24th November - Home
Here I sit in my lounge room. Another trip has come to an end and we are home safe and sound.
A big Happy Thanksgiving to our American pals.
Last night we slept OK in the day room at KL airport.
We had to check out by 7:00am and we did a last minute wander round the airport - breakfast at Burget King. No brekkie menu, just the usual burgers. I asked for diet coke and got a warm can of the shelf and had to ask for a cup and ice to try and make it cold.
We walked over to Gate C1 and waited 45 minutes or so before security opened.
Our flight was scheduled for departure at 9:30 and at around the time we would expect to board they reported a delay due to technical difficulties on the plane. Less than 10 minute delay and we boarded. Probably took off 15 minutes late and the flight was fine. No worries with Malaysian Airlines - top class.
Landed in Perth around 2:50pm - immigration is a breeze with these new e-passports. Luggage was an issue and it turns out that one of our 4 bags was still in KL and will be on tonight's flight. They will call and Friday mornng and arrange delivery.
Ryan was there to meet us and drove us home.
Another trip done, I am hoping for another in April but Rayls is determined it wil be November. We will see.
WalMart truck count ended at 72. I was still looking for them on the drive home from Perth Airport - none seen.
21st November onwards
Here I sit in the day room at Kuala Lumpur airport. Quite a step down from the last 3 weeks in the USA. The room here has 5 TV channels, 2 of them are the same channel so there is actually only 3 channels. Reception is very poor, reminds me of the sixties back in Perth when all we had was 2, 7 and 9. Of course I am old enough to remember before channel 9 even. Sad.
Anyway, we are most of the way home. Just a 5 hour flight tomorrow morning and we land in Perth at 3pm.
Our last day in the US was always going to be difficult. Checking out of the hotel by 11am and not flying till 11:10pm made for a 12 hour time frame to fill. Probably 10 as you always need to be at the airport a couple of hours early.
We did pretty well killing the time. It was beautiful day weather wise; the rain had brightened everything up. We met up with friend Scott around 11:15am and went for a lovely walk. Scott has so many friends along the way so we were constantly stopping to talk to people, even the mail man. There were plenty of dogs to pat. All the dogs being walked are rescue dogs and we had lots of fun along the way.
After saying our goodbyes to Scott we had breakfast/lunch at Astros – we were delayed when Rayls lost her glasses but that is another story she tells me I am not allowed to mention here.
Lunch was good, just a fruit salad for me and it was very nice. Rayls had a toasted cheese sandwich.
We then went for a drive to Griffith Park and wandered around this scenic area. The Hollywood sign is actually in Griffith Park, as is the Greek Theatre. We spent a couple of hours wandering around – the leaves of the trees are turning red/yellow. We took some photos which I will add soon.
We left Griffith Park via Vermont Street, through Hollywood and eventually onto I10 and to a Wal-Mart just a 8 K’s or so from the airport. We killed an hour there and then headed to Rayls favourite take away place Arbys where we had our last dinner on this trip. We also checked out a Staples and Office Mart before watching some planes land from near the end of the runway – cool spot for a plane spotter like me.
We returned the car to Alamo around 7:30pm and took the shuttle bus to the airport. Check in was a breeze, maybe 15 minutes wait and then security was even less. Very smooth departure routine.
We sat in an area where I could recharge my phone which had gone flat from constant texting with Amy. I think we sent nearly 1000 texts between us during the past 3 weeks. Lot of fun.
Boarding was smooth, MH95 was only half full and we took off only a few minutes late. It was a 14 and a half hour flight. The first 7 hours went quick but the last 7 dragged. The entertainment was the same as it was 3 weeks ago on the way to the USA so I ended up watching sitcoms.
Taipei is kind of weird. You land, have to get off the plane with all your hand luggage go through security and then board again.
The flight from Taipei to KL was about 4 and a half hours – pretty cruisy after the previous flight. Now here we are in KL for 21 hours - 18 of them in this day room.