tvl4free
Apr 6, 05, 9:29 pm
They were blue, aqua blue that is, the 'silver dollar pancake-sized' earphones which were handed out in economy, and these 'lil treats may well prove to be the best thing that I have to report about this trip.
'aaaaaaah eeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaah,
aaaaaaah eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh aaaah'
Those were the unique sounds of what I suppose was 'the top 40' Arabic tunes that tantillized me during this ride - and so I kept it tuned right there to Chanel 4 the whole way from KUL to Bangkok. Yep, the Arabic music rocked - even tho I had to jiggle the connection and eventually switch the chord to my neighbors seat to make this 'cheap a$$' contraption actually function acceptably well.
(But as an aside, and for just a moment, I divert. Does anyone watch 'SUPER NANNY?' My new favorite British word comes from THE NANNY, ' A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE.' 'Those children's behaviior is just NOT A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE,' she says! And so it was with these ear phones. While they were just barely A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE - I did enjoy the music! :D ).
Originally, I had planned to 'test drive' Air Asia on this route, but their last minute fare was gonna be nearly twice my consolidator Gulf Air $126 'all in' RT fare. Plus, in addition to the basic fare, I knew that Air Asia would want my first born for the two Winnebagos (70+ lb bags) that would need to checked - so Gulf Air was the no brainer choice this time.
Check-in at KUL was to be smooth and easy and there were three empty counters that eagerly watched and waited to serve me as I approached with my loaded buggy. Since all three positions literally appeared ready to pounce on me, I simply held my arms straight out and said, 'OK, soooooo who gets to be the lucky one!' There were giggles all around and thus my first impresesion of Gulf Air was a positive one.
It was the First Class lady (fully head dressed, of course, as this is KUL, after all) who eventually won out with, 'Oh I can help you!' And so she did just that, very efficiently indeed. This trip was originally showing as an Airbus in Amadeus and so when I rounded the corner to my plane, I was somewhat disappointed to see a tired 'ole 76 parked at the gate.
But Im moving along too fast here... because the MAS Golden Lounge occurred somewhere in this daze - and btw I really wasn't entitled 'to it' on this trip, but hey, they were so very, very busy at the check-in Lounge entrance counter - that I simply brushed right on by unnoticed. Oh well, no real damage done here - other than perhaps, a single extra diet Pepsi. :D
The first thing I noticed onboard was the female cabin crew uniforms - and immediately I decided that the head dress added soooo much mystery to it all - that nuthing other than a 'thumbs up' here would do for this crew! The rainbow of colors represented in the crew was quite fascinating. There were a couple of snow white FA's from Dublin - right on thru to the deeper colors of South Africa represented, too. I found it very interesting. English is the onboard crew language of this carrier - and the cockpit drivers were a mix of Arab, seated right - and a big burly Yank from somewhere near Atlanta, I'm supposing, seated left. It was 'the lefty's' ultimate PA drawl that gave it all away, doncha know.
Well, we closed 5 minutes early and were airborne with no fanfare at all. Except there was a rather interesting looking cartoon-like video of the new business class which will soon be on offer. It looked quite interesting. Then cold towels made their way around the cabin and lunch was shortly served thereafter.
Because Im sure that you will want to know - I WANT TO MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR - that this was the most miniscule, pathetic, discusting looking meal that I have EVER been served aloft! And I mean EVER!
Why arn't airline CEO's made to lunch on this stuff, too?
Lunch consisted of a casserrole dish - which was presented to me covered, thank god! Of course they used the mini-tray to make it look like soooooooo much less is much, much more. Once the foil was pulled off, rice and beef, covered in a jelly-like congealed GREEN gravy was revealed. FWIW, this was the smallest casserole dish that I have EVER seen served on an aircraft.
Words cannot adequately decribe how discusting this meal looked! So I looked around the cabin for re-assurance and noticed that most everybody had sampled and was subsequently scarfing this stuff down! I was amazed. And that made me curious. So I decided to taste it. Actually, the green slimmy stuff was was a peanut sauce - and a chile, green gravy peanut sauce at that!
