Advertisement
Published: December 21st 2008
Edit Blog Post
I had attempted to plan my departure for travel 08/09 as flawlessly as I believed that I could . A simple 10.5 hour flight leaving anchorage alaska at 2:45 am , landing for a 2 hour layover in Taipei Taiwan , then A quick 4.5 hour flight to get me to Kuala Lumpur , were I would begin this years adventure .
my well laid plans almost came undone do to a snow storm in new york , that nearly had me missing my flight in Taipei Taiwan .
This world is so much smaller and more dependent on the little things than I give it credit for at times ,
well back to my point , The snow storm in New York delayed the flight arriving into Anchorage by 2+ hours , so we did not Depart Anchorage International until nearly 5:00 am , which made it very unlikely I would be able to catch my connection in Taipei .
China air was great though , they had a special escort waiting for the 7 or 8 of us ( out of a flight of hundreds ) that needed to be expedited
Novotel
I can see why it would be hard to find :) to our connecting flight .
the flight I was scheduled to depart Taipei on at 8:20 am , began boarding passengers at 7:50 am , my flight from anchorage was still in the air making its approach at 8:10 am . which meant we landed met our special escort , then we fast walked any where between a 1/3 to 1/2 mile through the Airport . this escort some how got us around the second carry on baggage screening , I have been subject to in the past in Taipei ( we just walked around the screener's with our escort , I figure we did have all of our gear searched in anchorage , so it did not fret me at all , to by pass screening at this stage , and especially due to the rush I was grateful . )
and as soon as we boarded the plane , they closed the doors directly behind the 7 or 8 of us , the rest of the plane was full minus our seats , and every one had been forced to wait on us .
how nice it feels to have an entire
airplane passenger section eyeballing you , as you find your seat and stow your bags . thus began the procedures for take off , less than a 10 minute transfer between planes within a foreign international airport , puts a new meaning to the term feeling rushed .
Wow was I ever happy that I do not check luggage and carry only , carry on luggage , for trips like this , there is absolutely no way that any of the other transfer passengers had any of there luggage arrive with our flight , but I had my 2 bags , laptop and camera , so with a grin on my face , I stepped off the plane in Kuala Lumpur , directly on schedule , no worse for wear .
Taxi rides =
I had been informed before hand that since the airport is over 45 minutes away from Kuala Lumpur downtown , I should expect this taxi ride to not be cheap . what option do you really have ?
exiting the airport in Kuala lumpur I prepaid for a Taxi to my hotel at a taxi booth set up directly
as you exit the terminal , she spoke impeccable English and assured me if I just took the ticket to the taxi's out front I would be on my way .
67 mr , around $20 us , fair price I figured , until I realized my cab driver could neither read or speak even slight English , so the photo copy of the address to the hotel did him no good , N-O-V-O-T-E-L hotel , I show him the letters and pronounce it as best that I can , so guess what ? ?He takes me to downtown Kuala Lumpur and then proceeds to drive in circles , we actually found 2 other hotels with Novo or Nova in there name , but since this is my first trip here I was little help at first , then we see a 28 story hotel with Letters the size of the Hollywood sign along the 28th floor that says Novotel , he apologized profusely for having had such a hard time finding it , and I had paid a flat rate for the taxi , so in all honesty he gave me a free one hour tour of
3 minutes later , after ordering the beer
gets a little wet , but still a nice day . downtown Kuala Lumpur .
I felt bad for the guy and gave him a couple extra bucks , only because he did not ask for it , had it been a scam he would have been asking for compensation right off , but he was not , only acting embarrassed that he did not know where such a nice hotel was located . so I felt a couple bucks for a nice tour was money well spent 😊
a few photo's from when I went out for a walk to catch some air , and grab a bite to eat .
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0461s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb