May of 2024, Jon and I did a trip to Southeast Asia in part for a wedding in Singapore. We made a trip out of it and tagged on Malaysia since I've never been and it's right next door. It would be my first time to Southeast Asia and a long time since I've traveled to another Asian country besides Taiwan so I was excited. We would be in Malaysia for 3 full days (5/6 arrive at night - 5/10 leave at noon)
Flight
We flew to Malaysia via Singapore Air which is supposed to be a top tier airline so I was curious to see just how good the experience was. Flight time was the longest I've ever been on and it was unimaginable to think we would sit on a plane for 16 hours just to go to Singapore and another hour to go to Kuala Lampur. Thankfully, we were able to book the seats so that there was an empty seat between Jon and I on the long haul. The plane was on the older side so it didn't have as luxury feeling as I expected and the bathrooms were cruddy but overall it was a good experience. I ended up playing 2048 a ton and watched Holdovers before I went crazy.
As we got closer to landing in Singapore, we checked how the transfer would be at the airport to catch the Kuala Lampur leg. Much to our dismay, the 2 gates are in different areas of the terminal and < 50 minutes of time from landing to get to the terminal. I thought we were making good time with the flight but we ended up having less than 10 minutes to get to the other terminal. We got off the plane as fast as we could and immediately started running to the next gate. Signs above said walking would take more than 10 minutes which freaked us out even more and meant there was no stopping even if we hadn't run more than 10 feet in a long time.
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| Sunset |
We noticed some other passengers running behind us so at least we were not the only crazy ones running through the airport. When we got to the gate, we found ourselves needing to go through security (in Singapore, security is at each individual gate) and the other passengers arrived soon after us, all breathlessly throwing their stuff on the conveyor belt. I'm not sure what that security is for because my bag was filled with small cups of water and Jon had a full water bottle in his backpack but they let it through and only asked me to dump the water bottle I was holding in my hand. The flight was uneventful and super quick but we saw a nice sunset as we entered Singapore.
Never again will I do a 50 minute layover in Singapore airport again.
Arrival
KL airport is very busy for 10 pm at night and we walked through throngs of people just to exit the gate areas. With my empty water bottle, I wanted to fill up it up with the fancy Asian water dispensers but sadly the station I saw had a group of guys gulping down cup after cup of water like it was the most delicious drink and I didn't want to stand their filling up my water bottle while they waited. Also with the amount of people, I was scared of catching Covid.
We picked up a 7 Day CeleDigi sim card that Jon had ordered ahead of time on Klook and we were on our way to picking up our check bags and heading to the hotel. In KL and Singapore, there is an app called Grab that is basically the same as Uber/Lyft but much cheaper. Jon ordered one to take us to the hotel in downtown and costed $13 for a ~30 min ride. Immediately I can tell that driving in KL is going to be scary as our driver barely drove within the lanes and drove very very fast. KL stays awake at night for sure and there was even heavy traffic around our hotel at midnight!
Things in Malaysia are supposed to be much cheaper and hotels are no exception. We stayed at the Westin in downtown which is supposed to be a 5 star hotel and we paid around $170 a night for a high floor (Jon wanted it) and breakfast buffet. Other Western brand 5 star hotels were a bit higher in the $200s and the less known 5 star hotels were much much cheaper so we were a bit weary about trying.
The Westin's room itself leaves much to be desired and definitely did not feel 5 star class. The room had a slight cigarette smell on the first day and the bathroom was old/not well remodeled. For example the shower floor did was not graded correctly so the water pool and did not drain completely. I would be disappointed if I had to pay 5 star prices in the States but there's nothing that can be done and we needed to hit the hay for the next day.
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| View from 30th floor. |
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