Around the world in 39 days (F/J/PE/Y)

[1022]

Prelude

1022: Hi, I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking because it wasn’t reticketed in time.

Agent 1: Sure I can look into that for you. [taps away, reinstates flights]. They’ll be re-ticketed within 24 - 48 hours sir.

So starts a typical adrenalin-fueled adventure of booking flights with Qantas Frequent Flyer Points.

…

1022: Hi, I called earlier today because I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling again because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking for the second time because it wasn’t reticketed in time. One of your colleagues reinstated the flights this morning, but they have already dropped off my booking because Sri Lankan and Malaysian cancel bookings that aren’t ticketed within an hour or two.

Agent 2: Sure I can look into that for you. [taps away, reinstates flights]. They’ll be re-ticketed in 24 - 48 hours. Call us back if you haven’t got your e-ticket by then.

1022: Thanks for reinstating the flights, but umm no, I can’t wait for it to go back in the queue for 48 hours. Malaysian and Sri Lankan will both drop flights that aren’t ticketed within an hour or two. The whole reason I’m calling for the second time today is because I’ll lose those flights again if it’s not manually reticketed immediately.

Agent 2: I can’t do that for you sir

1022: Fair enough. Could you please transfer me to someone who can?

Agent 2: One moment sir. [Neglects to put me on hold. Has a conversation in Tagalog which my +1 happens to understand. At one point Agent 2 exclaims “but how would he know that?!?!”]

The answer dear reader is thanks to the Australian Frequent Flyer Forum.

Agent 2: Sorry sir we can not ticket this straight away because your trip is still several months away. But I assure you it’s in the queue. Good bye. [Agent 2 ends the call but doesn’t hang up so as not to receive an honest response to the call satisfaction survey]

1022: Leaves phone connected until agent 2 eventually gives up, hangs up and I get transferred to the survey. Problem solved? No. Satisfaction with the service received on today’s call?: 1

…

1022: Hi, I called earlier today because I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling again because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking for the third time because it wasn’t reticketed in time. Two of your colleagues reinstated the flights this morning, but they have already dropped off my booking again.

Agent 3: I’m sorry to hear the problems you’ve been having. I understand the issue. Let me pop you on hold. [while on hold the flights reappear in MMB]. I will now follow up to get this ticketed right away. Can I call you back in a little while?

True to his word, agent 3 called back a couple of hours later and at the same time a new e-ticket hit my inbox.

I dedicate this trip report to my very good friend Tim who has shared a lot of ff hacks, fun flying stories and many glasses of quality red wine over the years. And to the wider AFF community for all the advice and banter that’s shared on this amazing site.

Background and booking

Late in 2022 the stars aligned for me to take some extended leave in the second half of 2023. Like any self-respecting AvGeek the first thought that occurred to me was to look at my points balance and to start drawing up a bucket list of cabins to try and places to go. High on the bucket list is dinner at GohGan in Fukuoka - the mash up between over-the-top Indian chef Gaggan Anand and top Japanese chef Goh Fukuyama. 1022+1 and I ate at Gaggan in Bankgok a few years ago when it was rated #1 in Asia and #3 in the world. It was truly, mind-blowingly good and is probably my equal top meal of all time. (Botanic in Adelaide is the other contender for top spot. Seriously, drop everything, brave the churches and serial killers and get yourself to Adelaide for a meal at Botanic).

Sadly there were no classic rewards from the east cost to anywhere in Japan around the dates I wanted to travel. So of course I had no* alternative but to book a trip to Fukuoka the long way around, i.e. via SE Asia, Europe and North America. (*apart from say, buying a sensible economy class return flight…shudder…)

The original routing on a J OWA booked in Nov 2022 was PER-KUL-CMB-LHR-YYZ // YVR-NRT // HND-cough. There were some nail biting phone calls to Suva, Manila and Capetown when various legs had schedule changes that resulted in MH and UL flights getting dropped due to QF’s ongoing ineptitude with ticketing, as recounted above.

By sheer serendipity, there was a subsequent schedule change on the KUL-CMB leg on UL which led to a ghastly 12 hour overnight layover at CMB which happened to coincide with the time that QF did that big classic reward seat dump earlier this year. After another HUCA misadventure in trying unsuccessfully to get the original itinerary reticketed in a timely manner, I took a deep breath and out of curiosity looked to see if there was a better way to get to London. I saw some amazing opportunities to change my J OWA to one with a couple of F legs. I got extra lucky when my next call connected to a truly amazing agent in CPT who slowly, but very methodically locked in all the flights I wanted, recalculated points and taxes and somehow managed to get it all sent off and ticketed the same day. It shouldn’t be surprising to reach someone like this at Qantas, but we mere SGs and below know the brutal reality.

In amongst all the OWA shenanigans I nested separate bookings for LHR-DXB (J) // DXB-GVA (F) and ZRH-LCY (Y!) to try out EK’s “Gamechanger” First on the DXB-GVA leg. There’s also AC from YYZ-YVR (PE) and a final couple of flights on BR (J), booked with Lifemiles cough-TPE-BNE. TBH, I lost track of how many miles and taxes I’ve spent all up. Needless to say the whole trip will cost less than something similar would be in Y if I just paid cash.

Itinerary

SYD - SIN (QF A380) First
Aerotel SIN T1
SIN - KUL (MH 738) Business
Pullman KLCC

KUL - SIN (MH 738) Business
SIN - HKG (CX A350-900) Business
HKG - LHR (CX 777-300) First
14 hours in London. Ibis styles LHR Day use room.

LHR - DXB (BA 777-300) Club World Suites
Sofitel Downtown Dubai
DXB - GVA (EK 777-300) Gamechanger First
A week in Switzerland with friends + Stoos Lodge
ZRH - LCY (BA E190) whY
Friends and relatives in London and Brighton

LHR - YYZ (BA 777-200) Club World Suites
Pantages Hotel Toronto
YYZ - YVR (AC 777-200) PE
Hotel Slyvia Vancouver

YYZ - NRT (JL 767-300) Business
Oakwood Suites Yokohama
HND - cough (JL A350-900)
Hotel Okura Hakata

cough - TPE (BR 787-10) Royal Laurel
Okura Prestige Taipei
TPE - BNE (BR 787-9) Royal Laurel

It might be my one and only truly frivolous AvGeek trip in this lifetime, so strap yourself in and come along for the ride, commencing early August.

 

[I love to travel]

Looks great

 

[VPS]

I'm strapped in and ready to follow along. Looks good

 

[1022]

Departure Day … sort of …

Home is on the edge of a village on beautiful Bundjalung Country, a 45 minute meandering drive inland from Byron Bay. I woke to a cloudy but relatively mild Northern Rivers winter morning and peeled back the curtains to breathe in the beauty of the World-heritage listed Nightcap Ranges home before setting off to circumnavigate the planet.

I let that sit with me for a moment. In the space of less than six weeks I’ll visit 7 countries and circle the globe. Meanwhile the magpies and kookaburras out my bedroom window will carry on with their carolling and laughter. The mama magpie has started building her next for another year in the big gum trees in the picture. She comes to my back door every year at this time and pecks at the fluff on the edge of the screen door to line her nest. The hills in the distance are home to some of the most concentrated biodiversity on the planet. Thankfully the rainforest was saved from logging 4 decades ago by the passion of local residents, many of whom still live nearby.

