The Journey Begins
A few little thoughts on the start of my journey.
It was hard saying goodbye to Ad and the kids, Bertie had a sickness bug this weekend and he looked pale and poorly as we left. Scarlett cried which I wasn’t expecting. I’m glad they dropped me at the station though, and I didn't sneak off while they were at school, train and taxi and train and finally at Heathrow T5 - to the bar for a couple of drinks before my flight.
The flight was long but uneventful, so glad to have extra legroom on the emergency seat. I was sat next to a couple of guys off to the Women’s World Cup in Australia. Managed to sleep about 6 hours. Spent a great deal of flight confused about why it was still dark, surely we should have flown into the day time - the windows have a magic coating thingy which makes the flight dark - we had not broken the laws of the universe - even BA isn’t that good.
Singapore Change airport, where I had to transit for a short while, is massive and beautiful.
Onto Kuala Lumpur for less than 24 hours- the KLIA express train from the airport to the main train station is brilliant, I couldn’t find my hotel in the, frankly ridiculously huge, Sentral Station in KL, but eventually got there. Ordered room service - felt fancy. The most camp man ever bought me my food. He was a delight, he noted we had the same colour hair, as he flounced out of my room he gave me a wave and said “bye hair twin!”
I went to Petronas towers - you can’t not, they are amazing, the shopping mall is ridiculous, everything from M and S to Gucci, air conditioned which is lovely.
The onto the Bird Park - kind of good - kind of a bit crap, lots of birds roaming ‘free’ under large netting but plenty in cages, quite expensive to get in, but nice to see some exotic birds.
Walked to botanic gardens, not far, but its so hot and humid, everything feels hard. I could feel it was about to rain, and boy did it pour. Sheltered for a while but then walked to museum, which was closing - note to self, check closing times before doing itinerary. Got a Grab (like Uber. For this country bumpkin, where Uber is NOT a thing within 50mile of where I live, it has been a total revelation, I love it. Its insanely cheap if you’re coming from the UK, I’ve travelled MILES for hardly any money.)
Back to the airport for the flight to Kuching, Sarawak, BORNEO - I have too much stuff. My bags are really heavy. But when I look, everything seems essential… trying to use up my beauty products to make things lighter (not sure it’ll make much difference, but I’ll have lovely hair and skin by the time I get home.)