travelling allrite

What a pleasant flight home! After all the fear and internal drama of developing storms and jetstream turbulence combined with the apprehension of a "Sydney welcome" the flight turned out to be very smooth. We had to get up early. Early for Malaysia, but sadly still later than our usual Australian day which has returned all too soon. After a quick check out we made our way down to Sentral Stesen and caught the KLIA Ekspres to KLIA2, the Sun a red ball in the morning sky. It's a bit of a hike from the station to the departure hall. As we had already preprinted the boarding passes in Australia and just had carry-on luggage all we needed to do was have our passports checked. But only a single desk was open for document checking and the attendant was very slow at getting through the queue. Now time for breakfast. The terminal has a range of eateries in mock shophouses. We found a roti canai place, but we have eaten rather a lot of it and so we selected "Nonya...

I remember the first time we stayed in the Kuala Lumpur Hilton. This was called a "Techno Room" then. A 42" plasma TV with external connections, a repeater TV in the bathroom. Probably had a DVD drive and maybe a PlayStation as well. Now... the TV signal isn't HD and looks as terrible now as it did then. There's no HDMI input, only VGA and RCA plugs. No DVD player so far as I can see. And Alex somehow blacked out the TV with the remote control. And their reservations system crashed today... Doesn't really matter anyway. What's important is that the swimming pool is still nice. We had a swim after we got up this morning and swim before bed. Unfortunately, I was too full to order sticks of satay by the pool, one of my dreams. After swim one we caught a taxi back to Mid Valley Megamall, where we had a better kampong chicken rice than yesterday and various other dishes. The highlight was ordering a huge roti tisu from Original Penang Kayu, a thin m...

Stesen Sentral (Central Station) is convenient for those in transit, not a great destination in itself, although over the past few years there has been development, including a swish new shopping centre connected to the station. At least we found a place in the dingy upstairs Malay food court that serves good roti canai. The McDonalds is advertising a Durian Crunch McFlurry. Yep, it is possible for Maccas to serve worse. Caught the LRT to KLCC Station, adjacent to the Petronas Twin Towers. It was amusing to see Japanese duvets at the Muji outlet. Amusing after our difficulties finding a queen duvet at Muji in its home country of Japan and amusing as a warm doona is the last thing you need in Malaysia. We spotted MiL and Friend across the road and joined them at KLCC Suria. The Petrosains science centre was closed as it's a Monday and MiL decided she wanted Chinese food (as in Southern Chinese food), so we only stayed briefly before returning to the hotel, then heading ...

Remember how terrified I was a few days ago of flying through storms that never eventuated. Well today I started confidently on the slightly longer flight back from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and... We checked out early and without breakfast, catching the MRT all the way from Tanjong Pagar to Changi Airport with a change at Tanah Meras. We bought a half cake of cranberry kuih lapis from Bengawan Solo then went straight through immigration and to the gate with only a short stop to pick up a sushi and kaya toast breakfast each for Alex and B. Due to congestion at Changi and on the busy Singapore to Kuala Lumpur route our flight was somewhat delayedbut we took off into bright skies with only a few minor bumps. We had actually passed over the top of KLIA with only small scattered clouds when our descent took us into some much bigger tropical puffballs. The young girls behind us screamed as we rose and descended in quick fashion as we passed through each cloud. My nightmare had come...

The greatest pleasure of Singapore (and Malaysia) comes from enjoying the local cuisine. We returned to Maxwell Road Food Centre for a breakfast of mee sua, apom balik pancakes from my favourite store, mee siam and a really nice laksa. Mee is noodles, by the way. I was planning to take Alex to the science centre, but we changed our mind and chose to visit the River Safari and Zoo instead. We caught a couple of trains up to Chua Cho Kang and changed to a local bus for the zoo. Unfortunately the Amazon boat ride was out of commission but the rest of the River Safari was very good. Different river systems around the world were represented by tanks of fish and other aquatic wildlife. The signage was really informative. Thanks to the Octonauts Alex was able to provide a running commentary on the attributes of various species. For most people the two giant pandas are probably the highlight, but after seeing them at play in Chengdu a simple pair of them doesn't have quite t...

When it comes to dream jobs I suspect that professional Lego builder would be at the top of many people's list. There must be quite a few of them judging by the number and size of models around Legoland. Wow! Another too early morning from Alex. He and I snuggled up in the bottom bunk bed (no, not a double decker sofa!) and he watched cartoons while I typed and B slept in the adult's room. There was a panic the previous night when B couldn't find her wedding band. We searched everywhere, but to no avail. Then this morning we heard a shout from her in the bed. It had been with her the whole time, somehow stuck in her watch band. The buffet breakfast had a decent range of both western and local dishes, including roti canai and curry. We ate until we were very full, anticipating a lot of exercise and little eating inside the park. Then we checked out and left our bags with the hotel. Emmett Brickowski, a couple of stormtroopers and some park employees were danc...

Sleeping in is a skill that Alex has forgotten lately. I don't think they teach it at school. So we were up before sunrise. But Malaysia wakes late and it was another few hours before we went out seeking breakfast. On our last trip to KL we discovered some great food along Jalan Imbi, so we took Mother-in-law and friend out to locate it. Despite this being KL's "Golden Triangle" with many expensive hotels and shopping centre the area we were walking through was rather rundown. But that's where the best food is. A detour saw us eating chee cheong fun and noodles at the Mei Sin kopitiam. My destination was the Wing Seng Heng kopitiam. We bought nasi lemak and various nasi campur side dishes of rendang and eggs from the cart out the front. So good! Some pork buns, egg tarts and kuih completed breakfast. Almost. Directly behind the Parkroyal hotel is a long shed of mostly Muslim stalls and I always order roti canai and Milo ais from a stall near the end....

Though it was a pretty good flight yesterday I couldn't wait to be on the ground. Maybe it's the colour red, maybe it's a cold and lack of sleep, or maybe the amount of flying I've done is finally catching up with me. We walked out of the house into a cool foggy morning and caught the bus and train to the international airport. As we had only carry on luggage, had checked in online and preprinted our boarding passes we went straight to immigration. By straight, I mean joined the long queue of fellow school holiday passengers. After brunch at McDonalds and some Duty Free browsing (mainly Alex playing with display iPads) we eventually joined B's Mum and her friend at the gate. Thanks to our essential travel accessory (Alex) we were amongst the first to board. I'm glad that Alex between us in our row of three seats by the window as they are very narrow. There's no entertainment save some tablets you can hire on board. We had phones which I had preloaded with...