Seeing as the RTW trip departs from SYD and returns to BNE, it made most sense to drive approximately 2.5 hours to Brisbane and park there for the duration of the trip. I will have a couple of nights at 1022+1’s other home in Sydney before the first SYD-SIN flight on QF1.

The morning was spent finalising my packing and fastidiously cleaning the house. It’s on the market at the moment so the place needs to be kept in show-home ready condition for inspections…which is a bit tiresome. 1022+1 will be in and out while I’m away and he is under strict instruction to keep it clean!! Any AFFers looking for a tree change house on five acres for the roughly price of a decent flat in Sydney, hit me up

Packed and ready to go. 16kg checked weight for the trip. New AirTag within.

The drive up the M1 is generally pleasant until the Qld border and it then becomes absolutely interminable from the tunnel under the runway at OOL all the way to the exit for BNE. The view off the 4 to 12 lane freeway is all light industrial, glimpses of grey mcmansion roofs and the odd megachurch in a drab warehouse.

Luckily, despite all the road works and many QLD drivers’ propensity to drive slowly in the right hand lane holding up the flow of traffic, I made good time and rolled into BNE parking a little under 2 hours before my 16:00 BNE-SYD departure. (Serious question to Queenslanders, is "Keep Left Unless Overtaking” not a thing in QLD?)

2 hours is much more of a buffer than I usually give myself for a golden triangle hop on QF, but in my mind this is the start of a big international trip, so it’s worth getting to the airport early. Plus the M1 can become a carpark all too often - as it appeared to be for southbound lanes this afternoon due to a broken down truck.

I looked at various on and off-airport parking options and stumbled upon BNE airport’s “Park and Fly” long-term, quasi valet offering. For a 6 week trip it only worked out about $50 more expensive than the cheapest off airport price I could find. That additional $50 buys the convenience of being able to drive up to P2 (domestic) parking station, hand over the keys and walk straight to the terminal. No need to dick about with shuttle buses and crowds. Upon return it will just be a quick terminal bus ride from int’l to dom and collect my keys and go.

I can’t remember the last time I took a flight out of Brisbane. Certainly before the wonderful separate QF lounge entry was implemented. Today was my first time using it. I dropped my bag on a belt and made my way straight through security with no queues into the impressive Brisbane QP. It was busy when I arrived but cleared out when a few flights to QLD holiday destinations were called. No doubt the suits will start rolling in soon enough.

Late lunch of pumpkin and coconut soup and sparkling water in a paper cup. It looks like the glass washers in BNE are suffering the same fate as those in SYD 6 or 12 months ago.

At T-80 a few days ago I duly went online and snagged seat 4F for this afternoon’s flight. Shortly after that I saw that 4D became occupied and a shadow appeared in 4E. As SG I’m always very happy to see a higher status pax in the aisle seat and their shadow between us! Unfortunately it’s a fairly full flight and the shadow disappeared at about T-30 minutes.

In spite of a flagged 15 minute delay to boarding, I left the lounge around the original boarding time to see if I could spot a glimpse of any extra gate signage or queue barriers for QF’s trial of boarding by zone. Not. A. Thing. Surely for this little experiment to work they would have set up a gate with additional, highly visible hardware to herd the masses. I saw nought, zip. nada.

VH-VZP was just pulling up at the gate at the original boarding time of 15:40. The gaunt faces of disembarking passengers was evidence enough of the long trek over from Perth that “Whyalla” had just taken.

 

[1022]

Old school (2 lane) priority boarding was done effectively at gate 18. Though they pre-boarded a group of 40 or 50 Japanese school kids before clearly and emphatically calling up business and status pax. There must be something in Japanese DNA. Those kids zipped through the BP scanners in a blink. Not a single one of them fumbled with BPs or held up the line…unlike the WP in front of me when adult priority boarding commenced

The CSM was faffing in the galley (NOT fetching PDBs of course…this isn’t VA!) when I boarded and I received a friendly welcome from fa Liz.

At 16:33 we pushed back and taxied towards the International terminal. After an arriving Rex Saab cleared the runway we took off to the north on 01R. And after a series of right hand turns, set our southbound course for Sydney.

 

[1022]

Catering on this flight was crowd-pleasing cheese and crackers. Not particularly substantial but there aren’t all that many people who would object to this particular snack.



I wasn’t paying enough attention to what was happening in row 3 to hear what the options were in J this afternoon.

Interestingly the captian mentioned a relatively low cruise of 26,000 feet today due to headwinds. Even more interestingly, using in flight wifi to look at FR24 I can see that QF and JQ aircraft from BNE and OOL to Syd are flying low while VA’s route planners have them up at 38 or 40,000. I also notice that we are flying 70 knots faster than a VA 738 cruising directly above us.

One other point of difference on this domestic hop is that when we hit some chop and the seatbelt sign was turned on, the customary “all passengers and crew be seated” announcement was followed by one in very fluent Japanese for the benefit of those kids presumably…or for the FA to show off his excellent language skills. Much better than my very pedestrian 日本語, despite the fact I lived there for a number of years two decades ago.

 

[1022]

And so it begins

Flight: QF1
ETD: 15:10
ATD: 15:30
ETA: 21:30
ATA: 21:30
Seat: 5K
AC: VH-OQB

I was a little disappointed not to get a phone call or email from the Qantas First host team the day before departure, until I remembered that when I booked this OWA the email address associated with my QFF account was different to my current one. Despite updating the address in both my profile and on this booking, the courtesy email from Qantas landed in that old inbox (which fortunately I still have access to for a couple more weeks). By the time I responded it was too late to confirm a specific spa appointment time, so I decided to get to the airport quite early to maximise my chances of a spa booking.

I pulled up in an uber at about 11:30 for QF1’s 15:10 scheduled departure. There was no wait at the First check in counter, though there was a good 10 minutes of to and fro between the check in agent and the supervisor to successfully check my bag through to KUL on MH after my overnight layover in SIN. I booked the airside Aerotel in SIN on the assumption that my luggage would be checked to KUL without an issue given it’s the same PNR and all on OneWorld. In the end the bag was successfully tagged to KUL and yellow first class label attached, but QF was unable to issue my onward boarding pass for SIN-KUL. That will (hopefully) be easy to sort at a transfer desk in SIN upon arrival. I may also try web checkin upon arrival in SIN, but am reluctant to tempt fate before then given the issues the QF staff were having.

While I was waiting for the luggage issue to be sorted, another first host at the checkin area confirmed availability of a 1:00 spa booking.

There was only a 2 minute wait behind two other pax at the priority e-gate and no wait at all at security, so I was upstairs in the Qantas First lounge with a glass of Pommery in hand bang on the respectable hour of noon. I was greeted at the lounge desk by the lovely Alistair whose face I recognised from the desks at the far less salubrious QP and DomJ lounges in Sydney. He reconfirmed my spa appointment and then showed me to the roped off section of the dining area where service from all the Softiel-badged staff was on point.

