IMR: Entries: 2002: May: 02 — Thursday, May 02, 2002

Coming In It's late. I'm exhausted. But despite how awry things went yesterday, tonight I'm still hopeful.   MAS89 taxis to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport terminal. The striking airport itself seems to mix Asian and Muslim design cues. We made it. Signs for our meeting are scattered everywhere. Our local hosts did an incredible job preparing a warm welcome. Driving into Kuala Lumpur brings us past some striking buildings. The landscape is mountainous and green, and palm trees rule. The distinctive city center is visible even from the outskirts of KL. The world-famous Petronas Towers, tallest buildings on Earth. Our home for the next week, the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur. As usual, our annual meeting venue here is none too shabby. The view from my room on the 14th floor as sunset nears. Kuala Lumpur is clearly a bustling, modern Asian city. Down below, one of Kuala Lumpur's beautiful central parks. After dark, the lights of the city make a hell of a night-light. All told, the second leg of our trip from Honolulu on Malaysian Airlines helped undo the headaches and knotted muscles from the first leg. The plane was comfortable, the service was first-rate, and I had time to work, nap, and even watch "The Last Castle" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" a second time. More importantly, as we disembarked and wandered into Kuala Lumpur International Airport, we were immediately sucked into the impressive machinery put in place by our local hosts. From the gates to immigration to customs, there were signs and staff (in custom logo shirts) with special airport clearance on hand to whisk us through. I think we set a speed record, getting from our plane to our awaiting convoy in maybe twenty minutes. In stark contrast to recent journeys, once in Kuala Lumpur, we didn't have to lift a single storage bin, or open it for inspection, or attempt to breech the language barrier to explain why we were in town. Although our organization is emphatically a private-sector group, we definitely appreciate the benefits government support can often bring. (The State of Hawaii similarly kicked airport butt for our meeting in 2000.) The drive from the airport to the heart of Kuala Lumpur took about 45 minutes, even well in excess of the posted 80km/h speed limit. Our van hurtled along the highway, its worn shocks turning every little bump into a giant, squishy, somewhat nausea-inducing lunge. There were no seat belts, either, and traveling with Doris' young daughter, we nervously designated and positioned Sylvia to be her combination restraint system and emergency air-bag. Like most airport-to-metro drives, the scenery started simple and got more complicated as we neared the city. The rural areas reminded many of us of parts of Kane`ohe, or even the Big Island: rolling, occasionally jagged hills and lots of green. Palm trees reigned supreme, carpeting the landscape to the horizon. Soon, though, civilization rose up, and industrial warehouses gave way to run-down residential apartments, which gave way to hotels and office buildings. It wasn't long before Kuala Lumpur's singular architectural icon, the Petronas Towers, came into view. The tallest buildings in the world, co-star of numerous motion pictures, and partially shut down for months following Sept. 11. Not only were they tall, but since the rest of the city is considerably shorter and less dense, their height is especially impressive. Our meeting, and our hotel, are located right next door to the towers. Some of us — not me, sadly — see nothing but them out their hotel room windows. The Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur is, to put it mildly, a nice hotel. It's look is noticably more gothic than most of the buildings in the city, and inside, it clearly aspires to the standards of the most elegant hotels in London or New York. I was surprised, though, to find only a modem plug in my hotel room phone. It's perhaps a sign of our usual conference excesses that I'd become accustomed to in-room broadband Ethernet access. And after fighting with AOL for an hour tonight, I think I'll just stick with the access we'll have in our secretariat. We got in at 7 p.m., and had our first major meeting with our organizing partners at 8 p.m. Since our luggage was coming on a separate truck (sorry, I mean a "lorry"), we couldn't even change, let alone pull out all our materials. Even so, the meeting went well, ending at about 10 p.m., versus the 3 a.m. conclusion of our pre-con meeting last year in Japan. The level of capability in the local vendors and organizing staff is heartening. Kuala Lumpur is definitely making a strong bid for world-class status. While there are already some sticky issues, I think our level of confidence in our collective team management is unusually high. And with two heads of state, seventeen ministers, and some 100 speakers, it better be. We were treated tonight to a nice buffet dinner by our Malaysian director general, a moment we cherished (knowing that for some meetings, all we get are hotel muffins and our own stale Tic Tacs). We dined with our emcee, a man named Mahadzir Lokman, who I'd describe as "the Joe Moore of Malaysia" except Mahadzir is easily twice the star Joe is, and deserves his prestige. A charismatic, multi-lingual former journalist, he was immediately and easily the most fascinating person I've met on these trips. We got to call it a night before midnight. And I for one am going to make the most of it.

Comments I'm glad you made it safely, though your notify mail made my heart sink. "Arrival"?? I thought that maybe Baby O had taken it upon himself to pop out while you were half the world away. I'm glad to hear he's still cookin'. —Jolene (May 3, 2002 8:04 AM) Eh laulau -- when I click on the thumbnails, I get your NOT FOUND page. Can fix 'em o wot? Tanks, ah? —Lani (May 3, 2002 9:05 AM) Damn; if I'd know it was KL you were going to, I'd have given you a phone number of a friend. The doc is a riot. Oh well. —Linkmeister (May 10, 2002 4:27 PM) Hi, thanks for the lovely comments you made about '˙ours truly', I'm indeed honoured and bloody flattered. Hope you will have a homecoming trip back to sunny Malaysia, soon. Cheers mate! —Mahadzir Lokman @ Dale (November 17, 2002 12:58 PM) E kala mai! Comments have been disabled due to overwhelming abuse by spammers. Please click through to any of the video hosting services linked above to leave a public response, or feel free to send an e-mail. Mahalo! < May 01 · May · May 05 > © 1997-2008 Ryan Kawailani Ozawa · E-Mail: imr@lightfantastic.org · Created: 13 November 1997 · Last Modified: 14 January 2008