One of the best introductions to a country is the airport taxi driver, and I consider myself as being fortunate to get into a taxi at the Kuala Lumpur Airport that was driven by one of the most congenial and friendliest drivers that I have ever encountered. After purchasing a prepaid transfer for 62RM (17.50USD) at the taxi counter inside the airport, I proceeded outside the airport terminal into the taxi-loading zone. Jumping into first taxi in the line, I automatically established a good rapport with the young driver whose name was Eddie.

A transplanted Indonesian who had lived in Malaysia for the last 20 years, Eddie had a pretty good command of the English language, although he was hard to understand at time because his accent was relatively thick. Eddie and I discussed a variety of subjects including the recent US elections, Malaysian politics and government and the current global recession. Eddie explained to me the affinities between Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of language and culture, as the dominant ethnic group in both countries is people of Malay descent. Eddie also gave me the lowdown on the city taxis – it seems that most taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur refuse to turn on their meters and try to gouge their passengers by charging exorbitant fares.

After dropping me off at the Ancasa Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur – the journey took roughly an hour - I asked Eddie if it would be all right to leave him a tip of 8.00RM (approximately 2.30USD) for providing such excellent service. He laughed, and said Ok, Sir. Before leaving, I told Eddie that I would call him for a return trip to the airport on December 5. Nice guy, very insightful and fun to talk with.

Eddie the taxi driver and Kamarozaman, the gentleman who manned the Currency Exchange counter (of whom I discussed in an earlier post) are true Goodwill Ambassadors of Malaysia, and are to be commended for making the tourists first impression of Malaysia a positive one.

Arriving in a foreign country can be somewhat of daunting experience as one is often confronted by a culture, way of life and language that is very foreign and different than one is accustomed to. To many travelers, including yours truly, our attitude about a new destination is often shaped by the first several encounters we have with some of the native people.

Case in point - I arrived in Malaysia with no real advance preparation for my visit, other than planning my itinerary and booking my hotels for the duration of my 13-day stay. I admit that I really didn’t know much Malaysia other than it was a Islamic State and former British crown colony in addition to being considerably more tropical and biodiverse than Thailand, Malaysia’s well-known neighbor to the north. I was also familiar with the story of the legendary Jim Thompson, a legend of sorts in Thailand and former WW2 pilot, who mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia’s Cameron highlands in 1967.

Getting back to my story - shortly after landing in KLIA, the international airport located just outside of Kuala Lumpur, I proceeded to the currency exchange booth to change some monies. The gentleman who worked behind the counter, Mr. Kamarozaman B Abdul Rahim, was tremendously helpful and informative about the ins and outs of currency exchange. At the airport he explained, there is a small service fee of $4.00USD for cashing traveler’s checks up to $500, however at any of the currency exchange outlets in town, the rate of exchange would be more or less the same, but there would be no service fee. I went ahead and cashed $300USD in travelers checks anyhow (the rate of exchange being 3.55RM for 1.00USD). He volunteered this information freely without me having to extract it from him. I commended the young man for being so honest and forthright. Thanks to this goodwill ambassador, my initial impression about Malaysia was a good one - he definitely made this traveler feel at ease.

Next up is a story about Eddie, the best airport taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur and another fine ambassador for Malaysia.

Visiting a foreign country for the first time, there is definitely an adjustment period – it takes a while to get a feel for the culture, the lifestyle, the cuisine and the idiosyncrasies of the people. Overall I have visited 26 countries in my lifetime, and each country has been quite unique in its own way. I am sure you’ve heard the expressions no two people are alike, well no two countries are alike!

MALAYSIA , a predominantly Muslim country, is quite different than other countries that I have visited in the Southeast Asia – Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos – in terms of its history, culture and people. I guess you could say that my reference point is THAILAND in Southeast Asia, as I have traveled extensively in the Kingdom of Siam during my eight excursions to this geographical region.

My learning curve for Malaysia started with my flight on Air Asia from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s bustling capital city. Observing some of the Malaysian children on the plane, I came to the conclusion that they are a somewhat more animated/wilder than their Thai counterparts. Now I’m not saying that this is good or bad thing – it could be that Thai and Malaysian children have a different temperament. The children sitting across from me were part of a Malaysian school group, and they all were wearing a rather spiffy t-shirt with a very stylistic elephant design that they purchased in Chiang Mai; the children sitting in back of me were fidgeting all over the place as I felt my them constantly kicking the back of my seat.

