I stayed in this cool hotel in Chiang Mai.  I booked it because it was right next to the airport, had a coffee shop and was made of shipping containers.  I have a friend that owns a company that makes houses out of shipping containers so I was excited to see a hotel with this concept.  It was a great concept.  But in effort to make the place look cool, they kept the restaurant open to the hotel section.  If I opened the door from my room, I was looking directly at tables in the restaurant.  Even with the door closed, it sounded like I was sitting in the restaurant.  It was a very popular restraint and every table was full all night long.  So, going to sleep early so I could get up early and well rested for my flight was not happening.  Then they didn’t have a shuttle and were not willing to call a taxi for me so I had to walk 3 blocks to the nearest road to get a taxi.  The coffee shop wasn’t open in the morning.  The hot water didn’t work.  Great idea, poor execution.  They should have just had a kick ass restaurant and skipped the hotel part.

The Chiang Mai airport is so easy.  No lines.  My bag was overweight and they didn’t say anything.  Security did take my deodorant though.  Getting there wasn’t easy.  I was literally next to the airport (could see the runway) and had to walk 3 blocks in the other direction to get a taxi.  Then the taxi went 15 minutes in the wrong direction to drop someone else off.  I swear it took 25 minutes to get back to the airport.

Flying into Kuala Lumpur, the ocean was an unnatural green, not the pretty pale tropical green it should be.  It looked like radioactive waste.  In places it wasn’t green, it was brown like a Colorado river in flood.  I had originally planned to scuba dive, but then scrapped that plan when I realized all the scuba places were a 4-8 hour drive away from Kuala Lumpur.  Now I know why they are so far away.  Still between the weird water and the acres and acres of palm farms, it was a beautiful strange new world to land in.  The highway is big and clean and at first glance everything seems to be much cleaner than Thailand.  I bought a SIM card in the airport so my phone will work here.  It seemed to be working, but on further inspection (in the cab, not in the store) it’s not.  Yay technology.  We drove past the city on the way to Genting Highlands.  It’s a huge city.  Genting Highlands is a tacky looking ridiculous casino at the top of a mountain.  I found it when I was looking for jobs in Asia.  I thought it would be a hoot to check it out and if I like it, maybe I’ll try my hand at dealing cards again.  The road to Genting Highlands is very steep, steeper than most places in Colorado.  The entire top of the mountain is covered in casino, hotel complex, and mist.  Just driving through it is a maze of tunnels, high rise buildings and construction.  If I had been driving, I’d still be driving in circles lost.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore