Having seen what airports can be like after the festive season, I headed to the airport around 0800 for my 1125 departure for Kuala Lumpur and onwards to Bali. This was the most economical way for me to get from Kuching to Auckland in the post Chinese New Year period. It’s a bonus that I can get a little holiday out of it too.
Traffic on the road was heavy in the light rain and I got to the airport in around an hour instead of the usual 30-40 minutes.
I needed to perform a manual bag-drop today (relocating an otherwise empty suitcase back to Auckland, now laden with lots of edible goodies). The queue was short but was held up by people with excess luggage.
I had about 2 hours to kill airside in the Kuching lounge before departing to Kuala Lumpur. We left 5 mins early and arrived 15 mins early. This is more the AirAsia that I know and love, unlike yesterday’s experience.
My transit to the international airside was swift meaning I had more time to kill at the Kuala Lumpur lounge which keeps going downhill with their standard of catering.
At the gate, the aircraft pulled up 15 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. Surprisingly we left only 7 minutes late and arrived 10 minutes late. Unlike my previous visit in September, there was hardly a soul at immigration. Random searches at customs saw my suitcase opened and items removed for scanning and the empty suitcase scanned as well. The officer was extremely polite and respectful but also efficient.
I took the official taxi to the GrandMas Plus Hotel in Seminyak at an inflated rate of IDR150K but it was an easy solution. The hotel turned out to be a great choice. It was cheap, clean, well-equipped (desk in room, nice cool pool), well-located (handy to massage, food and beach) and staff were amazingly helpful and polite.
The hotel was chosen in part for me to try out yet another corner of Bali as I’ve stayed in a number of different parts already.
I took a brief walk to the beach and the convenience stores to get some snacks before retiring.