Our flight left at 11:50pm on Monday night. My dad dropped us off at the airport with all 10 bags, three adults, two kids, and a double stroller. It looks like we way overpacked, but I'll tell you I still wish I had brought more swaddle blankets and PJs for the kids.
As we pulled up to the departures curb at LAX I think it hit me what we were about to undertake. I got really scared and decided I didn't want to get out of the car. But I did.
We boarded the plane and found our seats. Our group was scattered throughout the plane. Since I had to have a "bassinet" seat for Joseph I was at the front of the business class section and Mike and Andrew were further down in the middle. My poor mom sat in coach class (since Mike's company wasn't paying for her ticket) next to a window. I didn't get a picture of her. Here is Andrew.
Andrew did amazing on the flight. Since the seats laid flat, he fell asleep within an hour of take off and didn't wake up until two hours before we landed. What an amazing way to spend a 14 hour flight (for Mike that is. I was up with Joseph, more on that below). One thing we learned is that if you are going to sleep, you are supposed to put your seatbelt on over your blanket, so the flight attendants don't have to wake you up when they turn on the "fasten your seatbelt" sign.
Here I am with Joseph. He was pretty good and didn't cry really at all.
He went through cycles of feeding, awake, and asleep. He slept in the bassinet to my right. The one down side was that whenever the pilot decided to turn on the fasten your seatbelt sign, I had to pull him out and put him on my lap. This was really frustrating because I would work so hard walking up and down the aisles to get him to sleep and then finally lay him down in the bassinet, only to have the pilot turn on the seatbelt sign, and I would have to pull him out and strap him to me and he most often would wake up. But other than that, things worked out okay.
So all the flight attendants on Cathay Air were really nice but this one was my favorite. She was so sweet and always made a big deal about Joseph when I walked him through the galley. She has a son born the exact same day as Joseph but a year older. She gave me a picture of him and he is the cutest little Japanese boy.
Here are the boys once we arrived in Hong Kong. Andrew is wearing his PJs since he soaked through his other outfit. He wore his PJs the whole rest of the time, including in the business lounge. It was awesome so see a little PJ'ed kid running around the business lounge with this big smile on his face.
We had to take a train to the connecting terminal for our flight from Hong Kong to KL. Andrew was really into the train.
The hong kong airport was awesome. I have never seen such huge tall windows and such a cool view of all the airplanes, towers and mountains. Since it was 5am it was pretty deserted so we had the place to ourselves.
We had a three hour layover so we headed to the Cathay business lounge. We had to convince them to let my mom in since she didn't have a business ticket and luckily they were nice. We heard they are pretty strict.
Here is Andrew and his dada relaxing. 
This is where we ate breakfast (free!) and washed out Andrew's bottles and filled them with fresh milk. I got to take a shower also. That was an experience in and of itself. You get your own shower room and they provide all sorts of toiletries for you (toothbrush and paste, soap, shampoo, razor) but no deodorant. I had to ask for that separately. Mike explained that people don't really wear deodorant in Asia. I was really excited to read a fashion magazine in Hong Kong so Mike picked this for me out of the magazines they lay out. I was so dissappointed though because it was all in Chinese. All I could do was look at the pictures.
Yes, we changed the babies on the floor. It was a really clean corner though and far away from the other business travelers.
The lounge had hot breakfast. Mike was elated to find it was his favorite Asian breakfast from his time in Taiwan. I can't tell you how many times he's told me about how amazing this breakfast is. It was fried bread to dip in soy milk and dumplings. He set my expectations high but it was pretty good I have to admit. 
Mike with his favorite breakfast.
So then we got on another plane from Hong Kong to KL. That went well--Andrew slept again the whole time--but Joseph was pretty fussy. However we made it and took two cabs to the hotel (we had too many bags to fit in one cab). Our driver left before Mike's driver so we got to the hotel first. I didn't want to check in without Mike so we hung out in the lobby taking minutes for a few minutes until Mike arrived.
These are my sweet boys who just traveled half way around the world and were still in a good mood, smiling and letting mom take pictures of them.
We got to the hotel room (two bedroom thank heavens) and luckily it wasn't as small as I was worried it would be. We are going to be at the hotel for a week while we find a good serviced apartment, and I was worried because have to fit my mom and two kids in one hotel room withot going crazy!
Andrew had a ball when we first got to our room. Here he is running around in the room he shares with my mom. Mike, Joseph and I sleep in the master bedroom.
Here is our make-shift diaper changing station. Joseph is loving life in this picture probably happy to be free of his travel clothes that he has been wearing for a day and a half.
When they brought the cribs in and put them in place, Andrew immediately wanted to be in his. Here he is jumping up and down like a little hyper two year old that has been cooped up for too long. I cannot adequately explain how enthusiastically he was jumping.
Another funny thing he wanted to do was put his monkey backpack on and run around the house. Then he saw our tub and wanted to get in. So in this picture Andrew has his backpack on playing in the tub. I wish you could see how big the smile was on his face. It was really cute.
The next day (Thurs) Mike and I went out with Ms. Dolly to find a suitable serviced apartment for the duration of our visit. Ms. Dolly (shown below) is who our relocation company hired to show us around the town and find us our temporary and permanent housing.
Here are some snapshots of us walking through some apartments.
One apartment in particular had a cool pool that overlooked the city. The round part is the kids pool.
I took some shots of Malaysia streets while we were driving around.
Happy Deepavali. The Hindi festival of lights is this weekend. All of the buildings and malls here are decorated with peacocks and colorful rice art on the floor. Notice the floor--it looks like a rug but really it is thousands of colored pieces of rice arranged in a pattern.
Our hotel is across from the Pavilion mall which is one of the nice malls in Asia. I have never seen such a big Prada store, Coach store, Juicy store, Mont Blanc store, etc. and I grew up going to South Coast Plaza!
There is this KL landmark fountain outside the mall that Andrew loves. When we need to get out of the hotel we will cross the street and go look at the fountain. That sounds like it is easy to get to, but really crossing the street here is like taking your life in your hands. No one stops so you have to weave through the cars and it is so scary.
Here I am in the front of our hotel. You can see the mall across the street with the gigantic PRADA store.
Andrew and grandma in front of the fountain.
We went last night (thursday night) and there were tons of people there. I love this shot because it shows the diversity of the people here. Everyone at the mall was young and way stylish. Everyone also stops and stares at us and our big stroller. Most usually smile and point to the kids. One lady stopped and rubbed Joseph's hands and head and I had to get out the baby wipes to wipe him down afterward. Everyone thinks the boys are cute.
We watched the beginning of a fashion show from the 6th floor looking down. As it turns out it is Malaysian International Fashion week this week.
They had live music in this one section of the mall. They also were selling ming dynasty vases. It was all a little too high class for us.
We picked up some authentic Malaysian food and had a big dinner feast. Here is my mom opening all the take away boxes. BTW, it is "take away" here, not take out.
This picture was taken this morning. The sun is rising in this picture. We have been getting up really early (or should I say the boys are getting up really early). I think by tomorrow we may finally get over our jet lag. 
Sorry for the long post! I will post more when I get another minute. Right now I have to go down to the pool for free internet. See you soon and we love and miss you all!
