Maverick begins!

Malaysia and Vietnam Adventure - aka MAVerick - begins! (like what I did there?) Sunday 5 December 2010 Finally! The big day is here, I'm at the airport and the big adventure is about to begin... but of course, not without a few Kylie-flapping moments! Obviously, having visited some 52 countries in my time, I guess I would be what most would call a "seasoned traveller". Unfortunately, I am also what most would call an "incredible flapper" as well! This sort of 'flapping' behaviour used to drive my travel companion, Agnieszka, completely nuts. How it goes is this: firstly, there is the saga of packing. For most, this is not such a big deal - but for me, this is one of the biggest problems for me in travelling. Why? Because I can never, no matter how much I try to prepare in advance, figure out exactly what I should take. Toiletries, tech, books - that's all fine - but clothes? Oy ve, therein lies the problem. Firstly we go through the dilemma of exactly how much is too much, and how much too little? Then we go through the drama of what will be the "going out outfit", before capping it all off with the "what shoes will we bring and what colour" saga. And that's the tricky one - because the shade the majority of outfits are affects which shoes we pack - brown doesn't go with black you know - and that then becomes the entire crux of the matter - determining whether to have a black or brown hue to the wardrobe. You see, the majority of my functional travel outfits have a brown hue, but my waterproof jacket is black, and as it usually doubles as the "going out jacket", this then causes all sorts of problems. As a result, packing can take me several hours (especially as I tend to multitask the preparation of the tech at the same time - you know, convert all movies to .m4v so I can upload to my iPad and iPhone) - and today was no exception. In fact, today was especially extra-faffy, as in the middle of it all I dropped everything to go have lunch with Mel and her kids at Chermside (oh and do a little Christmas shopping as well!) Eventually I decided on a mostly brown hue with the occasional black thrown in ($3 black flip flops to accommodate), and by about 5.30pm I had finally zipped the bag up (impressive, considering I started packing at 9.30 this morning!). Having wangled a lift to the airport courtesy of Mel, I then set down to wait - but the tech still needed some work, and then I realized I needed to print out some stuff, and recharge some batteries, and clean the house - and all of a sudden Mel was ringing the doorbell, it was time to go - and the real flapping began! Did I have my passport? Have I got the visa approval letter? Hang on, where's my travel money? House keys? Is the door locked and all the windows shut (I'm actually still convinced, even now, sitting at the airport, that the backdoor is wide open!). When I eventually got down to the car I didn't even have my shoes on! So Mel thought it most amusing mid journey to the airport that I suddenly start frantically searching my bag for things I think I've forgotten! Fortunately I don't think I've forgotten anything... Then we had the dilemma of checking in. As Mel was pulling in the drive I was trying to check in online and not having any luck due to the fact I couldn't find the booking number. And when I arrived at the airport I wasn't even sure I had a valid ticket anyway - and couldn't check as check in didn't open for another 50 minutes! Fortunately all was well, I checked in successfully - and even had time to go to the internet desk to print off the pre arrival form for Vietnam visa on arrival (which I had forgotten to print off in advance). So now I'm sitting relatively calmly in the departure lounge awaiting boarding. Let the adventure begin! Monday 6 December 2010 So the flight was relatively uneventful - but not as comfortable as I am used to. I think once you've travelled Singapore Airlines for any reason, you really have been spoiled. Malaysian Airlines are ok, but they must be the only airline left on the planet (I guess outside of Garuda Indonesia, who were always rubbish, and whom I don't even know if they are still operational) who do not have personal TVs in economy for 8hr flights. Hm. I would love to say I slept the whole way, but after an incident whereupon I lost my pillow (thinking the person behind me had taken it) only to discover upon arrival that sometime during the night they relocated and in fact the pillow was still the, tucked far behind my seat, I really did not sleep all that well. So here I am in KL now with pretty much a whole day ahead of me before my last leg to Ho Chi Minh tonight. What to do? First things first, coffee at Starbucks to plan the day. I'm thinking at least I'll need to go to Petronas Towers today, or do a "hop on hop off" bus tour - but it's 630am and nothing much open yet (other than SB) so my guess is I'll hang here a little longer and make my way into town. Will let you know what happens! Update to the above - I am now on the hop-on hop-off tour - complete with it's own, free bus wifi - we could benefit from this in Brisbane, seriously! The bus is having to wait a few minutes so I'm quickly hopping on and off the wifi too! Gotta love Asia eh?