Well the trip was coming to an end and I have to report that it was the smoothest business/pleasure trip (in terms of flights, connections & capacity) that I have ever had. The last few days in Kuala Lumpur were good – the weather was hot and humid as usual with the typical short lived thunderstorms in the afternoon. We had great food on Jalan Alor in Bukit Bitang with some really nice BBQ chicken wings and some spicy and tasty prawns and pak choi. One thing I did find interesting in the food department was that most shopping centers had good local food in there food courts which makes a change from the usual unhealthy fast food joints one gets in the West.
Other attractions I can recommend would be the Islamic art museum and Mosque though less so the butterfly and bird parks which were near by (not that interesting). A walk around China town and little India is also good as it is quite hectic but one can buy good bargains on shirts and fake goods. Finally, one of the most interesting places to walk around is the area just north of the Petronas Towers - Kampung Baru. This is the old Malay part of Kuala Lumpur - it is very atmospheric and looks relatively poor but not in the dirty ugly sense. There are lots of markets and food places and a really interesting mosque – try to go when people are on there way to the mosque as it is an interesting site and the call for prayer adds to the atmosphere. One can also take a great picture of the contrast of the poor neighbourhood with the backdrop of the Petronas towers.
Anyway Mrs. J had left the night before to catch her BA J flight from SIN to LHR while I opted for a cheap Y ticket purchased during the MH sale at £190. Ok I wasn’t looking forward to this trip as 14hrs in Y sounds like slow torture to me. However, I did do my research before hand and chose MH on purpose as they do have 34in seat room as standard and an excellent AVOD system. I also took the day flight as I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep on the plane and chose to have a good nights rest at the hotel beforehand.
My flight was scheduled for 11:15 so left the hotel at 8:30 and checked-in at the Central station once again. Again no one in the line so check-in was quick – I found out from the agent that there were still 150 seats available as most people take the night flight (another reason for taking the day flight). I also had a good choice of seats and went for the first bassinet middle row position in the Y section as was told that no babies were scheduled for the flight (yes that can be risky).
Now I would like to pass on a tip I was told – if you are travelling in any class and would like to upgrade (with payment) then one can put in a request and depending on availability you can get an upgrade for a fixed fee of 3500RM which is around (£500). I was tempted but decided to go Y once I found out it was quite empty.
I then hopped on the fast and pleasant express and reached the airport within half an hour. Now I am guessing it is low season as the airport looked and felt empty. I quickly passed by security (WHY CAN’T LHR AND LGW BE THIS WAY) and had to take a train to the satellite terminal. One thing I noticed about Changi and KLIA is that arrivals and departures mixes together and when arriving at KLIA one does not understand that you are in a satellite terminal needing to take a train – signage needs to improve.
At airside I had an hour to go and not having lounge access I just wonder around the terminal which is not that interesting and wonder towards the gate. The boarding area was quiet and there was additional immigration personal checking if the non EU passengers had a proper visa to travel towards the UK.
MH 004 KUL-LHR 11:15-16:50 in Y
Boarding was called on time with children and elderly boarding first and the rest second. The plane was a 747-400 and I quickly got to my seat. The seat itself was narrow or maybe I am not? And I took out all the things that were in my pockets as to maximise room. I was at that moment tempted to rush up to the CSD and demand an upgrade but the leg room was fine and a relatively empty cabin calmed me down along with the cold towel handed out.
We were on the ground for quite a while as the usual late straddlers took there time boarding but finally pushed back and after what seemed an unusually long run up took off.
One of the reasons for choosing MH was due to their AVOD system and I wasn’t disappointed. It is much quicker and more responsive than the SQ version and had much more content. Though March is never a good time to fly if you want to watch movies as it seems to be the in-between time in Hollywood and the movies were not that exciting.
On this flight lunch and lunch would be served and the quality was not that good. The first lunch I was served Beef and the second Venison – both over cooked and the usual Y long haul disaster. Service in general was good but that may be to the low capacities on this specific flight.
However, what does one do in Y on a 14hr flight – I managed to watch four movies before burning out and listening to two cds – I read two magazines and one newspaper and took lots of walks around the cabin. It was long and quite boring – I much prefer getting drunk on champagne and then fighting the hangover. Though overall bearable and I would do it again if I needed too – and for £190 a real bargain.
Now how does one know you are back at LHR? Well the plane landed almost an hour early, only to be told that there was no stand available. I have to say that there isn’t much worse than landing after a long flight and needing to wait for half an hour for a stand to be freed up.
After disembarking I took my time to get to immigration and baggage as I knew I was back home and it would take a while for the bags to be returned. In fact it only took about 45mins for my one bag to be spit out – I guess I should be thankful for the speed.
Ok – Final Thoughts
The 10 days of travel worked like clock work. All the flights left and arrived on time and everything went smoothly. Luckily this was partly due to good weather and low season travelling mixed with mostly reliable airports.
I would also like to highly recommend Malaysia as a travel destination. There are a lot of things one can do from cultural through nature to lounging on the beach. It is like Thailand just easier, less crowded with tourists, good food and very easy to travel around. Actually scrap all that I think I would like to keep Malaysia under wraps as I think I will be going there again in the near future.
Well that’s the end of my trip. I hope some of the information was useful and do let me know if there is anything you would like to know which I didn’t cover.
J