Warmer Climes

Someone else started the trend but I too have left for a warmer place. At the moment I am in a town called Jitra in the north of peninsular Malaysia and today is a balmy 32 degrees as it will be tomorrow and every day - here you only need a weather forecast to tell you if it is going to be wet or dry.

Flew from Sydney with Air Asia one of the new breed of budget airlines, paid extra for a 'hotseat', a meal and 20kg of luggage but the savings over the regular Malaysian Airlines fare has paid for the side trip to Cambodia. You have to be prepared to move your travel dates back and forth to get the best deals on these airlines - you would be foolish to just put the dates in and not check several days either side for 'promotion' fares. I have used them before for short hops ( a couple of hours KL to Vietnam type of thing) but this was the first time on a long haul flight.

BTW a hotseat is merely one with more leg room; no other advantage out of Sydney but on the flights in Asia you get to board the plane first too. 20kg is the height of optimism for me I rarely even have 12 kgs of baggage all up but you never know. If I am only going for about a week then I just take carry on luggage but this time most of my stuff was gifts for other people.

The plane left Sydney late but made up the time on the way to KL. I think this is the problem with these cheap airlines they maximise the use of the aircraft so if it is delayed on a previous flight it leaves late too. In KL the connecting flight to Alor Star left nearly 2 hours late but partly due to a tropical downpour (like, real rain ) Makes for a long day. Doesn't worry me too much I have the Sydney Morning Herald cryptic, my Ereader and MP3 player to keep me company but I was knackered when I arrived.

One thing that always vaguely amuses me is that even after flying for 5 hours of an 8 hour flight you are still over Australia. "If you look out of the windows on the left hand side of the plane you will see Alice Springs/Dampier/Darwin"

Will keep you posted.

Re: Warmer Climes

Sounds great Bruce, hope you enjoy all of the holiday.
Not done too many long hauls but I remember flying to Barbados
and we went from Manchester down the World to the Azores then
crossed over the Atlantic from there. On the left or right you had
the Atlantic for hours and hours and didnt even see a ship.
Going to see the Grandkids in France it takes about 20 minutes from
Manchester to get to the English Channel.
Enjoy.

Re: Warmer Climes

I hope you have a great holiday Bruce....... looking forward to seeing some photos when you return!

Re: Warmer Climes

Lovely countries, both of them, Bruce. Have fun!
Air Asia is not really new, though, has been around for a good number of years now and I've used them a lot in the Far East. I rate them a lot better than the British/Irish no frills airlines. The only thing you have to watch out for is which airports they use if you are transferring onto another flight.

Re: Warmer Climes

In Jitra at the moment. Yesterday drove to Alor Star to get travel itinerary for Cambodia and some shopping.

It is election time thank goodness it has just been announced to occur on the 5th May immediately after I leave - the partys hang flags everywhere

These are for the opposition party but if you look closely you can see a couple of the blue ruling party flags too.

Just like the UK

Went for a snack - Chinese Mushroom and Chicken soup (I forget the proper name and the receipt is written in Chinese).

Yum! Cost $1.20 good value eh?

Re: Warmer Climes

BTW my complaint about being 2hours late leaving KL was unjustified when you look at the newspapers. The storm caused flash flooding in KL so I guess we got off lightly

The Malaysian Star reports have some pictures