Relevant History

The new style in vast airport terminals

I hadn't realized how much giant, open-span main terminals now dominate airport design. Some examples I've been in recently:

Kuala Lumpur, via flickr


Singapore, via flickr

Heathrow Terminal 5, via flickr

Hong Kong, via flickr

airport, Changi, England, Heathrow, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Singapore, Travel

I'm back

Made it home safely. I left Changi Airport at 6 pm Singapore time on Sunday, and arrived in SFO at 8 pm PST. So that's about 17 hours' travel time, I think.

Since everyone put their windowshade down right after takeoff, I was in darkness the whole flight. So in a sense I missed a day. Kind of strange, but probably not as dislocating as having seven hours of daylight.

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, SQ002, Singapore

In KLIA

I'm in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and I can't get online. There's supposed to be this cool wireless throughout the airport, but I can't get to it-- it requires a password.

Actually, it doesn't. But I was using DHCP to configure my IP address; I then changed it to BootP, and it got right on. (However, looking now at my network configuration, it claims to be using DHCP again.)

This is a very nice airport. No getting around it. Gigantic, spacious, and pretty pleasantly-designed.

It strikes me as odd that Malaysian Airlines ads feature stewardesses who look like carbon copies of the Singapore Air stewardesses, when this is a predominantly Muslim country. Actually it isn't odd at all, given that Singapore Air is probably what they aspire to be-- it's Sony to their Samsung. But it's an image that isn't very representative of the rest of the country.

Technorati Tags: airport, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It's 6 a.m here--

--and I've been up for a couple hours working. I tend to run on nerves on business trips, and this one is no different; combine that with the time difference, and it means I'm falling asleep at what for me are radically early times, and getting up before the crack of dawn.

Time for a shower.

[To the tune of Alanis Morissette, "Uninvited," from the album "City of Angels".]

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, Shah Alam

In my hotel

I made it to the Concorde Hotel. I've got a surprisingly nice room-- it must be a slow day.

via flickr

I've also got a really terrific view of the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque. It's one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.

via flickr

I think I'm in for the night. I had a pretty big lunch, so I'm not particularly hungry, but I am rather tired, so I think I'm going to have a shower, read over my plans for tomorrow's workshop, and then go to bed.

[To the tune of Peter Gabriel, "Red Rain," from the album "Shaking The Tree".]

Technorati Tags: architecture, Blue Mosque, Concorde Hotel, mosque, Shah Alam

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

I'm in a taxi, going from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to my hotel in Shah Alam, which is-- actually, I have no idea how far away it is, except measured in money. It's about 60 ringgit to the hotel, which is a lot less than I expected it to be. I read about how to take the train to KL and then a bus or taxi to Shah Alam, but I'm tired and it's raining, so I wimped out.

Global brands run amok? Suzie Ormond and other American business books for sale in the KLIA bookstore... via flickr

I'm glad I did, because the taxi service here is pretty civilized and non-treatening. (One would hope that those two things are pretty much synonymous.) There aren't meters in the taxis, but before you get in the queue, you buy a ticket at a counter serviced by very nice ladies in head scarves. (Nearly everybody I've interacted with speaks quite good English; the only odd thing is that the accent reminds me of, of all things, Italian.) They tell you how much it'll cost to go where you want to go. Once you've paid, they print you a ticket; and you give it to the driver. Easy.

via flickr

Before I got to the taxi reservations stand, I stopped at an ATM and got some cash. It's pretty amazing to me that I can just go to an ATM and get money. It may be the case that I can now dispense with the whole ritual of going to the American Express office in downtown Palo Alto, or my local Wells Fargo branch if I'm better-organized, to get money. We'll see what the service charges are-- but given that Amex and other foreign exchange offices tend to charge a pretty hefty fee, I'll bet it's pretty competitive.

Kuala Lumpur airport is very new, and is filled with flat screen displays, many of which are playing a video featuring the Japanese architect who designed it, talking in that poetic, nearly incomprehensible voice people adopt when discussing vast corporate projects. "It is an airport is the forest, and the forest is in the airport," he intones, as we see a fisheye lens-distorted view of forest canopies, water features inside the main terminal, and then a slow-motion shot of a hummingbird.

"It is synergistic." Sun going down.

"Synergy is to live with contradictions." Low shot of businessman with Blackberry framed by Petrona Towers. Fisherman. Pilot and stewardess walking in slow-mo. "This is an essential attitude for the 21st century." As the kids today say, WTF?