'All of this' was accompanied by 'two forks full' of what I'll call a soba noodle salad - served covered in plastic in aqua bowls that perfectly matched my aqua headset. For dessert, a '1inch by 1 inch' cake-like, pie-like, something or other - floating in a thick milky-like cream was to be our 'piece de resistance' for the day. Again, this 'delectable' was served covered in plastic in a carbon copy of THAT aqua plastic bowl previously mentioned. A male FA served heated rolls from a wicker basket with silver tongs. And wine 4free was offered to wash this meal down.
I recall days long ago when my sister used to play with these types of bowls. I think that they came with her Majic Oven. :D She had a Chatty Cathy back then. So perhaps you get the picture of the scale about which I speak.
Shortly it was time to wash up. So a quick trip to the WC was in order. Now let me tell you that this was the most disgusting visit ever. There was literally caked-on body fluids everywhere. It was sooo nasty in fact that I think the place needed to be sanitized with a STEAM BLASTER. Again, just disgusting.
One of the things that I did rather like about Gulf Air was the duty free offerings. There was a key chain, cloth fuzzy camel that I thought might make a nice little gift for $16 USD - worth prolly $4! The same camel was also found in a 'snow globe' version - where a glitter sand served as the snow. I liked 'em both. They seemed appropriate as a gift from the middle east. And would have bought em both - had they been onboard. Oh well!
And so there you have it. An hour and 45 minutes with Gulf Air. For some reason, we circled a very hazy BKK six times before beginning our descent - but we were still in on time.
FWIW, my return to Kuala Lumpur with Gulf Air was an EXACT copy of my outbound trip. Same NASTY meal. Same FILTHY, NASTY rest rooms. SAME AQUA HEADSET that required re-plugging into the seat next to me! Same cool music, too!
But, music or not, I may well choose another carrier next time.
Spotless, hygienic MAS, Gulf Air ain't!
Inflight Service: 8
Meal: 0
Cleanliness: 0
Over-all Impression: 4- NOT A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE! :D
'aaaaaaah eeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaah,
aaaaaaah eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh aaaah'
Those were the unique sounds of what I suppose was 'the top 40' Arabic tunes that tantillized me during this ride - and so I kept it tuned right there to Chanel 4 the whole way from KUL to Bangkok. Yep, the Arabic music rocked - even tho I had to jiggle the connection and eventually switch the chord to my neighbors seat to make this 'cheap a$$' contraption actually function acceptably well.
(But as an aside, and for just a moment, I divert. Does anyone watch 'SUPER NANNY?' My new favorite British word comes from THE NANNY, ' A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE.' 'Those children's behaviior is just NOT A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE,' she says! And so it was with these ear phones. While they were just barely A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE - I did enjoy the music! :D ).
Originally, I had planned to 'test drive' Air Asia on this route, but their last minute fare was gonna be nearly twice my consolidator Gulf Air $126 'all in' RT fare. Plus, in addition to the basic fare, I knew that Air Asia would want my first born for the two Winnebagos (70+ lb bags) that would need to checked - so Gulf Air was the no brainer choice this time.
Check-in at KUL was to be smooth and easy and there were three empty counters that eagerly watched and waited to serve me as I approached with my loaded buggy. Since all three positions literally appeared ready to pounce on me, I simply held my arms straight out and said, 'OK, soooooo who gets to be the lucky one!' There were giggles all around and thus my first impresesion of Gulf Air was a positive one.
It was the First Class lady (fully head dressed, of course, as this is KUL, after all) who eventually won out with, 'Oh I can help you!' And so she did just that, very efficiently indeed. This trip was originally showing as an Airbus in Amadeus and so when I rounded the corner to my plane, I was somewhat disappointed to see a tired 'ole 76 parked at the gate.
