Yesterday, I arrived Kuala Lumpur. I should have been here before noon local time. Let’s just say I arrived many hours later. I love posting about how amazing travel is, but there are times that travel doesn’t go to plan, and it just plain stinks. 🙂 Yesterday was one of those days.
First, when planning this trip from the States, I thought booking an early flight, requiring a 3:30am wake-up and a 4:30am car to the airport was a fantastic idea. Then there is the reality of the alarm going off at 3:30am! I am an early bird, but that was a stretch. Nonetheless, a shower in the amazing rain shower at my hotel (the Royal Athenee) got me ready for another day!
Check-out was very smooth, with the Staff amazing, and my taxi was waiting outside promptly at 4:30am. Booking a taxi through the hotel was 700 Baht – or $20 for the 1/2 hour drive to the airport. This is almost double what my metered ride was to the hotel a few days earlier, but I didn’t want to risk having to get a cab or a Grab at 4:30am. I had to turn off the part of my brain that hated paying nearly double, and accept that it was still only $20US for a ride that would easily be well over $50, if I were still at home!
BKK airport was a complete madhouse just after 5am, the lines for economy check-in on Thai Airways were absolutely insane, taking up the full roped off area and spilling into the general terminal area. Fortunately, I had checked-in online and could use the self-service bag drop – which had no lines. Self-serve is very different in BKK from what we are used to in the US. You literally use a kiosk to print off your bag tags (ok, well that is the same), but then you go to the belt, scan your bag tags, and load the bags onto the belt yourself…and off they go!
Security was another half an hour. Shoes off. Liquids in a bin. Each of my iPads in a separate bin from the liquids and the shoes and each other. Each carry-on in a bin (we’re up to 5 bins!). Ok, all good? Nope, my backpack was picked for secondary screening. Turns out I had missed needing to put my power pack in a separate bin. An agent removed the power pack, had me power in on and off, and I was cleared for immigration.
Immigration was easy. Scan fingerprints, picture taken, exit stamp acquired. Off to the interminable walk through duty-free to reach the gate areas. Thanks to my American Express Platinum card I have Priority Pass which gave plenty of options for quiet places to hang out for the now 1.5 hours until boarding.
First stop, the Oman Airlines lounge. A lovely lounge with a Middle-East theme in decor, frequent travelers rave over the food and drink in this lounge. And they were right. Amazing coffee, huge buffet, wide selection of alcohol (I did not partake at 7am!). But, no windows, few outlets for charging, and as the majority of the lounge was roped off for Oman’s own passengers, left it full and cramped. So off to the next stop Turkish!
The Turkish Airlines lounge is in my opinion, far better than the Oman lounge – at least for my purposes. Yes, the buffet was lacking (but did have an employee making made to order omelets), and there was no alcohol, but I did not want food or alcohol. What it did have was windows to the outside, and plenty of outlets…and only at most 5-6 other people in the lounge while I was there. Plus, some awesome – and strong – Turkish Coffee!
Soon enough it was time to go to the gate – and it is here that the adventure began. There is no better feeling than heading to a gate and realizing there is no plane. In this case, because even though I was at a major international airport, we’d be boarding from a bus gate. Yes, a fully booked 787 was going to be loaded from buses. The boarding time came and went, and we did not board. Not a good sign.
First announcement was that the delay would be 15 minutes more. It wasn’t. Next announcement was for another hour. This was more accurate. The bus I was on, was loaded until there was no room to move or breathe and was then sent halfway to Malaysia, to the plane. Oh, and air-con? If there was any, it wasn’t working and by the time we reached the plane I was dripping.
We reach the plane…and it’s a 777. Not a 787. Only 16 years old, it looked much older. The seats and carpet were falling apart. It took a bit to figure out seating as we all had boarding passes based on a 787 (fortunately, the 777 seats more people so no one was denied boarding).
Ok, took my aisle seat. All is well. The flight itself was great. The crew was awesome. A full breakfast was served (I did not partake), and all passengers got a blanket and pillow. On a 2 hour flight! (If only US airlines did this.)
Landed at KL, taxied to the gate. And the adventure began again. Got off the plane, walked halfway back to Bangkok only to learn the train to immigration was broken. Herded to buses. No air-con. Drove the rest of the way back to Bangkok. 🙂
Got to immigration, and thankfully, this is where my fellow frequent traveler contacts really helped me out. The line for non-Malay citizens was many hundreds of people long and not moving. Fortunately, as a US traveler, I was entitled to use the Automatic Gates – as long as I had pre-registered online. YES! But, no! The gates didn’t work for me. Was told that I could go to the Malay Citizen staffed line – found out that the gates don’t work until an Agent registers your fingerprints. That done, the automatic gates did work, and I made it out to the baggage claim well after the bags had started to arrive – but well before the vast majority of my fellow travelers made it through!
Caught a Grab for 75 Riingit (15$) and started the nearly hour journey to my hotel. Which I arrived at about 4 hours late, tired, and in need of a shower and change of clothes.
The Kahn Man 