The afternoon of departure (24th / 25th February 2010)

So apart from the earlier little things, so far so good. The thing is I guess I’ve been planning this trip for quite a while, actually not so much planning it more like getting ready to go off on it.

As I’m sure all of you must know by now it wasn’t until the very last minute that I knew exactly when I was going and coming back so in the intervening time I’ve been storing all the most important things to go in the spare room. In hind sight though perhaps I should have put a bit more effort into what tops to take as the two I really wanted to take got left behind!

Fortunately I was flying from Gatwick so it wasn’t such a huge affair to get there, what did seem to be a huge affair though was the toasted sandwich and chips we ordered at almost the only cafe open in North terminal. Who would have thought a toasted sandwich could cause so much confusion and misunderstanding, in the end though it turned up and we quickly ate before I headed through to the other side.

The flight out was uneventful apart from getting quite excited about the in flight entertainment system (oh the little things) I managed to watch the whole of The Time Travellers Wife as well as chat to the guy next to me who was heading over to Dubai to see his son. Again in hindsight though I should have spent this time sleeping as the stopover in Dubai was really tough on no sleep (Keith sleep on the first flight if you can). Going via Dubai meant each of the flights were relatively short though so of course an added bonus (I think).

I arrived in KL and negotiated public transport to the city centre where Mick came to meet me. It always intrigues me how I am totally at ease and relaxed with public transport when I’m abroad and even enjoy it, but back home it’s a novelty and not one to be greatly cherished to be honest and of course so much more expensive.
Micks been out in KL this time for four weeks and has been coming here for 13 years I think he said so he is my own private tour guide, excellent.

I’m staying the first couple of nights at the Rainforest B & B in KL, for the first night I’ve opted for a private room to try and get over a bit of the jetlag, and apart from there being no window in the room (apparently that’s normal here) it’s really very nice. After the first night my plan is to move out to a dorm room which will cost the grand sum of £6.75 with breakfast, linen and towels included, I think that’s pretty good, of course I haven’t seen the dorm yet.