Jet Lagged Still

My internal alarm went off long before the mechanical one. By 3:00 am, I was awake and could not fall asleep again. I refused to sit in the bathroom to read; my only other option was relaxing and trying to coax sleep back for a few more hours. My last peek at the clock was at 5:00 am, then the next thing I knew there was an annoying noise grating on my nerves. It was the alarm clock. Ron woke long enough to ask for another hour, so I shut off the alarm not to wake again until 10:00 am.

Out the door in search of breakfast, the hotel does not provide it and doesn’t have a restaurant, we combed the streets. There are no ‘breakfast’ restaurants and all that were open were offering the same menu that services the lunch and dinner crowds. Noodles with chili are not our idea of breakfast food. Ready for the hissing session? We went to Starbucks. Yes, Malaysia has what Hungary does not, Starbucks. To top it off, they have free WiFi too in all of their locations. This will be a favorite resting place for checking e-mails and uploading the blog. We have not seen any signs for WiFi anywhere, though there are numerous Internet places. A medium latté is only $2.00 as opposed to double that in the States or even in Vienna. What a bargain.

The traffic here is incredibly congested. Walking across the street is hazardous to your survival. They do have that little green man sign that signifies it is your life opportunity to go from one corner to the next, but the vehicle drivers see this as another opportunity to pay “Hit or Miss”, completely ignoring the red light that is supposed to keep them in place. We decided we needed to explore the ‘extensive network of transportation options available. Buses are out. They are prone to the traffic jams that the cars are stuck in and movement is negligible. The doors are kept open and they are so full, passengers are straddling the steps holding on while the bus inches along in the myriad of the motoring nightmare. Motorcycles are the only modes of transport that are not inconvenience by the flow, but they weave in and out. If one attached yarn to them, they would create a most dazzling tapestry within a few blocks.

There are no subways, but they do have a subway like train that for the most part is above ground. With an insufficient number of cars, it is quickly full to capacity and the ‘beware of pickpockets’ announcement is continually repeated. We bought a day ticket for unlimited usage, but it is for this light rail train only. To use the monorail that roams parts of the city, we would have to buy another ticket or full day pass. Our day pass cost us $1.50, so we intended to get our monies worth, but first things first, we need to find a place to stay come Thursday. Ron only booked us for two nights where we are at and he refused to stay longer. The lack of a window is more than he can handle. I rather like the darkness, finding it easier to sleep.

We made our way to the tourism office at the ‘great market’, but it was closed. The sign redirected us to the main office. The great market is a huge building built in the late 1800s. today is houses crafts people and merchants to sell their wares. It is two stories with few food options upstairs. With tons of things on display, there is nothing that catches our eye as a must have item. All of the colors of the fabrics are color combinations or patterns that our Western tastes curl our noses up at.

Ron had his list of questions for the tourism people, so we headed in that direction. The central station is ultra modern, but is not for regular trains, but for the light rail and the monorail. Planning our great escape from the city, Ron asked where to spend a couple of days outside of KL, so we will leave here for two nights. We also have a 7:00 am flight coming up, so we had to find a hotel closer to good transportation. We are taking an Air Asia flight and they do not fly out of the major airport. Getting there is going to be tricky at that hour of the morning, with 2 hours ahead check-in time. He made a suggestion of a hotel across the street, so we will check it out.

On the tourism’s list of 10 top festivals in KL is one called YES Year End Sale. Apparently, this is a big event. After peppering the tourism guy with questions, we went to the KL City Center, located in the twin towers of the city. The twin towers until very recently held the distinction of being the tallest buildings in the world. This was just outdone by Taiwan. The buildings are really beautifully designed and it holds a humungous shopping center with all of the best names. Prada and Louis Viutton are there as well as every other designer name you can mention. Along side of them, there is the mandatory McDonalds, KFC, Chilis, San Francisco Coffee Company, California Pizza Company, Kenny Rogers Roasters, and the likes of every other bit of Americana imaginable. In the center courtyard is a skyscraping tree decorated for Christmas and all of the halls are decked with holly. It is seemingly incongruent to see woman strolling around with burkas or just hajib head scarves. This is not just a browsing mall; everyone is loaded down with bags. This community is affluent.

Outside the back of the mall in the twin towers courtyard, there is a large pond with a fountain reminiscent of Las Vegas. The water sprays, dances, and performs, but not as elaborately as in LV.

