Short hop, long day

Short flight south

I left my Eagleye around 0730 allowing plenty of time to return the rental car and check-in.  There were small delays for the return as the Europcar staff had to walk from their office to the airport, and then also for the flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Langkawi Airport had a lounge I could use so I had a light breakfast there.  Sometimes I can’t believe the cheek of some people using the lounge.  A couple ordered a breakfast, picked at it and left about half of their meals.  Then they ordered another meal and left it.  Finally, they asked the staff to pack it up as takeaways but that was politely declined.

There was a very mild panic going airside as security wouldn’t accept Malindo Air’s mobile boarding pass which meant that I had to get a paper one printed at the counter.  Fortunately there was no queue there.  Apparently their scanner is broken and they need have stubs for tallying.

As Langkawi is duty free port, there was a customs check to ensure that people were not bringing in excess of their alcohol or other limits back to the mainland.  There is a requirement to have stayed a number of days to qualify as well but no evidence was requested.

The 1005 flight was nearly empty.  From my window seat I had a good view of Penang’s two bridges before swooping through central KL and landing at KL International Airport.

It is unusual for me to use Terminal 1.  It required a long walk to the bus station (rather than just kerbside) for the bus ride into KL Sentral.

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Being Ramadhan, I thought it would be a good idea to eat at Waroeng Penyet.  It can be very busy at times and with Muslims, not eating, I’d have the place to myself.  The empal penyet was superb.  Very tender and delicious with my own choice of sauces.

After lunch, it was just shy of 1400 and I got into my room at the M&M Hotel nearby. Considering that I only had to do a flight of 1h10, it has taken me from 0730 till 1400 to do only that.  Never mind the fact that I’ve had some leisure time en route but I always see them as safety buffers.

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Chilling and eating

I went for a blind massage nearby.  Unfortunately the various places all look the same, all up a flight of stairs.  I went to the one I once tried with a 60+ old man who wasn’t strong enough.  The upside was that it was more relaxing than the mangled experience that I prefer.

An old school friend picked me up for dinner at Bangsar.  It was a North Indian vegetarianplace called WTF.  The meals were delicious and the staff were helpful with suggestions to ensure that we didn’t have choices that were too similar.

Nearly four hours of chatting later, Thomas dropped me back to my hotel where I had the best night sleep for a long time.  The inside windowless room was dark and quiet.