F Lounge collage

From the menu I ordered S&P squid, the snapper and the pavlova. All were excellent, though I kind of think the pav is a little bit of style over substance, with overly sweet raspberry coulis and chewy meringue. Over lunch I got chatting to a lovely couple of guys at the next table: both on their way to LHR. One on QF1 in F and the other in Y on a CX flight. I’ve managed to persuade 1022+1 of the benefits of occasionally taking separate flights on holidays together, but would be very much relegated to the doghouse if I was in F and he was flying Y!!!

During lunch I heard my name paged. The lovely Alistair wanted to check if I was happy to stay in my allocated 5F or if I wanted to switch to a single seat on the A side of the cabin. 5F was a deliberate choice to a) be on the non-sunny-glary side of the aircraft to maximise window open time and also to be in row 5 for relative privacy at the rear of the cabin. It the back row of premium cabins is the favourite of vlogging gurus like Nonstop Dan and Josh Cahill, then I decided to give it a go on this day time flight after initially choosing 2A for myself.

My spa treatment was delicious and I followed that up with a very refreshing shower to ensure I feel fresh and very very blissed out ahead of my first proper experience of flying QF First. (I’ve sat in the F cabin previously on a QF127 A380 service where J was the highest class of service and I snapped 3A at T-80).

And with that, boarding for QF1 is likely to be called any moment.

 

[craven morehead]

Prelude

1022: Hi, I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking because it wasn’t reticketed in time.

Agent 1: Sure I can look into that for you. [taps away, reinstates flights]. They’ll be re-ticketed within 24 - 48 hours sir.

So starts a typical adrenalin-fueled adventure of booking flights with Qantas Frequent Flyer Points.

…

1022: Hi, I called earlier today because I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling again because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking for the second time because it wasn’t reticketed in time. One of your colleagues reinstated the flights this morning, but they have already dropped off my booking because Sri Lankan and Malaysian cancel bookings that aren’t ticketed within an hour or two.

Agent 2: Sure I can look into that for you. [taps away, reinstates flights]. They’ll be re-ticketed in 24 - 48 hours. Call us back if you haven’t got your e-ticket by then.

1022: Thanks for reinstating the flights, but umm no, I can’t wait for it to go back in the queue for 48 hours. Malaysian and Sri Lankan will both drop flights that aren’t ticketed within an hour or two. The whole reason I’m calling for the second time today is because I’ll lose those flights again if it’s not manually reticketed immediately.

Agent 2: I can’t do that for you sir

1022: Fair enough. Could you please transfer me to someone who can?

Agent 2: One moment sir. [Neglects to put me on hold. Has a conversation in Tagalog which my +1 happens to understand. At one point Agent 2 exclaims “but how would he know that?!?!”]

The answer dear reader is thanks to the Australian Frequent Flyer Forum.

Agent 2: Sorry sir we can not ticket this straight away because your trip is still several months away. But I assure you it’s in the queue. Good bye. [Agent 2 ends the call but doesn’t hang up so as not to receive an honest response to the call satisfaction survey]

1022: Leaves phone connected until agent 2 eventually gives up, hangs up and I get transferred to the survey. Problem solved? No. Satisfaction with the service received on today’s call?: 1

…

1022: Hi, I called earlier today because I received a notification of a schedule change to a flight as part of a classic award booking. I’m calling again because a couple of flights on Malaysian and Sri Lankan have dropped off my booking for the third time because it wasn’t reticketed in time. Two of your colleagues reinstated the flights this morning, but they have already dropped off my booking again.

Agent 3: I’m sorry to hear the problems you’ve been having. I understand the issue. Let me pop you on hold. [while on hold the flights reappear in MMB]. I will now follow up to get this ticketed right away. Can I call you back in a little while?

True to his word, agent 3 called back a couple of hours later and at the same time a new e-ticket hit my inbox.

I dedicate this trip report to my very good friend Tim who has shared a lot of ff hacks, fun flying stories and many glasses of quality red wine over the years. And to the wider AFF community for all the advice and banter that’s shared on this amazing site.

Background and booking

Late in 2022 the stars aligned for me to take some extended leave in the second half of 2023. Like any self-respecting AvGeek the first thought that occurred to me was to look at my points balance and to start drawing up a bucket list of cabins to try and places to go. High on the bucket list is dinner at GohGan in Fukuoka - the mash up between over-the-top Indian chef Gaggan Anand and top Japanese chef Goh Fukuyama. 1022+1 and I ate at Gaggan in Bankgok a few years ago when it was rated #1 in Asia and #3 in the world. It was truly, mind-blowingly good and is probably my equal top meal of all time. (Botanic in Adelaide is the other contender for top spot. Seriously, drop everything, brave the churches and serial killers and get yourself to Adelaide for a meal at Botanic).

Sadly there were no classic rewards from the east cost to anywhere in Japan around the dates I wanted to travel. So of course I had no* alternative but to book a trip to Fukuoka the long way around, i.e. via SE Asia, Europe and North America. (*apart from say, buying a sensible economy class return flight…shudder…)

The original routing on a J OWA booked in Nov 2022 was PER-KUL-CMB-LHR-YYZ // YVR-NRT // HND-cough. There were some nail biting phone calls to Suva, Manila and Capetown when various legs had schedule changes that resulted in MH and UL flights getting dropped due to QF’s ongoing ineptitude with ticketing, as recounted above.

By sheer serendipity, there was a subsequent schedule change on the KUL-CMB leg on UL which led to a ghastly 12 hour overnight layover at CMB which happened to coincide with the time that QF did that big classic reward seat dump earlier this year. After another HUCA misadventure in trying unsuccessfully to get the original itinerary reticketed in a timely manner, I took a deep breath and out of curiosity looked to see if there was a better way to get to London. I saw some amazing opportunities to change my J OWA to one with a couple of F legs. I got extra lucky when my next call connected to a truly amazing agent in CPT who slowly, but very methodically locked in all the flights I wanted, recalculated points and taxes and somehow managed to get it all sent off and ticketed the same day. It shouldn’t be surprising to reach someone like this at Qantas, but we mere SGs and below know the brutal reality.

In amongst all the OWA shenanigans I nested separate bookings for LHR-DXB (J) // DXB-GVA (F) and ZRH-LCY (Y!) to try out EK’s “Gamechanger” First on the DXB-GVA leg. There’s also AC from YYZ-YVR (PE) and a final couple of flights on BR (J), booked with Lifemiles cough-TPE-BNE. TBH, I lost track of how many miles and taxes I’ve spent all up. Needless to say the whole trip will cost less than something similar would be in Y if I just paid cash.

Itinerary

SYD - SIN (QF A380) First
Aerotel SIN T1
SIN - KUL (MH 738) Business
Pullman KLCC

KUL - SIN (MH 738) Business
SIN - HKG (CX A350-900) Business
HKG - LHR (CX 777-300) First
14 hours in London. Ibis styles LHR Day use room.

LHR - DXB (BA 777-300) Club World Suites
Sofitel Downtown Dubai
DXB - GVA (EK 777-300) Gamechanger First
A week in Switzerland with friends + Stoos Lodge
ZRH - LCY (BA E190) whY
Friends and relatives in London and Brighton

LHR - YYZ (BA 777-200) Club World Suites
Pantages Hotel Toronto
YYZ - YVR (AC 777-200) PE
Hotel Slyvia Vancouver

YYZ - NRT (JL 767-300) Business
Oakwood Suites Yokohama
HND - cough (JL A350-900)
Hotel Okura Hakata

cough - TPE (BR 787-10) Royal Laurel
Okura Prestige Taipei
TPE - BNE (BR 787-9) Royal Laurel

It might be my one and only truly frivolous AvGeek trip in this lifetime, so strap yourself in and come along for the ride, commencing early August.

