To KL & Home

Day 21 – Sunday 29^th December

To KL

Another day spent on a plane. It started at the airport with the now all-too familiar game of Malaysia Air making a balls-up of my pre-reserved seating. After the usual phone calls and tapping of keyboards it was eventually resolved. Fortunately we were first in the check-in queue so the seats hadn’t been given to anyone else. Unfortunately neither the passport-reader or the printer of our check-in clerk’s system was behaving so it still took around 30 minutes to do something that should have taken five.

Apart from that NZ airports impressed – rapid and friendly progress through security and passport control. Even the plane was one time. Despite having about 8 feet of leg room, the Boeing 777 is quite an old plane – the result that it seems to creek and groan in any turbulence. The leg-room is also a magnetic space for toilet queues and people stretching their legs; which regularly pisses me off – maybe I should go and tread on their feet and peer through their windows and see if they get the message. To make things worse my in-flight entertainment system didn’t work at all. Tomos managed to break his 4 hours into the flight. So thank goodness for iPads and pre-loaded entertainment. I can recommend Rick Gervais’ stand-up Science for a few laughs but not for the faint-hearted.

The food and service on the plane does make up for it a little, but a ten hour flight is a ten hour flight. Hard work with no telly I’m afraid.  Whilst staring up at the screen showing our position at some point with hours to go I noticed the distance left was 3400Km – around what we drove in NZ. It’s further than I thought if a plane takes 4 hours to do it.

The view our room greeted us with

Immigration was once again easy enough and we were pre-booked for a pickup, which looked after our train and posh taxi transfer to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the heart of the new city – KLCC – right under the Petronas towers.

The hotel is very luxurious and after the long flight a welcome sight – two adjoining rooms – kids could be sent away but not be so far away. After all that flying I expected to sleep very well. Actually just like the Novotel it was not the best night’s sleep. Ironic that the best sleep so far this trip has been on the campervan bunks!

Day 22-23 Kuala Lumpur Monday & Tuesday

With body clocks still five hours ahead of KL it wasn’t surprising that we were awake early and hungry. The Mandarin claims to have the best breakfast buffet in KL. I beg to differ – the Sama-Sama had been better. But it was still extensive (and expensive). Still no sign of bacon butties – so when in Rome – chicken curry and rice followed by croissants and pastries – very bizarre.

The Indoor Coaster covering three floors

Then we hit the town and shopping was in order. The chosen mall was the Times Square Mall for the sole reason that it boasts an indoor theme park complete with spiralling and looping roller coaster. Basically a crèche for the kids and I whilst Sarah hit more shops. It came as quite a shock after NZ – the place was very busy. Malaysians share the British love of shopping. After the peace of NZ it was quite a cultural shock.

After the Mall it was back to the hotel to discover the delights of the infinity pool and Jacuzzi. We then headed next door to yet another heaving mall – the KLCC mall for me to get in an even worse mood. This was followed by a late tea of US fast food – sorry my stomach wasn’t up to anything else – time for the Egyptian tablets again.

The Petronas Twin Towers

Tuesday we had booked a visit to the famous twin towers. It was just as well that we had pre-booked as tickets on the day well out by 8am! We would never by up and out by such an extreme time. The visit

included the sky bridge between the towers on floor 41, and then the observation desk on 82. It was strange looking down on everything else in a very high rise city.

In the afternoon we headed for the China town market.

The Infamous China Town Market

It was a busy place of fake-branded goods, hookers and great food. We all ate a good Chinese deal for around £2 a head. Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for the festivities of new year’s eve in Kuala Lumpur. New year is quite a big deal over here – from about 8pm car horns were sounding – it really couldn’t get any louder at midnight but it did thanks to the firework display in the KLCC park in front of the Petronas towers. We actually joined the festivities in the hotel having booked a real party! The blacks and silver ball meant silver and black decor and dress – inc. party hats – just as well as we had the clothes we stood up in. It was

another multicultural food-fest, we even had a drinks package. Unfortunately their idea of quality beer was Carlsberg. We made it past midnight and then tried to sleep with a riot on outside.

Wednesday – New Year

It was time to move to the airport ready for tomorrow morning’s flight. Fortunately were booked back into the Sama Sama for this and so it was an afternoon transfer here by taxi. Beforehand it was one more tourist trip to the Batu caves. Basically the caves are used as Hindu shrines. They are also accessed via 272 very steep steps – fun in the sun and humidity. Tomos was pulled aside by a japanese family, whose daughters wanted their photo with him You also had to hang on to your belongings as the resident monkeys are always on the lookout for anything to steal. Today being a bank holiday they were very well fed and were settling for nothing less than bananas. They discarded the skins anywhere – not good on these stairs! 

So back at the Sama Sama Hotel at the airport in KL. Checked in online for tomorrow’s flight – for the first time hassle-free – but we’re not on the plane yet. I could bore myself silly and anyone reading this silly but it’ll go like this – got on plane(s), arrived home. So I won’t bother.

Thanks for reading.

Things I Learnt in Malaysia:

• They do new year’s eve big-style
• They relax by going shopping in big shopping malls.
• They have lots of big shopping malls
• The last two statements mean there is an element of insanity. See what happens when you don’t drink.
• Breakfast is a nightmare unless you have an International hotel's buffet available.
• Just now, having asked what the arrow on the ceiling meant, I've been informed by Tomos and Sarah, that every hotel room and even the A380 had an arrow pointing to Mecca