Tuesday
Dry run:
(... place holder. Needed because of date change.)
Monday, August 30, 2010
day 0 of the MMSM
Lunch:
I took a taxicab to the Langkawi Fairground. The driver told me there is a good restaurant where I can get some food. I really
wanted just hawker food stalls, not a fan
cy restaurant, but it was approaching 11 and I was getting hungry.I walked into the restau
rant. The waitress said to me: "11 up."What does that mean? 11 up? I asked again, and she said "11 up." again.
After a few exchanges, she changed her answer, and said "11 thirty we open." Ah, so 11 up is the local way of saying 11:30. I can wait five minutes, so I took a walk into the shopping mall, and bought a small box of cashew nuts.
Later at the restaurant, I ordered an appetizer of shrimp dumplings (I was thinking Chinese dim sum shui-mai), an order of tofu in crabmeat stuffing, and a plate of flat noodles in gravy (chow kuay teow with gravy).
Dinner:
According to the agenda, dinner is supposed to be served pool-side, but there was no mention of what time they will serve dinner. I took a calculated guess from the day 2 agenda, which says 7 to 10 for dinner at the pool-side, and decided to check out the pool at 6:30PM.
Nothing.
I walked along the pool, then off a path along the beach to a long jetty. I looked at some fishing boat coming back in the evening setting sun, and took a few pictures with my iPhone.
Back to the lobby, I noticed a sign that says "wifi available", so I turned on the wireless in the iPhone, and read an email from the organizer that the dinner has been moved to the lower lobby. That is the lobby I first came in when I arrived at the resort. It is a short walk across a street to the lower lobby, and indeed, a cocktail party was in full swing. I picked up a glass of white wine, and circulated. I met the organizer, Alison Ho, who introduced me to the breakout session leaders. We had the breakout session mapped and planned. I am going to do a dry-run tomorrow morning at 11 AM.
Next is dinner. I was in no hurry, because I just ate a couple of fruits in my room. I let the attendees go at the food first. The food is prepared buffet style. There are four rows of tables of food. Row 1, salads, appetizers, shusi, fruits. Row 2 and 3 are the main course, but duplicate of each other: crab puffs, tuna fillets, fried boneless chicken, beef medallions, asparagus shoots, broccoli with oyster sauce, fried noodles, fried rice. Row 4: more fruits, including dragon fruit, papaya, pineapple, halved plums with seeds removed, pears, followed by laksa, the fish noodle soup, in Kedah style.
Piled up some food, and picked a random table full of Japanese sales managers. What a quiet group. I tried to provoke them, asking them why NAS is not a good seller in Japan. I talked about oem business, new product features, .. silence. Once in a while, they will speak Japanese to each other. Okay, I got the hint. I wolfed down my food, and went to talk to the Laksa chef. I asked him why Kedah style does not have shrimp paste. He said that is the tradition. Only Penang laksa has shrimp paste. I insists that shrimp paste enhances the flavor of the fish soup. It adds some sweetness and saltiness to the soup. He agrees, but said he must follow the tradition. Okay, got the hint, moved on.
When to talk to the organizers Caroline and Sureshz. They showed me the breakout room, where I will be presenting and demoing Unisphere. We made plans to meet tomorrow morning.
Back to the room for a quick dry run of Unisphere, and dozed off.
Pictures:
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Touch down!
From London to Kuala Lumpur is a 13 hour flight. I was up most of the time. Come to think of it, sitting there with the TV in front of me, and the air conditioner blowing cold air in my face, is no different from what I do every night. I am usually sitting in front of the TV, sleeping most of the time. Once in a while, I would wake up and watch a bit of TV. If I shut off the TV, and turn off the lights, I will not be able to sleep. I need that light and noise to keep me company while I sleep.
So on this flight from London to KL, I watched many half-hour TV shows. I stayed up most of the night, and watched one TV show after another. I saw TV shows that I didn't know existed. Patricia Hutton (from Everybody love Raymond) has a show in which she is a mother of three teens, and a car saleswoman herself. Brother Bob from the same show (he name is Garrett?) also has a new show where he tries to learn to swim for his wife (so they can go snorkeling in Hawaii) and ends up almost drowning himself. I watched a couple of The Simpsons. All very funny. I watched The Big Bang Theory, in which Sheldon tried to befriend another physicist.
