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Published: June 29th 2011
farewell party
Tam, Cobi, Lyn & Me at Cooly airportIt was an early start from home, still dark and cold. I drove my car to Coolangatta Airport with Lyn (my sister and my usual and sorely missed travel companion) who had smartly spent the night due to the necessity of our early rise this morning. Cobi and Tammy (my sister and niece and farewell party) were already at the airport when we arrived,
We had some airport breakfast after checking in my bag which was 1kg over the allowed 15kg but was waved on. Good start!.
Flight Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur 8 hours 10 minutes!
The annoying woman sitting next to me spent more money on in flight food and drinks than I paid for my flight - which was not that cheap at Aud$400. Then of course she had the need to wake me every 20 minutes so she could go to the toilet. I always request an aisle seat to avoid the problem of having to climb over someone to have a stretch etc, not that I tend to get up all that much. By the end of the flight I had made this suggested to this stupid woman who needed to relieve herself no
less than 14 times during our 8 hour flight. Surely that is an abnormal frequency??? I didn't really manage to catch any sleep between being nudged by Mrs Weak Bladder for her multiple toilet visits.
We landed in KL on time at 3.10pm local time and the Captain advised it was 33 degrees - this was confirmed as soon as the doors were opened and the aircraft cabin was filled with that all familiar thick Asian air. I had 10 hours to kill before my next flight so I had booked a cheap room in Chinatown so I could go have a shower, something to eat and a walk around. The room was only $9 and I left my suitcase in storage at the airport for $12 (funny more than the cost of the room) but it was better than dragging it around for a few hours. Walking outside to get the shuttle bus to China Town I was again greeted by a slap in the face of hot air - although I must admit it was welcomed after the crappy weather we have been having in Brisbane of late.
Catching the shuttle bus, the metro, fighting my way
though the Chinatown markets and finding my way to Monkee Inn was like being on auto pilot, seem to have done this many times now I can just go through the motions without thinking about it. After having endured the toilet women on the plane I decided to shout myself a nice cold beer. Having a beer in Malaysia is a bit of a splurge as the tax is high. A large bottle costs 16rm = $5 which is a little over budget when you are only paying $9 for a room. But we discovered on an earlier visit that the bar at Monkee Inn serves the coldest beer in KL and as I sat and got talking to some expats at the bar I somehow only paid for one bottle but drank about 4. They were all high fliers and had more money to waste than me so I did not feel guilty.
Before I knew it time was ticking by and it was 7pm and I had not yet eaten or run a few of the errands I wanted to do here. I bid my drinking buddy's goodbye and hit the hot night air with a huge
beer buzz happening. Again on auto pilot my legs led me directly to the satay lady just a few blocks away. Chicken satay's are still the best, or really it's the peanut satay sauce that makes them the best. Yum!
My next mission was to find some ginger tea and post it back to my sister as requested. Finding the tea was easy, but it was after hours and finding a post office that was open not so easy. I managed to find a kiosk in the central markets selling stamps but not really set up for sending packages, so I had to go find a sturdy envelope and then was sold enough stamps to cover almost the entire envelope. The postal employee thought I was a little crazy mailing tea back to Australia and I had to admit that I doubted very much if this parcel would reach it's destination. I was skeptical that it would even leave this kiosk. I thought as soon as I left the stamps would be peeled off and the tea enjoyed by the family of this guy. But apparently I was proved wrong and was advised by my sister that she did
receive it stamps and tea intact.
It was time to head back to my prison cell size room - I described the rooms of this hostel in my last visit. They are so small if you stand in the middle of the room it's possible to stretch out and touch all four walls by only reaching out!! But hey what do you expect for $9. I had a shower and started to make by way back to the airport at leisure. It started to rain just as I boarded the shuttle bus and poured the whole one hour journey.
At the airport I collected my stored bag and went to check in for my next flight. This time they would not allow my extra kilo so I had to place a couple of books from my suitcase to my carry on, no problem.
Flight KL to Paris 13 hours 20 minutes
I fell asleep just after take off and was amazed when I awoke it was 8 hours later. Perhaps I have Mrs Weak Bladder to thank for my total exhaustion that allowed me to sleep for the majority of this flight.
I listened to some music, ate a meal and before I knew it we were starting to descend into Orly Paris airport. Local time 9am, 18 degrees and raining.
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Dutchieboy
non-member comment
on the automatic....
you're traveling too much... ;) But could it ever be too much? No, never! Looking forward to your next story! Save travels!