We looked at the hotel recommendation. The only thing it has going for it is that it has windows in the rooms. The rooms are small, but at $15.00 a night, you cannot ask for much more. I would have opted for something better, but that would only increase the transport issues for flights.

Searching for some cultural events, we had been informed by the tourism office to go to the Malaysia Cultural Center to find out what was being offered. The grounds are well appointed, but interestingly, they only offer events a few times a week. They suggested we attend the dinner show next door since it was daily there.

For dinner, we ventured back to our hotel territory and thought we were going to the restaurant where the man had been so nice to us the day before. However, we undershot his place by one outdoor restaurant and did not realize it until we had ordered. We shared satay of chicken and beef, fried rice, and vegetables in garlic sauce. The satay was not very peanuty, so this was disappointing. Sitting behind us was a real blow-heart full of himself older man who started carrying on with the Australian couple sitting next to us. I was so relieved when he said he was Canadian and not American.

Across from the restaurant is a shop that is nothing but Christmas décor. It seems so out of place is this city of primarily Muslim people. I cannot say for a fact, but I don’t think they have a Christmas tree and Santa Claus. As I was walking to the curb to walk to the door of the shop, I felt something knock into my ankle, which caused me to jump. When I looked down, I caught the last glimpse of something small and black flit under the cartons of the knock off designer watch street vendor. He looked at me and said what I think was “RAT”. I am hoping he said “CAT”. I did not see a tail, so I am not certain.

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Amsterdam

We woke at 3:00 am, called the taxi at 4:00 and was at the airport by 4:30 am for our 6:30 flight to Amsterdam. Chris and Mark who were traveling with us had just pulled up in another taxi. Check-in, which is supposedly 2 hours before a flight, had not opened yet. After we did check in, go through security, and passport control, we sat for a coffee to wait for the flight. We flew SkyEurope and arrived twenty minutes earlier than scheduled. After getting the luggage, we bought our train tickets to the Central Station and we were off. The trains leave every 15 minutes. At Central Station after a 25 minute train ride, we walked over to the transport office to buy our 96 hour transport tickets. Now we were good to go and off we went to the Golden Bear Hotel. Our room was ready, but Chris and Mark's was not. They put their things in our room and we took off to see the city. With this being my 11th trip here, the most recent being one year ago, I was the guide. Our first stop was automat that served French fries with peanut sauce. In the same area, there is a life sized 24 piece statue of the "Night Watch" done by two Russian artists. From here, we just wandered down the streets and did some window shopping. On our way back, we stopped for a beer and a Dutch gin. It was getting chilly, but the sun was pleasant enough to sit outside while enjoying our drinks to people watch. After getting hydrated, satiated, and motivated, we continued our walk down to the pedestrian mall and did some more window shopping, but at Waterstone books, I went in to shock up on English language books that I knew I would not find in Hungary. There were some new books by my favorite authors: Alexander McCall Smith, Margaret George, and Josten Gaardner. I bought them all, getting three for the price of two. Though they were expensive in Euros, I still paid less than if buying them new in the States. It was well after 2:00 pm by now when Mark and Chris's room would be ready, so the vote was to go back and rest. We met again at 5:30 in the lobby and took another walk before heading to the all you can eat Chinese restaurant for dinner. By 10:00, we were all dead tired, so decided on an early night for a full day tomorrow. Our room was disappointingly small. Having been to this hotel last year, I had a large room with a wonderfully comfortable bed; it was disconcerting to get a smaller room now that there were the two of us, when I had more luxury when I was here alone. The bed was so small for the two of us; I barely slept the entire night.

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Museum of Transportation

After a number of false starts I finally made it to the Museum of Transportation today. I must have passed this museum a dozen times, but never noticed it. I took the metro to the furdo stop and walked. If I had just taken the 74 bus from around the corner from my home, I would have gotten off at the stop right across the street from the entrance.

As you get close, the museum is obvious with the real, but out of service steam locomotive outside. There is also a plane and models of bridges. The fee to get in is only 400 Huf, but there are no photo tickets. If I read the sign correctly, one can use their mobile phone camera, but no cameras. Bags need to be checked, so unless your camera is small, unlike mine, there is no chance of sneaking it in.

