{"id":158,"date":"2006-03-07T12:57:46","date_gmt":"2006-03-07T03:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-03-07\/158"},"modified":"2006-03-07T12:57:46","modified_gmt":"2006-03-07T03:57:46","slug":"first-thoughts-of-malaysia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-03-07\/158","title":{"rendered":"First Thoughts of Malaysia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

\n\nThe Kuala Lumpur airport (KLIA) seems as modern as any I've ever seen. Just\nas when flying into the international wing of Chicago or LAX, you must go\ndown a long<\/b> hallway after exiting the gate. Unlike Chicago and LAX,\nyesterday we had long “peoplemovers” to do the walking for us.\nThey dumped us into what turned out to be a remote<\/span> terminal hub, a\nbeautifully<\/span> architected multi-story open atrium area of shops (yes,\nincluding a Starbucks<\/span>) overflowing with green. The elevator<\/span> enclosures were\nclear tubes of glass that had people flowing on all sides -- really, quite\nimpressive.\n\n<\/p>\n\n \n\n

\n\nWe then road the automated minitram to the main building. Following Fumie's\nmom (who's done this several times), exiting the tram she headed right\nwhile the massive flow of humanity headed left. It turns<\/span> out that KLIA has\nseparate immigration controls for travelers with connections, so after\ndescending a level,<\/span> we were greeted with a mini<\/span> immigration section with a\nline<\/span> all of one<\/b> person deep. It was fantastic<\/span>.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAs an aside, I'll note that the last time I entered<\/span> the US (last summer, at\nChicago, I think<\/span>), while waiting as next in line for immigration, the\nunprepared family at the head of the line next to us was getting treated so\nrudely by the immigration officer that I cringed<\/span> and was embarrassed to be\nAmerican. His “soul spirit” sister must have been working as the Malaysian\nimmigration officer for the line next to us, as she was\nexceptionally<\/i> rude to the unprepared family next to us. I guess<\/span> it's\nthe same everywhere. )-:\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnyway, after all of three minutes, we were through and into the domestic\nterminal where we were met by Fumie's dad, conveniently returning from a\nbusiness<\/span> trip. We made the<\/span> short flight to Penang to discover that Penang's\nsmall regional airport was modern, bright, and clean, and like any modern\nairport full of shops hawking high-priced booze and purses. Oddly, though,\nand I should<\/span> stress that this was the only hint of “third-worldness” I've\nseen so far, I did not<\/span> notice a Starbucks.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>

\n\nFumie's dad had a car, but it wouldn't fit all six of us, so he arranged a\ntaxi<\/span> to take us to our hotel, the “Krystal Suites”. It was just<\/span> after\nsunset and the drive was quite pleasant -- lots of green and modern-looking\nshops.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe hotel room, really a two-bedroom suite with a 40<\/span>-foot-long living room,\nis larger than our previous whole apartment. The bathroom<\/span> is a bit<\/span> suspect,\nand the floor is randomly lumpy, but otherwise it's fine. The air conditioners<\/span> (4) work, which at this point seems to be the most important\nthing (since it's in the 90s and muggy every day).\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAfter dumping our luggage, the others joined us and we took a walk<\/span> to a\nrestaurant.<\/span> I had to<\/span> laugh when they walked into a Japanese<\/span> restaurant(!)\nBut it was 8pm (9pm Japan time) and Anthony was very tired and wanted milk,\nwhich the restaurant didn't have. So Fumie's dad and I walked<\/span> a bit<\/span> further\nto a 7-11 convenience store. (It turns out that this 7-11 is just a bit<\/span>\nfurther from our hotel than the 7-11 near our place in Kyoto is far from\nour place). We got a<\/span> bunch of bottled water and some milk. It filled<\/span> a bag,<\/span>\nand came to 8-something Ringgit -- about US$2.30.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe street was full of well-maintained cars, and not full of garbage. It seems<\/span> to be a nice<\/span> area.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnyway, Anthony was so tired that I just<\/span> took him back to the hotel, gave\nhim his milk, and put him down.\n\n<\/p>\n

GPS<\/h3>\n

\n\nOne thing that struck me during this trip is how easy it is for GPS\nreception to be totally obscured. My GPS receiver<\/span> got absolutely no\nreception unless it was pressed up against the window of the plane. Moving\nit, say, to my lap, and it got nothing. I guess<\/span> the GPS designers had\ncruise missiles and other “have a clear<\/span> view of the sky” items\nin mind.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAlso, my GPS unit (Garmin GPSmap 60CS) has two ways to determine the\naltitude: a barometer<\/span> and GPS. Inside a pressure<\/span>-controled plane, the\nbarometer is fairly useless, but I couldn't<\/span> find a way<\/span> to have it use the\nGPS for altitude (other than the one-time “Altidude via GPS” on\nthe Satellite-Acquisition page's menu). Thus, while flying at 40,000 feet,\nit mostly said we were at 2,000 some meters. Fairly worthless )-:\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kuala Lumpur airport (KLIA) seems as modern as any I've ever seen. Just as when flying into the international wing of Chicago or LAX, you must go down a long<\/b> hallway after exiting the gate. Unlike Chicago and LAX, yesterday we had long \"peoplemovers\" to do the walking for us. They dumped us into what turned out to be a remote terminal hub, a beautifully architected multi-story open atrium area of shops (yes, including a Starbucks) overflowing with green. The elevator enclosures were clear tubes of glass that had people flowing on all sides -- really, quite impressive. [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}