Settling in KL

First week in Malaysia almost over and finally decided for an apartment yesterday night after one week of looking around. Fortunately my company provided an agent who was able to help with some offerings; unfortunately period of 6 months limits possible offers to a minimum since normal duration here is 12 months.

Nonetheless I saw some good, well-maintained apartments directly in KLCC (ie MyHabitat) as well as some old-school Expat residences (not my style, off the list immediately). In the end I decided for something in between: CapSquare Residences around Dang Wangi, in front of Capsquare Mall, facing the KL Tower and the Klang river at its foot.

Best part is it has a direct view from living room to the illuminated Petronas Towers and - killer criteria - a Starbucks next to entrance hall. In the end I am still a tourist ;-). 

Back in KL

Finally landed yesterday (Saturday) night at 21:15 local time in KLIA with no delay at all. Although it started quite annoying on Friday night in HAM with a 1.5h delay for my flight plus a really nasty additional baggage fee of 450 EUR for 9Kg additional baggage allowance *grmpf*, waiting time in HAM turned out really nice. I do think HAM is a well organized Airport anyhow but being there on Friday evening was almost relaxing: Shops closed, Security checks took like 5min and last flights already came in, basically empty halls :). And then had nice chats with interesting people in smoker's lounge, one being on way back to her home in Australia and the other one being on her way to vacation in Sri Lanka. Long story short: Relaxing evening and I finally managed to leave Europe around 22:00.

Formerly I used to fly KLM because of its good and fast direct flights from AMS but this time company booked Emirates via Dubai so I was kind of resistant to this connection. In the end it turned out to be a good connection. First flight was planned for roughly 6.5h but only took 5.5h. That was a quick one, catching up on latest news, getting diner, watching a movie and falling asleep - then we landed. Fortunately my connecting flight was leaving only 4h later meaning grabbing some coffee at Starbucks, doing some window shopping and boarding again. Second flight was even more relaxing since I fall asleep right after dinner again and did not wake up until we were approaching KL airport.

Good thing about being back in KLIA: This time I knew when I should bypass all others in order to get fast out of there ;). So, I headed immediately to the train connecting both Terminals and was almost first at immigration with only few people in the lane. Then grabbed by luggage, got my taxi voucher, picked up a coffee and went outside to have a smoke. All in all only took 45 minutes and finally - I started relaxing and enjoying this feeling of somehow something new started right now!

Beach in December

Last walk at my home beach before leaving town. Good stuff to calm down a little and get this December feeling of being at the beach:

Moving to Kuala Lumpur

My birthday present: Finally got my one-way flight booked for January 4th, 20:30 CET. Off to Malaysia :-).

Things to not miss

Since Kerrin got me the latest "Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei", I indeed started reading a little - thanks to current holiday season - and turned from one to the other. Hmm, obvisouly I am in Malaysia for work *hehe* but still...some things I should not miss. This was initially based on Rough Guide's "Things to not miss" but somehow evolved to not forget: 

• Langkawi
• Georgetown resp. Penang
• Mt Kinabalu
• Taman Negara National Park
• Loagan Bunut National Park
• Perhentian Islands
• Gunung Mulu
• Melakka
• Cameron Highlands
• Sungai Kinabatangan
• Sarawak
• Pulau Sipadan
• Little India in Singapore
• Miniloc Island, El Nido, Philippines

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Crete

Still sorting and uploading pics... Kamares is a Venetian house dependency restored with natural materials situated in the heart of the preservable village of Maheri, in an area of a rare natural beauty, scattered with historical and prehistorical monuments. It combines traditional architecture with modern facilities.

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The complex is located among organic hanging gardens. It is composed of five stone apartments, a villa and a large swimming pool, with a total capacity of 20 beds. It is situated at a distance of 30 km airport of Chania, at 23 km from the city of Chania, at 6 km from the ancient city of Aptera and at 5 km from the coast of Kalyves.

Elafonisi

Elafonisi is one of the most well-known beaches not only in Crete but also entire Greece as I learned. A famous summer hotspot with a strange morphology and a stunning, beige dust like sand. Located at the western part of Hania the area offers two adjacent beaches that are connected to the small peninsula right opposite them with a sandy pice of land, the place is a heaven. The sand has taken its exceptional pink-beige hue from broken shells, while the wide area is a shelter for endangered careta-careta turtles. 

Frangokastello

Frangokastello is the location of a castle and scattered settlement on the south coast of Crete which was built by the Venetians in 1371-74 as a garrison to impose order on the rebellious Sfakia region, to deter pirates, and to protect Venetian nobles and their properties. Orthi Ammos is a sandy oasis app. 10min walk at the road from Frangokastelo to the east. Orthi Ammos is partially protected from south winds and has beautiful turquoise waters, the sand dunes and the overall unspoiled scenery made swimming merely unforgettable!

Kiel's East Coast *hehe*

Now that I learned that I do have a bicycle, Kerrin enforced its usage. It was quite surprising to realize how many tourists are flying around in this area in the end of August. The beaches were really crowded this weekend and it was kind of annoying – at least looking at the main beaches known to everybody. Nonetheless, beautiful day with beautiful weather with a perfect ice cream on our way back :-) 

But what is a cycling tour without gadgets? Yeah, needed to test some GPS trackers for iPhone and in the end used MotionX-GPS to record our route. Despite the irritating voice coming out of my backpack (because I did not find the option to turn off voice in beginning ;-)), this little app precisely recorded our route and was even polite enough to not suck out my iPhone’s battery.

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