So it begins

Sunday the 5^th, time in Chicago 0030 – Somewhere over Russia, 6 hours from HKG

(Disclaimer: What follows is the product of an exhausted mind on an excruciatingly long flight. I can take no responsibility for its grammatical correctness, readability, or entertainment value.)

Actually it began several years ago. Ever since I got back from Kenya in March 2010 I have been itching to leave the country and visit another culture again. The study abroad program at Missouri S&T offered an opportunity to do exactly that, and in fall of 2011 I set about investigating options. I originally wanted to go to Italy or Switzerland, but neither had a university that offered undergrad classes in English. Iceland seemed pretty amazing, but the cost of living was prohibitively high. I also hoped that I could find someone to accompany me, just to make it more fun.

 Near the end of the spring 2012 semester, I convinced several other guys from the Christian Campus House to come talk to Stephane, the study abroad advisor, about where we might be able to go. He suggested Malaysia due to the low cost of living and the fact that University Technology Petronas, the university there, was eager to send students to Rolla. Kevin and Landon were the most interested, and Malaysia seemed like the most feasible option.

Over the summer I did some research, but found the UTP website to be most uninformative. I let Stephane know that I was interested in going to Malaysia and he said he’d try to find more information. We contacted UTP to get information about classes offered in June, but didn’t hear back for them for nearly a month. When we finally got a list of classes it was incomplete and mostly unhelpful. This became the norm for our communication with the university, and we had to squeeze out every bit of information we got from them. After misinformation and misunderstandings about everything from classes and medical proceedings to visa requirements, near the end of November Kevin, Landon, and I finally thought we had submitted all the necessary paperwork.

Then we found out that we somehow had not been correctly informed about how to get a student visa (which we needed to enter the country), and we had to actually be in Malaysia to complete the process.

Catch-22.

We were informed that we would have to buy another return ticket in order to show that we were only briefly visiting UTP. However, the Malaysian Embassy website provided almost no useful information, and we still aren’t sure just what the requirements are. After looking into various options, we decided that a ticket to Singapore would be the cheapest and easiest way to convince the authorities to give us a visitor’s visa. So that we can get into the country and get a visa.

My trip sort of began at 0715 on December 22nd took my parents to the airport for their trip to Kenya. The night before I had done the somewhat complicated job of packing to go to Rolla, St. Louis, and Chicago, and then spend five months in Malaysia. I spent an enjoyable two weeks hanging out with friends in Rolla, (activities included paper telephone, riding horses, watching movies, wandering in the snow, and a float trip). In this time I also studied Malay and gained a very basic understanding of the grammar.

On January 2^nd I bid Rolla farewell and drove to St. Louis. I stayed with Kevin in St. Louis, and I even got to hang out with a couple other guys from the House (Jake and Jordan). The afternoon before we left for Chicago, I realized that I had neglected to obtain a prescription for the anti-malarial drugs necessary for the trip. After some hurried phone calls, I got a prescription from student health in Rolla, miraculously located a pharmacy that carried enough doxycycline to cover the entire six months, and found insurance information so I would not have to pay for all of it myself.

We had found that a plane ticket from O’Hare was significantly cheaper that one out of St. Louis, so Kevin and I planned to take a train to Chicago, where we would meet Landon and fly to Hong Kong and then Kuala Lumpur. We considered not sleeping the night before we left, but finally went to bed around 0330 and slept for about two hours. At 0530 we got up to put the finishing touches on our packing and catch the train.

The trip to Chicago was uneventful, other than being delayed for nearly an hour by something that required an ambulance, and we arrived at 1445. Due to the timing of flights and trains, we had to spend the night in Chicago, so we met up with Zach Johnson (another House guy) who lives there. After a brief battle with lockers that didn’t wish to lock we stowed our luggage and wandered from Union Station through the downtown to the parks that line the lake. We saw the Bean (which does weird things to my mind. I want one).

Looking up into the center was really trippy

Myself, Zach, and Kevin

It was pretty cold and windy, so we headed back to Union station. I included very few warm clothes in my packing. It seemed rather ridiculous to do so when going to a country where 80 degrees is considered chilly. Unsurprisingly, the lockers were reluctant to give back our luggage. With the help of a friendly attendant, we eventually got them open and walked, baggage laden, to Oglivie station to take a train to Zach’s house.

The Johnsons provided delicious Giordano’s, deep dish, Chicago style pizza, and we ate our fill.

