A warm welcome

Today was our first day on campus, which requires a 45 to 60 minute taxi journey to get to from KL. This can take longer and judging by the huge queues of traffic heading into the city, I can well believe it. Fortunately, we were going in the opposite direction,

The campus is in a wonderful location well away from the city (although it creeps closer every day), and, nestled in the foothills, is slightly higher. The surrounding area consists largely of palm plantations and forest, which, for me, makes it feel more authentically Malaysian and tropical.

And then, as we approach, we see standard University of Nottingham signage before pulling up outside the Trent Building. All quite surreal but also welcoming.

We also received a fantastic welcome from Lotus and his staff and felt very much at home. We were introduced to everyone individually and all seemed pleased to see us (as we were them).

Then the realisation dawned: we're here to work! So we cracked on until lunchtime when Khan (Director, IS) and Lotus drove us to the nearest village for a meal, which was unpretentious and very tasty although I think Chris and I were a little overoptimistic with the raw chilli. This was washed down with copious amounts of very nice green tea.

I had a wander for 15 minutes after we returned, the result of which is the selection of photos below all of which were taken on the campus. The campus is small and compact, and is very pleasant. It's also very quiet at the moment because last Friday was the end of term.

We're now back at the hotel and Chris and I will rendezvous shortly to take advantage (again) of the 2 for 1 happy hour (I'm starting to get a taste for the Tiger beer) before heading off to find a Malaysian restaurant that was recommended to us. Hopefully, we won't get lost this time!