Day -8, just over a week to go

PROLOGUE
Location: Horbury, W Yorkshire

No, we aren't off just yet, but it will be soon. All of our accomodation is booked, as are all our internal flights, as well as our long haul flights (naturally, since our holidays are usually based on wherever we get a flight to). Jane is responsible for itinerary whereas I'm in charge of logisitics. We are up to date on jabs, have malaria meds which we probably don't actually need. I will try to ease off on the travel nerdism, especially about equipment, but it is something I like about planning a trip. A lot of the fun of the buildup is getting the stuff together you need to take but I can become a bore on the subject. I mean, I'm not sure anyone really wants to know about our new camera with a huge zoom (Panasonic tz7), or that the new shoes I bought were Nike Alvord VIIs which are trail running shoes, even if I did want something that was good for some light jungle trekking, but light enough for some jogging or even aerobics which they are suppsed to do al fresco by the Mekong in Cambodia. Yes, I do have a hankering to do some aerobics in foreign climes, especially after seeing an outdoor class underway in Laos a couple of trips back that I missed out on taking part in.

Anyway, there's little else to do now, but wait and get our stuff together before we start packing. There's mundane things like haircuts and getting the car in for its annual service and MOT. We have a spare weekend to go after two when we were playing host to both our parents (don't get me wrong it was fun as any excuse for a meal at a decent restaurant is always welcome). There's a lot of lists to make: what to pack - which has sublists of things like toiletries and documentation, lists of thing to do in the house, like watering plants. Fact is, this is just marking time until the holiday actually starts. We aren't likely to forget anything major, and the act of packing takes little more than half an hour, but the fights have been booked for 7 months, so it's not unreasonable to be pretty excited by the impending adventure.

We have to bear a few things in mind already. We travel on the first day of Ramadan, which might be considered not the wisest time to visit a Muslim country, but they have a significant Chinese community where we will be able to eat any time, no to mention get booze. One of our previous trips we spent a day in Kota Bahru in the NE coast of the peninsular which is a pretty devout area, and it was only in the Chinese cafes there that you could get a beer so it's not unprecendented. As well as this, the fact that people eat in the evening following a day of fasting means that the evening meal takes on a special significance so there are some fantastic places to enjoy Ramadan evening banquets. Still, it does mean that bacon will be pretty scarce on the Malaysian part of the holiday.

Jane has looked up the entertainment for our outgoing flights which became available online at the begining of the month. I see this as cheating, like peeking at your Christmas presents on 23rd december, though she did tell me they have Shutter Island and Iron Man 2 which I'm happy to hear. I'm surprised she hasn't looked up the food, or the names of the air cabin crew. I don't call them anything, I just press a button to get their attention and order a bloody mary (the only time I ever drink a bloody mary is on a long haul flight, don't know why).

OK, enough already. This is just a preamble, and I may post one or two more in the next week, and I know it's a bit dull because I haven't done anything or have any pics to display, but please stick with it.