Ahh ok then Very much looking forward to this TR Enjoy!

 

[1022]

The flight was called for boarding in the lounge at about 14:30. I headed directly below to gate 10 to see the usual QF boarding mess in progress. They’d already called up PE by that time - bear in mind the upper deck of an A380 (plus SG and above) is probably close to ⅓ or even ½ of the passengers on the flight forming a scrum to board. There was still a spot for F pax arriving from the lounge to get to the scanner under the F lane monitor, but it involved a little bit of DYKWIA cutting.

Once at the foot of the airbridge, I was momentarily struck by just how spacious the A380’s “lobby” is at door 1L. I was also struck by how absent QF staff were at the entrance of the a/c. A chap emerged just as the couple boarding ahead of me were looking around and contemplating going straight to their seats. I was greeted and pointed in the direction of my seat.

I soon discovered a major drawback of sitting in 5K. The FA serving the F/K aisle was obviously very busy bringing drinks, nuts and olives to passengers in F and K seats. He got to row 4 fairly close to the time of a slightly curt PA from the CSM saying we’ll get underway as soon as people have finished stowing their luggage and taken their seats. The CSM remained somewhat professionally aloof throughout the flight. No complaints and she delivered service with the pleasantries you’d expect whenever she was in the F cabin, but I have definitely encountered many more personable senior crew on previous QF flights.

Once the doors were closed, the FA from the A aisle eventually came to my seat to introduce himself and say he’d be looking after me for the flight and apologised that he was caught up over on the other side.

It makes sense for the A side FA to also be ‘allocated’ a few seats to manage on the F/K aisle to even the balance numbers-wise, but initially it meant I felt a bit snubbed by the (lovely) FA serving passengers ahead of me in the F/K aisle because I technically wasn’t one of “his”. Throughout the entire flight I was the last to be served in any sequence that required visiting every seat (e.g. introductions from the CSM, intros from the ‘chef’ - aka the FA working the F galley, drink and meal orders being taken, table setting, bread basket, etc). Obviously there will always be a seat that is served last in any cabin, but 5K on this flight felt particularly acute. Or maybe as an SG on an award ticket I was the lowliest passenger in the cabin anyway

Anyway, a champagne flute was eventually delivered and a glass of excellent 2004 Pommery Louise was poured with a flourish and a smile by the London based FA. (Both FAs working the cabin on this SYD-SIN leg were London based, in fact). The champagne definitely tasted a cut above the NV I had in the lounge. Menus, amenity kits and PJs were also all distributed at various stages of the pre-departure service flow.

The CSM’s welcome PA was conducted followed by a barely audible announcement from the flightdeck which mentioned a delay for reasons unintelligible. So in the end I had plenty of time to savour my champagne and enjoy the fact that I was sitting in First on the first leg of a trip I’ve been looking forward to for 10 months.

We pushed back from the gate just after 15:30 and were airborne 10 minutes later. The A380 never ceases to amaze me. Despite its ungainly looks, it is just so graceful and quiet at all stages of flight. It is hands down my favourite aircraft to be a passenger in. (My favourite a/c to fly is a much more diminutive Beechcraft Skipper…and that’s my favourite purely because it’s the _only_ aircraft I’ve ever piloted…lol).

Menu and wine list images for today’s flight follow.

I ordered a glass of the Tolpuddle Chardonnay when asked what I’d like for a post-takeoff drink. It was a superb expression of Australian cool climate chardonnay and drinking very well at 7 years old. The oak pendulum finally seems to have settled in the comfortable middle for quality chardonnays in Australia. (mostly) gone are the big wines that kicked you in the teeth and caused a splitting headache from half a glass. And thankfully also largely relegated to discount bins at Dan’s are the unoaked chardonnays that were trying to ride the wave of Sav Blanc popularity. The Tolpuddle was textured, with stewed nectarine on the bouquet and wonderful structure on the palate. At c$100 a bottle, I would consider this a first class -worthy wine. I’ve read some recent reviews criticising the quality of QFs First wine selection. But this one (and the Louise) put my mind somewhat at ease.

The wine was of course served with canapes of smoked salmon on brioche and caviar and crème fraîche on a blini.

What followed was a wonderfully leisurely long dinner service that stretched to almost half way through the 7 hour flight.

 

[RooFlyer]

Greatly enjoying the detailed commentary, and also the pics.

 

[1022]

Again sitting in 5K gave me the distinct sense of lot of tables being set and food being delivered around me before I got any attention. Eventually my table was adorned with linen and cutlery and my starter of spanner crab, pork and green mango salad was brought over. I switched to the semillon for this first course, but it didn’t quite stand up to the robust flavours of the starter. I think it would be much better paired with some fresh oysters back on the ground. Neil Perry’s food tends to get more dislikes than likes among AFF members it seems. But I definitely rated this dish and would have been happy to be served it in one of his restaurants….(or in my local Thai takeaway I guess....make of that what you will!!)

Similarly the toothfish and fingerling potato main was a success. Plating and presentation could have perhaps done with a bit more colour and attention to detail to really make it pop. I wasn’t sure if the delicate, moist nature of toothfish would be wasted at 35,000 feet but this piece of fish, like the entree, was cooked perfectly and genuinely delicious. I went back to the chardonnay for the main which was the right choice. The couple dining together in front of me also seemed to be rather enjoying the chardonnay too, and plenty of it!!

To finish I had the pineapple and ginger pudding and finally an espresso. Another win in my books.

Pineapple and ginger pudding with mascarpone - and spot the choice of IFE in the background!

Overall I would rate this as a very good to excellent meal. Love him or hate him, Neil Perry has done a lot to define contemporary, mod Oz food and all three courses here showcased good ingredients and flavour profiles that would be at home in one hat restaurants all over Australia. QF could do a bit more in terms of plating and presentation to take this from being a a distinctly above average J meal to one that genuinely belongs in a First class cabin. Portion sizes were fine for me, but some may prefer a bit more food on their plates. As an aside I don’t disagree with the general sentiment that serving sizes in international J are too small! I think the overall experience for this meal could have been lifted with some tweaks to the service flow - or by not picking seat 5K! I guess if you’re up in row 1 or 2, you’d be oblivious to how long people behind you are waiting for attention. Also little niceties like some petit fours or chocolate with the espresso would, again, have lifted the meal from a very impressive business class meal to a great first class one.

View from the lav, somewhere over the NT

With the meal done I settled into a few episodes of the second series of The White Lotus and reclined my seat to rest for a while. Not sure if it was my eyes or my liver that needed to rest more!

About 90 minutes out of Singapore I was asked if I’d like anything else from the menu. I decided to order the steak sandwich which came out quickly and was polished off just as fast. And this photo reminds me that I ordered a glass of the Yarra Yerring Dry Red. Perhaps it was the effects of altitude, but I didn't really get any nuance or texture from this one.

