OUR TRIP TO MALAYSIA

Hi,

The trip to Malaysia and Singapore was good.

I think this sentence actually sums up my impression about the two countries. Nothing exceptional but no one is disappointed. In this post I talk about Malaysia.

• Cox & Kings our tour operator had booked us on Sri Lankan Airlines (I had protested and asked them to book us on a direct flight but they said that it would cost Rs.10,000/- more for the four of us) which meant that we took a flight first to Colombo (3.30 hrs) stayed there for a few hours (In fact we reached there at 10 PM and shifted to a reasonably good resort called Tamarind Tree and started back for the airport at 5.20AM) and then boarded the flight to Malaysia. (3 hours)
• The KL airport is reasonably big and we had to take the mono rail from our terminal to the exit and immigration terminal. This was the first time we took the mono rail at an airport and the uniqueness of the rail trip impressed me. I embarrased my daughter by taking pictures. The mono rail at the airport is the slow version of the metros. Another unique feature of the airport was the effort to create an ambience of closeness to nature within the concrete. We had sunlight streaming in through atriums and green foilage along the travelator. I embarrased the family once again by insisting on taking pictures. I will no longer mention this embarrasment part as this continued to happen at regular frequency till they gave up protesting.
• OK, Need to add this - we had to fill in the health form for Swine Flu. I believe they had a thermal detector in place as well. The form was also needed at Sri Lanka. Indians are given 72 hours Visa on arrival at Sri Lanka.
• Our Guide Amarjeet was waiting for us at the exit and by the time we gathered together it was almost 2 in the afternoon. (3 and half hours ahead of India and Sri Lanka). 42 of us had collected from Delhi and Mumbai.
• Amarjeet is an Indian Malaysian (second generation) and can speak Hindi. It is understood that he is the only Malaysian guide who can speak Hindi.
• We put our luggage in a mini truck and boarded our Bus for Genting Highlands.

To be continued...