Arriving in Malaysia

Our flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo, the overnight stay at the Narita Airport Hilton and then the flight to Malaysia all went very smoothly.   It's a very long haul, no matter what you do but it went very well.   I can highly recommend the "Economy Comfort" seats on the Delta leg to Tokyo.  I've read that they only give you 4 inches more space than the regular coach seats but we thought they were almost as comfortable as domestic first class seats.  Of course the food and the service were not nearly as nice as first class but they were indeed more comfortable than standard coach seating and made the 13 hour flight to Tokyo more bearable.

The Narita airport is easy to get through with all the important signs and directions in English and numerous information desks with friendly and helpful staff.  We were struck by how stereotypically hyper-organized the Japanese are with uniformed staff both inside the airport, outside directing traffic and even in the Narita Airport Hotel.  We stayed at the hotel overnight because our flight arrived at about 4 p.m. local time but our flight from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur did not leave until 10:30 the following morning. The hotel by the way was very impressive on the exterior and in the common areas but the room itself was small and not very comfortable.

When we went to the Narita airport on Monday morning we were surprised when every vehicle going into the airport was stopped and given a brief security inspection.  There were three uniformed security people who came on the bus and checked everyone's passport.  I don't know what purpose that served but it was in keeping with all of the other formal immigration and custom checks we went through in Japan.  All of which was strikingly absent when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur.  As we were starting to land in KL I asked a stewardess for an immigration form (which they usually pass out on the planes when going to other countries) and she said it was not necessary; we would only need to give fingerprints.  She was right of course.  When we went through immigration at the KL airport they asked no questions, we didn't have to say how long we were staying, where we were staying or anything else.  All we had to do was put our two index fingers on a scanner and then the officer waved us through.  And there was no customs whatsoever; no form to fill out and no customs officers inspecting anyone's bags.  There were a couple of official looking people standing around near the exit to the airport lobby but absolutely no inspection or questions whatsoever.  I could have had four suitcases loaded with whatever and carried them into Malaysia, no questions asked. I'm not a fan of too much security but I was surprised by how unconcerned they were.

One of my friends has mentioned several times that she was concerned about us flying on Malaysia Airlines in light of the two planes that went down this last year.  I honestly had not given that much thought until just as we were taking off they displayed a "Traveler's Prayer to Allah" on the video screen on the back of every seat.  I suppose that may have given comfort to some passengers but it had the opposite effect on me.

This morning Carol and I and went along with Amy and the G-Kids while they all got their nails done.

Then we went downtown to the Pavilion Mall for lunch at Din Tai Fung, a dim sum restaurant that is one of our favorites.  The Pavilion Mall itself  is in my view, more impressive than the Mall of America.  It may not be as big but the appearance and number of high end stores at the Pavilion is unbelievable. There was a sign at the front door where they have parking reserved "For Royalty and Ministers Only".  There was a black Rolls Royce and a red Ferrari parked there when we pulled up.

It was also striking that in this predominantly Muslim country (about 70% of the population, with most of the rest being either Buddhist or Hindu) they had such big Christmas displays.  Below are some pictures of the central space in the Pavilion Mall.

We stopped at the grocery store in the lower level of the mall just before we left.  I should have kept a closer eye on what Hannah was putting in the shopping cart.  She really likes strawberries and put two containers of them in the basket.  When we got home I saw that they were 49 Ringgits for each container.  That works out to over $15/dozen strawberries.  Ho Ho Ho.