The highway we're on is like the M5 or some other major freeway in Britain, though it's in better condition-- it looks pretty new. I guess it reminds me of England because people drive on the left side of the street here.

We're going about 120 km/h. It feels like we're doing about 80. And still, people are passing us on both sides.

I may need to do some reworking of my plan tomorrow, since Malaysian Airlines seems to have lost the supplies I brought for my workshop. I've been working on a really cool new online mapping tool; I may end of getting to use it a lot earlier than I expected.... As we like to say in the craft, the future often happens in unexpected ways. This may be one of them. A nice object lesson.

There's a car brand here called Proton, which I 've never heard of. I wonder if it's a rebranded Hyundai, or something Chinese, or does Malaysia actually make its own cars? These feel like Korean or Japanese cars-- the detailing is pretty good, the materials are decent... I'll have to check that out.

Before I got on the plane in Penang, when my energy level and spirits were at their low ebb, I watched about 20 minutes of The Bourne Ultimatum. There's something about watching Matt Damon beat, blow up, and crash through stuff that's energizing and reassuring. Jason Bourne knows how to travel. In fact, he hardly does anything else in those movies.

[To the tune of The Doors, "The End," from the album "The Doors".]

Technorati Tags: airport, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, travel

In Penang International Airport

I'm at the airport, waiting for my flight to Kuala Lumpur. It's late afternoon here, but my body is divided: part of me agrees that the sun is headed toward sundown, and will get there in a few hours, while another part of me thinks it's really the middle of the night (as it is back in California).

It's one of those psychological times when you'd much rather be at home, rather than in an airport terminal-- a space that demonstrates the amazing uniformity of global commerce and the power of international transport conventions to shape the way places are organized, and yet for all its familiarity remains resolutely alien.

I've spent more time in airports than a lot of people, and I think as I travel more, I'm finding them less appealing: the uniform array of mass luxury goods (is there an airport that doesn't have a Mont Blanc shop?), the fact that I'm often tired and a bit stressed in them, and the knowledge that I'm only in them to be somewhere else, are all starting to generate an allergic reaction. Not that I'll quit flying; but maybe I'll get more thoughtful and selective about it.

[To the tune of Paul Simon, "Further To Fly," from the album "The Rhythm of the Saints".]

Technorati Tags: airport, Penang

People must really love "House" and "Heroes" here

One of the more popular items for sale in the open-air stalls in Batu Ferringhi are DVDs-- mainly of Japanese and American movies (Nim's Island and the new Horton are both available), but I was struck at how many TV shows are also available.

via flickr

While I was having dinner last night, this particular stall suddenly shut down, then reopened five minutes later. Apparently someone had spotted the cops.

[To the tune of Nuspirit Helsinki, "Verano Porteno," from the album "Astor Piazzolla Remixed".]

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, Penang

Back from breakfast

Pleasant breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Though oddly, they play Brazilian-inflected light jazz at breakfast: I ate my eggs and tandori sausage (really!) to the tune of "Corcovado," "Se Danco Samba," "The Girl from Ipanema," and the theme from "Sandpiper" for good measure.

What a world....

[To the tune of Céu, "Roda (Bombay Dub Orchestra's Grateful Dub Radio Mix)," from the album "Roda (Bombay Dub Orchestra's Grateful Dub Radio Mix)".]

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, Park Royal Hotel, Penang, travel

Day 3 in Malaysia

I'm up early, as I haven't really adjusted enough to the local time to replicate my usual slothful ways.

I had a workshop yesterday with scientists and other people from USM, one of Malaysia's big science-oriented universities. It was a pretty good time: it was an interesting cross-section of people and backgrounds, there were a few usefully orthogonal thinkers, and I learned a lot.

The obligatory group picture, via flickr

Today I'm spending the day at USM and its new science city, then will head on to Kuala Lumpur and thence to Shah Alam. Thursday I've got another workshop at UiTM, and Friday I'll be at Cyberjaya and Putrajaya.

The Park Royal Hotel is pretty good, even though the main building looks like it was designed in the 1950s by a delegation of architecture students from the Leningrad Institute of Dialectical Tourism Studies.

via flickr

However, the rooms are quite pleasant. (Notice the disc on the ceiling that points to Mecca.)

via flickr

The first night I was here, I wimped out and went to the hotel restaurant; last night, I ventured out and had some food from one of the twenty thousand food stalls that are all around Batu Ferringhi.

via flickr

I'll go down to breakfast in a little while. The breakfast buffet here is okay but not outstanding-- but when you get to eat with a view of the ocean, nothing's really too bad.

via flickr

[To the tune of Radiohead, "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," from the album "In Rainbows".]

