18-Sep-2024
It was a pretty good journey, all things considered.
Two flights (one to KL, the next to London). Slight delays, but nothing serious, and no cancellations, which has been a big issue with Malaysia Airlines (among others) recently.
Of course, nothing can make a 14-hour flight exactly pleasant... You just have to grin and bear it (or, more accurately, grumble a bit and bear it). Still, the thing stayed up as long as it was supposed to, and came down where it was supposed to, and the food was plentiful and generally tasty. That's pretty much as good as it gets with air travel these days.
We were through Heathrow immigration and baggage collection remarkably quickly. Nor did we have long to wait for the shuttle to the hire car base.
The first slight snafu was that our initial attempt to pay for the hire car led to the blocking of our credit card on suspicion of fraudulent activity... This has never happened before when we've headed overseas, so we assume it must be some new, more draconian policy. I guess they're trying to be helpful, and luckily, we have more than one credit card. Still, it's a bit of a nuisance to be down one straight off the bat, and we're going to have to invest time in getting a replacement.
Plus our pre-paid roaming refused to kick in... Again, we've never had this problem before. Usually, there's a little message from Digi when you arrive, and you're away. This time, nothing.
I'm sure you'll agree that the traveller is pretty much stuffed without internet these days. So we pulled gloomily into the first available service station to try to sort this out. A popped credit card and no internet -- and we're not even an hour into the journey...
The Digi guys couldn't figure out what had gone wrong, but they were very helpful, and gave us a work-around that successfully hooked us back up to that now-indispensable web. So, with Ms G. Maps duly enabled, we trundled on, through a beautifully orange evening, to the little cottage in Newtown Common that will be home for four nights.
It's now Wednesday morning, and given we've just had a long journey, we're surprisingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, all ready to set off for Oxford in a couple of hours' time (more on that in the next post). I think it was helpful to overnight in KL on Monday, and then take a day flight. OK, Tuesday was a really long day, but it was a day not a night, and I think that helps minimize jet lag.
Those are the bones of the trip. Here are some pics to fill in the details:
Waiting for, and riding, the shuttle at KLIA. There's something about these liminal spaces that brings out the surreal in you
We overnighted at the Ibis Sepang. Really recommend. It's no more expensive than a standard airport hotel, but it's out in the country, and has a great low-rise vibe
There's a free shuttle to take you to and from the airport. Doesn't take long
The main building is hangar-like, lofty and airy
Very pleasant rooms, in single-storey blocks spread over quite a wide area
It's Malaysia Day!
The pool, early Tuesday morning, as we headed for the return shuttle
Back at KLIA, and breakfast. We'd been planning on a visit to Ya Kun, but had gone through border control and security before we realized their branch was land-side... Next time...
This is our quirkily-shaped but very comfortable cottage. There are one or two houses nearby (including our host's), but we're basically surrounded by woodland, and it's amazingly quiet at night. Very therapeutic
Our nearest neighbour
All in all, a good beginning.