Day One - Kuala Lumpur to pick up the Land Cruiser

July 23, 2004

Filed: Day 1 - Kuala Lumpur - train from airport

Today is the day! I'm on the train having just landed from Singapore on my way to pick up the Land Cruiser. So exciting! Alice is also on a plane but she's on her way to New York for her mom's birthday. She's not going to be here for this major hurdle of the trip, which is the only bummer of the day.

This is also my first real entry into the blog. (and the first entered directly from my new 02 phone) If all goes well, I think these are going to be a great way to share our trip with everyone and keep a record for ourselves. As we were researching info for the trip by far the best resources we found were personal sites from people who have done similar trips. Way better information than lonely planet or commercial sites. I guess That's what inspired us to start this one in the hope that someone will get some info for their next trip too. I've never really kept a journal / diary before, so if you think I start to ramble to much, just let me know and I'll remember to remove you from the invite list for the book signing of my 3 volume memoirs set.

Getting the 'truck' has been such a fun, but exhausting experience. Most people would just go down to the dealership to find the right car, maybe even go to the other side of town to get a better deal. Not us though! I suppose that as a way of practicing for the trip itself, we wound up shopping (physically ) in: Singapore, Johor Bahru, Malacca and KL. Over 2000km just doing that! But we finally found what I think is the perfect one: A red 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Diesel Manual 4x4. It has the strength and longevity of the older Land Cruisers, with a bit more creature comforts and easy-handling from the more mainstream Toyota cars. I recognize a lot of the switch-gear as being blatantly ripped off my dad's old Camry.

You can find out more about how/why we chose this car, what it's like to buy a car in Malaysia, and how we're going to customize it for the trip.

The train is pulling in to the station so I'm going to hit send on my mobile phone. I'll follow up more later tonight with details of how it goes, in the mean time I'm SUPER EXCITED! The trip is finally starting to feel 'real'.