Day 12 - Malaysia, Sri Lanka

Travel day. We got up at 0-dark-30 to take a car to airport at 0530.  Kuala Lumpur International Airport (1 & 2) is approximately 40 minutes from the resort.  Although our driver was late, we still made it there with time to spare.
Anyone who has been to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) knows it's 2 separate airports, KLIA1 and KLIA2.  Both airports have shopping malls.  I don't mean that little area of stores that some airports have before you get to the gates.  I mean a full fledged mall with shops and restaurants on different floors, that happens to connected to an airport.  If you have never been there, your first time may be a little disorienting/intimidating.  But it is surprisingly easy to navigate.  We found the check-in counter no time.  Immigration and security were quick.  We did a quick detour through Air Asia Red Premium lounge before going to the gate.  Shortly we were off to Sri Lanka.
The time difference between California and Sri Lanka is 12 and half hours.  We arrived in Sri Lanka without issue.  The wait in immigration wasn't bad.  kumi went before me in line.  When the immigration agent asked her the ever popular "Purpose of visit" I guess she explained our itinerary in excruciating detail.  Because when he got to me he literally said "I don't have to ask you any questions because she gave me more than enough information on what you're doing."  A short time later, we got our bags, met our driver,  and off we were to Avani Bentota.
It's about a 2 hour drive to the resort.  It is scenic in some places.  No traffic to really speak of.  When we arrived at the resort,  I must admit the entrance is not as impressive as others I have been to.  But that became moot when I saw how nice the resort is.  2 restaurants, 2 bars, 2 pools (3 if you count the kiddie pool) and it's on the beach. 
We loved our room.  Why it's not call a suite, I don't know.  83 square meters (893 square feet) and a very nice terrace.  (It's bigger than my first 1 bedroom apartment.)  A huge walk-in closet and bathroom with separate shower and tub combine to make us very happy with this "room."
We arrived early enough to get lunch.  We ate at Chatters bar which is next to our room.  Initially I thought this might be a drawback, but so far it's good.  We don't hear much noise from the bar and we can walk a few feet from our terrace if we want a drink or something.  (I am still evaluating the drink menu.  I will give a report later.)
After lunch we walked around the resort a bit.  Found out where a few things are.  We found the spa.  Scheduled a few appointments.  We also found an on-site boutique.  We did the touristy thing and bought stuff. 
The store owner was really nice.  We hadn't switched our currency yet, so we were going to come back later to buy the stuff.  He told us to go ahead and take it and pay later.
After shopping, we did a little more unpacking and crashed a bit.  Later, kumi went to a foot massage she had scheduled.  After which we went to dinner to Frangipani, one of the resort restaurants.  We really liked this place.  We were the only ones there.  Which really surprised us because it's a really nice restaurant and prices are good.
Anyway, after dinner we went back to our room.  The long day of travel plus the 2 hour time change (Malaysia to Sri Lanka) caught up to us.  We crashed.

Day 11 - Malaysia

The original plan was to go to the Sepang International Circuit. The rain storm we woke up to made us reconsider that plan. So the rest of the day was eat, sleep, eat, massage (massage and scrub for kumi), sleep, eat, pack. There may have also been an alcoholic beverage in there somewhere… and some internet stuff.

Day 10 - Malaysia

Kind of a do nothing day.  For me, it started early this morning, like 0300, with a huge thunderstorm.  I actually got out of bed to view it.  kumi slept right through it.  Conveniently, it ended just before sunrise.  There were showers on and off throughout the morning, but they stopped when we walked to breakfast, started again during breakfast, then ended when we finished breakfast.
The rest of the day was mellow.  kumi stayed in bed most of the day.  I got up and walked around the resort.  I took a few more pictures and scheduled another massage.  Yep, it was great.
Later, we went to Hai Sang Lou for dim sum.  We ordered three dishes.  They were really good.  Luckily we ordered the small size because, between the two of us, we barely finished all three.
After dinner, back to the room for the night.

Day 9 - Malaysia

Day trip to Melaka, or is Malacca? I’m not too sure. Anyway, 0900 departure, 2 hour drive to our destination, and (yay) the annoying couple didn’t come with us. This was an enjoyable trip. We saw a few museums, several monuments, and a lot of temples.

Lunch was also included. We ate at Siew Tin’s Nyonya Kitchen. We had steamed rice, cabbage, fish, omelette, and an awesome drink. My description isn’t doing the food justice because the seasonings added made for a very good meal.

After lunch we walked around the area a bit before beginning the 2 hour return to the resort. We made a couple of detours along the way. kumi wanted ice cream. We also stopped by a “bee” place and a reptile park. The bee place was interesting. We didn’t go into the reptile place because there was a charge. We returned to the resort from there.

