From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

04:45 we left the hotel to the airport. The U-Tapao Airport was an American Airforce base in the Vietnamwar. Now it is used by the Thais as an Navy base. When we arrived at U-Tapao nobody was showing up expect the heavily armed guards. It took us 30 minutes talking with all limbs to be driven to the correct department. Quick now. catch up the wasted time. We were worrying about thunderstorms in the late morning. Sitting in the plane, outside temperature has reached 28 degrees centigrade, we realised that a piece of baggage is missing. We found out that the driver has taken it back to the hotel a 45 minute drive from the airport. Making a long story short, we decided to get it sent to Singapore. At the moment we started the engine again Suthorn called to tell us the driver is on his way back. Thank you Suthorn for all your help. We had to explain this to the controller, shut the engine down, get out of the plane and wait. 10 minutes later the driver arrived. With a 2 hour delay we took of from U-Tapao and the thunderstorms were already building up. This picture goes to Dr. Katja Horneffer from the ZDF Wetterstudio. Thank you so much for your support in sending our cloud movies in your program. I would love if you could give a comment on what we see in this picture.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

When looking down on earth, there is not very often the moment you would want to trade places with somebody. This picture close to Phuket shows one of these moments. When flying over Phuket the cloud layer did not allow us to see any o the tsunami damage.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Another picture that is a pleading for a water plane. Just imagine touching down and taking a swimm. An island on the west coast of Malaysia.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

When looking at all these rivers I sometimes wonder how we think these rivers took all the material towards the ocean if not with a lot of violence and force.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur, an impressive skyline.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

In the evening Danny Khor from Synthes took us out to dinner. We went to an amazing seafood heaven where me met this guy. A picture before...

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

.... and after. Lobster Sushi, everything else is just a waste of material. Thank you Danny for this revelation. Danny was traveling with us from KL to Singapore and further on to Jakarta. While he took the bus we followed in our plane. On every stopover Danny took us out for lunches and dinners. Every time it was something completely different. Just amazing. As he admitted he loves Swiss cuisine and he thinks cheese is one of the most wonderful inventions.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Towers, for some years, the highest in the World. To increase the building speed each tower was given to a different contractor, one from Korea, the other one from Japan. Each of them was trying to finish first.

Oct. 23, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Hearty welcome, virtual tought.

Oct. 24, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

When we had the 50 hours check done we met a lot of pilots on Subang airport. From left to right: Capt. Adam, with whom he had contact through Tom Claytor. He arranged everything for our 50 hours check. Johnatan was flying in from Singapore. He had a lot of useful tips on flying in Indonesia. Andreas, a german Pilot lives in Kuala Lumpur. He helped us with the VFR routing to Singapore. Thank you all.

Oct. 24, 2005 - From Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur street scene.