In between TV shows, I watched the flight information on the screen in the middle seat. When we passed over India, I mentally waved at our friends at Patni in India, both in Mumbai and Delhi.
By the time we touched down at Kuala Lumpur, I have had maybe a couple minutes of shut eyes. This is not good. Well, I will catch a few winks at the hotel later in the afternoon.
The worrier in me started worrying about whether I will have enough time to get to the next gate for the langkawi flight. I have about an hour between flights. I am thinking, for example, if you fly in from Asia to Los Angeles or San Francisco, you will have to claim your luggage, go through Passport check, then go through custom check, then return the luggage to the flight, and then head to the gate for the domestic flight back to Boston. so a similar process for Kuala Lumpur would entail me getting my luggage, go through passport, then customer, then find and head to the gate. This, surely, must take more than hour.
When I came out of the plane, there is an airport worker holding up a sign for MH1340 Langkawi. I approached the man, and a couple beat me to it, and i heard the man said "go to gate A11 after the train."
Me and the couple rushed over to the train (more like a surface train) and rushed to gate A11. When I handed the boarding pass to the airline clerk, she said "This is not for Langkawi." Oh no! There were no information monitors around this gate area, so I started running back to the top of the corridor. By the time i reached the information desk, I was really panting heavily. I asked where the Langkawi flight was gated, and was directly back up the corridor to gate A6.
When I reached gate A6, I was also very warm and sweaty. I decided to go to the rest room and wash up. I walked into the wash room (called Tandas in Malaysia), and head towards the wash basins. There was a woman using one of the wash basin, brushing her hair. I didn't think much of it, until she started yelling "this is a ladies room." In my confusion, I had walked into a girls room. Fortunately there was no one else in the room, so I quickly apologized and stepped out. The men's room is in fact right next door, but I must have not looked carefully at the symbol at the door. The men and women's symbol are very nearly the same. That is why I was confused.
We left KLIA airport at 8:30. The flight was uneventful, and took about an hour. There was time enough for the attendants to give us some juice and peanuts. I must stop eating these salted peanuts. They are good, but they can cause gout in my foot joints. This is a very painful disease.
Langkawi airport is a single storied airport, which means there are no jetways from the airport to the aircrafts. The planes stop in front of the airport, and passengers will have to walk down the stairs, and walk a hundred yards to the airport.
I tried to take some pictures of the plane and passengers alighting the plane, but was not able to do so. I had the air conditioning up so high in the plane, and the outside temperature was so high, that the camera lens fogged up when I pulled it out of my backpack, and it stayed fogged for quite a while. Later, inside the terminal, I tried to take some pictures too. Hopefully they will come out okay.
At the luggage belt, I said a silent prayer (to noone in particular) that my luggage will appear. When I saw it last in Boston, I had said a silent goodbye to my luggage. I don't think I will ever see it again, between the multiple continents and multiple changes of planes, I thought something will happen to cause me to lose my luggage. It was the second suitcase to come out of the luggage hold.
I grabbed the luggage, and walked straight out of the airport. Since this plane is from Kuala Lumpur, it is considered a domestic flight, so no one paid any attention to it. What if I am an international smuggler? hmmm.
The resort was very organized. They have a shuttle driver waiting outside with an EMC sign, so me and three other EMC folks jumped in and took the 30 minute drive to Westin Resort.
Along the way, the scenery looks very much like on the highway in Kedah. Lush green trees, palm trees, coconut trees, shop houses. Very familiar to me.
When we arrived at Westin, we were greeted by two receptionists. One handed us a glass of iced water, and a warm towel to freshen up. The other has our registration and room key all ready. We just have to sign a piece of paper, promising them we will not skip out without paying, and she handed us our keys. Very convenient. No long lines, no waiting.
My room is 1406. At first I thought it is on the 14th floor, as it would be in the States, but it is on the first floor. Later, I noticed the tallest building in this complex has only four stories.
