We made it to Kuala Lumpur!

SUNDAY 4TH MARCH

We’re now in steamy Kuala Lumpur enjoying the luxury of the Hilton Hotel.

We managed to fit in a few more minor disasters before we left.  Not satisfied with mouse in the clothes dryer issue, I managed to vacuum up a cigarette lighter into the under-floor vacuum system.  This means the vacuum system will be out of order until we get home, so we’ve left the housesitters with a tacky little pull-along vacuum cleaner.

Our next hiccup happened when we arrived at the Adelaide Airport.  Malaysia Airlines has a new check-in system operated by TOLL and the new system was malfunctioning.  Even though we had printed off our boarding passes at home and had no checked in baggage, we still had to line up to have our passports checked and our hand baggage weighed.  We lined up from 7.50 until 9.10.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 10.00 but there was still an enormous queue of people waiting to check in.  We were all rewarded with a $15 voucher which could be redeemed at a number of shops within the airport, but they had to be redeemed today.  Fine for us – we went to Cocolat and bought $30 worth of chocolate!  But we couldn’t help wondering how the people at the end of the queue were going to spend their vouchers with a plane waiting at the gate to take off.  We finally departed at 11.15am.

Once we were in the air, the pilot came on to announce that we were experiencing ‘technical difficulties’ – but it was only the flight entertainment system that was playing up, not the aircraft.  From memory, this also happened on our last trip to Japan.  I hope they maintain the aircraft better than their entertainment systems.  The flight was quite uneventful except for a few drink-slopping bits of turbulence.  There are a lot of pot holes in the sky!  John was pleased to get his first ever view of Uluru.

Apologies for lack of clarity - we were a long way up!

As we already had our pre-purchased tickets for the express train to KL Sentral, the next stage of the journey went very smoothly.  For most of the journey, there was not a lot to see except for the palm tree plantations which have replaced the natural vegetation as far as the eye can see.

Our next almost-disaster happened when we were checking in to the hotel.  Having spent the last few weeks dreaming of jumping in the beautiful Hilton pool, I was horrified to see a notice on the check-in desk apologising for the fact that the pool was closed for maintenance – just for the 4th March.  Of course!  They see me coming, don’t they!  All was not lost, however, as the Hilton is connected to the Meridien Hotel and the pool is divided down the middle.  The Meridien side was still open and Hilton guests had use of it during the closure.  Phew!

John conked out for a while so I had a read of the brochures and thought about a rough ‘wish list’ of sights.  Once Captain Snooze rejoined me, we went out to find some dinner.  As we’ll have the full day tomorrow exploring, we just went over to the Sentral Station and found a nice little food court.  We both ordered a Thai fried rice dish and I was astounded to find that the price was about $2 each!!  The food was really nice – mine was suprisingly spicy (I can usually tell by looking at a dish if it’s going to be spicy, but this one caught me off guard).  For a little blending of the cultures, we went to Dunkin’ Donuts for dessert.  John couldn’t resist the little worms in this donut!

After dinner it was time to hit the neighbour’s pool.  The water was colder than expected but wonderfully refreshing.

After the swim it was time to hit the sack to build up our energy for a full-on day tomorrow.