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Our October 9 flight from London to Washington D.C. Dulles is a mere 7.5 hours. The check in at Heathrow is not at a private terminal nor do three attendants rush out to help us navigate immigration and customs. However, there is a private area in the general terminal for United First Class passengers to check in, and our newly acquired pieces of luggage are sent on their way. We wait in the First Class Lounge until our flight is called and walk the red carpet yet again to our first class seats. The plane is full in the economy and business sections with one vacant seat in first. The economy section has 197 passengers with a 2-5-2 seat configuration. Consider the poor person in that middle of that 5 seat row for 7.5 hours! Contrast that with 12 first class passenger seats with a 1-2-1 seat configuration and you get the picture. While certainly comfortable, it's hard not to compare United Airlines seats, food, service and first class passenger giveaways with Singapore Airlines. In every category Singapore Airlines runs away with the top prize.

Strangely, jet lag hasn't been a problem for us as we move from country to country with changing time zones but it's finally caught up with me and I sleep most of the turbulent flight. Upon landing in Dulles, as passengers transferring to another flight, we are directed to Immigration in the United terminal. Non-transferring passengers proceed to Immigration in the main terminal. Although the line with hundreds of passengers moves along, there's a fair amount of frustration as passengers begin to realize they may miss their flight connections. Unlike foreign terminals the US does not have a FastTrack line for frequent fliers, business and first class travelers, much to the consternation of many travelers who keep searching for that special line.

Eureka! We get our passports stamped and must then pick up our bags and proceed to Customs. There's a fair amount of controlled chaos as passengers look for their waiting bags and run to the Customs line for another wait. As has been the norm for us, our bags are waiting for us, having been the first offloaded. After clearing Customs and putting the checked bags on a waiting conveyor belt it's off to another line for the security check. Oh my, people are really worried about making their flights now. As are we, since the two hour window for my Rochester departure is rapidly closing in.

My oh-so-knowledgeable travel partner tells a nearby security guard that we are transferring from an international flight in First Class and have the right to go to the head of the line. She inspects our tickets and waves us through. Imagine the looks as we walk to the front of the line! Priceless.

Bags checked, I race behind my son as he heads for the United International First Class Lounge. Wanting my experience to be first class from start to finish, he upgrades my seat on the Dulles to Rochester flight. Since my flight, and his to NYC, are briefly delayed, we have time to sit for a short while and say our goodbyes. What a trip!

His parting words are, "let me know when you want to do an around the world trip. I'm sure I can arrange it for about $2,000 for the air."

What a son!

From East to West

Today is the last day we will be in Asia. Our 13 hour flight to London leaves at 9am. After spending the previous evening packing and configuring our six bags (!), our pre-arranged driver was ready to take us to the airport. The drive from Orchard Road to Changi International is about 20 minutes with no traffic, and at 6am there is none.

Singapore Airlines has just opened a new terminal at the airport, with its own First class facility. Not really like the Lufthansa private terminal, but more a private check-in and immigration area which opens up into the main terminal area. As our Mercedes pulled up on the red carpet, six handlers’ bum rushed the car taking our luggage, welcoming us and escorting us to the check-in lounge. If you are anything but relaxed, or feel less than a VIP super star, they will have failed their job. After being seated in a plush chair or couch, just hand over your passports and they do the rest with no questions.

Singapore’s airport, like Orchard Road is filled with only duty free shops of the highest caliber. Everyone leaving Singapore, no matter how long the flight, is leaving the country. No Duane Reade’s, CVS, or junk shops here. Unless you are looking for fine chocolates, a Hermes scarf or Mont Blanc pen tax free, keep moving. For us this meant moving to the Silver Kris First Class Lounge.

The new lounge, opened less than a year ago, is much like the Lufthansa Private Terminal in design. There is a dining area, (since we arrived for a morning flight, a chef was preparing omelets) with the usual fare we had become accustomed to, fine cheeses, smoked salmon, Asian breakfast items etc., many different lounge areas and showers. The one thing I did notice is that electrical sockets are located sparsely throughout the lounge, a misstep indeed. After a delicious breakfast and some blogging our flight was ready for boarding, and we headed to our gate for the security check.

The security check here is done at the individual gate and is thorough. The security checker kept stopping and rummaging through bags to find even the smallest violation. Every country we had flown into or out of on our entire trip accepted our carry on luggage and all its items, not Singapore. A small manicure set scissors with maybe a 1 inch head was considered in violation. Instead of the usual options, A: Go back and check it, or B: dump it, we were escorted to a table for option C: the offending item was cataloged and tagged where it was waiting for us on arrival at our destination. Oh so civilized. Boarding was called quickly and we were on our way down our private First Class jet bridge for 13 hours of the usual pampering.

