We rose pretty early to fit in
one last bit of shopping at times square. James made the obligatory few purchases: shoes, hats and more Tees, Steve found himself leaving with a remote control helicopter (boys and their toys) and Michele again left empty handed.
We farewelled The Federal with very dry eyes and a humphhh. We had managed to contact Razack the taxi driver who had dropped us off in KL the night before. This guy stuck to the speed limit, had seat belts, and had a late model car with Air bags. They were definitely the two best taxi rides we had in KL.
Got to the airport in plenty of time for a 3:30 departure and did a bit of duty free shopping. Cointreau, Dom, Scotch and Baileys - something to drown the sorrows when we returned to Melbourne. 25 days had passed so quickly and although we were keen to get home, we were going to miss being travellers, and miss Asia.
The flight back was much more civilised than the trip over - sleep was not essential. Steve discovered a channel on the entertainment console that played every #1 song from 1953 onwards and re-lived his teenage years with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Slade and some others he might not own up to. Michele buried herself in a couple of movies and James caught up with some Family Guy and Simpson's episodes for the 50th time. The seven and a half hours flew (pun intended), and before we knew it we were filling out the entry and customs cards, declaring everything we could think of.
We had packed all our contraband (wooden toothpick holders, wine holders, half a roll of Mentos and other assorted biological threats) in the one suitcase ready for customs and a long delay at Melbourne Airport.
We landed around 1 AM. Surprisingly, it all went well. The signs were in English, the luggage was available in no time and the customs officers were not quite like the Channel 7 Border Security nazis we expected, especially at that time in the morning. The wonderful Kerry (Michele's sister) had dragged herself out of bed to meet us, sometime around 1:30. We got straight through and we ended being there well on time.
It took less than the trip from KL to Sunway to get home and before we knew it, we were having a quick wine at almost 3 in the morning to mark the end of a fabulous three and a half weeks.
Holiday over, but all of us richer for the experience. Reflections tomorrow....
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| Mmmmmm...at the Federal |
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| OK - so Michele browns easily.. |
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| Yep - we're at the airport for a change |
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| Mother & Son |
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| Waiting.... |
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| On the plane again.... |
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| Last time... |
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| The trusty blogger |
