Malaysian Vacation Part 1: Japan to Kuala Lumpur

Dereck and I finally got our honeymoon, a mere 14 months after tying the knot! But, even though it was a wait, it was worth every second. It was an amazing vacation and it was wonderful to explore another country and culture together as husband and wife. Luckily, I had the brilliant idea to write a journal during our trip so I could remember all the little details that really made the trip fantastic. So I will split the whole thing into a few different parts so I don't get cramps from typing, and you don't get bored of reading! I posted all our pictures on our shutterfly site, but I will add just a few here and there to make the posts a bit more fun (don't we all love pictures?!)

So here it is: Part 1!
Our flight was from Narita International Airport on a Wednesday morning. Since the shuttle on base would not leave early enough we decided to go Tuesday night and spend the night near the airport instead. It was a good trip to Narita, and since we flew directly into Yokota AB when we moved here, it was the first time we ever been there. The night was calm, and we went to bed early to get sleep before our flight.

We got up and took the free Holiday Inn Shuttle to the airport. We were flying Malaysia Airlines, which turned out to be a great experience! We will try to fly them again in the future. Lots of leg room, personal TVs, free beer (yay!), and both our flights to and from Malaysia were on time. Also, have you ever tried eating noodle soup with chopsticks while on a plane? Its difficult! haha! The flight lasted about 6 hours and we landed in Kuala Lumpur International around 5pm. The line for customs was about a mile long and very very slow. We were in line for over an hour. This was also the moment we realized we weren't in Japan any long. In Japan everybody stays in nice single file lines and are very patient and respectful. Not so much at the KL customs line! Eventually we made it through customs and went to find the car that was reserved along with our hotel to pick us up. I was SO excited to see our name on the little card, but it wasn't there. I was a bit disappointed, but it worked out fine to get a taxi and head into town. The airport is about a 1 hour drive from the city of KL, and our taxi driver was very nice. It was about 8pm by the time we got to the hotel. We got to drive around the famous Petronas Twin Towers to get to our hotel, and got to see them starting to light up. It was a great first view of the city!

We checked into our hotel, the Impiana, which was very posh. One reason we picked Malaysia for our vacation was because of the affordable prices, and this hotel was worth every penny (and more!). It was just beautiful- wood floors, marble bathroom, king bed... loved it! It was also in the middle of The Golden Triangle district where there are a lot of neat places to see. We walked to JLN Alor, which is a street known for its hawker stands where you eat outdoors on the street. Though the streets of KL are a bit dirty compared to Tokyo, it was very easy to walk around and overall I felt very safe, even in the dark. JLN Alor was a pretty awesome place and we ate at a fun restaurant and just sat there drinking some Malyasian beer (called Tiger... yummy) and people watching. It was very hot but the nice cold beer felt great and it was fun to just sit and hang out. We went to a few street shops to barter for things (fake watches and sunglasses mainly...) and though Dereck has done that in Thailand it was my first experience. It was fun! I'm pretty good at it I think...
We came to an area that had a few different types of bars and we stopped at an Irish bar, which played American Pop music. It was pretty funny! We were tired as this point and ended up walking back to the hotel and calling it a night. It was a great first day in Malaysia!

..to be continued in Part 2:  KL day 2 & 3