Malaysia - Day 1

As some of you might be aware, Jesse and I went went 7 other members from our youth group to Malaysia as part of outreach to the Orang Asli (indigenous people), in conjunction with the LCMS (Lutheran Church Malaysia Singapore). Here is my journal (slightly abridged) from the 2 weeks we were there.

Day 1 - Sunday 16 September:



Day 1 started very abruptly, with my alarm failing to go off at 5am as planned (yep, set the time but forgot to switch it to 'on' as opposed to 'weekday'). Instead we jumped out of bed at 6am, showered, dressed and completed packing, leaving home by 6.20 and making it to the airport by 7am! Checking in was a long process (well, the wait time really) and then it was time for a quick coffee and goodbyes before going through customs and arriving at our gate.

The flight was long - about 7.45 - but the time went reasonably smoothly, with reading and a comprehensive entertainment system to keep us all occupied. And the plane food was quite yummy (I recommend Malaysia Airways).

We landed at KLIA (Kuala Lumpar International Airport) at 2.30pm local time. Unfortunately Vicki was still feeling the effects of air sickness and so it took us about an hour to travel to the other terminal, go through immigration and collect our bags. We were met by Ps Calvin, Zen and Terrance, who made us feel welcome straight away.  We had 2 cars to take us, and I went in the car with Ps Calvin, and it was a bit crazy. For the Sunday of a long weekend, the roads were quiet, yet the average speed was around 110km/h (in 70 and 100 zones) and no one used indicators to change lanes. We arrived at our accommodation - the Luther Centre - and got ourselves organised and rested. The Luther Centre is the head office for the LMC (Lutheran Church of Malaysia), situated on the 6th floor. The guest rooms and seminar rooms are on level 5. 

Around 6pm we got together and went over our itinerary for the next 2 weeks. This was good to know, as the itinerary we were given before we left was slightly different, and definitely not very detailed. Even this meeting didn't really give us the full details of what we were actually going to get up to.

For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant.  Parking was a bit wherever you can find one (and try not to fall into the 6-foot drain on the side of the road), and the restaurant was open, with about 20 ceiling fans on high to circulate the air. We had a large variety of mild meals to share, and we all had to use chopsticks. The satay sticks were definitely our favourite dish from this meal.  With full tummies we all went back to the Luther Centre for bed.