The room is big. It starts with a four by twelve feet corridor passing through a twelve by twelve feet bathroom. Inside the bathroom, there is a bath tub, a wash basin, a toilet, and a shower stall. The towels are neatly folded. The floor towel folded on the bath tub, and they put an orchid on it. I have a picture of this, but have to wait for my usb cable. On the counter, there are hand towels, and again, a fresh orchid adorned the pile of towels. Very nice.
The bed room has a king size bed under a ceiling fan. The room is air-conditioned. On the wall is a very large flat screen LCD TV, and in the counter, there is a DVD player. On the counter is a coffee maker. I always coffee, so I made myself a cup right away. A work desk is next to the counter, with high speed internet cable. I am glad I brought my Asian electric plug adapter, so I can plug my computer into the wall plug.
Outside, there is a large balcony, with a couple of chairs and a table. I don't like to go outside, preferring to stay in the cool air conditioned room.
By the time I cleaned up, I was quite hungry. There are three restaurants in the resort, but I was thinking more of hawker food, instead of the restaurant food they serve in the restaurants here. I did go into all of them to check out the menu, and they have some Asian food like "Hainan Chicken rice", "Mee goreng (pan fried noodles)", "char kuey teow", each at RM 42. RM is the local currency, Ringgit Malaysia. A ringgit is about 30 cents U.S.
In flight
It was early morning when we landed at Heathrow. The landing was one of the smoothest landing ever. I have heard that the 747s fly by themselves. They do the landing instead of the pilots, who are just there to watch the dials. Nevertheless, it was smooth, with nary a bump at all. Of course, the wings creaked like crazy, and the landing gears moaned loudly when they were extracted from the fuselage. I thought the entire aircraft was going to break into pieces.
We landed at terminal 5. My next plane, which leaves in three hours at noon, leaves at terminal 4. I followed the signs to the connecting flights, and boarded a bus to terminal 4.
Terminal 4 is quite new. I am sure I have never been here before. I do remember the old terminal 3 - very crowded, constructions everywhere, but they have a good shopping area and a lot of good restaurants. Anyway, the first thing I looked for is the departure information monitors. I found one, found the flight number, but no gate. A Chinese man came over to me and asked me what gate he should go to. He is taking my same flight - MH003, so we made friends and talked a bit about Malaysia, his hometown of Ipoh, and so on.
Since there was a lot of time before the next flight, I decided to clean up, shave, and change into a new shirt. I felt much better after a quick wash and clean shirt. We sat down near a monitor near outside gate 5, so we can watch for the gate information when it is available.
At 10:45 AM, the gate information came on - gate 5! We did not have to move at all. We are there!
A group of Malaysian Airways flight attendants marched by - men and women, about 20 of them - and went into the gate. My new friend remarked that he thinks the airline is a money loser. If not for the government of Malaysia backing it up financially, they would have gone out of business. I said I read they are one of the best run airlines in the World. They have won many prices for good services, and their aircrafts are well maintained.
When we boarded the aircraft, I noticed that it is another 747-400. The interior of this plane is better than that of the British Airways plane. Cleaner, and the seats are not so worn out. It was by no means a new plane, but everything seemed in place, and not falling apart.
I was again seated in an aisle seat. Presently a young girl took the window seat. We said hi, and then busied ourselves with putting things away. I checked the video screen and the sound system. The sound worked, but I can see two pixels that stayed red on the video screen. This happens when the cyan and yellow guns are burned out on those two pixels. It is not very conspicuous, but I know I will be seeing it all night. sigh!
The last time I had anything to eat was two hours before we landed, so I would put that around 5 AM. Now it is past Noon, and my stomach is growling, so I was happy when food was served.
(now for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was.)
After lunch, I settled down for a couple of Chinese movies. The first one I picked is about a soldier deserted from the war of the Three Countries. He was a farmer, one of three brothers. The other two brothers had died in battle, and he just want to go home to farm his 'five acres of land.' He schemed up a plan. He was a scout for his troop. When the opposing army was wiped out by another troop from the third country, he captured the commander of the losing army. His scheme, kidnap the commander, bring him back to receive the reward money and honorable discharge. Then he can go home and farm in piece. The movie is about the adventures they went through, dodging the enemies who were sent to capture the commander back. In between the fighting, running away, they also meet a band of barbarians, who hunted for them as well. During all these time together, they got to talk to each other, and talked about their wishes.