The museum is a grand fully modern design with obvious thought put into the display space. The locomotives, railroad cars, and tramcars that were formerly functional are pleasantly spaced for room to view and walk around them. There are multiple model railroad displays throughout the first floor. They are timed to be operational for 15 minutes an hour. The entire first floor is devoted to rail transport.

Being a son of a long time railroad worker and being a rail worker myself for a couple of years, I was transported back in time to the days I accompanied my father to work. I remember riding one of the last steam locomotives as a young child and was able to ride in the engine since my dad knew the engineer.

The second floor was devoted to maritime history. The walls were covered with shipping news dating back to the Egyptians.

There are other galleries off to the right and left of the main galleries, but were roped off for some unknown reason. I could have spent much more time here; however, it was blistering hot inside. Virtually nothing was in English, making this a visual experience, but not learning one.

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London, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

London, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Mr. Happy’s partner was at breakfast this morning. He grunted a greeting after I said “Good morning!”, then got up and left the room. John played out his robotic coffee or tea skit. Nothing was said about our checking out that morning or anything else that might be misconstrued as friendly, warm or that would invite us to return. We had slept a little later then usual and finished breakfast at 10:00 am and went back to the room to finish packing what was going with us.

At exactly 11:00 am, the checkout time, I went to the breakfast counter and set our keys on the counter. Without looking up, John said “That will be six pounds eleven for phone calls.” I paid him with a ten pound note and he handed me the change without any more words being spoken. He never once said thanks for staying here, come again, go to hell, nothing, nothing, nothing. We grabbed our bags and left.

I of course had to go to the Internet café one more time to see if all of the accommodations were completed without an issue, while Ron verified our train arrangements. When I returned, we were ready to take the last tube for this time around to the rail station to get our outgoing train. We had thought of leaving our bags at the B & B and check out more of London for one last time, but when John was so blank, we decided to leave on an earlier train.

As we leave London, allow me to make some final observations. It was difficult getting used to the driving on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel where our passenger side is. Fortunately, all crosswalks are marked with ‘Look right’ or ‘Look left’ depending on which side of the street you are on. If you jaywalk, you definitely do so at your own risk. It was quite unnerving the first few times we saw children sitting in our traditional drivers side. What was more so, was seeing dogs hanging their heads out the windows. Lasting impressions!!

From some of the jokes we heard, we did not think the British trains would be that efficient. A few people, Brits, commented that they have the worst on time service in Europe, but I think the Italians hold the record. In the train station, we had to get out BritRail passes validated before boarding the train. We had people everywhere offering to assist us and when we were called to the counter, it was only a matter of minutes for the validations. We took off to the train and found a car we could board. With the BritRail, we had a choice of 1^st Class or Standard and we had chosen the Standard to fit with our new lifestyle of living cheaply. The Europass only comes in 1^st class, so we will move up when we leave Great Britain.

The seats were very comfortable and Ron was able to snatch a foursome with a table. I was tempted to whip out the laptop, but this was a chance to read instead. I have found this pleasant author that writes mystery stories, nothing heavy, just fun. The author is Nancy Atherton and the books are the Aunt Dimity series. The first one, I read on our trip to Egypt and it was fun, so I bought more for this trip. On our flight from Denver to New Jersey, I had read Aunt Dimity’s Death, which sets the scene for the rest of the books. On the train, I was reading Aunt Dimity Digs In. They take place in the English countryside, the Cotswold area, so it makes it more fun. Our friend Daphnee had given me the book Seven Up by Janet Evanovitch. This too was a mystery and it took place in New Jersey. She is an incredible writer too and I am looking forward to reading more of her works. In between, I had read The Girl With the Pearl Earring. The name of the author escapes me, but it was a great book about the Dutch artist Vermeer. It will be a greater pleasure to see his work now that I have read that book. If anyone needs a relaxation book, all of the above are recommended highly. I call them mind candy.

Well, I would love to tell you how wonderful the scenery was as we whisked by on the train, how the villages were idyllic, but it was not like that at all. Most of the scenery was either another train flashing past us in the opposite direction or industrial areas at the side of the tracks. There were no cute little houses with cute little yards and cute little dogs that were making cute little yapping noises as the train went by. The scenery was not worth staying awake for, but I did get a lot of reading done. After five relaxing hours on the train, it was time to get off at our new home for the next week. Running out of time, so I will let you know where we are headed next in the next chapter.

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