July 13, Friday {Malaysia}

July 13, Friday

Yes, it’s Friday the 13^th and I will be flying!   It took me awhile to pack everything up and try to reduce the weight of my huge suitcase.  I ended up putting all my shoes in with my laptop in my small black backpack on wheels.  It worked, I got it down to 34 kg!  Only paid $45 surcharge this time (not flying with Thai Airline) since I selected Air Asia. They don’t have a huge surcharge for the overweight luggage. 

Everything worked well, by 9:30 I had checked out of the hotel and heading for the Makasan Station by taxi. 
The Express train runs every half hour, so by 11 am I was at the airport, despite the rain this morning.  It took me awhile to find my way from the train arrival area to the departure area however.  When I asked the security guards all I understood from the answer was that I needed to go up one more floor, and something about the letter E.   I got up to the huge departure area and walked all the way to the end of the row of check-in counters without spotting a sign for Air Asia.  I turned around and walked all the way back, past the spot where I had arrived and on past 3 more rows of check-in counters.  Finally located the Air Asia counter and checked in just a few minutes before they were shutting down the counter for my flight.  As I walked towards the Passport check in area, I spotted these giant statues at the end of each row, so I stopped to take a picture.  And that’s when I spotted the big huge letters at the top of each check-in row.  That’s what the “E” was about.  The security guys had told me to go to row “E”.   Another “lost in translation” episode in my life. 

I got through customs, paid my 1,500 Baht surcharge for overstaying my tourist visa by 3 days and made my way to the gate my flight was leaving from.  It was the furthest gate!   No problem, our plane was late by a half hour therefore our departure was delayed by half an hour.  

The flight went well.  The seats on the plane were all leather and very comfortable.  I hadn’t realized that there would be a time change between the two countries.  Lost another hour, but the good news was that the flight time was shorter than expected.  

After landing at the Kuala Lumpur airport, which is about 50 km outside of the city, I decided to take an Express bus in to the city and make my way to my hotel by taxi from there.

The drive into the city was more than one hour long because of the traffic, but I saw some palm groves along the way (palm oil production) and this beautiful mosque.

The bus was dropping us off at the KL Sentral, which I was told was a bus station as well as a train station. I was expecting a huge terminal and was quite surprised when we were dropped off in a dark car tunnel where we had to take out our own luggage from the bus. As I followed the crowd toward the station, I realised that they were heading for a staircase; a regular staircase and an extremely long one at that. MY SUITCASE is too heavy. There is no way I am going up those stairs. The area seems to be under construction and although there is now a bit of light coming in from the other end of the tunnel, it is still dark. There is however a “taxi” sign pointing down the dark tunnel, so I keep walking towards the light. No luck, no taxi in sight, only people walking across a construction site. Again, no way for me to go that way with my suitcase. Finally some traffic starts coming down the tunnel and I try to flag down a taxi. Hard to tell if they already have passengers or not. After a few minutes, one of them finally pulls over and off we go. He knows where the Swiss Garden Hotel is located but he says he won’t use the meter because there is too much traffic. ! ! ! ? ? ? He says he will charge me 45 Ringgit (about $15) and asks if that is OK. ! ! ! ? ? ? I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA ! It’s probably way too much but I figure it’s only $15, so OK.

There was quite a bit of traffic, however the hotel was fairly close by, so I know I got ripped off.  The important thing is that I got to the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences.  Actually I’m not staying on the hotel side, but in one of the other two buildings at the back which contain condo units.  I got this through Booking.com for less than it would have cost to get a hotel room, in the same area.  The apartment is quite spacious but spartanly furnished.

 Eating area and living room

 bedroom

TV swivels from the living room to the bedroom, and there is a sliding wall to close off the bedroom

 The view from my apartment in Kuala Lumpur, at the Swiss Garden Hotel and Residence

It is now about 7 pm and I’m tired.  After taking a quick shower I make my way back to the hotel side to have dinner in their restaurant.  Beef stroganoff and rice with a nice cup of hot tea. 

It’s lights out early tonight.  I can hardly keep my eyes open.     

I have to confess that I had not researched this before and did not realize until I arrived in KL that I could have taken an Express Train instead of the bus.  Would have been much faster and I would not have had to deal with that dark tunnel!  Oh well, no big deal, I'm here now.