The CSM did her rounds of the cabin at the top of descent. I was sincere in saying that the flight felt like it was over all too fast. She also seemed sincere in saying that she didn’t entirely share that sentiment Perhaps it’s the particularly grim scripted warning from the Singaporian authorities she had to read out that was the final straw for her. Words to the effect of “Welcome to Singapore, don’t forget we have the death penalty (including for cannabis products)”

We landed in Singapore and after a long taxi, arrived at the gate more or less on time, despite our late departure from Sydney.

 

[1022]

Transit in Singapore

I used Agoda to book a room at the T1 Aerohotel for my overnight stay in Singapore. Initially I’d made a reservation at an off airport hotel to save $150 but in the end I decided that the cost and hassle of transport and clearing immigration wasn’t worth $150 to me. At the time of booking I received an email from the transit hotel via Agoda reminding guests that they are located airside and that guests must be in possession of their onward boarding pass in order to be able to check in. This requirement precipitated a lengthy search for a transfer desk in Changi Airport that could print a MH boarding pass for me given the fact that the QF agent in SYD had been unable to issue one for some reason.

The first transfer desk I found by following Transfer signs from the arrival gate on pier D was unattended with a sign pointing to the transfer desk at Pier C. It was good to stretch my legs with a bit of a walk, but the terminal was very busy at this hour. At the Peir C transfer desk, there were no signs for MH above any of the desks, though seeing as no other passengers were waiting, I decided to ask the agent if she could help. I was dismissed and sent off to try my luck in T2. So I walked back to where I’d come from at Peir D where I’d spotted the sign for the Airtrain to T2. T2 was much quieter. Though again at the first transfer desk I came across (Peir E) there was a lonely “closed” sign and no staff. So onwards I traipsed to the Peir F transfer desk, where finally I saw the MH logo on a monitor above a desk. The guy at the counter gave me a grim look when I said I was on MH614 the following morning, but after a few minutes of tapping on his computer and a request to see my baggage receipt, he was able to extract a boarding pass for me.

Then the trudge back to the airtrain and eventually back to T1 to the Aerohotel’s nondescript front desk to check in. All that took roughly an hour and took my step count up into reasonably healthy territory for the day, despite the fact I’d spent most of it lounging and flying!

Checkin was curt, but all I needed at this point was a room key; no smiles required!

My room was fine. The shutters on the wall are deceptive, there’s no windows on the other side of them, so it’s just a dark box to sleep in for several hours. Well, dark apart from a night light underneath the bed stand that I couldn’t find a switch for. Not being afraid of the dark, I shoved a spare pillow under there to darken the room enough so that I could sleep. Well I would have been able to sleep if it wasn’t for a toddler in a nearby room having a meltdown for about an hour from 11:30. I fished around in my backpack and found the earplugs from my amenity kit which partly drowned out the racket and I had a somewhat fitful sleep. The room temperature couldn’t be adjusted, so instead it seemed to adjust itself in cycles throughout the night from stuffy to arctic.

The nightly rate includes one of the set meals on the card in the room. There’s also an a la carte room service menu. The prices for food off the menu aren’t too bad for hotel prices. I guess they know they need to compete with all the food outlets downstairs in the terminal.

I noted before bed that the QR lounge in T1 opens at 7:45. My body clock woke me up around 6:30 - despite the lack of sunlight and dawn birdsong of home outside - so I was up and checked out in plenty of time to get to the lounge shortly after it opened. I was the first guest to arrive and service was certainly attentive as you’d expect. One observation was that menus in the dining room were accessed by QR code. Each and every guest, myself included, had to ask for the wifi code which was somewhat elaborate. Common sense would of course suggest that the wifi code should be noted next to the QR code…

From the menu I ordered eggs royale and a decent double espresso. There was also a buffet with the usual cold breakfast items like fruit, yoghurt, pastries. I wasn’t offered champagne, and actually had no intention of having any seeing as I was still feeling a bit dusty from the previous day’s flight. But a short text exchange with a friend back home who had messaged me from this same lounge a few months prior, quickly persuaded me to order a glass. A large flute of Tattinger was poured for me at the table.

After eating (and drinking) I moved from the dining area deeper into the lounge. The ambiance was tasteful and subdued. The lounge closes at 11:00am which is around the time that the QR morning flight to DOH departs. I left the lounge around 10:00 and right up til that time there was only half a dozen or so other guests in the lounge.

My boarding pass had a boarding time of 10:05 - a full hour before our 11:05 ETA. Obviously they want people at the gate in plenty of time to clear security. I finished of one of the instalments of this TR and then decided to get the airtrain from T1 to T3, then from T3 over to my departure gate in T2, via the interior of the Jewel.

Security was straightforward - in spite of the tornado of a family ahead of me who had a truly stupid amount of carry on luggage for a 45 minute flight. I grabbed a seat by a window overlooking the bay that our plane should have been at by that time…but wasn’t. I was just glad to see some natural light! According to FR24 our inbound aircraft was running about half an hour late into SIN.

 

[1022]

Flight: MH614
ETD: 11:05
ATD: 11:40
ETA: 12:05
ATA: 12:45
Cabin: Business
Seat: 2A
AC: 737-800 (9M-MLQ)

9M-MLQ pulling into the gate after arriving from KUL. Some rain and distant lightning about.

There isn’t really a great deal to report on this uneventful short hop from SIN-KUL. It’s a reasonably busy route with around 35 - 40 flights a day (approx half the number as SYD-MEL). Looking at a random date in August, there’s plenty of LCC competition between Air Asia, Jetstar Asia, Scoot and Malindo. On the full service front, MH has 9 SIN-KUL flights, all on 737s. SQ has 6 flights, two of which are on A350s, the rest 737s. Maybe someone can chime in with whether it was all Silkair back in the day before SQ reabsorbed them or whether both brands flew SIN-KUL side by side. Last but not least there is the fifth freedom flight operated by Ethiopian - which I’m told is usually pretty easy to redeem Star Alliance miles on if one wants to try an airline we don’t see in Australia.

It didn’t take too long to turn the aircraft around once it had pulled up at the gate. Business class and OW status passengers were invited to board first and there seemed to be initial gentle enforcement of that but no separate lines or signage.

I was very cheerfully greeted on board by the “Chief Stewardess” in MH parlance and pointed to seat 2A. Watching her greet boarding passengers was sheer joy. Every single person entered the plane with a smile on their face after the warm welcome aboard. It’s amazing what a talented flight attendant can achieve in the space of a 2 - 3 second interaction. I’ve seen a few Qantas CSMs do this really effectively as well (and some not so well at all…)

This aircraft was still in the old configuration of 4 rows of very well padded recliners with calf rests, a wide, shared padded armrest with swing-out coughtail holders and PTVs. According to Aerolopa data (I love that site!) the pitch is 42” and it definitely felt more spacious than the somewhat similar seats on VA.

Seat 2A. MH old 737 layout

A choice of water, orange juice or apple juice was offered during boarding, along with scented warm towels. Pretty impressive pre-flight offerings on a 45 minute milk run. By comparison, in First on the flagship QF1 service they were quite generous with those little square brown napkins

Boarding was completed in about 15 minutes. There were 7 passengers in the 16 seat business cabin and economy looked about ⅔ full, so it wasn’t a particularly busy flight. A missing passenger was paged and once that was sorted out, the door was closed and the amusing musical MH safety demo was played. It’s a bit cringeworthy, but no doubt gets more eyeballs on it than a more conventional, droll safety video narrated in a pan-Atlantic accent.

