Wednesday 11th February 2015
The alarm went off at 6.50am. A reasonable night, I found the bed a little hard, and the walls of the hotel are clearly paper thin, as I was able to hear conversations/ TV, that weren’t loud, from other rooms. We got sorted and re-packed fairly sharpish and went to get the lift at 7.45am. There were four lifts and we waited as all four came in turn, and were too full to get on. Eventually Sue squeezed on one and I got on the next – we called at every floor with disgruntled looking folk waiting for one with space.
The lobby area was bedlam with lots of coaches waiting outside to be filled. Sue had already checked out by the time I got down and had identified our coach. We loaded bags on the back and got onto the 12 seater minibus. It departed one minute early at 8.04am. and headed over the bridge to the airport. It is a bit hazy this morning, but we saw what we thought was our Air Asia plane taxiing to the gate as we entered the airport.
Inside the terminal, the bedlam state got even higher – there were people everywhere queuing at the various counters. We saw on the TV monitors, that Air Asia used desks 7-12 which fortunately were near where we had come in and were an oasis of calm. The business class counter had no one in front of us and a lovely ANA employee checked us un. She told us the airport was always busy, but it was particularly busy at the moment in the run up to the Chinese New Year celebrations. She also told us there would be a long queue at security.
As we hadn’t had breakfast, we went in search of the lounge that accepts Priority Pass, which we knew was landside. After a couple of false starts we made it to the Korean Air lounge – another real area of calm. We had coffee and some breakfast I had some pancakes with chocolate sauce and picked up a wrapped package of what I thought was cake – it turned out to be a pack of boiled rice! Sue had some crackers, some peanuts and a sponge cake thing – not her normal healthy start.We resisted the full alcohol selection, which included some very expensive brandy.
Suitably refreshed, and checked in on Facebook we went to join the security queue – we had seen it as we went up to the lounge, what we didn’t realise was that it snaked round the corner and then went into tensa barrier system with just a sea of people and lots of security people shouting very loudly. We feared the worst as we joined the queue at 9.15am, but remarkably it moved very, very quickly and what we thought may leave us late for our flight was over and done in less than 20 minutes – Japanese efficiency at its best again.
We passed through immigration without any problem and into the shops. Kansai has the longest concourse of any airport in the world apparently, and it needs it this morning. We are leaving from gate 8, which is at one end of the concourse whilst we are somewhere near the middle. This meant us getting a monorail shuttle – we arrived at the gate with ages to spare and set up camp. I got a drink from the machine with the last of my Japanese coins and took advantage of the free wi-fi.
Boarding began just before 1030 and the business class boarding was clearly signed – when we got on the plane we found two nice ladies sat in our seats – 2a and 2c. There are only 2 rows of business class (12 seats in all) and the problem was quickly sorted. Apparently they were upgrades and had been given the wrong boarding passes. They moved to 2d and 2e and we took our seats. We were given orange juice just after we sat down, the seats to go down to flat beds and there is loads of leg room.
We pushed back in the sunshine at 1058 – we were sixth in the queue to take off, two behind a huge Thai Air A380 that we had seen at the gate near to ours. Wheels up was 1115 after quite a long wait. The First Officer told us after take off that we are on an Airbus A330-300, our flight time will be seven hours and our cruising altitude will be 40k feet. He also reminded us to put our watches back an hour for KL time.
We got good views as we climbed up over the snow capped mountains, then our over the busy ocean with huge container ships below, before it clouded over. We were quickly served out pre-ordered meals of chicken satay with rice – there was also a croissant, a pice of choc cake, carton of apple juice and a Kit-Kat on the tray. It was a nice meal. There is no IFE even in business class but you can hire tablets with new films on for 60MRY (£11.45) or 45MYR (£8.20) if you pre-order on line. I have plenty on my iPad to watch so I won’t bother. Sue has her Kindle so won’t be partaking either.
Later: We read, chilled, napped and ate for the rest of the flight – before we landed one of the cabin crew brought an extra veggie meal that I had apparently ordered and paid for! It was rice and potato with a few veg, so not unpleasant – we shared it. We didn’t see much of KL as we approached due to it being cloudy, but the whole flight was uneventful – which is a good thing! We landed at about 5.15pm KL time
After landing we had quite a walk to Immigration, where there was no queue at all – this is the first time I can remember entering a country with no landing card to fill in, no questions at Immigration about why we are here and how long we are staying etc. just a cursory grunt and a stamp in the passport – sorted! Our bag arrived very quickly too, after having priority tags on them. We walked out of customs and straight to the KLIA Ekspres counter, where I got two return tickets for 140myr (£25) – from experience we know that we could get a bus or a taxi, but the traffic in the city is awful and the train offers a 28 minute ride to Sentral. We got the 5.50pm train, which wasn’t a bad effort and showed how quickly the entry formalities had been.
The train journey was quick and smooth and when we emerged we went to the taxi counter, where they offered us a ride to the hotel for 100 myr – just under 20 quid. I had remembered that the monorail went close to the hotel, so we went into the main Sentral station, which was bedlam for rush hour, and after a bit of internet research (which would have best been done before we got here) – we headed for the monorail and bought two tickets to Bukit Bintang for 4.6myr (85p for us both)! It was six quick stops on the very busy monorail – it has been very hot since we got here and very cloudy – the dark clouds clearly threatened a storm, but we made it to the hotel before it arrived.
Our gold card treatment continued here – I had checked in on line and a lovely lady sorted out the formalities and then insisted on taking us to to the 27th floor to show us our room, which is 2726, she explained that there was food and drink in the lounge until 8pm – as it was just before 7.30pm by the time we got to the room, we got our skates on.
The room is fabulous in a fabulous hotel – it has massive high ceilings and a huge bed plus bathroom with bath and separate shower and is all very ornate and expensive! We went down to the huge lounge on the 24th floor and hit the buffet – some lovely lamb meatballs, fresh salmon, and loads of lovely salads and breads – a real nice spread for us to tuck into. I also had a couple of Asahi beers while Sue had a couple of very, very generous G&T’s. I tried some chicken sausage, but wan’t too impressed. There were also some lovely cakes and fruit to finish off – it was a bit of a rush, but all worth it.
After we had eaten we went out into the very, very busy Bukit Bintang area – there are lot of upmarket shops, loads of hotels – the Westin is next door to us and the Ritz Carlton is behind us. We wandered round in the hot night air for a bit – there are loads of fantastic decorations up for the New Year – they really go to town. The street vendors selling their fake watches and selfie sticks are also everywhere. It is great for people watching. Opposite the hotel is the huge Pavilion Shopping Centre – there are massive New Year decorations here – all sponsored by Crabtree and Evelyn – reminders of home !
We didn’t wander too long as although it is 10pm here – our bodies are saying it is 11pm so we went up to the room to get sorted.
nickharris87 
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