Compared to Suvarnabhumi, Thailand’s gleaming new age international airport just outside of Bangkok, the international airport serving Kuala Lumpur is a rather drab affair, but it is considerably larger than the airport in Vientiane, Laos or Chiang Mai, Thailand. Curiously enough after deplaning from Air Asia, all passengers have to walk across the street, clearing two lanes of traffic before entering the airport terminal for immigration. That struck me as being a little unusual.

After clearing immigration, the next step is to pick up your luggage from the baggage carousel. As in most airports, there are small baggage carts available to all passengers. Watching the other passengers (mostly Malaysian Nationals) take a baggage cart, one thing struck me as being most peculiar - in the most forward cart, there were a number of empty plastic water bottles in the upper compartment. As each passenger selected a cart, they carefully transferred the empty bottles to the next cart in line, and so on and so forth. You’d think that at some point, one of the passengers or somebody who worked inside the airport terminal would throw the empty plastic bottles in the trashcan. After watching the empty bottles transferred at least 5 times, I almost couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I guess this must be a uniquely Malaysian custom as I have never (ever) seen anything like this at any airport during my many years of traveling. Talk about passing the buck…

If you’re passing through Chiang Dao, a small town about 75 minutes north of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I highly recommend that you visit Malee’s Nature lodge, one of the best and friendliest family owned hostels in Thailand, and the owner, Ms. Malee, is ‘a real sweetheart’. She’s very ‘Jai Dee’, a Thai expression for somebody who has a big heart and is very generous.

Just yesterday, I stopped by to pay my respects to Khun Malee and her family (and her two dogs Son and Jennie). As I was getting ready to head back to Chiang Mai, I happened to notice that Malee was growing a small money tree in her dining room. As Malee explained, the money tree is a way of raising funds for much needed improvements in the community kindergarten located near Chiang Dao Cave – plans call for the construction of a permanent roof over the playground and a special sleeping room for the young children.

The small tree is growing and prospering thanks to Malee’s attentive love and care, as well as to the contributions from many of her guests. Hanging from the branches of the small money tree are many 20 baht and 100 baht notes as well as a rather prominent 1000 baht note at the crown of the tree.

Construction of the roof and the sleeping room will begin in March 2009. If you’d like to help the money tree grow larger, you must make your contribution between now and this date. I believe it is a very worthy cause!

Malee was one of the founders and is one of the most avid supporters of this small kindergarten facility, which opened its doors some 10 years ago in response to the growing community in the village known as Ban Tham. Her precocious son Peter, who I have affectionately nicknamed Ling Lek (small monkey), is a recent graduate of the Ban Tham kindergarten.

I finally had the opportunity to visit THE NEST, Bangkok’s new rooftop open-air club and nightspot located on the top floor of the Fenix Hotel in the heart of the tourist zone. Since its grand opening earlier this year, The Nest had received a lot of publicity in various travel magazines as well as some hype from Calypso Island Chronicles

As my visit to The Nest coincided with the three day royal funeral ceremony (November 14-16) for the King’s recently departed sister, Princess Gaylani, I knew in advance that there would be no entertainment or alcoholic drinks being offered that night. Not a big deal for me! Before heading over to the club with my ladyfriend, I called up the Nest to see if they had a dress code. Apparently, they didn’t understand what I meant by dress code, so instead of wearing my usual shorts, T-shirt and flipflops, I opted to wear some slacks, one of my classy tropical shirts and dress shoes for fear of being turned away at the door.

After arriving at the club, I surveyed the scene – business was understandably slow due to the lack of entertainment that night; there were about 10 other customers, mostly couples Looking at the way the other patrons were dressed, I realized that I could have come to the club a little more scantily clad, as there was no apparent dress code. Lying down on one of the small, round comfortable beds with a small low lying white table situated in the middle, I ordered drinks - I had a pineapple juice and she had a passionfruit cocktail. After receiving the bill of $10USD for two fruit juices, I had a good laugh over the stateside like prices with my date. I wasn’t really shocked about the bill as I expected as much from this type of club. Before leaving, I took a couple of pictures of the Bangkok skyline at night.

