Home Visit!

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February 20th - 25th 2006

Well, were not going home for good, just a visit for a week. Still, we are incredibly excited!!!!! All week we have been preparing to go home, making sure we are bringing everything we need to endure the cold, and do taxes. Boo!

We left Penang on Friday the 24th. Earlier that day we were driving to lunch and got into a minor accident. Very minor, as in a very stupid motorcyclist ran into the back of our car and broke one of the tail lights. I had slowed down to pull in to a parking spot and fortunately looked in my rear view mirror and saw that he was on my left side so I stopped in the road so he could pass me, but he was so close to the car, and obviously wasn't paying any attention, that he ran into us! ARGH!!!! Why, why on the day that we were leaving this unruly place did this have to happen? The only funny thing about the incident was that Phil rolled down the window after he hit us and asked him "What ARE you doing?" He just stood there dumbfounded. He didn't seem to be hurt or really that concerned that he had just hit us. We had to fill out an accident form for the rental company. He gave us his name and address, then I asked for his license. He didn't have one, and he didn't have insurance. I would not at all be surprised if the other info he gave us was wrong too! This is the incredibly frustrating thing about living here. Most people don't give a crap about anyone else! I'm sure that nothing will come of this and he won't be punished at all for what he did or his crappy driving skills!! No one is accountable for what they do because you can just bribe a policeman to look the other way! Grrrrrr....... Anyway, we had lunch, did our errands and then drove to the rental car office to let them know. We were also hoping that we could persuade them to file the police report for us. After an accident we are supposed to file a police report, but that really wasn't on our agenda for the afternoon, especially since I have heard horror stories from other expats about the reports taking hours and being laughed at by the police. Not fun. We told the rental people that we were flying out that day and still had to pack so we didn't have time to do it ourselves. Whew! They said it was ok and we were on our way back home to finish getting ready to leave.

We left Penang at 8:30pm and started our 26 hours of traveling to get home! For the most part our flights were just fine and we got to see the Kuala Lumpur and Narita/Tokyo airports. The worst part was our 6 hour layover in Singapore. Normally that wouldn't have been a bad thing because Changi is a great airport. There are tons of shops, nice terminals, even a couple spas and transit hotels. For us it was not good because we were there from midnight to 6am! We couldn't check in to our connecting flight until 3am, so getting a transit hotel was not worth it; though in hindsight 3 hours of sleep, completely horizontal sleep, would have been worth every penny. Instead we wandered around the terminal for an hour looking for the various lounges. I had looked on their website and found a spa that did massages, so we went to find that (a looooooong walk) and it turned out that the massages weren't 24 hour. Bummer. The lady was nice enough to mention that there was a 24 hour spa in one of the wings, so we went to find that. More walking. The "spa" was actually quite nice, though a little weird because it was all open to the wing. We signed up for back massages and waited while the people from the other 24 hour spa in the other terminal came over. They sat us in big comfy chairs, put our feet up and gave us tea. Aaaaahhh. We dozed for a while and then had our massages at 1:30am! Now that was definitely worth it! The place wasn't crowded at all, and it was very quiet, so after the massages they let us sit and sleep. We probably could have been there all night if we didn't have to go check in for our flight. They were very nice! At 3:30 we walked back to the other end of the terminal to check in. By this time we have walked the entire length of the terminal twice. Ugh. We check in and then walk back almost half way to get some breakfast before the flight (4:30am). I am so damn tired and exhausted from walking that I'm on the verge of tears by the time we walk back from breakfast to our gate. All I wanted to do was sleep and we still had an hour before the plane was supposed to take off. This is what I dislike about traveling. Hurrying up to wait.

Once we got on the plane all was good. We slept to Narita, had a quick hour and a half plane change and were on our way to Portland. Yay!!!!!!!!

Landing in Portland was fabulous. We came in over the Columbia and as we were landing had a great view of the sunrise as it backlit Mt. Hood. Beautiful! The first blast of cold air coming off the plane felt so good. It was like the best air conditioning ever! After immigration we had to take a bus to the main terminal. Being outdoors felt just as good. Leaving the airport felt even better! Phil's sister Judith came and picked us up from the airport and took us to our second favorite breakfast, Sunrise Bagel. Yummy!!!!!!! Our favorite breakfast would have to wait for Sunday. By the time we left breakfast and were headed to the construction site to see her new townhouse we were cold. Two hours on the ground and we were freezing. We still hadn't been home yet so we were without our winter coats. Brrrrr. When we did get home we were happy to find it all in one piece. Thanks Mark!! And our cars started after sitting for 6 months. Wahoo, back to driving on the correct side of the road with perfectly sane people. We chatted with Mark and Judith for a while telling them all the crazy things about living in Malaysia. When I went to go use our bathroom for the first time I had quite a shock, something that you forget all about when living in a hot climate. Not only was the toilet bowl a little scary looking from 6 months of no use, but the toilet seat was FREEZING COLD! I just about jumped off the thing! Fortunately we adjusted to such things, and the cold, within a couple days. My parents came over later that morning and we went to lunch with them and Judith. The first of four Mexican meals we had while home. Yum again! After that we went downtown to see an exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. These are the kind of things I really miss. Portland was the only US stop for this exhibit of German art from a royal family. It was very cool! And outside was very cold, at least to me. On our way back to the car I could swear it was cold enough to snow, even though it was only in the low 40's. My parents and Phil just laughed at me. For dinner we had our second Mexican meal at Juan Colorado's, one of our favorites. Are you seeing a trend here? Yes, we did spend the majority of our week eating all the food we can't get in Malaysia, and drinking all the fabulous beer that doesn't exist on the other side of the Pacific. Getting into bed that night was like crawling into a cloud, fluffy down comforter on top of us, fluffy soft mattress underneath us. After a very, very long Saturday (technically 40 hours!!) it felt wonderful to be home.

More about our week at home in the next entry.

Selina & Phil

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Comments

[Kirsten]

Glad to have you back!
I hope I can come down to Portland soon and visit.