JANUARY 26, 2015 -- FEBRUARY FLIGHT DAY #1

TRAVEL SUZHOU, CHINA TO 
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
January 26, 2015

The day has finally come to start our big trip that we have named “February Flight.”  I am sitting in the Hangzhou Airport with Amy and Mason and we are waiting to board our first flight to Kuala Lumpur.  The Weber’s driver, Terry, took us on the 2 hour journey to Hangzhou and we are VERY grateful!  It was part of the “deal” when Amy agreed to babysit for the Weber Family since she babysat up through last night.  The ride helped lower our stress level of getting here with Amy gone up through last night.

  

Dad and all the other kiddos are back in Suzhou and have begun their week of exams at school.  Today and tomorrow they have their “English Speaking” exams which should be quite easy for our kids and for Richard as well.  We told Richard that it should be easy for him after taking the IELTS.  Dad and the kids – along with Richard and Kelli Dougal – will leave on Saturday at 7pm and begin their journey to the Hangzhou Airport and will meet us in Penang, Malaysia early Sunday morning.

We have had a great week at home with preparations for our trip and other events for the kids.  Amy spent all week at the Weber home babysitting their 4 young children.  Their children are ages 8, 6, 2, and 1.  She definitely had her hands full and she did a great job!  The kids all loved her cooking and even the 8 year old and he 6 year old had an argument one night at dinner about whether Amy was a better cook than their mom or not.  We missed Amy all week and was glad to have her home Sunday night.  I spent the week working on details for our trip and on our itinerary.  The pdf document of our trip that I sent to a few days ago shows what I finished up this week.  Amy printed it for us in color and had it bound with a spiral binding so we have a great travel book and it will also be one of our souveniers.

A Chinese "rest stop"

When I did a “trial run” of packing on Saturday, we realized that our plan for using carryon suitcases was NOT going to work!  Asia Air is a “cheap” flight so they only allow you 1 carryon that is 7kg or less (15 lbs) and then 1 one personal item (purse or laptop bag.)  When I packet my suitcase with just a small amount of items that I put on our packing list, my suitcase was 15 kg!  Which is 30 lbs!  OOPS!  We then weighed the suitcase empty and it was 4kg just itself!  No suitcases!   Next dilemma – my backpack wasn’t big enough to hold even half of what was on the packing list.  Off Dad and I went to look for back pack options.  Thanks to Amy’s good memory, she remembered a store in the alley by the wet market that had backpacks for 59RMB which is a lot better than the 199-299RMB that we were seeing at Vanguard.  I found 2 hot pink backpacks for Amy and me and a green one for Mason – that is his favorite color. J  I went home to see what I could fit and the packing list was adjusted:  1 pair of pants that you wear on travel day, 1 pair of capris/long shorts for Malaysia, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 short sleeve shirts, 3-5 underwear, 3-5 socks (at least 1 wool), thermals, hat, scarf, gloves, hand towel, 1 pair of tennis shoes/trainers, strap on sandals of you have them, deodorant, and very minimal bathroom supplies.  That’s it for 4 weeks of travel.   The pants and one set of clothes is on the body for travel day which decreases the volume by 1 set of clothes.  I got it all packed in my back pack and it weighs 6.7kg. 

·         I introduced Richard to deodorant on Saturday, too.  Chinese people don’t use deodorant and that is OK.  We suggested he take one and use it on the trip.  I think he thought I was a little weird as I explained how to use it. 

     

We are now on our flight and I just took Mason to the bathroom.  I have decided that I prefer using paper towels to dry my hands rather than Kleenix – Air Asia prefers to stock the bathroom with Kleenix. 

About 1 hour before landing in Kuala Lumpur, they flight attendants on the plane gradually started turning on the lights in increments of brightness until after about a 15 minutes period they were completely up.  Then right after we touched down, they started playing this “rap” music of sorts.  We truly were the “party plane” and it felt like an afternoon picnic in the park, again! 

·         It is always interesting to watch the different “personalities” of the group of people on airplanes.  When we flew TO Korea, the passengers were calm and orderly and polite – a Korean personality.  When we loaded the plane to fly BACK to China – oh man!  It was different!  The plane full of passengers were bustling around, loud, talking, pushing through to get to their space, etc.  We were going back to China.  Today on Aisa Air, it is like a family picnic!  All food and drinks cost (and are expensive) and meals must be pre-ordered.  Everyone has brought bags full of snacks, food, and thermoses with drinks.  People are walking around finding others in their group and sharing snacks or passing the thermos lid across the aisle to a family member.  It is quite a jovial atmosphere.  It will be fun to see what the personality of Malaysian folks are.

·       We took a taxi from the airport to downtown Kuala Lumpur.  We arrived at our "Air BnB" apartment and it is great!  We are staying right downtown in the cutest little studio apartment!  We have a great view, a small kitchen, and it is great!  We have a great view of the city from the 25^th floor.  We have AC and wifi and a gorgeous rooftop pool.  Mason settled right in and made himself at home!!!