Day - 8 Malaysia

Today we did an excursion to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, it didn’t start out well. It was us and another couple on the excursion. And that couple was an hour late. Why our guide did not leave without them, I don’t know. Once they showed up, we began the trip.

First stop, and really the only thing I cared about seeing, the Petronas Towers. There are quite a few people there trying to get pictures of the place. A few locals know you can’t get a full shot of the towers without a wide angle lens… Which they just happen to have a few available to sell.

We went to a few other places, then stopped at the Central Market for lunch. I was so fascinated by the Central Market, I forgot to take pictures. Not even of the lunch we had, which was awesome and also cheap.

After market, we stopped by a few more places. Got caught in a thunder shower. Then, headed back to the resort.

Up until this time, the other couple had only been mildly annoying. They, particularly the husband, went beyond annoying on the ride back. He would randomly sing and whistle. He would play loud videos on his phone. Almost every time our guide would try explain something, the husband would interrupt him. We were worried when he mentioned an interest in joining our excursion to Malacca the next day. We’re hoping they don’t join us. But we will find that out tomorrow…

Day 7 - Malaysia

You would think after arriving so late the previous evening, I would want to sleep in late. But nooo, at around 0630, kumi was like “I’m hungry!” So we got up and went to breakfast. The buffet was good. They had a good selection of food. Anantara still is my favorite though.

We didn’t do much else the rest of the day. Toured the resort. Took lots of pictures. Ate lunch. Then stopped by the spa and scheduled an appointment for later. Massage for me. Scrub and massage for kumi. After that we were pretty much done.

We would’ve been done for the night, but we had to do a room change. There was a problem with our room, so the resort immediately moved us. We resettled in. Posted a few updates. Then called it a night.

Day - 6 China, Malaysia

Travel day. Flying from Sanya, China to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Got up early enough to get a quick bite at Shi Yuan. Followed by a nice ride to the airport. Check-in, immigration, etc. relatively painless. Boarded the plane on time. The rest went seriously downhill from there.

I was flying China Southern airlines. They announced “Due to traffic congestion, our flight is delayed.” The flight from Sanya to Guangzhou is about an hour and a half. I had a 2 hour layover in Guangzhou. The plane sat on the tarmac in Sanya for 2 hours. When we eventually landed in Guangzhou, I had 10 minutes before my connecting flight took off. For some odd reason, China Southern gave me and another couple hope that we could make the flight. That in 10 minutes we could take shuttle from the plane to the terminal (No jetway); Go from terminal W to terminal A (It’s as far as it sounds); Go through 2 security checkpoints and immigration, then proceed a quarter of the way down terminal A to the gate… I made it to immigration before they told me the flight was gone. I went back through the checkpoints, found the China Southern supervisor desk and they put me on a later flight that boarded at 1700.

This caused a couple of problems. First, I scheduled a pickup with Avani Sepang and I had to notify them of the flight change. Second, I was meeting @kumimonster in Kuala Lumpur and her flight arrived earlier than mine. The original plan was for us to meet in Kuala Lumpur and take the car from there to the resort. Through an excellent combination of AT&T hotspots and Vonage, I managed to get kumi picked up earlier and my pickup rescheduled.

Of course, that couldn’t be the end of it. My scheduled 1700 boarding didn’t occur until over 2 hours later. 3 and half hour flight to Kuala Lumpur. I arrived at 2330.

Immigration was quick. I had a little wait at baggage claim. Breezed through customs. Avani was waiting for me (yay). Approximately 40 minutes later, I was at the resort. Checked-in. Went to the room. kumi was still up posting stuff. Went to bed.

Thailand - Day 13

Travel day.  I had an afternoon flight, so I had time to enjoy breakfast.  Afterwards I returned to my villa to finish packing.  Just as I finished, two monkeys appeared outside.  I managed to get pictures of one of them.  On my way to check out, I saw two more.

Check out was quick, followed by a short boat ride to Kota Kinabalu.  From the boat, 20 minute car ride to the airport.  Then a 2 and half hour flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur.  Then a 1 hour 15 minute flight to Phuket.  I thought immigration was relatively quick.  When I got to baggage claim, my bag was coming out.  That never happens.  I'm guessing the slight detour I made to currency exchange may have contributed to my bag arriving so quickly.  Anyway, got my bag.  Anantara had a car waiting for me as I walked out.  A 20 minute car ride later, I arrived at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas.

