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HE SAID... We arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 4.30pm, checked in and wandered aimlessly through the terminal. We’d heard that a memorial wall for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had been created somewhere in the airport, so we asked at an information booth and were directed towards the viewing area. As we approached, three security guards sitting at the entry stood and asked where we were going. We mentioned the memorial wall and they simply smiled and informed us it was closed. A few locals walked straight past us as we were talking to the guards, so we quickly realised the area was quarantined to tourists. The guards smiled apologetically and sat back down – what more could they do? We thanked them for their congeniality and wandered back into the bustle of the main terminal building. We re–hydrated on lemon juice and iced coffee before boarding our flight to Melbourne at 8pm. With a mix of contrasting emotions (both sadness and excitement), we lifted off Malaysian soil at 8.30pm and began the final leg of our incredible Malaysian journey.
The in–flight dinner was OK. I opted for the fish with lemon sauce while Ren chose the chicken
kung pao with rice. It was great to enjoy a glass of red wine with the meal. I caught up on my travel notes and then settled back with a cognac and enjoyed the seven hour flight listening to Dhafer Youssef’s
Birds Requiem (on repeat) through the in–flight entertainment system.
We hardly slept on the flight, so we were exhausted when we landed at Melbourne Airport at 6am. We breezed through customs, snacked on hot chocolate and hot cross buns, checked–in our packs for our flight to Hobart, walked to the gate lounge and promptly fell asleep in our chairs. We’d planned to catch up on some writing at the airport, but there was little chance of that happening.
We boarded our plane to Hobart around 10am and fell asleep as soon as we sat down. We landed at 11am, detoured to the supermarket to stock up on a few essentials and arrived home around 1pm. I’d turned the power off to my studio before we left – forgetting that our electronic gate was connected to the same power source – so we were locked out of the property. After climbing the fence and turning the power on,
we unpacked, cleaned up around the house and generally wound down from the past four weeks. We were exhausted and it was cold, so I fired up the wood heater. We sat down to roast chicken sandwiches at 6.30pm and by 8.30pm we were asleep on the couch – two hours’ sleep in 24 hours eventually catches up with you.
A few days after arriving home I walked into a music shop in Hobart to order a copy of Dhafer Youssef’s
Birds Requiem, and by a sheer stroke of luck the guy had a copy sitting behind the counter. Another person had ordered the CD a few weeks earlier but hadn’t been in to pick it up, so it was mine. He told me he hadn’t stocked Youssef’s material for 15 years, because no–one had ever bought or ordered an album from his shop until a few weeks ago. Some would say it was a sign, but to me it was pure coincidence. We’ve been listening to it ever since – it’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed an album this much. Youssef is a Tunisian oud player, but
Birds Requiem will always remind me of our flight
home from Malaysia.
SHE SAID... By all accounts, our international flight was a breeze.
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) quite early for our flight to Melbourne. The Malaysian Airlines counter was already opened three hours before our flight, so we checked in within minutes of walking into the airport. We tried to find the Message Board that had messages regarding Flight MH370, but we were told by security that the board had been closed off two weeks earlier. We weren’t sure why and they weren’t offering an explanation. We had meant to find the Message Board when we arrived four weeks ago, but it had been a late flight and we were quite tired. I wish we’d made more of an effort back then.
We caught the shuttle train to Terminal C and wandered around the departure lounges aimlessly before settling with a doughnut, some juice and a coffee...we were trying to delay the inevitable – sitting on those small hard seats at the gate lounge. When our boarding finally commenced, we were a bit surprised to see Australian Federal Police doing security checks after the airport staff and Malaysian security had
done theirs. I’m not complaining – it actually gave me a (probably highly misplaced) sense of security.
At about 7pm, we scanned the gate lounge and were relieved to see that there were no loud talking attention seekers and no drunks – two of the three things we dread on flights. It was looking good. Then we spied the hordes of overtired children. Not so good! But to be fair, they were very well behaved for the entire flight (or should I say they had good parents). The only crying came from the tiny bubba who wasn’t coping with the bumpy ride and wailed for the better part of the trip. Poor thing.
As soon as we got comfortable in our seats, we scanned the in–flight magazines as we usually do while waiting for takeoff. There was an article on KL Street food, and it was nice to see that we had been to most of the locations mentioned. However, we also got a nice and lovely surprise to see the face of one of the vendors we really enjoyed meeting at the Sri Lankan snack stall on our KL Food walk with Charles. I’m not sure how
journalists work, so I’m not sure if the lady would know that an A5 sized picture of her face was gracing the Going Places Magazine. We took a copy of the magazine to scan and email to Charles so that he can share it with her when he next sees her.
I wasn’t in a mood to do any writing or watching of films, so I decided that I would just sit and listen to music. I listened to Dave Holland’s album
Prism and then the entire works of the Bee Gees, followed by the entire works of Queen, all at ear bleed volume so I could drown out the wails of the aforementioned baby. At some point I realised that I probably should get some sleep. However, by then I wasn’t very sleepy, so surprisingly on our seven hour overnight trip I only slept for an hour. That was very unlike me.
The meal we got was as expected – my kung pao chicken was good but Andrew’s lemon fish was dodgy. Although I was most disappointed with the pandan flavoured cheese cake dessert thingy. It was beyond foul! Andrew was very surprised that I could only
manage one bite before I gave up on it. I don’t think he has ever seen me give up on any dessert without a fight! 😊
We landed in Melbourne at 6am and made our way through immigration and customs without any issues, despite declaring the wooden
congkak board we were carrying. It wasn’t until we were at home that Andrew realised we had completely forgotten to declare the tea we bought in the Cameron Highlands. Whoops.
We walked directly to Hudsons for coffees and hot cross buns, after which we curled up in the gate lounge and had a little sleep. On a side note, it wasn’t until I saw the hot cross buns that I realised that Easter was upon us, how had I so completely missed that?
The Jetstar flight home was boring and infuriating in all the usual Jetstar ways. However, we have to acknowledge that we were super–tired by this stage. When we landed at Hobart Airport and stepped out of the plane on to the tarmac, two things hit me – the icy cold Antarctic wind and the fact that we were on home soil. We picked up the car from
Valet Parking and drove north, noticing the changes in the landscape from a month ago.
Once we got home, I don’t know where we found the energy from, but we unpacked a month’s worth of grimy clothes and spent quite a few hours cleaning the house, doing loads and loads of washing and dealing with a month’s worth of mail and email! We forced ourselves to stay up until 8:30pm. It was so nice sleeping in our own sheets and using our own towels again. We are always eager to leave on a trip, but by the end of about four weeks we are usually equally eager to come back home.
The next morning we drove to the kennels and cattery to pick up our furry ones. The puppies were super excited to see us, and acted like we’d only been gone a day or so. However, Mia took about three days to return to her normal self. I suppose Jasper and Oliver are more used to the kennel routine than she is. Anyway, it was so nice to be back home and have everyone together again!
We hope to spend a few days collecting our thoughts on this trip, after which we will share our reflections.
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El Eterno Caminante
Greg
Glad u made it home safely!
I know you just finished your trip, but no doubt you both are thinking about the next destination? What are the options? Also I just flew Jetstar for the first time last week and that will be my LAST time flying them, terrible service and flights always delayed because they want to fill the plane, I missed a full day of my 2 day vacation because of that! GRRRR