The commander turns out to be the king's son. His brother was the one trying to capture him, so he can be killed, and the brother can claim the throne. At the end, it was the brother who was killed, and the commander remained his prisoner. When they reached his homeland, he suddenly decided to let the commander go, with a promise that there will be no war between the two countries. The sad part of the movie is, when he reached home, his country has been conquered by the third country. He was surrounded by the enemies, who pointed arrows at him and warned him to surrender. "Your country has been wiped out, surrender!"
He said, "No. We have not been wiped out. I am still here!", and someone shot him. Then the next, and another, and another. He was shot many times, fell down, died, still holding his flag straight up in the air. His last words, "Dad, I won't be able to continue your wishes..."
A sad ending indeed.
The next movie is called "Crossing Hennessey", about modern day Hong Kong. Hennessey Street is a busy commercial street. It is about a young man and a young woman, so you know the ending. I fell asleep during this movie, although I think it may have been worth watching later.
We landed at terminal 5. My next plane, which leaves in three hours at noon, leaves at terminal 4. I followed the signs to the connecting flights, and boarded a bus to terminal 4.
Terminal 4 is quite new. I am sure I have never been here before. I do remember the old terminal 3 - very crowded, constructions everywhere, but they have a good shopping area and a lot of good restaurants. Anyway, the first thing I looked for is the departure information monitors. I found one, found the flight number, but no gate. A Chinese man came over to me and asked me what gate he should go to. He is taking my same flight - MH003, so we made friends and talked a bit about Malaysia, his hometown of Ipoh, and so on.
Since there was a lot of time before the next flight, I decided to clean up, shave, and change into a new shirt. I felt much better after a quick wash and clean shirt. We sat down near a monitor near outside gate 5, so we can watch for the gate information when it is available.
At 10:45 AM, the gate information came on - gate 5! We did not have to move at all. We are there!
A group of Malaysian Airways flight attendants marched by - men and women, about 20 of them - and went into the gate. My new friend remarked that he thinks the airline is a money loser. If not for the government of Malaysia backing it up financially, they would have gone out of business. I said I read they are one of the best run airlines in the World. They have won many prices for good services, and their aircrafts are well maintained.
When we boarded the aircraft, I noticed that it is another 747-400. The interior of this plane is better than that of the British Airways plane. Cleaner, and the seats are not so worn out. It was by no means a new plane, but everything seemed in place, and not falling apart.
I was again seated in an aisle seat. Presently a young girl took the window seat. We said hi, and then busied ourselves with putting things away. I checked the video screen and the sound system. The sound worked, but I can see two pixels that stayed red on the video screen. This happens when the cyan and yellow guns are burned out on those two pixels. It is not very conspicuous, but I know I will be seeing it all night. sigh!
The last time I had anything to eat was two hours before we landed, so I would put that around 5 AM. Now it is past Noon, and my stomach is growling, so I was happy when food was served.
(now for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was.)
After lunch, I settled down for a couple of Chinese movies. The first one I picked is about a soldier deserted from the war of the Three Countries. He was a farmer, one of three brothers. The other two brothers had died in battle, and he just want to go home to farm his 'five acres of land.' He schemed up a plan. He was a scout for his troop. When the opposing army was wiped out by another troop from the third country, he captured the commander of the losing army. His scheme, kidnap the commander, bring him back to receive the reward money and honorable discharge. Then he can go home and farm in piece. The movie is about the adventures they went through, dodging the enemies who were sent to capture the commander back. In between the fighting, running away, they also meet a band of barbarians, who hunted for them as well. During all these time together, they got to talk to each other, and talked about their wishes.
