sjamesho.v3

our journey to India was over but we still had more traveling yet to do the next day. i didn’t know what to expect when we landed in Chennai (MAA). however i was a little surprised that it wasn’t nearly as humid as it was in Malaysia even though people told me it would be warm. of course it could be latitude thing.

as my dad is looking for our luggage, i quickly take a few shots of myself in the Chennai International baggage claim area. after all the luggage had been transferred and the luggage belt stopped, my dad and i were quite worried because we didn’t see his checked suitcase. of course, we couldn’t see his suitcase because it had already been taken off the belt and had several Indian men standing near it blocking our view. it was only when they started to disperse that i saw it and signaled my dad to its location to which we were both relieved.

when we walked out of the international terminal, i was quite amazed at the amount of people that come out to receive whoever they are waiting for. i’m so used to how we do things in the states because we’re too cheap to park and wait that we’d circle the arrival terminal until we eventually see who we are picking up.

my dad and i didn’t make arrangements for a place to stay the evening that we arrived. but there was this hotel “agent” in his rather ghetto-like office that was just outside the terminal. i took the previous picture from the same place that i took this one of my dad “negotiating” a price for a hotel that the agent “claimed” to be only 15 minutes away from the airport. at first i didn’t know what my dad was doing. in his silence, i thought he was just thinking it over so i told him that US$90 is a decent price for a hotel since some motels go for US$80 in some places… and that’s just for a single. but in his silence, he was able to get the price to come to US$90 since US$120 was what was offered in the beginning. i’m sure it still could have come down a little more but we were tired and looking forward to getting some rest soon before having to leave early in the morning the next day.

the first life experience lesson in India that we learned was that people who help you out expect tips. everywhere you go people will help you with your bags even though you can perfectly carry them yourself and then turn around and hit you up for a tip. so if you are fully able and can carry your own stuff, be adamant and refuse help even to the point of grabbing your bags from them unless you want to start giving money away.

we learned this by the shuttle to our hotel. obviously we didn’t know which shuttle would take us to the hotel so there were two guys that pushed our luggage cart to the parking lot where the shuttle was and loaded them. after that we were a little wiser and a little more prepared in what to expect.

our US$90 room

we arrive at the hotel 40 minutes after leaving the airport. okay… bad traffic aside… i doubt that anyone could have made it to the hotel in 15 minutes in good traffic. seems time is flexible in India. anyways… after checking in and entering the marble-floored room both my dad and i were very impressed. this was our first night in India and a clean room and comfortable bed is just what’s needed after 30 hours of traveling and transits.

we had about a 7.5 hour lay-over in Kuala Lumpur so Malaysia Airlines paid for a hotel room and lunch while we waited for our next flight to Chennai, India (MAA).

as we left the airport the humidity didn’t waste any time to reintroduce itself to me. thankfully, i’m on the bus with air conditioning and a glass that separated me from the moisture.

unfortunately the pleasantness of air conditioning was short-lived. although the hotel was farther from the airport than my dad and i assumed, i wasn’t quite ready to immerse myself in Malaysian atmosphere. that’s okay… the air conditioned hotel is right behind me and soon i will refresh myself as i shower off the travel grime.

our room number

our room

on our previous trip to Malaysia our hotel had mold growing on the… moulding. but we are quite impressed…

…that this hotel, specifically our hotel room, was mold-free.

remember i had mentioned that Malaysian Airlines not only paid for a hotel room but paid for lunch? you know what that means? food pictures! oh yeah… we sat next to a floor-to-ceiling windows so i had plenty of light to make the food look extra yummy.

string beans

spicy tofu

noodles and spinach

chili!

dessert

dessert

pandan and coconut dessert-thing

papaya

pandan dessert-thing

dessert

pandan and lime vanilla ice cream

after lunch we took our refreshing and relaxing showers. and by the time both of us were done, there wasn’t much time to sleep so we just got ready to head back out to the bus to be shuttled back to the airport. while my dad was checking out of the hotel, i wanted to use the computers in the lobby to e-mail my mom but when i logged in there was no connection out. the hotel person told me that perhaps the servers were down. obviously. here’s a ceiling picture of the departure terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). it’s quite different.

my dad and i were one of the first people at our gate and were delighted to find lounge chairs at the waiting area. well… they are actually outside of the gate area. you know… before you enter the waiting area inside the gate.

my dad

me

we thought that these would be comfortable enough to catch some z’s before the gate opened and they were. however, KLIA has these bells that ring off right before they make an annoucement. and they seemed to make an announcement every five minutes. so if you’re able to sleep with bells going off every five minutes, these chairs would be great for you. actually they’re great for just sitting as well but there was no sleep to be had.

it is that time again to get myself out of the country and into a mission trip and to eventually use the India visa that i applied for back in october. the journey of 30+ hours of flight time (not including lay-overs) started from San Francisco (SFO) to Los Angeles (LAX). the only downside of traveling to places as far as India is the amount of time spent sitting strapped into your seat.

here i am waiting in line at LAX. “they” told us that this is where we needed to line up but its about 9:50p and our flight to Taipei (TPE) leaves at 11:53p so my dad went to investigate the matter because this line didn’t seem to move at all.

its a good thing that he did because obviously “they” didn’t know that we had already checked our bags to India and had only carry-on bags with us. so we we quickly made our way to the counter to get our boarding passes. as you can see, as soon as we got to the ticketing area we were next in line.

after we got our boarding passes we thought that we were able to quickly get to the gates since we had by-passed all the other people who were still waiting in the line to check in their luggage. but we found ourselves waiting in yet another line. it is 10:24p and though the line is slowly moving, its at least moving and we were able to make our flight out of LAX.

about 14:35 hours later we arrived at TPE… on wednesday! i didn’t have time to take pictures at TPE because its transit procedures are the most impractical and inane of procedures. how so? okay… so we arrive at TPE to transit to Kuala Lumpur (KUL). we leave the airplane and the gate and are directed by airport personel where to go… and then there’s a line. at first we couldn’t see why there was a hold up. but then eventually we had the view of what made the delay… security. okay… i would understand having to go through security of our final destination was TPE… to have transit passengers take off their shoes and place their carry-on bags through the x-ray machine only to return to the same gate that we had just left was utterly ridiculous! wasn’t the security check at LAX good enough for TPE? apparently not.

about 4:35 hours later we arrive in KUL. of all the airports that i’ve had the privilege of going through, KUL is my favorite. it is modern, clean, convenient, and has free wireless internet too! they just don’t print the “World’s Best Airport” for nothing. i think that title is from a third-party assessment. but even if it is self-proclaimed, i would have to agree.

i’m done with the Peru mission trip pictures! i just realized how silly i have been in this process. yesterday, i completeed the resizing my pictures and cropping for thumbnails. so today i was able to concentrate on the coding pages. this was a much faster method and one i think i’ll practice from here on out.

after gathering most of my Peru pictures, i have 333 pictures to post. yes… its going to be a long process but it must be done. i have completed one of the 12 gallery pages already. if i pace myself to do at least two pages a day i should be done by the end of next week. i hope i won’t get too distracted on other things because i really want to get this done. i also have to take pictures of my new car. so if it doesn’t rain, i might sneak in those pictures too.