Kuala Lumpur

 Dear Gentle Readers

After a tiring flight we arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 8am today. Didn't take off till 2.15am and didn't sleep well on the plane. The supposedly lie-flat seats did not lie completely flat although significantly better than "cattle class". Another passenger commented that it was the worst Business Class he had flown - we couldn't compare because this is the first time for us. This leg was flown by Malaysian Airlines on an Airbus A330-200 so we were not impressed considering how much the seats cost. It didn't help that we encountered quite a bit of turbulence during the flight including one particularly violent episode that woke us both up. However the food was delicious, although being fed at 3am was an unusual experience. The staff and service were top-notch so no complaints there. The next two legs will be flown by Etihad on Boeing Dreamliners, so we are hoping the seating will improve.

Kuala Lumpur Airport is huge!! After walking for what seemed miles including two long travelators to collect our luggage, we arrived at a train that then took us to the other side of the airport, a not too considerable distance. I was wondering how our luggage would get to the collection point. Upon arrival at the collection point there was not one or two baggage carousels, but seven! It took us some time to locate the correct one only to find it empty. Upon asking a staff member, he said often the last bags were unloaded into one area, to which he pointed to. To our dismay, our luggage was not there, but fortunately Victoria's eagle eye spied our luggage in the next area over so we were joyfully reunited with it.

After some hiccups with the immigration and the Malaysian online registration system we managed to exit into the Arrivals section. Because Etihad had given us a 37 hour layover here, we sought out their office to seek a hotel to be supplied by them only to find it closed! Attempting to ring the head office in Kuala Lumpur also proved fruitless with no-one answering so we decided to source our own accommodation and seek a refund later. Did you know that Kuala Lumpur airport is 43 km from the city? We used a company called Grab (no Uber here) that was cheaper than taxis to take us to our hotel only to discover the driver does not take cards but cash only. We had no cash whatsoever so it was over to an ATM at the hotel to withdraw some Malaysian Ringgits (at an abysmal fee of $8) and paying the driver.

Monorail

Our hotel room was not ready as the previous occupants had paid for a late checkout, so we opted to do a bit of walking to explore the centre of KL. It was warm and humid, but not too bad, but Victoria's feet were playing up so we didn't go far. Encountered a monorail which is pictured here plus some pretty spectacular buildings. The architecture certainly puts Perth buildings to shame.

Here are some of them. 

This one reminds me of Sydney's Centrepoint Tower.

We returned to the hotel to await our room, ordered some coffee from the cafe in the lobby (delicious) and promptly fell asleep as we were dead tired. 

Finally our room was ready so we rushed up to the 47th floor to be greeted by this.

Was a lovely gesture but boy is it a hard mattress. Despite this, after showering we both fell asleep only to be awoken an hour later by the Muslim "Call to Prayer" amplified from some nearby mosque, despite the so-called "noise insulation" the hotel boasted of.

This is the view from our hotel window, including the famous twin Petronas Towers. Tomorrow afternoon we have booked a half-day tour of the city and no doubt these will be included in the tour. Only $20 for the both of us and it includes being picked up at our hotel! After that it will straight back to the airport for our delayed leg to Abu Dhabi then onto Rome. Stay tuned!