Flight to Kuching

Saturday 9 August 2008 Sydney to Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur After a hectic morning in Newcastle and a slow ride to Sydney by afternoon train, my plane took off on time at 20h20. It had been a long day made more so by the fact that we had stayed up until the wee small hours of the morning watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on TV … a really stunning ceremony. On boarding my Malaysian Airlines (MH) Boeing 777, I realised that MH has abolished First Class! At least that was the case in this Boeing 777. I set off for Kuala Lumpur (KL) in a nice new Business Class seat that can convert to a fully flat bed! Just what I needed for a comfortable flight! Without First Class, MH is able to fit in 35 Business Class seats. They were all full. Unbeknown to me, our flight was going via Brisbane. No great problem except that it added around two hours to my thinking regarding flight time. Who needs those little surprises? After Brisbane, I settled in, but, even with these nice new seats, my sleep was fitful and only for a few hours – sleep that I badly needed after a long day and the prospect of an even longer one in front of me. Sunday 10 August 2008 Kuala Lumpur to Kuching The plane arrived on time in KL at 06h00. We were unloaded quite quickly and on the AirTrain to the main terminal where Immigration and Customs was a breeze. I was sitting outside my next Boarding Gate within 20 minutes of arriving at the AeroBridge. That’s very impressive. It’s actually quite refreshing to be in an uncrowded, open, high-ceilinged airport building. These new airy buildings around the world put Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport to shame. Sydney’s crowded halls, low ceilings and that awful bus ride for Domestic Transfer passengers through and past the bowels of the airport, is really a disgrace. I hope the AUD500 million they are currently spending on the place makes a difference. I doubt that it will open up the place. Now, as I sit here writing in my diary, it is still pitch black outside and there is practically nobody around. In fact, the long concourse for all the “B” boarding lounges has, at 06h30, just 3 people in it. Everything is spotlessly clean; plants are alive and happy-looking. There is only the low rumble from the moving walk-way to disturb the peace. On walking through the hub of the building, I noticed only a few outlets already open for business. Maybe they hadn’t closed at all last night! Barriers surrounded the unopened shops… barriers that not only mark out each store’s perimeter and protect its products but also protect the rather forlorn-looking manikins, all of them turned inwards. No bright outlook on life or their surroundings for these models in the pre-dawn hours. Ah hah! Some lively chatter has just disturbed my peace. Eleven happy, and judging by their attire, holiday makers pass me on their way to a gate lounge further down the concourse. They are obviously “going” not coming. Their legs are pale with knobbly knees that grotesquely protrude from beneath their Bermuda shorts! I wonder where they’re going. Will their stay in Malaysia be as satisfying as I hope mine will be? Their voices and laughter fade into the distance. I am on my own once more. But now the peace and quiet is shattered by an over-loud jingle preceding an announcement to let all and sundry know of a gate change for a flight, but not mine. That little jingle sure achieved what it set out to do. It was loud enough to have been heard in downtown KL. Peace and quiet returns. A small cameo of life goes by…. A young couple from a Middle Eastern country walk past – arm in arm! He is young, not tall or heavy in statue, rather fine-featured in fact. He is dressed in a ‘My Mum’s got a Whirlpool, Persil white’ long flowing gown topped with the appropriate headgear and at the other end, shining white sandals. She, by absolute contrast, is black from head to toe. The only relief, some silver sequins on the back of her gown and a small amount of subdued floral material exposed around the hem as she trotted past. They reminded me of those black and white Scotty dog pepper and salt shakers of years gone by – but this young couple were much more refined! The very first signs of light are creeping into the dawn sky. It is a couple of minutes before 07h00. There has been some activity at B2. The neon sign has been turned on announcing that my plane, MH 2504 for Kuching is departing from this lounge. Good! At least I’m waiting outside the right Gate Lounge. There have been a couple of cleaners with their tilting dust pans methodically wandering back and forth flicking little bits of miscreant fluff and litter expertly into the receptacle. The flight crew have just arrived for my flight. There are more people around generally and the sky, albeit rather heavily overcast, continues to brighten. Let the day begin. Later: The flight in a rather old Airbus A330 was interesting in that the pilot manoeuvred his aircraft through and around an anvil-topped thunderhead with deft experience. With constantly changing thrust he slowed and speeded up for quite some time, dodging this and that part of the cloud. It wasn’t really rough, just a little disconcerting with all this altering of the pitch of the plane. However, I’m sure we had a much smoother ride than if a younger gung-ho, full of testosterone, pilot had been in charge up the front! Our arrival into Kuching, a city of 530,000 inhabitants, was quite uneventful. It was, however, soon realised that somebody special was ‘up front’ on our flight. A bevy of photographers with fancy flash cameras stood in the way of those of us “up the back” getting off. My seat was only 2 rows into economy so I was one of the first off after the VIP’s. We were asked to wait while the VIP’s were photographed and we were then shot off in a different direction – no doubt a security measure to get us out of the road! I later found out from a newspaper article and front page photograph that I had been travelling with the Malaysian Prime Minister’s wife. She had come to Kuching as the ‘Chairperson of the Welfare and Charity Body of Wives of Ministers’. This title can be taken in either of two ways! Why, when already holding privileged positions do these ladies need a welfare and charity organisation? But, of course, the second, and correct way of reading the title was that these women form a welfare and charity organisation to watch over the less privileged in their society. Good on them! Although we were still in “Malaysia”, we had to pass through immigration and customs again in Kuching, as Sarawak has retained these responsibilities after becoming part of the Federation of Malaysian States. Even Malaysians from other states can only stay 90 days at a time and can’t own property without special permission. The money however is the same and I changed my notes at RM (Ringgit) 2.89 to the AUD. Formalities completed, we were whisked away to the Harbour View Hotel, situated on the edge of the river. It was still only 11h30 so our rooms weren’t ready. A welcome drink was offered while somebody, somewhere in the hotel, tucked in the sheets and patted our pillows into shape. I hoped they left a chocolate as well… but no! No such luck when I finally got to my room on the 11th floor …. 11th out of 13, the rest are on 7. As I am the only unaccompanied male, I have a room to myself. I spent the arvo doing my washing and decided a sleep was in order. I was somewhat knackered, not due to the flight so much (managed to get some shut-eye) but to the fact I stayed up watching that Opening Ceremony. No sympathy expected nor required. Later, we were taken to a local restaurant for a Welcome Dinner. The group consists of a German lady of 68 who hails from Melbourne where she has been living for around 40 years with her Queensland born husband. He died a few years ago. Let’s call her ‘Frau G’ to protect the innocent! Then there is a happy duo from Sydney, he, Nathan is 24, and she, his cousin Amanda, is 22. I realised that I’m old enough to be their grandpa! The other member of the team is Sarah, a 28 year old refrigeration engineer who says she has no fixed address but who left from Melbourne and has her address c/o her parents who live in Canberra. So that makes five of us. Dinner was an open-air affair that served Chinese style food and cold Tiger beer. We had fried rice, spicy fish, mixed vegetables, lemon chicken and, best of all, buttered prawns. All dishes were very good including the braised fern shoots. This was not the first time I’d tried this delicacy. It made me think that some enterprising Aussie should look into turning our bracken fern into a cash crop. But then again, I seem to remember being told in college that there is arsenic or some other deadly component in the plant and that is why it is generally not eaten by stock. Perhaps not such a good idea after all. I did watched a little bit of the Olympics … maybe not too many TV’s on the trip ahead so I thought to make the most of it. And then a much needed early night!

The flight in a rather old Airbus A330 was interesting in that the pilot manoeuvred his aircraft through and around an anvil-topped thunderhead with deft experience.