The commander turns out to be the king's son. His brother was the one trying to capture him, so he can be killed, and the brother can claim the throne. At the end, it was the brother who was killed, and the commander remained his prisoner. When they reached his homeland, he suddenly decided to let the commander go, with a promise that there will be no war between the two countries. The sad part of the movie is, when he reached home, his country has been conquered by the third country. He was surrounded by the enemies, who pointed arrows at him and warned him to surrender. "Your country has been wiped out, surrender!"
He said, "No. We have not been wiped out. I am still here!", and someone shot him. Then the next, and another, and another. He was shot many times, fell down, died, still holding his flag straight up in the air. His last words, "Dad, I won't be able to continue your wishes..."
A sad ending indeed.
The next movie is called "Crossing Hennessey", about modern day Hong Kong. Hennessey Street is a busy commercial street. It is about a young man and a young woman, so you know the ending. I fell asleep during this movie, although I think it may have been worth watching later.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Taking off
Now that all the preparations are done, and I am ready to go, I sit back and started thinking about what lies ahead. I begin to have second thoughts. I have just read an email from one of my high school classmates about the safety record of Air Asia being one of the worst in the industry. Air Asia! I have Air Asia for the Penang-bound flight from Langkawi! I am tempted to book another flight through MAS. In fact, I am going to pause now and check MAS.
Brother Seng called on the Skype while I was checking for fares in the MAS website. I told him about my safety concerns, and he just laught it off. "It is only a 20 minute ride." All right, I dropped the search. It probably is not a big deal, but make a mental note never to fly Air Asia in the future.
I started packing around 11 AM. As usual, I just throw in whatever into the suitcase: shirts, pants, undies, socks, okay, I think I have everything. "I am all packed!", I told Paula.
She brought out "the list".
"What about tooth brush?" ... "Oh, I need that, write it down."
"What about medicine?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your cap?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your camera?" ... "Oh, you know, write it down."
"What about your sun glasses?" ... "Ha! I have that. It is packed in my carry-on. I told you I am all packed!" I said, triumphantly.
Since we are "done" packing early, we have time to go to our favorite restaurant - Elizabeth's - for lunch. We stopped by Walmart to buy some vitamins and fish oil that Seng had asked for, then hopped over to Elizabeth's. Oh, I didn't bring my camera, so I cannot show you our lunch. Now that I think of it, I also forgot to use my iPhone to take pictures of our lunch. This is something I have to get used to again. I always forget about the pictures when I see food. Perhaps it is the excitement and stimulus of the food. I am usually done with the food before I think of taking pictures. A couple of days ago, I had dinner with my friend Young and his girl-friend at the Korean restaurant. We had this big boiling bowl of spicy seafood soup, set on top of a gas cooker. I liked the way it bubbles, simmering the seafood - crab legs, mussels, fish, and vegetables in a spicy soup. Now, if I have had my senses, I would have, and should have taken some pictures of the soup, but nooooooh, we dove right in and divided the soup and hungrily attacked it. Now what have I got to show? Nothing, that is what. so, this is a reminder to take pictures of my food from now on.
I digress. At Elizabeth's, we each have a bowl of clam chowder. Paula ordered a coconut shrimp appetizer for lunch. She is saving room for dessert. I ordered my favorite "oven baked cod" - cod fish and mussels in a linguica flavored broth, and rice. This and "crispy haddock" are the best two dishes in the restaurant. I usually alternate between these two dishes and "fish and chips".
When lunch was done, Paula ordered a "pistachio cake" to go. We usually do not desserts, but today, we are celebrating Paula's birthday (on September 4th), because I will be out of town on her birthday. She said the cake was first rate.
Maria, the taxi driver, arrived half an hour before her scheduled time of 5 PM, so I hurried closed the suitcase, backpack, and rushed out to the mini-van. On the way to the airport, I have this uneasy feeling that I have missed something. I called Paula, had a little chat, but we couldn't figure out what could be missing. By the time I reached Logan airport, I have thought of it: my USB cable for the camera. I need that cable to transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer. I am going to need that cable! I did this two trips ago, and I was able to buy a replacement cable at the Panglin Mall in Penang, so maybe that is where I should go when I get there Thursday. Meanwhile, blogs with no pictures. I will have to fill in later.
