Alarm goes off 6am, last minute packing, say goodbye to the animals and in Grandmas' car to the airport. Straight to check-in, we are waiting for customs to open by 8:30am. An hour later, customs finally take down the ropes and with no drama at all we are through to the Duty Free shop. 6 Litres of spirits later (2 to take with us; 4 to collect when we get back)...$168...what a bargain!
We didn't have to wait long before boarding our plane to Kuala Lumpur and the 7+ hour flight seemed to go really fast. Our AirAsia plane was 3 rows wide; the only other plane I have been on this big was with Garuda back in 1991, hubby said when he came over from England his plane might have been slightly bigger, but Miss 8yo was in awe! We were in row 47; I was aisle seat next to a young man from Korea who literally slept the whole flight (wasted window seat); hubby was next to me in aisle seat, with Miss 8yo in the middle and a young lady next to them; there was another 2 seats opposite their row. The pre-ordered plane food was fairly decent, although kids meals came out way too early. Overall, our first flight with AirAsia wasn't too shabby especially considering our bargain price of $950 return.
Of course we brought the rain with us! KL hadn't had any decent rain in over a month and although our 8 hour flight arrived early hitting the runway at 3:50pm Malaysia time (6:20pm Adelaide time), we were forced to wait on the plane (only half managed to escape) until the downpour slowed and AirAsia staff could greet as at the tarmac with umbrellas; by now it was 4:15pm Malaysia time.
A 10 minute walk towards arrivals entrance across the tarmac and that's when the waiting and seriously bad queues began... Heading up the escalator (much to Miss 8yo surprise: "This airport is way better than Bali") everything seemed calm and easy, until... the queue from hell appeared. We joined the "Foreign Passport" line along with thousands of other newly arrived tourists at 4:25pm Malaysia time and finally reached the counter an hour later!
No Visa on arrival, no paperwork to complete/submit, but we were expected to place both index fingers on a little machine to be finger-printed. I approached the counter with Miss 8yo, we showed our passports and were both ready and willing to try out the fancy machine, but the guard simply waved us through. Of course, Hubby looks way too suspicious to get away with that and now they've got his finger prints on record.
We wandered around lost for a while, trying to work out where we had to catch our next plane and what we were going to do for the next 5 hours before we could board our plane to Penang.
By now it was way past tea time and we didn't have any Malaysian money yet, so we found a money changer and got 275RM for $100AUD. The next thing to tick off the list was to get a local SIM card (even though I managed to use the Telstra credit I still had on my phone to contact home). We found a booth that set my phone up with a "Tune" SIM card for 55RM which left me with 43RM credit.
We looked around at food choices and although we didn't want to eat junk on this trip, Miss 8yo was hard to please after such a long day, so we settled for a not-so-familiar fast food joint "Marrybrown" which really was just like KFC. A typical meal combo for 3 cost 47.15RM (approx $16AUD).
We soon headed to the domestic terminal to wait to check-in for our flight to Penang, went through the scanners approx. 8pm but still the check-in counters were not yet open. Of course Miss 8yo suddenly needed the loo, so back out again and back through the scanner to find we could now check our bags in. Although I had checked-in online, I forgot to print my boarding passes at the kiosk; the guy at the counter said I should have done so, but was kind enough to do this for me... I'll know better next time.
Through to the departure terminal we go, time for a coffee and some more waiting... until... that's right, over the loud speaker we get told "thanks for your understanding" - plane has been delayed for 15 or so minutes... URGHHHHHH! By this time Miss 8yo (oh and us) had been awake for over 17 hours!
Finally we board our plane to Penang, taking off only 15 minutes late. I was fighting sleep, but must have shut my eyes because next thing, I hear the pilot over the loud speaker announcing that we should prepare for landing. We waited patiently and were one of the last ones off the plane. This worked in our favour though, as when we got to the baggage collection, the conveyer belt soon started up and our bags were out 2nd and 4th. We headed straight out the front and our driver Mr Raja (who we arranged as a result of a recommendation from a trusted Trip Advisor member), spotted us right away. Mr Raja was a lovely older Indian gentleman, who had lots of helpful advice, stopping at a servo on the way for us to grab some snacks, commenting on Hubby's awesome beard; when he dropped us at our hotel approx. 45 min later, he even suggested we could pay him the 70RM later... of course we paid him right away and promised to contact him in a few days to organise a day trip.
Our hotel check-in at the Bayview Beach Resort was fast, the staff not needing to ask how tired we were, making it as easy as possible. The Receptionist (I think her name was Paitin), even offered us a room upgrade (woo! hoo! first one ever). It was only a small upgrade, from Standard to Superior, but I suspect our view from the balcony is much better than it would have been. We are on the 9th floor (of a 10 floor high building - don't worry, the lifts are awesome) and have a great view of the mountains. All of this for just over $100AUD per night for the 3 of us, including flights and full buffet breakfast!!
After a quick shower, rearrange of the room to create more space with Miss 8yo's fold out bed, we finally hit the pillow at around 3am Adelaide time (12:30am Malaysia time)... zzzzzzzzz...
Looks awesome. Hope you have a wonderful time. :) xxxx Dom
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