Our flight to London Heathrow had 8 out of 12 seats occupied, and since this would be the last time in who knows when, I treated myself to 6 hours of Dom living and caviar wishes before getting some much needed sleep! 13 hours passed by quickly (it will do that if the meal services and snacking take up more than 4 hours) and we made our way to an on time arrival in London on a sunny crisp fall day.

Upon arrival into London, we were allowed access to the FastTrack lane for immigration and by the time we arrived at the baggage carousel our bags were waiting for us. Hotels close to the airport property have some kind of agreement with the airport authority, so instead of individual airport shuttles, there is a pay service called the Hoppa which drops off at all the surrounding area hotels. The Renaissance, which looks outdated from the outside, has a great view of the runway for any plane enthusiasts like me, but we opted to stay at the Sheraton making our Starwood Hotel stays 4 for 4 on this trip. The Sheraton has been nicely renovated and probably had the most comfortable beds and showers we had experienced on our trip. Our arrival at 3:30 was nicely timed for a brief evening jaunt into the city. The airport is not close to the city. Your best option is the London Underground, at around $15 for a day pass it takes about 45 minutes to get into central London.

Since Mom hadn’t been to London in many years, we decided to make a stop at Harrods to take in the scenes and see what items they had available at the Arcade. For those who have never been to Harrods, it’s a cross between every luxury store imaginable combined with the Macys on 34th street in New York, combined with designs and architecture from a museum. Even the food for sale is fashionable. It is a destination in and of itself when visiting London. Not finding any deals on anything we actually wanted, we moved on to Piccadilly Circus and hung around with the hip West End crowd on this brisk Wednesday evening. Making sure to leave plenty of time to get back to the hotel and a decent nights sleep, we made our way back to the tube and prepared for our final day traveling in First Class style, and our arrival back to the U.S.

Leaving KL

Traveling back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur is almost like going home. Back to a familiar hotel, familiar city with English street signs and western toilets. We will pick up the luggage the hotel kindly stored for us, say goodbye to Singapore and early Wednesday morning board our 13 hour flight to London.

For now, it’s the Transstar Bus Terminal in Kuala Lumpur where we board our first class bus at 2pm for the 5 hour ride to Singapore. It’s double decker with 16 single seats upstairs, karaoke and conference lounge downstairs, individual tv’s with movies, video games and music and, of course, a bus attendant. The bus attendant offers blankets, a hot meal, water, coffee, tea and crackers.

Unlike our bus trip to KL, we don’t get to know our bus mates. We are the only westerners in the group of primarily Chinese and Malaysian travelers who speak little English. Our bus attendant recites traveler’s notices (rest stop 10 minutes) in heavily accented English, but we know the routine and need little assistance on the return trip.

I am not fooled by the bathroom stops and now know that the facilities will be primitive to western sensibilities. My tissues at the ready, my eyes dart quickly from stall to stall searching for the western toilet. A door opens, a squat toilet. I turn to the woman behind me and signal that she may go ahead. Another door opens and I quickly take my turn. When I leave, the Muslim woman signals she will wait for non-western accommodations.

Different cultures, different viewpoint. As I’ve come to learn, the squat toilets all have a hose which can be used to wash the floor and surrounding area before or after each use. Therefore, although the floor is always wet, it is clean. The western stalls do not have a hose and therefore are not clean. Primitive?

We have two rest stops; one Immigration stop without luggage and one Customs stop with a luggage check. At Immigration and Customs the rooms are large, the lines move quickly, no one has a bag checked and at no time are we required to remove our shoes, take out our laptops, take off our coats or sweaters or remove our phones. As the woman inspector at Customs informed me when I placed my Blackberry in the bin, “people may take your phone. It is much more secure if you leave it in your luggage.”

This efficiency was displayed during our bus trip as we gawked at an accident scene on the expressway. A large truck carrying hazardous materials crashed through the guide rail and over turned. There were lots of emergency vehicles on the scene including two hazmat teams, police cars and an ambulance. The bus never stopped, just slowed a bit. Where were the long lines of cars, trucks, buses and RV’s that in the U.S. would stretch for miles? In this case, the divider was cut and traffic redirected to the opposite side of the highway for approximately one mile where it was directed back to the appropriate lane. All traffic on both sides of the expressway kept moving with no delays. Efficient.

We arrived in Singapore only to face the bumper to bumper city traffic. Not so efficient. It was good to arrive at our hotel and have the hotel porter say, “Welcome back. Good to see you. Did you enjoy your trip to KL.”

Shopping on Steroids

Okay, on Sunday we visited the monuments, the statutes, the national museum, the war memorial, the kings palace and the lake garden and drove by a host of other cultural attractions. But today, Monday, is dedicated to shopping. We’d heard about the prices in KL and now it was time to check out the shopping scene.

