In Transit

Oh the places you’ll go…I might have two feet but I don’t have wings…and unfortunately even though technology has been developed to give us so much of the fantasy gadgets from Star Wars and Star Trek…like tablet computers and video phones, no one seems to have been able to build a working teleportation device yet…so to get to experience the wonders of the orient we have to take a commercial flight and deal with all that that entails…

Now don’t get me wrong, I love to travel and love to fly…but sitting in airports and on aeroplanes isn’t really adding a lot of value to the journey.

We left home this morning a bit before 4am; drove to the car parking place, arriving a little after 6am; caught the shuttle to the airport, confirmed our documents and then passed through the first stage of security before 7; then waited for the international stage of security clearance to open so that we could get to our gate for boarding at around 8:30ish; to depart on time at 9:05am.

Travelling from the Gold Coast airport is so much easier than from Brisbane…it’s much smaller so everything is closer and less flights means less chance of delays. Not to mention that by flying with Air Asia we saved a substantial amount of money…I’m talking several hundred dollars when compared to other airlines.

We’ve flown with quite a few carriers and to be honest, there really isn’t that much difference in the essential elements of flight. If anything, the low cost carriers seem to be much more efficient and have a really easy going attitude which always makes longer flights less tedious. We don’t check any baggage…so there is no chance of it being lost or damaged…and we pre order the meal of our choice so it is guaranteed to be something we want to eat!

At the airport this morning it was amusing to see people queue to board the plane…the attendant had called for rows 1 & 2 and passengers who require special assistance to board to come forward….half the airport went and lined up. For goodness sake folks, you have a boarding pass with a seat number, there is no need to trample the attendants in your rush!

The flight itself today was perfectly fine…no major turbulence and one of the smoothest touch downs ever. Disembarking was straight forward though as we made our way into the arrivals hall and walked towards immigration we discovered that a couple of other flights had arrived just ahead of ours, so the line up was long! Free wifi helped that time pass though!!

As we were coming in an overwhelming scent of smoke started to seep into the cabin. It seems Kuala Lumpur is shrouded in a thick haze of smoke.

As this is just a lay over for us we had booked into the Tune Hotel located just a short walk from the terminal. The rooms are small but clean with a private ensuite in each. We also bought air conditioning and wifi, so the only thing we needed to go out for was dinner.

We walked back toward the terminal and stopped in at the big food hall which has a series of eateries based on menu items plus a KFC.

Amanda opted for kfc, a safe ish choice for her first meal…though David and I went local. I had the Nasi Lemak with Ayam Goreng…basically rice with salty dried fish, peanuts, sambal olek, prawn crackers, an egg and a piece of chicken and broth. It is a favourite amongst the locals and I enjoyed the flavours though the chilli was a bit hot for me so I only had a little taste of that.

We booked two rooms as they each have only a double bed…one is on the back side of the building and is pretty quiet…the other is on the street side of the building and is noticeably noisier.
Amanda was struggling to get to sleep on her own so now she has to suffer my snoring!

We have another early start tomorrow as we are completing our flight to Cambodia…so time for bed now!