But Im moving along too fast here... because the MAS Golden Lounge occurred somewhere in this daze - and btw I really wasn't entitled 'to it' on this trip, but hey, they were so very, very busy at the check-in Lounge entrance counter - that I simply brushed right on by unnoticed. Oh well, no real damage done here - other than perhaps, a single extra diet Pepsi. :D
The first thing I noticed onboard was the female cabin crew uniforms - and immediately I decided that the head dress added soooo much mystery to it all - that nuthing other than a 'thumbs up' here would do for this crew! The rainbow of colors represented in the crew was quite fascinating. There were a couple of snow white FA's from Dublin - right on thru to the deeper colors of South Africa represented, too. I found it very interesting. English is the onboard crew language of this carrier - and the cockpit drivers were a mix of Arab, seated right - and a big burly Yank from somewhere near Atlanta, I'm supposing, seated left. It was 'the lefty's' ultimate PA drawl that gave it all away, doncha know.
Well, we closed 5 minutes early and were airborne with no fanfare at all. Except there was a rather interesting looking cartoon-like video of the new business class which will soon be on offer. It looked quite interesting. Then cold towels made their way around the cabin and lunch was shortly served thereafter.
Because Im sure that you will want to know - I WANT TO MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR - that this was the most miniscule, pathetic, discusting looking meal that I have EVER been served aloft! And I mean EVER!
Why arn't airline CEO's made to lunch on this stuff, too?
Lunch consisted of a casserrole dish - which was presented to me covered, thank god! Of course they used the mini-tray to make it look like soooooooo much less is much, much more. Once the foil was pulled off, rice and beef, covered in a jelly-like congealed GREEN gravy was revealed. FWIW, this was the smallest casserole dish that I have EVER seen served on an aircraft.
Words cannot adequately decribe how discusting this meal looked! So I looked around the cabin for re-assurance and noticed that most everybody had sampled and was subsequently scarfing this stuff down! I was amazed. And that made me curious. So I decided to taste it. Actually, the green slimmy stuff was was a peanut sauce - and a chile, green gravy peanut sauce at that!
'All of this' was accompanied by 'two forks full' of what I'll call a soba noodle salad - served covered in plastic in aqua bowls that perfectly matched my aqua headset. For dessert, a '1inch by 1 inch' cake-like, pie-like, something or other - floating in a thick milky-like cream was to be our 'piece de resistance' for the day. Again, this 'delectable' was served covered in plastic in a carbon copy of THAT aqua plastic bowl previously mentioned. A male FA served heated rolls from a wicker basket with silver tongs. And wine 4free was offered to wash this meal down.
I recall days long ago when my sister used to play with these types of bowls. I think that they came with her Majic Oven. :D She had a Chatty Cathy back then. So perhaps you get the picture of the scale about which I speak.
Shortly it was time to wash up. So a quick trip to the WC was in order. Now let me tell you that this was the most disgusting visit ever. There was literally caked-on body fluids everywhere. It was sooo nasty in fact that I think the place needed to be sanitized with a STEAM BLASTER. Again, just disgusting.
One of the things that I did rather like about Gulf Air was the duty free offerings. There was a key chain, cloth fuzzy camel that I thought might make a nice little gift for $16 USD - worth prolly $4! The same camel was also found in a 'snow globe' version - where a glitter sand served as the snow. I liked 'em both. They seemed appropriate as a gift from the middle east. And would have bought em both - had they been onboard. Oh well!
And so there you have it. An hour and 45 minutes with Gulf Air. For some reason, we circled a very hazy BKK six times before beginning our descent - but we were still in on time.
FWIW, my return to Kuala Lumpur with Gulf Air was an EXACT copy of my outbound trip. Same NASTY meal. Same FILTHY, NASTY rest rooms. SAME AQUA HEADSET that required re-plugging into the seat next to me! Same cool music, too!
But, music or not, I may well choose another carrier next time.
Spotless, hygienic MAS, Gulf Air ain't!
Inflight Service: 8
Meal: 0
Cleanliness: 0
Over-all Impression: 4- NOT A-S-S-E-P-TA-BLE! :D