TUNEFUL KUALA LUMPUR

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Mr Fixit approaches another deal

Landed at KL after a fairly easy flight. As usual when coming from one climate zone to another, leaving the petrified atmosphere of the aircraft and stepping out into the sauna that is the tropics was like being hit with a wet, warm blanket. Malta's answer to Judith Chalmers Ally Hearn and his poor partner Annabel were waiting for us as we emerged, eventually, from baggage claim. From there we were taken to Ally's choice of hotel in KL. Right by the airport, The Tune hotel is a haven for cheapskate travelers. Ally is one such. As we entered our room (sideways) we could see why it was only £10 a night. Papillon had more room in his prison cell and that's the solitary confinement part of the story! Even the addition of a full length wall mirror could not add an illusion of space. The fan in the middle of the ceiling had barely room to rotate. But what the hell, after a few bottles of Tiger beer we were ready for a bed of any kind!

No room at the room

ON THE ROAD TO KL

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Pre flight refreshments Rustan style

It was with a sense of the usual trepidation that we greeted the arrival of our driver Iddon. He had kindly agreed to ferry us to Stansted where we were to begin the first leg of our journey to Kuala Lumpa. The drive there was uneventful apart from the occasional sniff or sneeze from poor Trish who has a cold. I seem to remember she was similarly inconvenienced when we set off on the fateful Wagrain trip at Christmas. We waved goodbye to Gary who is house sitting for us while we are away.

When we arrived at Stansted, a sight I had never seen before fair took my breath away....it was almost empty. It looked as if there was some kind of strike but there was a lack of bodies sprawled out over the floor so it could not have been that. No, joy of joys, our flight with Air Asia was a night flight and we were the last departure of the night. Even WH Smith was closed! We checked in bags really quickly as I had already done it on lie but was a massive queue of fellow travellers who had not. I could not help but wonder why. We were soon sitting in the one place that was not closed, the good old bar. The queue joined us later!

After a couple of beers and a wine for Trish we were boarding. Now here I have to mention the fact that Ally Hearn traveller extrodinaire forgot to tell us that Air Asia was nothing more than a Long Haul Ryan Air but with more comfortable seats Nothing on board was free, and there was no free in-flight entertainment which I for one always look forward to as it passes the time rather efficiently. To obtain this you needed to book a console which showed reruns of mostly American soaps. No movies. Trish would have been in her element. Also worrying was the sight of the cabin crew seemingly praying as we boarded. As it was a night flight we were soon getting plenty of shut eye, which proved to be pretty good in-flight entertainment.