A Week on the Road – 3 Countries and it Feels Like Home

We took off a week ago, hopped on the bus to Logan Airport, and caught the first of our many flights for this Summer’s trip to Asia. I made a last minute pitch to Laurie to upgrade to Qatar Airways “Q-Suite” for the first leg of flight – a long twelve hour journey. She approved. We splurged. The Q-Suite is better than any first class accommodations that I’m aware of. I have flown JetBlue, American, and Malaysian Air’s versions and they don’t even come close. We boarded our flight and were immediately greeted by Ravindar, a flight attendant originally from India, who I quickly befriended with stories of my travels to India. He promptly asked what we wanted to drink – they had non-alcoholic champagne, which was perfect as I’m almost two years alcohol free. Ravindar then took our dinner and breakfast orders, all chosen from a menu. The food ended up being better than any restaurant I’d been to in recent memory. The accommodations were overwhelmingly impressive. We had seats, that with the press of a button, converted to a flat, very comfortable bed. Our suites connected to each other and were super private. We were able to sleep soundly for about seven out of the twelve hours. They even gave us pajamas, which I still have.

We landed in Doha, Qatar and were hustled right off the bat by an airport information man who shuttled us into a private car claiming it was from our hotel. We later discovered we paid about three or four times the going rate. Travel and learn. The hotel was super nice and was very reasonably priced. We freshened up and went out to see the local souk area, an Arab marketplace. Most things happen at night in Doha as the daytime temps were around one hundred and ten degrees. Even at night it was over one hundred degrees.

Later that night we visited a veg restaurant called Yovego that had great reviews. They only had one table indoors and the owner and workers were sitting at. There was no one else around. They quickly jumped up and set us up for dinner. We slowly got to know the owner who took great care of us. He’s an immigrant from Syria with a degree in biotech. This restaurant is a labor of love and the food really spoke to that. We had some amazing dishes and returned the next day and were treated to some family specialties and even a new dessert he was thinking about adding to the menu.

Fascinating fact about Qatar – out of the 2.6 million people that reside there, only about three hundred thousand are Qatari citizens. The rest are workers from places like Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and other countries. We had some fascinating conversations with many of them and were able to swap stories about our travels to their home countries.

After about thirty six hours in Qatar we flew the second leg of our journey, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – our home for the next five weeks. This flight was about seven or eight hours and not in first class. The entry into Malaysia was a little cumbersome as they are implementing the new biometric scanning systems along with an app at immigration. It’s AI for immigration. It worked. We grabbed our luggage and took the express train to KL Sentral. The train leaves every twenty minutes from the airport and takes half the time versus driving. Our Malaysian friend GB, picked us up at the train station in the heart of KL and we headed to Little India in Brickfields for a quick dinner. We ate at an open air place that we’ve walked past dozens of times over the years but never got the courage up to eat there. We had an amazing dinner of Indian food, chapati and chai for about seven dollars total for the three of us. I think this is how we save up for more Q-Suite flights 🙂

GB drove us to our apartment, a modest studio in a modern high rise. Like most of these buildings there’s a gym and pool, a food court on the ground level, along with a convenience store and even a Starbucks, which we haven’t been to yet. We got a decent night’s sleep. In the morning after the gym we headed back to Little India for breakfast at MTR 1924 – probably our favorite restaurant in KL. They specialize in South Indian food and it’s amazing. We eat things like dosa, vada, idli, sambar, chai (with no sugar – which is rare).

Next we headed across the way to NU Central Mall. Laurie got here hair done while I headed to Chinatown to purchase some tea. A big part of the reason we’re in KL this summer is for a tea education course. We’ve taken classes and workshops before but this time we’re doing a week long course. Anyway, back to the tea in Chinatown. Last summer we explored the tea shops there, did a few tea tastings, and purchased a bunch of tea. One shop in particular had a two specific teas I was looking for. When we got back home lat summer and tried the teas we really loved them, really impressed. They stood out from most of the other teas we bought. I took pictures of the Chinese labels in case we returned so we could purchase more. The tea was that good. Well, I meandered through Chinatown and with Laurie’s help (texting me clues from the hair salon) I was able to locate the shop. I showed the woman my photos of the teas and she set me up with a few packages. Then she showed me one that was even better quality and I got a package of that too. I can’t wait to get back in late August and try some at home.

I headed back to the mall and picked up Laurie and we headed to the tea headquarters where we will be doing our course. One of the managers recognized us immediately from last summer as I imagine there are not a lot of old white Americans eager to take tea courses. She confirmed she was firming up the dates. We then struck up a conversation with another one of the employees, James. After about 15 minutes of talking with him it was apparent that his passion for Pu-erh tea was only going to be satisfied if we sat for a tasting with him. He took his time over the course of two hours explaining everything we need to know about raw vs. ripe Pu-erhs. Pu-erhs are one of our favorite teas. James really did a great job at guiding us through the tasting with sharing the history and production of these teas. We were grateful to spend the time with somebody who is so passionate about this new hobby of ours.

Speaking of tea, GB and his wife Yvonne treated us to high tea, British style, on Sunday at the Stripes Hotel in KL. It was a great time as we relaxed and caught up after not seeing each other for over a year.

On Monday we headed to an early morning Yoga class at Flow Yoga in Bangsar, a neighborhood of KL. The studio was awesome and the class was great. After class we walked to a coffee shop recommend by the Yoga studio. It was equally as great. I had an iced oat milk mocha, so good I had a second one, which I soon realized was a mistake. I was quickly buzzed out on caffeine. We headed to Bangsar Village to an optometrist that we’ve used many times and Laurie got an eye exam and ordered new prescription sunglasses. Next we headed to MTR again and had lunch. Later in the afternoon we headed to an IT mall and I had my iPhone screen replaced as it was damaged.

This morning we headed back to the airport and flew to Bangkok. We have a young lady who we’ve financially adopted here and she just started a four year nursing program at Siam University in Bangkok. Our hope is to check in with her and see how college is going. My meditation teacher, Hartanto Gunawan, is also here in Bangkok at Wat Arun. We plan on visiting him tomorrow. That’s it for now. Reach out, I always love hearing from you.