On the long slow taxi out to the runway I noticed an A320 on the move that had vestiges of Jetstar: an all grey fuselage with flashes of orange under the wing. But all the other orange decals and Jetstar branding had been crudely painted over and replaced with Pacific Airlines in fairly small font above the first few rows of windows. I don’t know much about the backstory of the failed Jetstar foray into Vietnam, but Pacific Airlines doesn’t instil much confidence based on the optics of this particular aircraft.

We lined up once a Scoot 787 had taken off ahead of us and lifted off into grey skies and a bit of tropical convective turbulence on the climb. Crew were released to commence service once we’d more or less climbed above the cloud - 18,000 feet according to the moving map - however the seatbelt sign stayed on for passengers for almost the full duration of the flight.

There were no printed menus on this flight but I was offered either something unintelligible which may have been fish, or chicken satay. It would be a crime not to have the satay on MH, so that’s what I chose for my meal. It emerged from the galley almost instantly! The same choices from earlier of water or juice were also offered. The lunch was light, simple and delicious.

Grilled chicken satay and rice cakes

The captain came on the PA to announce we’d be commencing our descent shortly and ironically that’s when the seatbelt sign was switched off for about 5 minutes and the head stewardess advised passengers this was their one and only chance to use the toilet if they needed to.

An impressive looking avenue and monument somewhere south of Kuala Lumpur

The weather was a bit clearer over Kula Lumpur after the thundery rain in SIN and we made a smooth landing and taxied to the gate. The apron seemed pretty quiet at this time of day. This PIA 777 was the most interesting thing to spot out the window.

PIA flies between Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur twice a week

Once we pulled up at the gate it took a good five minutes for the jet bridge to inch towards the aircraft and for the door to open. Operator new to the job maybe? It was a fairly short walk to immigration where there was no one in line at the business class counter for foreign passports - perhaps because it was so poorly signposted…but the main queue looked pretty feral so I’m glad I asked if there was a priority lane.

Luggage from our flight took about another 20 minutes to begin to emerge. My suitcase made the overnight transit in Singapore safely - no need to fire up the new Airtag yet! I passed a deserted customs and quarantine area, passed the bank of booths of money changers and taxi/transport agencies and emerged into the spacious arrivals hall to try to hunt down an ATM to get cash to pay for a regular metered taxi into town. I didn’t search all that hard, but I couldn’t find an ATM anywhere obvious. There was however a big money change counter smack in the middle of the hall so I just handed over AUD100 and got what was probably a typically bad airport rate on the ringgits handed back to me.

Then stepping outdoors for the first time in over 24 hours, past the assertive touts for one of the “coupon” taxi companies who quoted 260 ringgits into town and then said “this is the only taxi sir” when I scoffed at the price and asked where the regular cab rank was. We shared a smile seeing as we both knew that was BS. This isn’t my first rodeo mister!

There wasn’t a wait for a regular cab. The driver - despite not using the meter - was very chatty and friendly and full of recommendations and suggestions for how to spend my time in KL. We pulled into the driveway of the Pullman KLCC after about 50 minutes in generally light traffic. The price he asked was MYR120 which is probably a bit above the odds had he used the meter but definitely not in the realms of extortion, so I was happy not to quibble or haggle. It would seem especially churlish to try to talk him down the equivalent of AUD$5-$10 for the 50km drive seeing as there was a bright yellow first class tag on my bag and the whiff of Tattinger on my breath no doubt.

 

[Lat34]

There wasn’t a wait for a regular cab. The driver - despite not using the meter - was very chatty and friendly and full of recommendations and suggestions for how to spend my time in KL. We pulled into the driveway of the Pullman KLCC after about 50 minutes in generally light traffic. The price he asked was MYR120 which is probably a bit above the odds had he used the meter but definitely not in the realms of extortion, so I was happy not to quibble or haggle.

Ha! Airport Taxi touts!! Prefer regular cabs or pre-booked if lots of luggage (aka sails and various yacht spare parts).
Sample Taxi2Airport booking shows Economy Sedan RM121.20 and regular Sedan RM130.30 for similar journey next week
17-08-2023 12:45 / Distance: 58.5 km / Probable duration: 49 min

 

[1022]

Ha! Airport Taxi touts!! Prefer regular cabs or pre-booked if lots of luggage (aka sails and various yacht spare parts).
Sample Taxi2Airport booking shows Economy Sedan RM121.20 and regular Sedan RM130.30 for similar journey next week
17-08-2023 12:45 / Distance: 58.5 km / Probable duration: 49 min

I’ve prebooked my 6am pickup back to the airport via Klook for RM138 in a ‘comfort’ SUV. At that hour of the morning I like the peace of mind of a pre-booked ride to the airport rather than chancing it with Grab or taxis.

 

[1022]

Impressions of Kuala Lumpur

Despite the fact that I’ve been to Kota Kinabalu a couple of times, as well as into the jungles of Sarawak to visit the incredible World Heritage listed caves in Mulu National Park, this trip is my first visit to peninsular Malaysia and to KL - other than to transit through the airport.

I was able to check in immediately upon arrival at the Pullman KLCC (review in a separate post). I dropped my bags, freshened up and headed out to walk around the immediate area. The hotel sits in between the Bukit Bintang area and the KL Convention Centre and Petronas Twin Towers. I scrutinised a map of the surrounding area and set off towards KLCC Park, walking through an area of mostly bland high-end residential towers.

The Petronas towers are architecturally very impressive from afar and below. I didn’t brave the crowds to go up to the viewing deck though.

That was about it for the first afternoon apart from lazing by the hotel pool. Dinner was a bowl of beef tendon noodles from a hole in the wall in a food court in the basement of one of the less ritzy malls in Bukit Bintang. The bustling area is almost entirely shopping malls and Western chain hotels it seems, crowned by the high end Pavillion Mall.

I was up pretty early the following morning to get the MRT and train to Batu Caves to try to beat the heat and the crowds. KL public transport is pretty easy to navigate even though it’s comprised of various modes of rail (heavy rail, elevated light rail, monorail and MRT lines). The one thing I couldn’t work out was what kind of travel pass to buy that would cover all the different elements of the system, so I ended up just buying single trip tickets/tokens for every ride.

The cave temple complex is located in an essentially suburban part on the edge of the city, so don’t go expecting a slice of nature! At ground level there’s a few small Hindu temples as well as an assortment of trinket sellers, drink kiosks, people selling coconuts and other fruit and all the other usual stuff catering to tourists. Then there’s 270 steep steps - shared with hundreds of monkeys - up to the cave entrance. A few years ago a local artist painted the steps leading up to the temple and they are now a predictably popular instagram photo spot.

At the top of the stairs is the entrance to a semi open grand archway which houses the main temple as well as a number of smaller shrines. While the site was mostly filled with tourists from all over the world - judging by languages and accents - the temples do also attract a fair number of Hindus who come to pray and pay their respects to the resident deities. There is definitely a palpable air of wonder and sacredness about the place, in spite of the number of tourists.