Technorati Tags: food, Malaysia, Park Royal Hotel, Penang, scienceX2, travel

Photo set on Flickr

Trip photoset now up!

Why are there great bakeries in Singapore?

Just wondering. There seem to be terrific baked goods everywhere, and it doesn't seem self-evident that this would be a legacy of British colonialism (though technically the Straits Settlement wasn't a colony, but some kind of protectorate, though the East India Company more or less owned Panang). I'll have to keep an eye on the bakery scene in Malaysia....

[To the tune of Amy Winehouse, "Do Me Good," from the album "Back to Black".]

Technorati Tags: food, Malaysia, Singapore, travel

In Changi airport

I'm at Changi airport, waiting for my flight to Penang. I love Changi: it's got to be the cleanest, most efficient gigantic airport I know. It's Frankfurt but friendly, Heathrow but better-run (my luggage wasn't lost).

I've been on the road just over 24 hours, though I did manage to get some awkward, not very deep sleep on the plane. And after several drinks and stops at water fountains to rehydrate (Singapore Airlines seems to think that its passengers will get too heavy if they get entire cans of soda), and a double espresso, I feel pretty good. I should crash later on this evening, and expect to sleep very well tonight; but otherwise I'm good.

I'm going to Malaysia to do a set of workshops on the future of science, technology and innovation as part of the X2 project. I'll first be at USM in Penang, then at UiTM in Shah Alah; I'll also swing by Cyberjaya and Biopolis, to continue my love affairs with science cities, and also visit informally with some people at National University of Singapore.

As I was at the Amex currency exchange getting some Malaysian money, I took up an offer to buy a Singaporean SIM card. I popped it in, fiddled with it for a bit, then called home. I don't know I'll really need to call the States very much from here, but it's nice to know that I'm reachable. And the calls seems to be pretty cheap.

After walking from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2, I realized I didn't have any Singaporean money, so I stopped by an ATM and got some. Having grown up in a travel world in which you had to stand in long lines to change money and international calls were scare and expensive, I'll never cease to be amazed when things like this are actually easy. This isn't the way it's supposed to be, I keep thinking.

The one thing I haven't been able to do is get online: they still charge for wifi here, and I haven't felt like paying for it. The existence of many free terminals also provides something of a disincentive-- I'd have already paid if I couldn't get online for 15 minutes for free.

[To the tune of Amy Winehouse, "You Know I'm No Good," from the album "Back to Black".]

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, Changi, airport, travel, Singapore, scienceX2

I love the Singapore Airlines' entertainment system

What Singapore Airlines lacks in public, stand up and work space it almost makes up for in the in-flight entertainment system. So far, I've watched There Will Be Blood (which is totally crazy and brilliant-- that Daniel-Day Lewis could really go places), I Am Legend, slept through National Treasure, and am now watching Chariots of Fire, one of my all-time favorite inspirational movies. Maybe it'll inspire me to work even harder.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, SQ001, travel

On SQ 001

We're about an hour or so outside Hong Kong, and have been flying for just over 13 hours.

I got a seat near the back of the plane, where the fuselage starts to taper and there's some room between the window seats and the window. It turns out to be like having your own personal aisle. This is an especially useful discovery, as Singapore Airlines lacks something that I really like in United and SAS (the main other airlines I've flown in the last couple years): they lay out the galleys and lavatories in a way that pretty much completely eliminates public space where you can stand and work.

Technorati Tags: Singapore, SQ001, travel

The traditional "Greetings from SFO" post

I'm in SFO's international terminal, waiting for my flight to Singapore, and thence to Penang, Malaysia. We board in about 20 minutes-- just enough time for me to try a few times to get onto the T-Mobile Wifi network here, fail, get frustrated, then possibly rush to the vending machine to get a Diet Coke before they call my row. However, it looks like whatever account I used to have with them is now dead, as the site doesn't recognize any of the various usernames I think I've used in the past.

So far things are going pretty well. I got to long-term parking without incident, caught a shuttle quickly. Just as quickly, I realized I'd left something in the car. Fortunately, the shuttle buses are quite prompt, so I was able to get back to my car pretty quickly, retrieve the object, and still get in line to check my bag within the recommended two hours.

Singapore Airlines' check-in is pretty efficient, so even though it's a full flight, I was able to get through it reasonably quickly, and have a little time to wander around the international terminal.

Technorati Tags: airport, San Francisco, SFO, Singapore, travel