We left the hotel at 9.30 this morning in our hired car although nobody thought to tell us that our driver, the Thai version of Lewis Hamilton would set a new lap record for the journey to Bangkok airport. Clearly in a great hurry to get to Bangkok he shaved an hour off the three and a half hour journey setting a world record in the process. He’d have been even quicker if he hadn’t spent half the time on the phone whilst scribbling notes and reading his book! We drove so close to the car in front I felt at times as if we should be introduced.
Check in at the airport was reasonably simple however the queues at passport control took about an hour to clear. The plane was on time for boarding but late leaving as they had to put luggage on board! Very unusual how does the luggage normally get to the destination? The flight with Air Asia was definitely ‘no frills’ – the equivalent of Easy Jet, it was full of strange people who wandered around with no regard to seat belt signs and turbulence. Legroom was also at a premium – with John’s knees tucked neatly under his chin. I thought that John was going to flip when the guy in front decided to recline his chair but he bore the imposition with a stoic’s patience.
Arriving in Malaysia, we took ages to get through immigration which again highlighted the Asian approach to queuing – push for the front and everyman for himself. We've also added another hour to GMT and are now 8 hours ahead of the UK. We collected our luggage and bought a prepaid taxi voucher to take us the 50 miles to Kuala Lumpur for about £15.
Our drive took about an hour during which time a spectacular thunderstorm raged. The rain belted down and the lightening was impressive as it lit up the night sky. As we neared KL, all seasoned travellers call Kuala Lumpur KL, we got our first glimpse of the Petronas Towers – 88 storeys of chrome and glass which gleamed in the distance. Our hotel is only a block away and up close the towers are fantastic structures.
We’ve got a day to explore KL tomorrow before we head off up country – first impressions suggest a day won’t be enough.
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