Later in the day I made my way over to Petaling St market which is stall-after-stall of knock off Rolexes, brand name sneakers and Premier League soccer kit. Oh and a stall selling the most enormous glass bongs and elaborately designed meth pipes you’ll see anywhere in the world, let alone in a country not exactly known for its progressive stance on recreational drug use! Many of the vibrant streets surrounding the market are now home to enticing looking restaurants and small bars, including this one in an alleyway sized square accessed over a small arched bridge. It must be a thing, because a lot of people were in the alley taking selfies and posed photos. The whole area is probably what Sydney’s relatively new Kensington St precinct in Chippendale was modelled on.

The next day I decided to focus on Brickfields - aka Little India. When I travel I just love to switch off the Google maps and wander aimlessly. In scoping out the area beforehand I had noted a small contemporary art gallery I was keen to check out as well as a massage business staffed by blind therapists. I had a delicious lunch of dosa and palak paneer to die for in a vegetarian restaurant called Mr Naan and Mrs Idly Pure Vegetarian.

After an hour or so of aimless wandering and looking at various shops, I made my way to Relax Two Traditional Blind Massage. I think I saw their pin on google maps close to the Wei-Ling Gallery I wanted to visit and looked up their website which displayed good prices and had excellent reviews. I’ve had a massage from a blind therapist before in Kathmandu and found it quite a revelatory experience: both in terms of how fluidly visually impaired people navigated their physical work environments and how their fingers, thumbs and elbows found every single knot and tight spot in my back! My therapist at Relax Two was brilliant and I can’t recommend the place highly enough to anyone in KL who enjoys massage. TBH this was much much better than the massage I had at the Pullman’s spa for three times the price the day before.

Wei Ling Gallery is a small gallery in an old traditional KL shop house. The current exhibition showcases recent works by local artist Wong Chee Meng who has a visual impediment affecting his depth perception. So his paintings are layered rather than having a traditional sense of depth. What sets this exhibition apart is that viewers are invited to scan a QR code which opens an Augmented Reality instagram page, which when you point your phone at each painting, it turns into an almost holographic 3D image, where somehow, the lower layers of paint come to the fore, including with animation sometimes. The exhibition was excellent, the intimate space was beautiful and the friendly gallery attendant was very charming. It was a great visit.

After the gallery I found myself in Berjaya Times Square - an enormous shopping mall that catered much more to local residents and had very few big western brands. I managed to leave with a new pair of glasses I had no intention of buying. Eye test, premium coated lenses, on-trend clear plastic frames and bonus clip on sunglass lenses (not as horrid and grandpa-ish as they sound!!!) for the princely sum of around AUD$160.

On my final full day in KL I headed to the Museum of Islamic Art and the adjacent Perdana Botanic Gardens. The museum isn’t quite as grand as the spectacular Doha Museum of Islamic Art, but it contains a wonderful and well curated collection of old and new pieces. The starting point is an exhibition of orientalism - the Muslim world through the eyes of European artists which is a fascinating perspective.

One thing that struck me in many of the 17th and 18th century paintings was how the artists captured what to them would have been the harshness of the sunlight in the Middle Eastern and North African settings of their paintings.

The section of the gallery dedicated to Muslim architecture was really insightful with excellent interpretive signage and scale replicas that showcased the diversity of styles mosques across the Muslim world.

This is as close as this infidel is ever likely to get to Mecca!

Shah Mosque, Isfahan - considered the greatest expression of Persian Architecture. This one I actually have visited in person and was suitably awe struck!

The Botanic Gardens are an enormous tropical green refuge in the middle of the big city. I spent a couple of hours just meandering paths and finding nice shady spots to rest and breathe in the freshly made oxygen from all the trees. This has to be one of the best city parks I’ve visited anywhere in the world and is a real asset to KL.

And with that my KL highlights come to a close. I definitely look forward to coming back some day and scratching the surface of this wonderful, clean (but not sanitised like Singapore), multicultural city a little bit more.

Tomorrow morning it’s a 6:15 pickup to the airport for the next series of flights KUL-SIN-HKG-LHR. It’s going to be a big (and tiring) chunk of travel!

 

[Lat34]

Impressions of Kuala Lumpur

Despite the fact that I’ve been to Kota Kinabalu a couple of times, as well as into the jungles of Sarawak to visit the incredible World Heritage listed caves in Mulu National Park, this trip is my first visit to peninsular Malaysia and to KL - other than to transit through the airport.

I was able to check in immediately upon arrival at the Pullman KLCC (review in a separate post). I dropped my bags, freshened up and headed out to walk around the immediate area. The hotel sits in between the Bukit Bintang area and the KL Convention Centre and Petronas Twin Towers. I scrutinised a map of the surrounding area and set off towards KLCC Park, walking through an area of mostly bland high-end residential towers.

The Petronas towers are architecturally very impressive from afar and below. I didn’t brave the crowds to go up to the viewing deck though.

That was about it for the first afternoon apart from lazing by the hotel pool. Dinner was a bowl of beef tendon noodles from a hole in the wall in a food court in the basement of one of the less ritzy malls in Bukit Bintang. The bustling area is almost entirely shopping malls and Western chain hotels it seems, crowned by the high end Pavillion Mall.

I was up pretty early the following morning to get the MRT and train to Batu Caves to try to beat the heat and the crowds. KL public transport is pretty easy to navigate even though it’s comprised of various modes of rail (heavy rail, elevated light rail, monorail and MRT lines). The one thing I couldn’t work out was what kind of travel pass to buy that would cover all the different elements of the system, so I ended up just buying single trip tickets/tokens for every ride.

The cave temple complex is located in an essentially suburban part on the edge of the city, so don’t go expecting a slice of nature! At ground level there’s a few small Hindu temples as well as an assortment of trinket sellers, drink kiosks, people selling coconuts and other fruit and all the other usual stuff catering to tourists. Then there’s 270 steep steps - shared with hundreds of monkeys - up to the cave entrance. A few years ago a local artist painted the steps leading up to the temple and they are now a predictably popular instagram photo spot.

At the top of the stairs is the entrance to a semi open grand archway which houses the main temple as well as a number of smaller shrines. While the site was mostly filled with tourists from all over the world - judging by languages and accents - the temples do also attract a fair number of Hindus who come to pray and pay their respects to the resident deities. There is definitely a palpable air of wonder and sacredness about the place, in spite of the number of tourists.

Later in the day I made my way over to Petaling St market which is stall-after-stall of knock off Rolexes, brand name sneakers and Premier League soccer kit. Oh and a stall selling the most enormous glass bongs and elaborately designed meth pipes you’ll see anywhere in the world, let alone in a country not exactly known for its progressive stance on recreational drug use! Many of the vibrant streets surrounding the market are now home to enticing looking restaurants and small bars, including this one in an alleyway sized square accessed over a small arched bridge. It must be a thing, because a lot of people were in the alley taking selfies and posed photos. The whole area is probably what Sydney’s relatively new Kensington St precinct in Chippendale was modelled on.

The next day I decided to focus on Brickfields - aka Little India. When I travel I just love to switch off the Google maps and wander aimlessly. In scoping out the area beforehand I had noted a small contemporary art gallery I was keen to check out as well as a massage business staffed by blind therapists. I had a delicious lunch of dosa and palak paneer to die for in a vegetarian restaurant called Mr Naan and Mrs Idly Pure Vegetarian.

