Our Weekend in Kuala Lumpur

We are just home from a weekend in Kuala Lumpur.

Ford encourages us to leave the country four times per year: two weekends and two week trips. We wanted to make our first trip an easy one and we wanted to shop. KL fit the bill: a non-stop, 3.5 hour flight and plenty of shopping.

We arrived in the morning and were picked up at the airport by a Mercedes sent by our hotel. We marveled at the quiet roads in which cars drove in single file in their own lanes, the roadside was clean and landscaped, and the buildings were modern and clean.

Preparing for your Indian visit

Ready to come visit us? You will need some time to prepare.

Get a passport or renew your old one (it will need to be valid for 6 months beyond your planned travel date) at http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

Get an Indian visa; visit this site to apply, https://www.indian-visa.com/select-application Read the instructions for all details, but I'm pretty sure you will need to send two passport photos. You can get them at CVS or Walgreens these days.

This is the site of the India consulate if you need more info:  http://chicago.indianconsulate.com/6IndianVisa/IndianVisa.html

Settling In

It's been two weeks since my last post. Last time we were in ecstasy over having our furniture delivered. It's amazing how much that has changed our experience here. Yes, it's good to have a real bed to sleep in, comfy chairs, and enough dishes that we can go two meals without having to wash between them. But, emotionally, it's like we have our safe place and a home base to return to. It doesn't feel so much like a temporary place where you don't want to touch stuff because you don't know who's been there before you.

We had our boxes unpacked and our furniture placed within 5 days of receiving it. So we've been able to go out and about the past two weekends.

Our stuff has landed

The container holding our furniture was taken off a ship on Thursday last week, cleared customs on Friday, was driven down Chennai roads in the dead of night (the only time a 40 foot container can use the roads), and unloaded at our house on Saturday. I woke up at 6:00 AM and made us walk down to see the truck. We thought it might be at the end of our lane but they had to park it on the main road. We walked down and practically jumped up and down and hugged each other when we saw it.