After getting advice from a local, we headed out early to beat the heat and started at Low Yat Plaza, a short 10 minute walk from our hotel. Darin wanted to search for phone and camera deals and Low Yat was incredible. Seven floors of electronics from all over the world with no company – and absolutely no country – left out. Sony, Toshiba, NEC, HP, Panasonic Acer, Asus, and a bunch we never heard of. (Strangely, Kodak did not have a booth of its own but was represented) Needless to say, tourists from every corner of the globe were milling about, checking out the goods and negotiating deals. There were few stores as we understand a mall, just booth after kiosk after booth. Each counter had several calculators where young salesmen quickly figured out the discounts and the prices. If you couldn’t speak the language, read the calculator. Numbers don’t need a translation! It was all about deal making.

Over stimulated, we moved to the ground floor to eat “local” and rest from the action. Deciding to check out phone and camera prices on line in the evening, we left Low Yat Plaza and moved on to Sungei Wang Plaza. This mall, also recommended by our local contact, is not easily described.

Sungei Wang sells everything, except animals. It rivals the Pentagon in size with six floors of four quadrants each. Each floor extends beyond eyesight. There are no windows (think Vegas casino) and no discernible exits. No need to leave to eat because McDonald’s has a restaurant in the mall as well as other restaurants selling Indian, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese and odd combinations of western foods. During this trip, I’ve become accustomed to disk jockeys spinning records in the mall, huge couches for lounging where your feet don’t touch the floor, supermarkets and bakeries in the mall but Sungei Wang was the mother of all malls.

After a while, the noise, the people and the sheer amount of stuff overwhelmed us and we decided to leave – but couldn’t find a way out. With help from a friendly security guard, we shortly found ourselves on the sidewalk with a much needed view of the sky. Bruised from a blistering morning in the malls, we retreated to the hotel pool for a respite.

Feeling more confident later in the day, we hopped a taxi to Central Market in Chinatown. We plunged into the Chinatown street bazaar where each narrow street had tons of hawkers selling knock off designer goods and cheap souvenirs. From the streets into the cool, orderly Central Market was refreshing. Center Market is a 2 story indoor bazaar selling quality local goods at reasonable prices. Bargaining welcome!

All in all a good day, back to lecka lecka, our neighborhood pub to relax before going upstairs and gloating over the days treasures.

Arabia meets Asia?

Kuala Lumpur is awesome. Like Singapore and Hong Kong, there are plenty of upscale shops and ritzy eateries, but as we had hoped, KL is where deals can be found. The most striking thing about KL is the diversity of ethnicity and religion. ~60% Malay, ~30% Chinese, ~8% Indian and the rest others with a mix of Buddhist, Christian and Muslim religions. Look to your left and you might see a Christian, Chinese twenty something in a miniskirt and short sleeved top. Look to your right as a Muslim woman in a Berkah strolls past you, so is the norm for KL. A city of 1.3 million, there are plenty of green spaces, with enough palm trees to rival Palm Beach.

With a late start -- one must take their time to enjoy dessert after all -- we walked along the street in front of the hotel looking in designer shops and browsing the brand new mall that is conveniently across from our hotel. Perhaps you would like a watch from the Tag Heuer store, some clothing at Givenchy or a new bag at Louis Vuitton? Not so fast, even with a favorable exchange rate, the real stuff is still expensive. Looks like it is still the Central Market for us! We plan to visit Central Market and the Chinatown bazaar tomorrow.

KL, like Singapore, it is warm and wet. The outdoor coffee shops have found the solution to the midday heat - fans. Outdoor fans are set up, some with mist, that blow around the sitting areas making it nice and cool even on the hottest of days.

Through the hotel we arranged a half day tour to get a good idea of what this city is about. As it was a Sunday and the last day of a holiday there was not a lot of traffic which made for a pleasant ride around the city, stopping at Twin Tower, the Kings Palace, National Museum and the Railway Station to name a few sights on our tour. We also got to see where the poor live in government housing (near the old, rundown prison).

When traveling to a new destination, it’s always good to have a tour. The tour helped us realize that we were within walking distance of the shops and most attractions. Therefore if coming to KL, I would highly recommend staying at the ultra modern Westin, or if you want old school posh, there is a Marriot right next door which seems pretty nice too.

After the tour we went straight to our down the road eatery lecka lecka. With outdoor couches, lots of candles and hookah, it’s your neighborhood cafe, super sized and chilled out. KL has not gotten on the worldwide smoking ban movement, which means in most locations you can still smoke indoors. That along with the bargaining you can do on almost EVERYTHING gives KL the look of a modern progressive city with some antiquated attitudes and ways of life.

I like it here. I wasn’t disappointed with Hong Kong, but it was different than I thought it would be. Singapore, great to be back but much more crowded than I remember three years ago, but KL… maybe because it is new to me, maybe because it’s ethnically diverse, maybe because it’s more out there, I don’t know but I really like it and can see myself coming back… soon.