Flying away

Leaving Kuching

I didn’t sleep well last night due to the excitement of returning to New Zealand. My flight from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur is scheduled for 1700 this evening. I had been checking for cancellations in the last couple of days and there had been none so far. Just as well, as there is no other flight that would take me to KL in time for my flight to Singapore and New Zealand.

After my lunch, I readied myself and went over to see Mum. At age 94, it could be the last time I see her.  From there, my brother drove me to the airport, getting there a little more than 2h before my departure.

There was no queue at Malaysia Airlines’ check-in desk. I had three bags totalling 34kg out of an allowed 35kg! I asked if they could interline my luggage to Singapore Airlines departing the next morning. Nope, but I kinda expected that in these days. Actually some airlines like Air New Zealand won’t even transfer your bags between their flights unless it is in the same booking!

At both check-in and immigration, I had to present my police permit to leave the city. Once airside, the lounge that was open a couple of months ago was now closed. After some waiting, I felt peckish enough to buy a delicious pie from the food court.

At the boarding gate, some mainland Chinese turned up in full PPE, hazmat suits, space suits or whatever you want to call them. They boarded and sat near me, but I had an entire row to myself.

My last time on Malaysia Airlines?

I flew to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines’ retrojet Boeing 737-800. This could be the last time I fly with my national airline if they go bankrupt. It felt nostalgic seeing the colours that the airline had when they parted ways with Singapore Airlines back in 1972.

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The airline serves a hot meal on the 1h40 flight to KL. But on its deathbed, Malaysia Airlines is still innovating. They offered a pre-order meal available to all economy passengers, from a choice of 3.

Chatting to the senior steward, he explained that it was in addition to the 2 standard choices if you don’t order. And fruit is only given to pre-order passengers. Very impressive for a domestic flight. I guess they have to compete with AirAsia which at one time offered up to 30 meal choices pre-ordered.

My pre-order meal was a chicken rendang, sayur lodeh and Nasi Hujan Panas (a rice dish often reserve for special occasions like weddings). Absolutely divine.
 

My hot meal was delicious and it came with peanuts, a cookie and some fruit.

My overnight

Normally, one can fly from Kuching to Singapore directly, to connect to Auckland. Or even better, connect in Kuala Lumpur with less than 2h transit.

But with Covid-19, flights are so few that I have to overnight in KL and continue my journey to Singapore and Auckland in the morning.

With sixteen hours transit, it would be nice to not spend it on a bench at the airport. The hotel at KL International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 was pricey and the transit hotel airside was inaccessible to me without a boarding pass for the next morning.

So I had booked to overnight at Tune Hotel at KLIA2. This required a 3 min train ride from KLIA to KLIA2 with all my luggage, but fortunately trolleys were plentiful. I was lucky to not wait too long for the train which has now been reduced to an hourly service in view of very few passengers.

The inconvenience came at Tune Hotel. Most of the hotel had been taken up as a Quarantine Centre. Their public reception had been shifted to the spa area and it wasn’t entirely a trolley-friendly route.

I got to my room about 2000. It was a tad warm in there but it cooled down sufficiently after a while. The Tune Hotel at KLIA2 is part of the second generation model by this budget hotel chain. The rooms are more stylish and bigger than the Mark I version.

While completely adequate for a few nights if one is out-and-about lots, I would hate to be in there for 2 weeks under quarantine.