Up, Up and Away to Malaysia

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Our flight to Kuala Lumpur wasn't until 4pm so we checked out of the Kata Villa at noon and had a private air-con taxi take us to the airport for 650 Baht. It was an extra cost but the local buses are so slow that it would have taken at least 3-4 hours to get to the airport rather than just under an hour going direct. We hung out in Burger King at the airport until it was time to check in.

The get-up with Air Asia is very much like flying with Easyjet - there's a lot of pushing and shoving when you get on the plane as it's a 'pick your own seat' scenario. There's also no meals or drinks included; you have to buy these from the cabin crew. The flight was only 1.25 hours but we hit a big patch of turbulence halfway through and I started going into panic mode again. I can't believe that after all the flying I've done in my life, including the years as a holiday rep for Thomson, that it's when I'm on a round the world trip I should suddenly develop a phobia of flying. It's crazy! Well, we landed safely although we were quite delayed in taking off and landed almost 2 hours late.

We took the very comfy and clean Skybus (9 Ringgit - about £1.20) for the hour's ride into central Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Then we popped across the road to the monorail station and caught the tiny little monorail train to near our hostel, the Pujangga Homestay. The hostel is in the Golden Triangle area (nothing like the one in Norwich or North Thailand!) and there seems to be lots around it but by the time we arrived it was gone 10pm and we were pretty knackered. Even though we hadn't eaten since breakfast and were desperately hungry, we just didn't have the energy to got out again. Our room is pretty small but it all seems nice enough :-) Can't believe we're really in Malaysia - it really hasn't sunk in yet!!

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