Putrajaya & Cyberjaya, Malaysia (GMT +8)

Four a.m. wake up call this morning. Too early now that I'm adjusted to the time change.

Last night, after room service dinner, I packed my stow-away bag and took it down to the bag check area in the lobby for storage. I'm taking a smaller subset of clothes for my week in Malaysia. It's kinda neat that the hotel will hold my bags for the week until I get back.

Showered, shaved and dressed in work cloths for my 0445 taxi ride to Changi Airport. Headed for Terminal 2 and Malaysia Airlines (MA). Taxi fare ~$27SG. In the terminal things were very quite. Walked over to MA and checked in my 1 15kg bag. I was pleased with that because no excess baggage fee. Handed over my passport and a few minutes later I had my boarding pass, seat 22D, and started walking towards my gate, E3... a bit of a hike. This early in the morning not much going on in the airport.

On the way to the gate, stopped at the local Hudson News-like vendor and picked up a small, quick read book by John C. Maxwell, 'Success 101'. Never too old to pick up some tips from a gent that's been lecturing and writing books on a myriad of business professional topics for years now. :-) I've read other books by Mr. Maxwell, like him.

The security check-in process here in Changi is very different from any I've encountered to date. No security and passport check until right there at the gate. Everything's done right as you walk into the gate area from checking your artifacts to x-raying your carry-on and yourself. I actually set off the alarm with my belt buckle - which turned into an intimate pat down and wanding. No big deal. From there gathered my things and walked over to another check-point where they actually check you in. You pass through and take a seat until the plane starts to board.

Similar to most other airlines, Malaysia Air boarded 1st class/elite status folks first, followed by row numbers. The plane was packed to the gills - a B737-400. Took off right on time and snoozed a bit on the 45min ride to Kuala Lumpur (KL) International Airport. A bit bumpy in descent with lots of clouds and rain. The Malay pilots driving the jet must have had a little bit of US Navy in them by the way they slammed the jet onto the runway! The hardest landing I've experienced to date! :-)

It was a long walk, used the people movers, from the gate to customs. No problems there and got another stamp in the passport. Picked up my bag from baggage claim A and headed over to the 'green' declaration lanes - since I had nothing to declare - and walked out in order to search for an ATM to get some 'Ringgits', the Malaysian currency. Plenty of limo drivers querying anyone who looked as if they needed a ride to a particular hotel off to the left on exit. Saw a Shangri-la driver and walked up to him. He checked his list to see if I was on it, I was not, and told me I needed to go back into the terminal to purchase a teksi (taxi) ticket in order to catch a teksi on the 3rd level (which we were on).

At the teksi window, you can purchase 1 of 3 types of transportation:  large, van size transport for many; medium sized limo for luxury, and; small sized taxi's for individual use - I ponied up my $64RG for economy wheels and started searching for an ATM. Found one and withdrew $100RG with my Chase Mastercard.  I believe the exchange rate is ~3.5 ringgits/US dollar.  From there went and queued up for the economy teksi ride to Putrajaya (PJ) where my hotel, the Shangri-la, is located. From landing to leaving ~1hr and left the airport right at 0845. The airport property is expansive and still under lots of construction. All along the road to PJ, there are sprawling, lush greenery that looks to be primarily tropical fruit trees with a smattering of Mosques and buildings of all shapes, sizes and purposes.

As I understand it, both Cyberjaya (CJ) and PJ are planned cities built up out of the Malaysian jungle. It's actually pretty cool to see the lengths the Malaysians have gone to, to build the illusion of these 2 cities always being here from planting a gazillion palm and banana trees that aren't natural to the region, to digging and filling a huge man-made lake, that I thought was part of a river system, in order to build several modern bridges from 1 side to the other! Amazing!

Since it was still so early, I had the teksi driver take me to the PJ Shangri-la, a relatively subdued 4 story hotel located on a small hill overlooking parts of PJ. The check-in folks are very friendly, helpful and checked me into Room 406. I also ordered a teksi for 10am to drive me over to CJ, which they arranged for me. I asked for the top level of the hotel as a first time visitor in order to get the best view - they were happy to oblige. By the time I dumped my bag and camera bag in the room, it was 0915 and breakfast was still being served so, went down and enjoyed some hot food.

Side note: Before getting here, literally everyone I spoke to about Malaysia had some common advice:

- Don't drink the water and don't use it to brush your teeth;
- Drink only bottled water and use it to brush with;
- Keep your mouth closed during showers;
- Avoid ice, it's just frozen water;
- Wear long pants, long sleeves and use DEET as your cologne, no good mosquitoes in Malaysia;
- Don't pet the monkeys (what monkeys? Haven't seen any yet), and;
- Avoid the bats!
- Avoid going to Westerner hang-outs just in case of terrorist attacks... heck, I don't have a clue where any of that is and it's not like I have a ton of friends around to bar hop around with! :-)

Really puts a damper on one's visit - if you let it. I'm sure I'll not be able to avoid doing some of the more mundane things on the list above. I hope to survive my reckless behavior!! :-)

Jumped in a taxi at 1000 and got to the office in CJ at ~1020. Got a long day ahead.

More later....

OK, it's about 1815 and I just got back to the hotel. My colleague Pradeep dropped me off and saved me ~$25RG.  Don't plan on doing much tonight except taking a bunch of photos of my room here, the hotel's interior/exterior and some of the panoramic views outside.  Gonna be a long day/evening tomorrow and want to catch up on some sleep. Pradeep is going with me to KL tomorrow afternoon after work... gotta go check it out, right? Who knows when I'll ever get back?

Will post photos later.