On a slightly different topic, I learned something today which has annoyed me all week. When I left the Philippines to come to Malaysia, my flight path was El Nido to Manila to Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu.  It's approximately 1500 miles from Manila to Kuala Lumpur.  From Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu is about 1000 miles.  But El Nido to Kota Kinabalu is about 400 miles.  When I booked my flight, there was no option to fly El Nido to Kota Kinabalu.  (Anyone who has seen El Nido airport would understand this as reasonable.) However, there is an option to fly from Puerto Princesa (the other end of Palawan). to Kota Kinabalu.  (AirAsia) Unfortunately, it's not everyday of the week.  So if you're going from El Nido to Kota Kinabalu and can be flexible with your travel plans, play around with dates to try to get the one from Puerto Princesa... Or you can take the "scenic" route that I took.

Malaysia - Day 12

Eat, sleep, drink, repeat.  Add in a 100 minute Malay massage just to mix things up a bit.

Gaya Island Resort

Malaysia - Day 11

For the last couple of days, there has been a monkey hanging (literally) around my villa.  Every time I try to get a picture, it runs away. I've been to several places where there were monkeys.  The warnings were don't feed them and be very mindful of your belongings because they are notorious for stealing them.  Here, the same warnings apply with the addition "Keep your villa locked."  This morning, a monkey (not sure if it was the same one) tried to get into my villa.  Later in the morning, another monkey was at my door.  I managed to get a picture of it before it ran away.  It's not a great picture, but it is the only one I have managed to get so far.

The rest of the morning was uneventful.  Snorkeling, not good.  Again, bad visibility, it was around 10 ft. 

I had lunch later.  Something at lunch did not agree with me.  Amazingly, in all my years of travel to foreign countries, this was the first time a meal did not sit well with me.  I was fine later though.

I went to the Spa Village for massage #3 of 5.  (I think I got this package for making my reservation early.  It is not something I would have chosen, but I definitely wasn't going to say no.) I chose the Balinese massage this time.

The weather here is cooperating nicely.  It's been nice in morning, usually continuing into the afternoon.  Then rain in the evening.  Which has been good because usually by late evening, I'm done.

Malaysia - Day 10

I went diving today.  I did a 2 tank dive with a company called "Borneo Dream".  The water temperature was warm, no wetsuit needed.  There was a lot of sealife to see.  Unfortunately, visibility was worse than the Philippines.  10-15 feet on the first dive and about 20 feet on the second.  On the plus side, I stayed under longer than normal and the underwater housing I got for my camera worked great.  Also, the dive shop took us to a restaurant and bought us lunch after the dives.

After lunch, the boat brought me back to the resort.  From the jetty I headed directly to Spa Village.  I had another appointment.  This was my second of five massages.  This time, I got the "Rolling Waves" massage.  Forearms and knuckles are used to lengthen muscles and release tension.  It worked out very well after diving.

Malaysia - Day 9

The day started with a beautiful morning.  That, turned into rain (occasionally heavy) in the afternoon.  Then clear in the evening.  Much of my activity was in the morning.  I had the buffet breakfast.  (Quite good, but Anantara is still my favorite.)  Then I took a walk around the resort.  It's quite big.  I worked up a little sweat...  The humidity may have contributed some to that.  I stopped at the Spa Village and scheduled my first of 5 massages that came with my package.  Then back to explore more of the resort.

Later, I had a late lunch.  I arrived at the restaurant just as it started raining.  I can't spell or pronounce what I had, but it was very good.  (Minor rant: Why fly thousands of miles just to have pizza or fries?)

It was still raining when I finished lunch.  Luckily, the resort has umbrellas just about everywhere.  In addition to the two in your villa, there are umbrellas in every common area.  If you didn't bring one from your villa, you can use one of those, which I did.

I returned to the Spa Village later for my 50 minute massage.  I chose the "Malay Massage: Long kneading strokes that focus on the muscles, and pressure applied to various points of the body."  Yep, it was good, and also a great way to end the day.

Kuala Lumpur Airport

Something good to know about Kuala Lumpur Airport (KUL): It is actually two airports, KLIA1 and KLIA2.  This is very important if the plane you arrive on lands in KLIA1, and your connecting flight is in KLIA2.  Transferring between is easy enough.  Just take the KLIA Ekspres.  There is a fare, but it's really inexpensive and travel time is about 3 minutes.

Malaysia - Day 8

Travel day #2.  Got up at 0400 this morning in the Philippines to catch an early flight to Malaysia.  I've been in airports all day.  By the time I arrived in Kota Kinabalu, it was dark and rainy.  And I still had to do a 20 minute car ride to the boat, followed by a 20 minute boat ride.  I was tired when I arrived at Gaya Island Resort.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go to my villa because the resort lost power earlier in the day and they hadn't restored power to the section my villa was in....

Positive things today were:

   1.  Malaysia is my second best immigration experience ever.  (Switzerland is still number one.)
   2.  Gaya gave me a free dinner while they were trying to restore power to my villa
   3.  When power still wasn't restored after I finished dinner, they moved me to another villa