After an hour or so of aimless wandering and looking at various shops, I made my way to Relax Two Traditional Blind Massage. I think I saw their pin on google maps close to the Wei-Ling Gallery I wanted to visit and looked up their website which displayed good prices and had excellent reviews. I’ve had a massage from a blind therapist before in Kathmandu and found it quite a revelatory experience: both in terms of how fluidly visually impaired people navigated their physical work environments and how their fingers, thumbs and elbows found every single knot and tight spot in my back! My therapist at Relax Two was brilliant and I can’t recommend the place highly enough to anyone in KL who enjoys massage. TBH this was much much better than the massage I had at the Pullman’s spa for three times the price the day before.

Wei Ling Gallery is a small gallery in an old traditional KL shop house. The current exhibition showcases recent works by local artist Wong Chee Meng who has a visual impediment affecting his depth perception. So his paintings are layered rather than having a traditional sense of depth. What sets this exhibition apart is that viewers are invited to scan a QR code which opens an Augmented Reality instagram page, which when you point your phone at each painting, it turns into an almost holographic 3D image, where somehow, the lower layers of paint come to the fore, including with animation sometimes. The exhibition was excellent, the intimate space was beautiful and the friendly gallery attendant was very charming. It was a great visit.

After the gallery I found myself in Berjaya Times Square - an enormous shopping mall that catered much more to local residents and had very few big western brands. I managed to leave with a new pair of glasses I had no intention of buying. Eye test, premium coated lenses, on-trend clear plastic frames and bonus clip on sunglass lenses (not as horrid and grandpa-ish as they sound!!!) for the princely sum of around AUD$160.

On my final full day in KL I headed to the Museum of Islamic Art and the adjacent Perdana Botanic Gardens. The museum isn’t quite as grand as the spectacular Doha Museum of Islamic Art, but it contains a wonderful and well curated collection of old and new pieces. The starting point is an exhibition of orientalism - the Muslim world through the eyes of European artists which is a fascinating perspective.

One thing that struck me in many of the 17th and 18th century paintings was how the artists captured what to them would have been the harshness of the sunlight in the Middle Eastern and North African settings of their paintings.

The section of the gallery dedicated to Muslim architecture was really insightful with excellent interpretive signage and scale replicas that showcased the diversity of styles mosques across the Muslim world.

This is as close as this infidel is ever likely to get to Mecca!

Shah Mosque, Isfahan - considered the greatest expression of Persian Architecture. This one I actually have visited in person and was suitably awe struck!

The Botanic Gardens are an enormous tropical green refuge in the middle of the big city. I spent a couple of hours just meandering paths and finding nice shady spots to rest and breathe in the freshly made oxygen from all the trees. This has to be one of the best city parks I’ve visited anywhere in the world and is a real asset to KL.

And with that my KL highlights come to a close. I definitely look forward to coming back some day and scratching the surface of this wonderful, clean (but not sanitised like Singapore), multicultural city a little bit more.

Tomorrow morning it’s a 6:15 pickup to the airport for the next series of flights KUL-SIN-HKG-LHR. It’s going to be a big (and tiring) chunk of travel!

Awesome KUL stopover adventure "well done"

 

[1022]

Pullman KLCC

My taxi pulled up at the front of Pullman KLCC around 2pm. After a bit of a wait at the Accor priority check in line I was escorted up to level 4 to the Executive Lounge to check in as an Accor Diamond member. Honestly, more often than not I’d just prefer to be checked in then and there at the front desk rather than going through the palaver of all the fawning “welcome back sir” and “can we get you a drink while we check you in?” rituals of lounge check-in.

I had a fair to middling espresso and was then handed my keys for a room on the 23rd floor with a 2 category upgrade from the entry level room I booked.

The Executive lounge on level four was a pleasant space divided into three main zones: a lounging area, cafe style tables adjacent to the buffet and more conventional dining tables near the kitchen at the back of the lounge. It was never especially busy any of the times I used it. I’d say 60-70% of the fellow guests in there at breakfast time and evening coughtail hour were other Australians.

My room continued the blue theme that was prominent in the lounge. I honestly wouldn’t want to wake up with a hangover and have to look at this carpet! It was almost barf-inducing when stone cold sober. Luckily the huge bed was quite firm, which I find comfortable, while others might complain. The linens and pillows were good quality as well.

The view out the window was to a very closely adjacent high rise apartment building nearing completion. Occupants on both sides will want to keep their curtains drawn if they want privacy…or wide open if they have a peccadillo for an audience.

I didn’t take any photos of the small outdoor pool area level 10. Sadly it wasn’t a particularly inviting space to linger as it got virtually no sun, being shadowed by surrounding tall buildings. They only had half a dozen or so loungers which were of course usually occupied. Still, the pool was cool and wet and at 15m-20m long, it was almost long enough to swim a few laps in when it wasn’t too full of kids. Tony, the main pool attendant working behind the small bar was probably the most genuinely friendly and personable member of staff I encountered during my stay at the hotel. (Speaking of mentioning a staff member by name, is it just me, or do most Tripadvisor reviews these days seem to be plugs for individual staff members - often housekeeping of all team members - rather than actual descriptions of hotels).

As alluded upthread, I booked a massage in the hotel’s Vibes Spa. They boldly claim “Vibes Spa provides a sanctuary where millennials and spa influencers converge to experience an array of therapeutic remedies that are carefully selected to suit a high-paced lifestyle.”

In reality, the reception area and treatment rooms were comfortable without being particularly luxurious or zen-like and definitely not a space I would imagine an influencer instagramming. It wasn’t even photo-worthy for a humble AFF Trip Reporter!! The therapist I had just sort of went through the motions of their ‘signature’ Viva routine. It wasn’t a bad treatment by any means, but I just didn’t find the whole experience all that relaxing.

On the food front, I breakfast in the lounge on two mornings and one in the main restaurant on the ground floor. The lounge offered an a la carte menu of western and Malaysian options as well as a small buffet spread of fruit, yoghurt, bread and pastries. Both the avocado toast and chicken congee I had off the menu were satisfying.

The main restaurant breakfast buffet had a much wider selection of dishes at multiple stations scattered around the place which were roughly delimited by cuisine. So as well as continental and cooked western staples there were noodles cooked to order, Malaysian rice and roti dishes, Indian dosa and chapati and accompaniments, Chinese, Japanese and Middle Eastern options, all of which did a pretty good job of catering to the tastes of the majority of guests.

A final useful offering to Accor Diamond members is three complimentary pieces of laundry per day. This was good for replenishing t-shirt supplies given the amount of walking I did in the tropical heat and humidity.

My 6am checkout was done efficiently in the otherwise deserted lobby. Unfortunately the receptionist didn’t know how to apply the €10.00 spa and dining credits that are attached to my Accor account. Instead, both she and her manager wanted to try to offer to deduct points from my account which I didn’t want. Not to worry, I might have better luck in Dubai with using those credits.

And with that, my pre-booked car was waiting directly in front of the lobby entrance and we sped (quite literally) to KLIA in about 45 minutes.

 

[ellen10]

I’m enjoying your very thorough trip report. Lots of great information and insights.
Thank you

 

[kookaburra75]

As the others have said, what a great trip report, and thanks for your observations and suggestions on KL. Somewhere we haven't been before