Overall, the Nest is quite a romantic place and the view is outstanding. Upon my return to Bangkok, December 9-12, I will have to visit the Nest again to sample their entertainment and one of their intoxicating, exotic sounding cocktails.

Thailand is known around the world as ‘The Land of Smiles’ because Thai people are naturally friendly and usually greet strangers with a warm smile. Funny thing - when passing through immigration, the female officer did not make any eye contact with me, nor utter one word let alone flash a smile as she processed my passport. Looking around at her colleagues, I noticed the same type of behavior. Oh well…

When buying a can of been of beer at a local 7-11 in downtown Nan (Northern Thailand), I found it highly peculiar that the female clerk inserted a plastic straw in the bag. After all, who drinks beer with a straw? Asking my tour guide later on, he informed me that Thai people often drink beer with a straw. Who woulda thunk?

From what I have seen, Thai people in Bangkok are considerably more relaxed and less stressed than their counterparts from the San Francisco Bay Area (and the USA in general). You can see it on their faces and by observing their body language.

Sunday evening in Bangkok is a relatively lively affair compared to San Francisco. Passing through Bangkok after 7:00PM, I observed many young people congregating at such popular fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and the like. Small streetside cafeterias and food stalls were also quite busy, as many Thai people prefer to eat out because it’s so cheap rather than do their own cooking. Shopping centers and malls also seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business despite the global recession. Shopping after all is one of Thai people’s favorite activities. Compared to Bangkok on a Sunday evening, San Francisco is like a ghost town.

To all my readers, blog subscribers and fellow travelers, I would like to apologize for my absence in the last 12 days. Since arriving in Thailand from San Francisco on November 12, my schedule has been so hectic that I really haven’t had either the energy or the opportunity to sit down and blog about my experiences until now.

So here I am at Phu Lang Ka, a quiet and spartan mountain retreat in the Northern province of Phayao where I am doing nothing but resting, nurturing my spirits and blogging. Nobody here speaks much English and the nearest town of Chiang Kam is about 40 minutes away. My Thai cell phone does not pick up a signal and there is no internet, and I love it!!!. This morning when I go to town, I will stop at the nearest internet café and publish my first in a series of blogs about my ongoing adventure to Thailand and Malaysia. Once again, to all my readers, blog subscribers and fellow travelers, I would like to apologize for my absence.

Oh the weariness of the long distance traveler-blogger.

Just a little footnote: Nov 24 - I discovered much to my chagrin that my website was temporarily suspended because my hosting service failed to renew my domain with GoDaddy - I was billed by the hosting service for my domain up through Nov 2009! Thanx G_D, I ‘m back up again!!!

Round about 12:00 midnight tonight, I will be flying to Bangkok, Thailand for the start of my 30 day Adventure to Southeast Asia – 18 nights in Thailand and 12 nights in Malaysia. This will be my eighth trip to the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) and my very first time to Malaysia.

As usual I will spend the first 5 nights in Bangkok before I travel upcountry to explore some new places off the beaten track – this time around I will visit Nan and Phayao provinces in Northern Thailand’s Golden Triangle. The tourism infrastructure in these two provinces is fairly rudimentary and the volume of oversea tourists is a drop in the bucket right now; however in 10 years time, this relatively obscure region of rural Thailand will probably become a legitimate tourist trap as more and more tourists discover the area. From what I understand, the countryside is very beautiful here and there are a number of national parks in the general vicinity. I’m really looking forward to some R & R and some thoughtful introspection during my one week in the boonies of Nan and Phayao. Needless to say, I’m bringing lots of reading material.

Malaysia will be quite a unique experience for me as the culture in this Moslem state is 180 degrees different than other countries in this region. During my 12 days there, I will stay briefly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s modern capital city before venturing out to the old colonial town of Melaka >(Malacca) about 2 hours south. From there I will head to the popular mountain resort of Cameron Highlands which is known for its miles of tea plantations and nearby woodland forests. as well as being the area where the legendary Jim Thompson vanished in thin air - this former World War II pilot from the United States resettled in Thailand shortly after the war and is credited as reviving Thai’s failing silk industry before his mysterious disappearance in the Cameron highlands. My last stop in Malaysia is the popular beach resort of Langkawi “The Cancun of Malaysia”. I understand that it is considerably less busy than Phuket, Thailand’s most popular resort area and the nightlife is quite limited, but I always create my own fun, so “No Worries!”