I put everything I had through the x-ray machine, handed the woman my passport and boarding pass, and went through the metal detector. They had one person watching the x-ray machine and examining passports. I don't know what was up with mine, but she kept asking me questions about it in Russian (a language I do not speak) all while baggage is falling off the conveyer leading out of the x-ray machine. She wasn't watching it at all. She called someone else over. They chatted in Russian and finally after stamping my boarding pass front and back handed me everything and let me go. I walked a little farther to see another uniformed official sitting at a desk. He examined my passport and boarding pass, stamped my boarding pass, handed everything back, got off his stool, used the badge around his neck to open the door to let me through. Wouldn't a button near his computer work better?

I mentioned the heat wave. I don't think their airport has an air conditioner and if it does it's inadequate or broken. We were jammed like sardines in this sauna of an airport. There were vending machine for drinks, but I didn't have any rubles on me. Finally we boarded the same plane that would take us to Singapore.

I tried to sleep on the flight from Moscow to Singapore. The flight was mostly dark, unlike the flight into Moscow that was mostly light. Also I would wake up early in Singapore and hopefully would be adjusted to that time zone. It mostly worked. I think I've largely avoided jetlag. I did go to bed relatively early Thursday and Friday nights, before 10 PM. But I've felt okay since I've been here.

We arrived in Singapore around 5:30 AM. Singapore Changi Airport is everything Moscow Domodedovo isn't. It's spotless, efficient, clean, with plenty to do. I felt like I could eat off the floors there if I had too. Government regulations doesn't allow for easy free wifi (I'd have to register at the information desk) but they have PLENTY of free computers throughout the terminal to use. I checked email and updated Facebook.

My flight to Penang left at 8:05 AM. The gate opened promptly at 7:05 AM where I was rescreened. I probably have tumors now from all the x-ray machines and metal detectors I've passed by during the flight. Around 9:40 AM or so I landed in Penang, Malaysia.