(Note – the Idiots are currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia after a couple days in Saigon and cruising up the Mekong from the Delta in Vietnam. There will be lots more episodes and photos from Bali and Saigon and their trip up the Mekong in the future, but right now they are too busy HAVING experiences to have time to tell you about them. In the meantime, a quick episode about an unplanned excursion…)
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The Idiots’ guide to how NOT to visit Kuala Lumpur.
Best advice…
don’t get delayed five hours in Bali due to weather and problems with the plane and get to Kuala Lumpur around 9:30 at night only to learn there are no flights available to Saigon until mid-afternoon the next day and there are no restaurants open at the airport or at the hotel so you will have a voucher good at the Burger King outside the airport terminal and then will load on a bus but you don’t have to get your luggage as it is already marked for the flight the next day except it isn’t and it is going around on a baggage carousel so please to go back in and get it and then get on the bus an wait until everyone has been accounted for – 77 new boarding passes issued but yours isn’t there but trust us, we’ll just scratch out and update your old boarding passes in ballpoint and everything will be OK except it really won’t and then we’ll get you to a hotel near the city and then you can sleep and have breakfast and get back on the bus and depart on a flight that is… oh, yes… delayed… and you will be in Saigon a day later.
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Your exotic nighttime view of Kuala Lumpur.
The festive lobby you will share with many other disgruntled stranded Malaysia Air customers, all of whom have missed important connections. The lunar new year is celebrated in many Asian countries, so welcome to the year of the rooster!
Red is the color of good luck… and the roosters motif is obvious. Gold/yellow is the color of prosperity, but it is unclear to the Idiots why the coin (representing gold/money/prosperity) with the square hole and the Chinese symbols is also used for celebrations and offerings in both Bali and Malaysia…
A couple passengers who will soon be asked to fill out a satisfaction survey for Malaysia Air…
Your lasting impression of Kuala Lumpur will be the colorful buses you will ride for long periods of time to and from the airport…
and the amazing views through the bus windshield…
A couple more “they’re not in Kansas anymore moments” as their flight – did they mention it was delayed – left Kuala Lumpur.
The Idiots are world travelers, so it doesn’t surprise them to find the onboard entertainment books section includes a Quran… but an INTERACTIVE Quran???
And it may have just been their state of mind after more than 30 hours of travel to get 3 hours closer to Saigon, but they did not find it reassuring that the safety film at the beginning of the flight ended with a prayer joyfully celebrating returning to Allah.
You’re not only not in Kansas anymore… Kansas and Oz are about equally familiar in comparison with your current experiences. And yet... why travel if not to experience the unexpected?
