We woke early to pack and tidy up the apartment before heading to see Mum at 0915 to discuss some family matters before my brother took us to the airport at 0945.
AirAsia’s bagdrop was quick and painless today and we managed to get some time and a laksa in the lounge. Our flight to KL departed and arrived 20 minutes early.
I had arranged to meet an old school friend Awang, which meant that we had to come out from the domestic (rather than use the transfer facility to international). We had a good natter over a roti canai before going back airside.
At the entry into airside, the Avsec officer saluted me as I walked up! then I realised that a senior officer was just behind me. It mustn’t have been peak hours so we had decent time for some beer, tea and Nyonya/Malay cakes in the lounge before boarding our absolutely chocka flight to Kathmandu. Passengers were largely Nepali labourers.
Full flight on the sardine configuration A330-300 is 377 passengers.
Our original flight was for tomorrow 27 July but that was understandably cancelled due to low demand since the earthquake; it had been something I had been expecting. We had been transfererred to 28 July (postponed) which would require a departure from Kuching at 0700. Instead we opted to go a day earlier (prepone, as they say on the subcontinent) and this was organised relatively painlessly through AirAsia’s notorious contact centre.
Quite unusually, we departed about 20 minutes late (and didn’t make up any time). For a relatively short 4h35 flight on a big jet, it took us forever to get off the ground; it felt heavy and we would understand why upon arrival. The tiny narrow seats wasn’t as bad as I had expected; our fellow-passengers weren’t big people and they weren’t high impact.
We had an extremely soft touchdown considering we were right over the landing gears. The reverse thrust were deployed which was quite unusual for AirAsia so I guess it wasn’t a long runway. The purser announced “Sit down please!!!” before commencing her standard arrival PA. We descended the rear airstairs from the widebody and walked towards the terminal building (which had been expanded with finger since our last visit). Many passengers stopped to pose for photos with the large aircraft in the background.
Inside the terminal, our visa-on-arrival payment (with details entered online beforehand) and immigration was swift.
Then came the hand-luggage x-ray and after that baggage claim. Bags appeared to be drip-fed very slowly with long pauses. Most of the Nepali workers had huge heavy bags after finishing their several years in Malaysia; some had a TV. It was like a conveyor bag for TVs more than luggage! We got ours about 1h45 after arrival. The crowd around the conveyor was till two-deep which suggest that we were the lucky ones.
We exited the terminal to find our hotel driver. Understandably, he was a bit grumpy from the wait so we made it up with a small tip afterwards.
All along the drive to the hotel, I couldn’t help noticing how there were not visible sign of any damage. I had a booked a standard non-aircon room at the Ganesh Himal at a ridiculously low (pre-earthquake) price of USD10 instead of their usual price of around USD20. I reckon it was a mistake as that price could not be replicated later on the same website.
We got to the room and even though it was perfectly acceptable, it was a tiny bit warm from having been closed up through the day. It was lovely outside but it wouldn’t cool enough in time for a comfy night sleep. And besides, we would be here for a week and we’d probably want some afternoon siestas – so we checked the pricing for an air-con room and they offered it us for USD28 which was a substantial discount from their online price of USD40.