Since I have a lot of time, I stopped at the currency exchange to get some cash, and at a restaurant in Terminal E for dinner. I was unsure which restaurant to choose, actually. I was studying a menu outside of the Logan Grill, when this waiter walked by, and said "We have a very nice tomato soup today. It is to die for." so that helped me make the decision.
I did not end up getting the soup, but I did have a beer - Sam's seasonal - and a seafood linguine. The waiter described is as "A medley of seafood consisting of lobsters claws, prawns, scallops, and fish cooked in a creamy tomato sauce over linguine." How can I refuse that? I asked him to ask the chef to make it diablo, with hot red pepper flacks. He said no problem.
When the meal came out, it was almost as he described. There were two big lobster claws, and some lobster meat, and assorted seafood, and a piece of haddock. The tomato sauce is marinara style with cream added. It is not bad, but where is the pepper flacks? He forgot that. Eventually I did get a shaker of pepper flacks.
With a full stomach, I went through the checkpoint, into the international terminal - terminal E. After a moderate wait of about an hour and a half, I boarded the British Airways Boeing 747-400. This is an old aircraft. I know it is old, because the seats are quite worn. I have an aisle seat, so I wouldn't get cramped in by my seat row-mate. There was no one assigned to the middle seat, and an English man occupied the windows seat. We exchanged hellos, and he went back to staring in front of him. I took out my readings - a book on Judge Dee, and a couple of articles from work - and settled down for the 5.5 hour ride.
It was very warm in the airplane. I was wiping my sweat, and fanning myself with the aircraft information card furiously. In this 747, there are no air holes in the ceiling - the kind you twist open for air - so I sweated through the take off, and safety announcement.
When the plane started to lift off the ground, I can hear the wheels retracting into the body with a groaning and grinding sound. The wing flaps also sound very loud, as it they were wearing out the joints. I don't have a good feeling about this.
The flight attendants on this flight is almost all male. There were a couple of ladies attendants, and they were in the business or first class cabins. Our attendants were very efficient, I must say. The first thing is when I cannot find a place to stow my backpack overhead - somebody had cramped a couple of mid-sized suitcases into the overhead on both sides of my aisle. I was in no mood to look for a place, so I just asked one of the attendants to take care of it. The other is that the gentleman at the window seat cannot lift up his TV for viewing. Apparently someone in a previous flight had tried to ply it out and forced the stem to bend, so it will not come out of its storage easily. The attendant just gave the base a good tap and pulled it out for the man. Very effectively.
My real interest is the cocktail. At first, I was going to be a good boy, and just have some water, then go to sleep, but that was not to be. I started watching TV, and you know me and TV, I can't sleep after I started TV. By the way, my TV has no sound. The sound jack is broken, so I have to plug my earphone into the middle seat to get sound. The problem now is I have to coordinate two TVs, to make sure they start the programs at the same time, so that the sound coming out of the middle seat can coincide with the video from my TV.
Anyway, when the drinks cart came about, I ordered a glass of white wine. George, the attendant opened a small bottle and handed the bottle and a cup to me. A souvignon blanc, not bad.
When meals came, I can smell the meat, and I declined. I just had a beautiful seafood dinner, and I decided I really no need another meal. George handed me another bottle of souvignon. When they came by to pick up the meal trays, and to refill on coffee, George handed me another bottle of souvignon. I think I am going to like George.
Brother Seng called on the Skype while I was checking for fares in the MAS website. I told him about my safety concerns, and he just laught it off. "It is only a 20 minute ride." All right, I dropped the search. It probably is not a big deal, but make a mental note never to fly Air Asia in the future.
I started packing around 11 AM. As usual, I just throw in whatever into the suitcase: shirts, pants, undies, socks, okay, I think I have everything. "I am all packed!", I told Paula.
She brought out "the list".
"What about tooth brush?" ... "Oh, I need that, write it down."
"What about medicine?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your cap?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your camera?" ... "Oh, you know, write it down."
"What about your sun glasses?" ... "Ha! I have that. It is packed in my carry-on. I told you I am all packed!" I said, triumphantly.
