Day 1 of World Tour

Jet lagged in Kuala Lumpur!

Don’t worry I won’t be writing blogs every day – but the big adventure has begun……YAAAAY!!

So many people have been saying what a long month January has been and certainly for me it seems to have dragged on forever. There was just so much to do with turning around from the last trip which brought us back to the U.K. on New Year’s eve; we had our family Christmas on New Year’s day, I’ve had loads of work to squeeze within a short window, a training course in Salisbury to go away to run, visit to Wales to see my parents and catch up with several friends and family members prior to going away again. It’s all been wonderful stuff to do, but it has meant that January for me ha been one massive build up of stress, excitement & anxiety.

My daughter who is 21 was meant to be joining us for the first 8 wks of this trip but later decided she didn’t want to come due to taking on a new job and not wanting to leave her boyfriend for that long. I lost a LOT of money having paid for a round the world flight ticket, 6 wks hotel accommodation and a 2 weeks cruise. I managed to get a little bit of money back from the cruise company, but I was told by the flight agent that they would not even be able to change the name on the tickets for the flights to enable me to bring a friend instead. Frustrating and difficult for many reasons, (how difficult actually is it to overtype a name on a flight reservation???? Instead I had to lose £2k on that one for a round the world flight package) However, as a mum I have to try to accept that when you’re 21 yrs old boyfriends become more important than parents, and her dreams are now different to my dreams. Putting all that aside it made saying goodbye especially difficult all round and there were quite a few years shed by all. It was even harder having to board the plane and seeing an empty seat next to us where she should have been sitting 😢.

Then we were over an hour late taking off due to a radio fault and ice on the wings due to a snow storm at Heathrow airport, this all just seemed to push my anxiety higher & higher. FINALLY we were airborne and the reality that I could do no more back home was just a huge sense of relief. I felt the anxiety physically leave my body as we flew away from all the stresses, struggles & heartache I have encountered recently. This is the trip I have dreamed of doing since I was in my teens and I am determined to enjoy every moment, no matter what life throws at us.

With a 12hr 10min flying time, this was to be Cameron’s longest flight to date (previous one being just over 9hrs to Vancouver) and I wondered how he would cope. I need not have worried though as he was an absolute angel. He had some food, watched a movie and pretty much slept the rest of the flight. I didn’t get as much sleep, I didn’t actually think I had slept at all other than the fact I do remember having a weird dream that we were nose diving from the sky with our oxygen masks on, but all in slow motion, then we tried to land on top of a moving train!!!! I do wonder what goes on in my subconscious sometimes as I do have the strangest of dreams.

The hotel was about an hours drive from Kuala Lumpur airport and we had a lovely taxi driver who gave us all sorts of travel tips. The drive was mainly along highways so not particularly spectacular scenery, but certainly a strong sense of entering a new culture, and we were both excited.

I had been carefully watching the weather all week and must admit with the predictions as above I was starting to get a bit of a sinking feeling.

We had a very smooth landing though and arrived into clear blue skies and sunshine (hurrah). We didn’t get to the hotel until around 7pm with the +8hr time difference, so by the time we have taken stock and unpacked the initial essentials we really couldn’t be bothered to change to go out again. Room service it was. OMG I have never had room service like it, it was AMAZING. Someone told me just a few days ago that the food in Malaysia was incredible and they certainly weren’t wrong, how the Malaysians all stay so tiny is beyond me? I have a feeling that once again the scales will be moving in the wrong direction whilst I am here 😩. Oh wait a minute, I left the scales back home and won’t be seeing them again for 4 months, did anyone mention dessert? …….

We had a fairly early night but were both awake again by 3am, jetlag really does suck. It is now 18.00hrs as I write this and Cameron is fast asleep on the bed and has been for the past hour, I think it’s going to take a few days to get him into a new routine, hence why I decided to have 2 weeks here so we can just take it very steady for the first few days before we start rushing about doing all the touristy things.

We eventually headed down for breakfast around 7am and it was another “OMG” moment, I have never seen a breakfast buffet like it, all the traditional breakfast items you would expect to see combined with an array of fusion dishes where east meets west, and provided a delicacy of Asian flavours with foods from China, India and of course Malaysia itself. The only thing missing was ‘real’ bacon – it’s all turkey bacon here for religious reasons. Cameron delighted in getting through 4 chicken sausages, a bowl of steamed rice and a glass of milk (his idea of fusion is a little different to mine!) I was a little more adventurous, but suffice to say neither of us needed any lunch. Result for my budgeting as breakfast is included in the price here.

So today has just been a lazy pool day and we haven’t yet stepped foot outside the hotel. The weather has been glorious, we have not yet experienced any clouds or rain and not even heard the distant rumbling of thunder – no doubt it will come at sometime given that forecast!

Cameron is always happy when we has a swimming pool to play in. We met this gorgeous couple ‘Abdul & Deena’ they were originally from Syria and now live in China. They both took a shine to Cameron and were instantly helping him with his swimming, it was so lovely to see him build an immediate rapport with people from a difficult culture, but without even questioning it. I am so proud of his social skills and more importantly of his total acceptance of people. The lady was wearing full muslim swimwear but he doesn’t question anyone for wearing something different or unusual, I swear he never even notices the colour of someone’s skin, to Cameron everyone is truly equal (exactly as it should be) and it melts my heart.

So here ends a day of sunshine, cocktails and new friendships. A simplistic, yet perfect day.

No doubt we will have more exciting tales to tell in the next few days, but first I will let Cameron conquer the jet lag – for now he sleeps……still fully clothed!!!!!