Don’t Pee – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Coffee of the day: Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
I visited KL in 2006 and had what I believed to be one of the best iced coffees ever. I say what I believed because I don’t know if it was good as I remembered, or if it became a legend in my own mind.
Time has a way of making things seem better than they were. Sometimes on a hot day I would dream of having an iced coffee as good as the one from KL.
The iced coffee is from King of Tea in Chinatown.
King of Tea
Don’t let the name put you off, my fellow coffee fiends. Dont worry about Nescafe on the sign either. You’ll only get Nescafe if you ask for it.
The coffee is filtered though a Chinese coffee sock and mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Chinese Coffee Sock
The coffee is then poured into a bag of ice.
Iced coffee in a bag
It’s a strong and sweet brew and every bit as good as I remembered it to be, all for 1.60 MYR (40c US).
The Cultural Bazaar of Kuala Lumpur
My favourite market in Kuala Lumpur is the Cultural Bazaar, located between China Town and the Colonial District. While there are plenty of markets that are bigger, this market is a managable size in a heritage building, which is worth visiting for the building alone.
[Cultural Bazaar Entrance]
The side of the market is bordered by Jalan Hang Kasturi, a pedestrian street landscaped with tall palm trees.
[Jln Hang Kasturi]
The Cultural Bazaar was originally called the Central Market, which was constructed in 1888-89. The current building was built in 1936 in the art deco style and came close to being demolished in the 1980s. Thankfully the Malaysian Heritage Trust intervened and saved the building and it became the Cultural Bazaar in 1986.
[Central Market Shopping]
The market is filled with excellent handcrafts and gift ideas as well as other specialty stores. It’s a good place to look for souvenirs as you don’t have the piles of cheap knock off goods that you see in every other market.
[Central Market shops]
Fish Foot Massage
As a wayfarer my feet take a beating so I should probably get my feet pedicured more often. When I saw a fish foot massage in KL, I had to try it.
Cute Fish Spa
With a fish foot massage you put your feet in a fish tank and the toothless fish nibble at your feet (micro-massaging) eating only dead skin cells.
I was wearing shoes so I was wondering what my tropical feet would do to the fish. I imagined putting my feet in and all these fish floating dead on the water. Lucky for the fish you get to wash your feet first.
Cute Fish Spa
I had a look at the fish before I put my feet in the tank. A woman next to me only had a few fish on her feet. Will they come to me? Well, as soon as I placed my feet in they were swarming all over me. Are they mad! Don’t they know how disgusting my feet are? I had visions of them going home that night and wrapping their little fins around a fish toilet bowl throwing up after what they have just eaten.
Meanwhile the woman next to me was hardly getting a nibble. She must have her feet pedicured daily as the fish weren’t biting.
Cute Fish Spa
I found it tickly in a creepy way at the start, but you soon get used to it. I just had to stop thinking about that movie Piranha and remember these are toothless.
Fish Foot Massage from James Clark on Vimeo.
AirAsiaX flight
Seeing that my AirAsia flight was already rescheduled twice I got to the airport early to make sure I had a seat. I needn’t have worried as the flight was 1/3 full.
[AirAsiaX Seats]
I ended up sort of lying down in the middle rows so all in all it was a good flight. They do exactly what say say they will, that is offer a no frills budget long haul service. I just hope they fill more seats as the service becomes more known.
Flight Review: AirAsia X – Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur
Flight: AirAsiaX D7 2723
Date: 13 March 2009
From: Melbourne (MEL)
To: Kuala Lumpur LCCT (KUL)
AirAsia X is the long haul brand of Malaysian low cost airline AirAsia. They fly from Kuala Lumpur to the Gold Coast, Perth and Melbourne. They also fly to London Stansted, making it the first low cost airline to fly the whole length of the kangaroo route.
I was curious to fly this relatively short sector to see if I could handle flying a whole day to London on a low cost airline. Would the low fares on offer (up to half the price of a full service airline) offset the lack of frills you would usually get on a regular Australia to UK flight.
[MEL - KUL Air Show]
The first thing I noticed when entering the plane was the size of the seats. The seats are noticably slimmer. The cabin of the Airbus A330 is arranged in 3-3-3 format. Qantas, for example, use a 2-4-2 seat configuration on their A330 aircraft. AirAsiaX have a nine seat row compared to an eight seat row. That means each seat had to give up 1/8th of width to accommodate the extra seat. I noticed that lost 1/8th when I sat in the seat.
[AirAsia X seat backs]
As a low cost airline the pricing is a la carte style, so you buy a cheap seat and pay for any extras you fancy. You can pre-order extras when you are booking your ticket or purchase items onboard.
[AirAsia X Water]
Food and beverages are available for sale (there is no free water), as well as blanket and pillow packs and a video entertainment pass. The pass gives you access to the inflight entertainment, consisting of movies, tv shows, music and games.
[AirAsia X Food Prices]
As I was flying to see how cheap I could get the ticket, I ordered none of the optional extras. I bought my ticket when flights to Melbourne first went on sale at headline grabbing prices. The only optional extra I purchased was checked luggage. This was my return ticket breakdown:
Flight
Ticket 78.00 AUD
Surcharges, fees and taxes 320.00 AUD
Sub total 398.00 AUD
Services and Fees
Supersize regular (up to 15kg) 14.00 AUD
Total Amount 412.00 AUD
My total ticket was 412 AUD for two 7.5 hour flights. Normally flights from Melbourne to KL would run at about 1000 AUD, so this was a bargain price.
The flight was overnight and I usually can’t sleep on planes, so it was pretty boring without movies. Other than that the flight was fine. The main thing is I’m now in Southeast Asia with an extra $500 dollars in my pocket from the savings on the flight. This is what I will remember long after I have forgotten the details of the flight.
So would I fly from Melbourne to London with AirAsia X? It depends mainly on the price and on how badly I wanted to go to the UK/Europe. If I was to save $1000 on a ticket then I would probably do it. Long haul flights are generally mind numbingly tedious anyway and I can’t sleep in economy seats (not that I’ve ever flown up the front) but I would buy the entertainment access as it would be too hard without the distractions of watching movies.
If it was only a couple of hundred dollars difference between AirAsia X and a full service airline then I would take the latter.
Flight moved again, confusion ensues
I just got round to changing my accommodation details after my flight was moved two days forward then I got another text from AirAsiaX saying my flight is moved to a different day!
AirAsiaX Text Message
They have sent me a new e-ticket, but I wont be confident about actually flying until I am onboard.
Flight cancelled via text message
I am due to fly to Kuala Lumpur next week with AirAsiaX. I am looking forward to trying out this airline that started flights to Melbourne in 2008. Actually I’m just looking forward to going away, so my heart sank briefly when I got this text message from the airline:
- AirasiaX Text Message -
There is no explanation why this flight is cancelled, but fortunately I’m on the next flight 2 days after.