Since we are "done" packing early, we have time to go to our favorite restaurant - Elizabeth's - for lunch. We stopped by Walmart to buy some vitamins and fish oil that Seng had asked for, then hopped over to Elizabeth's. Oh, I didn't bring my camera, so I cannot show you our lunch. Now that I think of it, I also forgot to use my iPhone to take pictures of our lunch. This is something I have to get used to again. I always forget about the pictures when I see food. Perhaps it is the excitement and stimulus of the food. I am usually done with the food before I think of taking pictures. A couple of days ago, I had dinner with my friend Young and his girl-friend at the Korean restaurant. We had this big boiling bowl of spicy seafood soup, set on top of a gas cooker. I liked the way it bubbles, simmering the seafood - crab legs, mussels, fish, and vegetables in a spicy soup. Now, if I have had my senses, I would have, and should have taken some pictures of the soup, but nooooooh, we dove right in and divided the soup and hungrily attacked it. Now what have I got to show? Nothing, that is what. so, this is a reminder to take pictures of my food from now on.
I digress. At Elizabeth's, we each have a bowl of clam chowder. Paula ordered a coconut shrimp appetizer for lunch. She is saving room for dessert. I ordered my favorite "oven baked cod" - cod fish and mussels in a linguica flavored broth, and rice. This and "crispy haddock" are the best two dishes in the restaurant. I usually alternate between these two dishes and "fish and chips".
When lunch was done, Paula ordered a "pistachio cake" to go. We usually do not desserts, but today, we are celebrating Paula's birthday (on September 4th), because I will be out of town on her birthday. She said the cake was first rate.
Maria, the taxi driver, arrived half an hour before her scheduled time of 5 PM, so I hurried closed the suitcase, backpack, and rushed out to the mini-van. On the way to the airport, I have this uneasy feeling that I have missed something. I called Paula, had a little chat, but we couldn't figure out what could be missing. By the time I reached Logan airport, I have thought of it: my USB cable for the camera. I need that cable to transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer. I am going to need that cable! I did this two trips ago, and I was able to buy a replacement cable at the Panglin Mall in Penang, so maybe that is where I should go when I get there Thursday. Meanwhile, blogs with no pictures. I will have to fill in later.
Since I have a lot of time, I stopped at the currency exchange to get some cash, and at a restaurant in Terminal E for dinner. I was unsure which restaurant to choose, actually. I was studying a menu outside of the Logan Grill, when this waiter walked by, and said "We have a very nice tomato soup today. It is to die for." so that helped me make the decision.
I did not end up getting the soup, but I did have a beer - Sam's seasonal - and a seafood linguine. The waiter described is as "A medley of seafood consisting of lobsters claws, prawns, scallops, and fish cooked in a creamy tomato sauce over linguine." How can I refuse that? I asked him to ask the chef to make it diablo, with hot red pepper flacks. He said no problem.
When the meal came out, it was almost as he described. There were two big lobster claws, and some lobster meat, and assorted seafood, and a piece of haddock. The tomato sauce is marinara style with cream added. It is not bad, but where is the pepper flacks? He forgot that. Eventually I did get a shaker of pepper flacks.
With a full stomach, I went through the checkpoint, into the international terminal - terminal E. After a moderate wait of about an hour and a half, I boarded the British Airways Boeing 747-400. This is an old aircraft. I know it is old, because the seats are quite worn. I have an aisle seat, so I wouldn't get cramped in by my seat row-mate. There was no one assigned to the middle seat, and an English man occupied the windows seat. We exchanged hellos, and he went back to staring in front of him. I took out my readings - a book on Judge Dee, and a couple of articles from work - and settled down for the 5.5 hour ride.
It was very warm in the airplane. I was wiping my sweat, and fanning myself with the aircraft information card furiously. In this 747, there are no air holes in the ceiling - the kind you twist open for air - so I sweated through the take off, and safety announcement.
When the plane started to lift off the ground, I can hear the wheels retracting into the body with a groaning and grinding sound. The wing flaps also sound very loud, as it they were wearing out the joints. I don't have a good feeling about this.
