Oh, these long journeys... So trying... I hate aeroplanes; I hate airports; I hate long layovers. And this trip had all three. Such a pity you can't cover all this ground by train. And now there are even more reasons you can't...

I guess I shouldn't complain, though. When we set out from Sarawak last November, we had pretty much no clue how we were going to get back. But as the months have gone by, things have become ever simpler. No applying for permission; no pre-arrival PCR test; all you have to do is fill in your My Sejahtera form a week before arrival (although no-one seems to check that).

Anyway, let's start at the very beginning, which is back in Istanbul on Sunday. More packing to rationalize; another house to clean; and the last yummy Turkish foods to eat up: ayran, simit, cheese, yogurt...

Our taxi eventually battled its way through the insane Sunday afternoon traffic to pick us up, and we got our last glimpses of the venerable old walls of Constantinople and the Golden Horn.

The traffic continued to be quite sticky, and our car got shunted... The vehicle two back managed to hit the car behind us with sufficient force to send it barrelling on into us... So that had to be sorted out. Luckily, we'd allowed plenty of time.

We don't really rate Istanbul's new airport, to be honest. There are two layers of security, so all your electronics have to come out twice. Conversely, no-one cares if you spot and report an unattended piece of luggage ("Oh, there are cameras everywhere, so someone will deal with it..."). Hmmm.

It was also hot, and felt crowded in the central areas (for more peace and quiet, head out towards the A gates).

And boarding was an absurdity. Seriously shambolic. No zoning, no staggered calls. Instead, everyone was required to queue for ages, in undifferentiated, random, and congested fashion, first in the lounge and then in the airbridge.

Eventually we were on board, and on our way to Dubai. Emirates allegedly mandates mask-wearing, but they do nothing to enforce it. There's a stupid announcement, asking passengers to "remind" fellow-travellers who might have "forgotten" to wear their masks. Yeah, right. Not my job, lady. YOUR job. If you kid people they'll be safe on board because you have rules, then you need to ensure those rules are obeyed. Most of the people around us were maskless.

We'd ordered vegetarian food, on the grounds they usually serve special meals separately, so -- we figured -- we would spend less time unmasked at the same time that everyone else was. But actually there was so little time between the various stages of the meals service that it made little difference. Plus, people weren't wearing masks anyway...

The only good things to be said about this flight were that I got to watch Sing 2 (very entertaining), and the flight time was shorter than anticipated.

Next, layover time. This is a frequent hazard with Dubai connections. On a previous occasion, we went off to explore the city a bit. But this time we had the best part of eight hours to kill -- in the middle of the night. The airport hotel is astronomically expensive, so we invested some money (still a lot, but not AS much) in a four-hour stay in one of the private lounges. Definitely worth doing. The Ahlan Lounge at B offers food, drink, comfy seating, toilets, and wifi. After a glass of white wine and some food from the buffet (nice ful medames, and very creditable korma curry and chapattis), we indulged in some pastries, a couple of rounds of coffee, and enough carafes of water to offset the dehydration of flying. We even slept for a while.





We were reluctant to leave this expensive but very relaxing environment. Still, there was no choice but to climb back on board another plane for the next stint. Seven hours this time.

Finally, KL. If you don't count that mid-pandemic plane change, we've not been here since January 2020...

It was Monday evening by this point. What was nice was to find that there's now a designated immigration lane for long-stay visa-holders like us. Immigration was quite busy, so we saved a lot of time that way.

Just a taxi ride separating us from our hotel now (and after almost 24 hours on the road, what we were most looking forward to was taking our damn masks off...). We were just in time to order sandwiches (good value at MYR 8.50 each, or about GBP 1.55) before Room Service went off duty.

We're staying at the Mercure, Shaw Parade, where we stayed almost four years ago during my study leave (after Taiping and before Singapore and Semarang). In the morning, we looked out of the window, and thought the view looked familiar. As did the picture on the wall... So we think we're in the self-same room as last time...

And the lady at the laundry down the road remembered us! Four years... Amazing...


We felt pretty tired and jet-lagged yesterday morning (Tuesday), but we had lots of stuff to do, so we dug straight in.

Masks on. This is an environment where indoor masking is compulsory, and though outdoor masking is only "recommended", most people do it. Such a different spirit... There's no electronic sign-in to places any more, but you do have to show your "low risk" status when you enter malls and the like.

We headed for the bank first, to sort out a few urgent things. Then we handed my computer over to be repaired at the Acer shop in Low Yat. And then we walked to Pavilion.








There have been a lot of changes at Pavilion. It's hard to know whether this is just the normal changing of the guard that is a regular feature of mall life, or whether the pandemic has brought about more closures than usual.

And finally, LaLaport... This is a new mall-in-the-making, not far from our hotel. It is built on the site of the former Pudu Prison, reportedly one of "the most haunted locations on the planet"... Unsurprisingly, stories are already circulating about ghostly action around one of the doors...


We were looking for the Sony shop (one of the things we had decided to do in KL was replace our now elderly mobile phones). We drew a blank on phones, but were impressed by the supermarket (Greek yogurt, decent cheese, Whittaker's chocolate -- all the things you're never sure you can obtain in Kuching).

And today is Wednesday... We've successfully bought two new phones. Samsung, rather than Sony, which I'm a bit sad about, as I've had such good experiences with Sony. But manufacturers, it seems, never make what you want... As I write, Nigel is busy knocking them into submission (I think it's that way round).

Other achievements today include a raid on Marks and Spencer, and lunch at Noodle Shack in Avenue K. We've always liked this place, and today's fare really hit the spot:





We're still too tired to really think about being back in KL. Until the end of 2018, we lived here. Since then we've really only had limited contact: after Baku in 2019, and before Spain and Portugal in 2020. I guess when we left, we'd envisaged being back here on more of a regular basis, but the pandemic put paid to that aspiration. This trip is again going to be a bit rushed, with more that we'd like to do than there is really time for.

But the bottom line is that it's nice to be back. We had lots of good times here, and it's good to recall them.