When we tried to print our boarding passes, we encountered another difficulty. We had booked through American Airlines, but our flight was to be operated by Cathay Pacific. AA, however, did not provide the necessary information to check in on the CP website. Poking and prodding the internet eventually forced it to give up the necessary information and we successfully checked in. The printer then refused to print. We ‘tried turning it off and on again’ and that display of power convinced it to comply with our demands.

Despite the myriad problems we encountered while planning this trip, since we got to O’Hare, nearly everything has gone off without a hitch. We got through security and found Landon with plenty of time to spare. Once on the plane we even convinced people to switch seats so we could all sit together.
We have mostly been flying over lots of rivers and lakes that are covered with snow. We also flew over some ice floes, with big cracks it them. The sunset was brilliant, and lasted much longer than usual since we were flying west. Unfortunately the plane window made it difficult to get any decent pictures.

We will arrive in Hong Kong around 2000 local time, and have a twelve hour layover. I am trying to convince Kevin and Landon to go exploring, but they don’t seem to be overly enthusiastic about wandering around a foreign city late at night. I’m not really sure why.

Monday the 7^th 0248 – from a bench in HKG

I have now been awake for almost twenty eight hours (I may have nearly slipped from consciousness during the last bit of the plane ride, but that doesn't really count.)

We landed in Hong Kong a little ahead of schedule and decided to go adventuring. Some very helpful information people directed us to the trains to Hong Kong. It was nearly 2100 when we arrived in Hong Kong proper, very few people where around. I didn't mind this in the least, and we roamed the deserted mall with impunity. Our first stop was a roof garden on top of IFC Mall. It offered an excellent view of the city.

View of Hong Kong from the roof Garden

The building's architecture begged to be climbed, and with few people around, it was all I could do to restrain myself.
Even as we made our way out of the mall, we still saw very few people. It wasn't until we found narrow alleys with brightly lit signs that we encountered people.

Shiny lights ( Photo by Kevin)

The alley where we found our food (Kevin)

We also found food: a little Vietnamese place that was one of the few restaurants still open. I got fried rice with chicken, and Landon and Kevin got curry. Landon found a hot pepper and began to hiccup. Apparently he does that.

We were planning to take a bus back to the airport, but we couldn't figure out the directions we were given as to how to obtain tickets. So we ran back to the train station, and got there before the last train for the night left. When we got back to the airport we explored for a while. No one else in the airport was awake, other than a few security guards, but there were people sleeping everywhere. Kevin and Landon are sleeping, but I cannot.

Tuesday the 8^th 0900 – UTP

The flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur was only six hours, and seemed insignificant compared to our sixteen hour journey the day before. But I was again unable to sleep so by the time we landed I had been awake for 39 hours.

The dreaded obtaining of a visa was surprisingly simple. They asked only for our passports, and didn’t even mention the other documents we had been told were required. We were to be picked up by Remmi Abdullah, the study abroad liaison, but couldn't find him immediately. We borrowed someone’s phone and called him, but there was no answer. About fifteen minutes later the owner of the phone came back because Remmi had returned our call. We finally met up with him as well as a grad student from Austria and set off for UTP.

The moment the doors to the outside opened I actually realized that I was here. The heat, intense humidity and smell of diesel finally made the trip real. It was much like what I felt when I walked off the ramp into the crowded, noisy Nairobi airport: the realization that from now on, everything is different.

But here it is far more humid than Nairobi, and everything is green. Rows of palm trees stretch into the distance on either side of the road. Mimosa grows everywhere. The frangipani trees and bougainvillea were strongly reminiscent of Nairobi, but bigger and greener.

The roads were also very unlike those in East Africa. Instead of terribly pot-holed, overcrowded roads with no traffic laws to speak of, we drove on a six lane expressway that was smoother than many interstates in the U.S. As traffic became heavier though, I noticed that the driving style was much like that of Kenya: take all you can, give nothing back.

Unfortunately, I saw little of the drive to UTP. I vaguely remember Kevin waking me to see some cool rocks, but I certainly didn’t have the presence of mind to take pictures. I had been unable to sleep when I had the opportunity, and now, when I wanted to stay awake, I nodded off in the middle of sentences. Around 1700, after 44 hours awake, I finally succumbed and took a brief nap.

I awoke just as we were arriving at UTP. Remmi showed us our rooms and said he’d see us in the morning. I went joined Berthold, the Austrian student in one room, and Kevin and Landon took the other. I unpacked, took a quick (cold) shower and slept for 12 hours.

When I woke up Berthold and I went to find breakfast. After a brief search we found a part of a cafeteria that was open and ate some delicious chicken and rice. I planned to post this using the wi-fi that was supposed to be available in the cafeteria but I couldn't access it after all.