First Days

Picture: Our new apartment

Ken here. Thought you might want to know a little about our first days. First off, the flight went quite well, all things considered. We spent 45 minutes at the Continental check-in as they debated whether to let us fly because we did not have a Visa. The staff at Fullbright had specifically told Colleen not to worry about it, but apparently we should have. Fortunately, Colleen had some official-looking documents from the State Dept., and because we were not leaving the transit area in Delhi they let us on. There were some tense moments.
The flight was very smooth. As our friend Kerry told me, international flights have come a long way since the last time I flew. The choice of movies was amazing, we had leg room, even the food (which was Indian vegetarian) was delicious. It's still miserable trying to sleep in an airplane seat unless you're Boom Boom's size.
In Delhi, even though we were only in the airport for 4 hours, the difference was notable. "There's a person for every job" Colleen noted. Instead of announcing our flight, a person walks through the waiting area asking what flight you're waiting for, then personally conveys you to the gate. Lots of security, even the uniformed guards were searched each time they entered an area by another, differently uniformed guards. And the uniforms are elaborate.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur concerned about trying to get all our stuff in a taxi to the hotel. It was the nicest airport I've ever seen. We collected all our stuff and there was a nice big booth saying "Van Taxis." Makes you realize how far NY has to go.
We had been in contact with a real estate broker through a friend of cousin Rebecca's. His name is Gan. He was a life saver. He borrowed a friend's van, drove us around all day, showed us 8 different apartments and took us to lunch. He also answered a lot of our stupid questions like "do you tip?" (answer: taxi drivers will try to not use the meter 'cause we're stupid americans - in that case, don't tip. If they use the meter, tip 20%. Restaurants automatically add on 10% service charge - no tipping).

Typically, Colleen and I could not agree on which apartment to rent. She wanted the crappy, small layout with the bright sunlight and nice views. The kids agreed with her because that building's pool had a little slide which won all their votes. I wanted the fancy big apartment that overlooked a construction site. Gan made a secret mid-day adjustment, reading our disagreement, and found an owner of a nicer apartment in the building Colleen and the kids wanted. See the picture above. Now we need to sign the lease, rent furniture, set up utilities, etc.
Our brief forays around KL have been limited. We went to Petronas Towers which has a ridiculous mall in the bottom, but tickets to the viewing area were sold out. Colleen took the kids to the Science Museum there, we she said was great. There's a small park with a giant playground. Not too exciting, except that it's the only park around. The city seems to have been cobbled together without any planning. There are barely sidewalks, and they are in such poor condition that pushing a stroller on them would be impossible. Nobody bike rides, you'd get killed by the crazy drivers who seem to come out of nowhere. Even if you live in downtown, anyone who lives here has a car and drives everywhere. Tough for us, because there's a 150% tax on buying a car.
We're still struggling with the time change - the kids pass out every afternoon around 3, wake up around midnight, and stay up with Colleen all night. I took over at 4:30 am tonight, thus the time for this post. Sigh.