My flight to Kuala Lumpur (connecting to my hometown Kuching) departs at 1345. I had planned on leaving for the airport around 0945 to get there 3h+ before departure. But since I was up early, I left at 0900 getting to the airport about 4h before the flight.
Check-in wasn’t open yet. I had trouble getting my boarding passes online perhaps for document-check reasons. So it was quite a surprise that the kiosk successfully spat them out when I tried it.
I killed time in the lounge partly by working out a contingency plan for my travels to Putussibau in Kalimantan from Kuching. The plan was to buy a supposed bus ticket which is essentially two buse services connected by a trans-border taxi service, but the first company takes care of all the organisation. I’m just afraid that they may no longer do it as it was a few months ago when I asked. Services like these tend not to last if not well-patronised. Fingers crossed.
The baked sweet potato in the lounge was so smooth mushy and sweet. It went very well with a savoury braised pork mince.
I saw online that my incoming aircraft was going to be about 30 minutes early. So I walked to the gate an hour prior to departure, to see the aircraft taxiing towards the gate. Boarding commenced 45 minutes prior to departure and we were seated and waiting for the stragglers 30 minutes prior. At 20 minutes prior to departure, the stragglers arrived and we closed up and pushed back. A good reminder not to be late for your AirAsia flight as they leave early whenever they can.
The senior flight attendant made announcements in English, Malay and Chinese. She had a Muslim and Christian name combined together and didn’t look Chinese. But she said she was Chinese, so maybe she’s a bit like me with exotic looks that confuse most people. She tried really hard to do her job well and during the meal service was good at upselling, eg. when buying my tea for MYR6 she offered a cake or curry puff combo for an additional MYR3 which was really like Malaysian street pricing. I took up that offer even though I wasn’t hungry!
I did realise later that apart from announcements, eg. in conversations with passengers her Mandarin was limited to the usage of rather simple words. Very much like mine!
Having paid a little more to select a seat closer to the front, with the aim of hopefully having a spare seat, I was delighted to have things work out in my favour. I had the row of three seats to put my stuff and work on photos, this blog and my upcoming tax return. Time flies when one is working hard (or having fun).
With a flight time of 4h20, the crew did a second saleable meal service prior to our landing into klia2 a little early. With no bags, I breezed out into the landside lounge for a light meal. I had two hours for the connection, so managed to spend about 30 minutes in the lounge before heading through airside to domestic departures.
The domestic flight on a brand new plane (complete with the smell of new leather) was uneventful except that the crew were much younger and more frivolous amongst themselves. Less professional but still pleasant enough and did everything they were supposed to.
It feels strange to be back in my hometown but not in my own home. While I have an apartment in Kuching, I decided to stay at the nearby Kuching Transit Inn so that I can try a bus ticket to Putussibau tomorrow morning (Saturday), for departure the day after (Sunday).
I expected having a Grab driver accept such a short job to the nearby hotel but to my surprise, an older gentleman accepted the job cheerfully for MYR4 and I tipped him a little.