The flight attendants on this flight is almost all male. There were a couple of ladies attendants, and they were in the business or first class cabins. Our attendants were very efficient, I must say. The first thing is when I cannot find a place to stow my backpack overhead - somebody had cramped a couple of mid-sized suitcases into the overhead on both sides of my aisle. I was in no mood to look for a place, so I just asked one of the attendants to take care of it. The other is that the gentleman at the window seat cannot lift up his TV for viewing. Apparently someone in a previous flight had tried to ply it out and forced the stem to bend, so it will not come out of its storage easily. The attendant just gave the base a good tap and pulled it out for the man. Very effectively.
My real interest is the cocktail. At first, I was going to be a good boy, and just have some water, then go to sleep, but that was not to be. I started watching TV, and you know me and TV, I can't sleep after I started TV. By the way, my TV has no sound. The sound jack is broken, so I have to plug my earphone into the middle seat to get sound. The problem now is I have to coordinate two TVs, to make sure they start the programs at the same time, so that the sound coming out of the middle seat can coincide with the video from my TV.
Anyway, when the drinks cart came about, I ordered a glass of white wine. George, the attendant opened a small bottle and handed the bottle and a cup to me. A souvignon blanc, not bad.
When meals came, I can smell the meat, and I declined. I just had a beautiful seafood dinner, and I decided I really no need another meal. George handed me another bottle of souvignon. When they came by to pick up the meal trays, and to refill on coffee, George handed me another bottle of souvignon. I think I am going to like George.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Welcome back, Kotter!
After an absence of 13 months, I am going to Penang again. The opportunity presented itself when I was asked to give a presentation to a group of sales manager in EMC at a resort in Langkawi Island.
Langkawi is a group of islands, about 60 miles north of Penang island. From there, it is just a hop and a skip to Penang, so I am quite excited about this trip.
Booking the tickets for this trip turned out to be nerve wrecking. I was told to book the tickets on Thursday. The soonest I could get to the island and still have some time to relax before the presentation is Monday, which means I have to fly out of Boston by Saturday. Now you know, getting a ticket for two days later is never a good idea. You need to have at least two or three weeks' time from the day you book to the day you fly to get a good price on the air fare. Well, according to our corporate travel agent, the fare for this flight is $6,833! That is a lot of money. So, when I submitted the travel request, it was stopped. A lot of questions were raised. Why so expensive? Is there a cheaper flight? blah, blah, blah. Throughout the day, I waited and waited for the approval to come, but I never got the word. It was not approved or rejected, just silence.
I called our admin a few times, and she was very helpful. She tried again and and again to talk to the person whose decision it was whether I get to go or not, but by the end of the day, no word. I finally gave up and went home.
Today, Friday morning, when appraised of the situation, my director made a decision: "book it!", and so the rest is history. Tickets booked, room secured, connections booked, friends and family informed of the travel plans. I am going home.
Langkawi is a group of islands, about 60 miles north of Penang island. From there, it is just a hop and a skip to Penang, so I am quite excited about this trip.
Booking the tickets for this trip turned out to be nerve wrecking. I was told to book the tickets on Thursday. The soonest I could get to the island and still have some time to relax before the presentation is Monday, which means I have to fly out of Boston by Saturday. Now you know, getting a ticket for two days later is never a good idea. You need to have at least two or three weeks' time from the day you book to the day you fly to get a good price on the air fare. Well, according to our corporate travel agent, the fare for this flight is $6,833! That is a lot of money. So, when I submitted the travel request, it was stopped. A lot of questions were raised. Why so expensive? Is there a cheaper flight? blah, blah, blah. Throughout the day, I waited and waited for the approval to come, but I never got the word. It was not approved or rejected, just silence.
I called our admin a few times, and she was very helpful. She tried again and and again to talk to the person whose decision it was whether I get to go or not, but by the end of the day, no word. I finally gave up and went home.
Today, Friday morning, when appraised of the situation, my director made a decision: "book it!", and so the rest is history. Tickets booked, room secured, connections booked, friends and family informed of the travel plans. I am going home.
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