During this last trip to Kuala Lumpur, we elected to rent a car instead of relying on taxis to get around. Having to drive there was inevitable, so I felt there wasn't a need to put it off, plus we...
Continue reading "Lessons Learned from Driving in Malaysia" »
Thanks to all who came over yesterday to cool the house down! It was a very successful endeavor, as we presented people with "parting gifts" as they left: mainly bottles of alcohol that we can't ship to Malaysia or store,...
Continue reading "Sorting Day" »
Today the packers/movers come to take our 5,000 lbs. that we are allowed to ship by sea. We finished sorting around 2am last night and are a little groggy this morning, but after today, this will finally seem real. We...
Continue reading "Sea Boxing Day" »
Having survived the whirlwind of Security movers yesterday, we prepare today for the small (200 lb) air shipment and putting the heavy things (read: books and yard tools) into storage. Yesterday's activity lasted from 9am to 3:30pm, with most of...
Continue reading "Storage and Air Shipment Boxing Day" »
Picture this: you're driving along the interstate, following the 1400 mile planned route as defined between Google Maps and the Garmin GPS, and it's getting close to dark and you start to think that you need to eat and find...
Continue reading "The 21st Century Roadtrip (i.e., Leaving DC)" »
We made it to Jackson, Mississippi the next night and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express and had a wonderful meal at a local restaurant called Julep, where we had their signature drink and some great crawfish etoufee. We made...
Continue reading "Houston and Hybrids" »
Today is our last day in the U.S. for some time--J may be back in September for a conference in Colorado, but we won't have any "home leave" until we have been in Malaysia for at least six months. We...
Continue reading "Leaving the U.S. Tonight" »
It takes roughly 24 hours to get to the other side of the world. In this particular instance, it was three hours to Los Angeles, 13 hours to Taipei and 6 hours to Kuala Lumpur, with the attendant hours of...
Continue reading "The Flight to KL" »
We stay so busy with work and preparing for our new home (i.e., furniture shopping), that the only thing we have been able to actually do for fun when we've been here before and now is simply to go out...
Continue reading "Eating in KL" »
A couple of people asked why all the recent news here is just about out moving experience and what we've been eating, and nothing about our new jobs. Unfortunately, given the fact that the project is with a private company,...
Continue reading "Ain't Talking 'bout Work" »
In our effort to continue to try every restaurant within walking distance of the Traders Hotel before we finish our relocation period, we walked down Raja Chulan past the Thai Bistro/To Dine For restaurant we had eaten at before and...
Continue reading "Viet Passion" »
A couple of weeks after moving here and we're feeling pretty comfortable driving around, especially now that we've obtained the automatic toll payment device (the Smart pass). We can drive to our work place and back to the hotel without...
Continue reading "Miscellaneous Impressions of Malaysia" »
While I was still in the hospital, I insisted that J attend the appointment I had arranged with a local Honda dealer to be shown a Honda Civic Hybrid, considering how long it had taken me to arrange the showing...
Continue reading "Won't You Sell Me a Car?" »
We maxed out our thirty days of temporary housing today, so had to check out of the Traders hotel and actually switch over to our new rental house, which we had the keys too since Friday, August 1, the day...
Continue reading "Welcome to Gita Bayu" »
I started this little project before I got sick, and hope to keep up with it while we are here. Below is an embedded Google Map showing the places that we've eaten so far in Kuala Lumpur, with some small...
Continue reading "Google Mapping Our Gustatory Exploits" »
Thank goodness the sore throat has disappeared for now I can eat once again. Not that I mind soup, but a steady diet of it gets very tiring. Since we moved into the house, which is out in the 'burbs...
Continue reading "Some Food Notes, with a raspberry towards TripAdvisor" »
We had the good fortune to be invited, along with our other work colleagues who have relocated here with us by now, to have dinner at the home of one of our Malaysian colleagues. It was wonderful to meet his...
Continue reading "Social Weekend Activities" »
We spent most of Sunday afternoon shopping: visiting car dealers, obtaining an iron and an ironing board, getting lamps for the bedroom, and some grocery items that weren't perishable. At the end of the day, since we were in the...
Continue reading "tsb (Telawi Street Bistro)" »
Since our ground shipment has still yet to arrive (we've heard rumors that it may have made it to China, but I'm not holding my breath), we decided to take the opportunity to go a couple of hours south of...
Continue reading "First Day in Melaka" »
Monday morning and we had already decided that we had gotten our fill of Melaka for this trip, although we did take a little time to try and find the Portuguese settlement on our way out. We didn't find the...
Continue reading "Leaving Melaka, Back to KL" »
Now that we've been in the house nearly a month, we've finally had the time to check out some of the local shopping ourselves (we're still trying to find that perfect grocery store). Our friend Jerry was back in town...
Continue reading "Exploring the Local Area" »
I needed to get some landscape/greenery photos for something I was doing at work, and one of our new colleagues, Farid, offered to show us some of the countryside, including the elephant sanctuary on Sunday. It was Northeast of Kuala...
Continue reading "Kaula Gandah Elephant Sanctuary" »
Ten weeks after it was packed and crated up in Silver Spring, Maryland, our belongings showed up at our new home in Malaysia. Everything came through intact, although the edges of a couple of items showed some extra wear from...
Continue reading "The Sea Shipment Arrives" »
After a month in Maryland following all the medical trials and tribulations and resultant recovery period, I was released to return to Malaysia on October 25. A 24-hour trip (19 of which on the same plane from Newark to Singapore,...
Continue reading "Back in KL" »
It's been two weeks since I last posted, which wasn't a comment on how little things are going on, but basically how much. Here's the highlights: I returned to Malaysia at the end of October, only three-and-a-half weeks after my...
Continue reading "Catching Up on Things" »
Finally, after the delays and diversions of my health issues, the house seems to have finally become our home. The sea shipment arrived, we've made all the necessary furniture purchases, and items are just waiting to be hung in place...
Continue reading "Two Purchases and a Rained-Out Dinner Party" »
Credit card companies in the United States complain about the amount of fraud that occurs with stolen, false, or otherwise faked credit cards, yet they do nothing to actually address the problem. In fact, instead of trying to figure out...
Continue reading "Credit Card Security" »
Our company policy is to take the holidays of the location that we are assigned to, so while our U.S. co-workers and families had this past Thursday and Friday off, those of us in Malaysia were working. Don't feel too...
Continue reading "Thanksgiving in Malaysia" »
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