This post, like most of the ones from the previous month, is way late. The events described below started over two weeks ago. Being in constant motion, though, tends to zap away free time. I'm slowly catching up on the backlog. Enjoy!
From my last article, I talked about what it was like to get stuck in paradise. If you haven't read them (you can find all three of them here), here's what happened: We went to Lembongan, Indonesia for what was supposed to be three days but ended up being closer to three weeks. I mentioned in the last post that we had to leave Bali earlier than expected so that we could outrun a volcano. This post will cover how we did not only that, but went from one of the eastern edges of Asia to it's western-most frontier.
Saturday 18, July: Bali to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We started the day off in the same hotel that we began our Indonesian adventure in. It was close to the airport, affordable, and comfortable. We had booked a flight with an early afternoon departure meaning that we could take our time getting out the door. The airport is only an 10 minute drive from the hotel and with a free shuttle available to use, transferring couldn't have been easier.
We checked in, cleared passport control, and walked through security without issue. Having skipped breakfast, we found a bite to eat, burning through our excess Rupiah. After a fast 45 minute wait, we boarded our flight and were off to Kuala Lumpur.
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| The erupting Indonesian volcano that we were busy outrunning; as seen from our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. |
The four-hours between Bali and Kuala Lumpur went by largely without mention other than some turbulence crossing over the equator. It was surreal to cross this imaginary albeit important line, and in the name of science, I went to the lavatory to see if the direction of the toilet flush would be perturbed by sitting on the equator. As it would turn out, the lavatory uses a vacuum system to flush, meaning that there was no spin to the water. Utterly disappointed, I returned to my seat and watched whatever was on the TV in front of me, too distraught to change the channel.
Landing in KL felt almost like a homecoming. After all, we had spent nearly a month there, and I'm still very fond of the city to this day. I had already said my good-bye a month earlier when we left for Bali and in many ways, this return trip was a bonus visit; a chance to enjoy Kuala Lumpur and not feel pressed to visit a place 'one last time.'
Before leaving the airport, we booked our flight for the next day. We needed to get up to Bangkok as we had a flight from there Monday night and I had a dentist appointment scheduled for that afternoon. Booking flights in Southeast Asia isn't only incredibly easy, it's also amazingly cheap. We booked our flight, 23 hours in advance, and paid a grand total of 55 USD per person. Try doing that in the US or in Europe and see how much that runs you.
That night, we settled on going to the Egyptian restaurant that we become fond of back in June. Surprised to see us, we exchanged pleasantries with the staff and sat down to one last meal of grilled chicken, baba ganoush (think eggplant dip) and grill vegetables. Having eaten mostly fried foods for the past month, this meal was divine! Nathalie and I had planned on going bowling or watching a movie after dinner but instead, we were too full to move. We went back to our hotel, in the Brickfields/KL Sentral neighborhood and quickly fell asleep.
Sunday 19, July: Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Thailand
The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel, prepared our bags, and got ready for one final round in KL. We checked out, dropped our bags off with the bellhop and hit the town. We weren't looking for anything in particular, we just wanted to walk for a little bit to soak in the city. Our flight was at five in the afternoon, giving us around four hours to kill. We wound up at the old market and then at the Indian restaurant where we had our first meal in Malaysia. Satisfied, we collected our bags from the hotel and hopped on the train to the airport.
Check-in was once again a breeze, and like so many times before on this trip, we cleared passport control and security then headed over to the gate. This flight was a little bit more entertaining than the last, although if I was on it a year ago, I probably wouldn't have found it as funny. As it would turn out, there were a group of friends traveling together, but were seated scattered across the plane. Intent on arranging their seats in the middle of the boarding process, they kept running up and down the aisle, blocking oncoming traffic and aggravating the normally cool flight attendants. It got to the point where one of them came on the PA and shouted "SIT DOWN!" to get the group to stop moving, at least for a few minutes.
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| KLIA 2, in Kuala Lumpur |
Once the plane started taxiing, the group was at it again, drawing more ire from the crew. After take off, the wheels had barely gone up when the crowd was out it again. Nathalie and I couldn't help but laugh, not only at the sheer stupidity of these people blatantly ignoring safety instructions, but of the crew who had become defeated in trying to get them to listen. Later on during the flight, we hit some severe turbulence. The pilot himself came on asking everyone to remain seated and to avoid going to the bathroom. Not 30 seconds later, a family of four in front of us thought it'd be a great time to have a 'group toilet' session. Fortunately, we didn't have any turbulence during their excursion, but still, it's like the people want to get hurt because they think they're somehow above the rules.
Anyhoo, two hours after taking off, we landed in a raining and humid Bangkok. When we had left Thailand in March, it was still the middle of the dry season. We never once had rain while we were there. Now, the town was drenched in downpour. We came in shortly before dusk and by the time we had cleared customs, it was already dark.
I have a love/hate relationship with Thailand. Maybe it was because it was the first country we did on this trip and I had bought into other people's perceptions of the country; ones that greatly differed from my own. However, six months of traveling has somehow hardened me up. No longer did I feel intimidated by Thais and by their admittedly hypocritical culture (full disclosure: I've discussed this with Thais and this seems to be their general consensus). This time around, I was ready.
Leaving the airport and heading towards our beloved Thonglor Playhaus Hotel, Nathalie and I didn't skip a beat. Like clockwork, we coolly found the shuttle bus to the Metro/Sky Train (we arrived at DMG a.k.a. the poor people low cost airport where there is no rail link yet). On board, there were other backpackers and tourists. Sitting anxiously hoping that they wouldn't miss the stop, they were no doubt intimidated by being in Thailand. I felt gratified in both myself and Nathalie that we were able to not only find our own way but were able to do so without any sense of hassle or rush. Seeing the stress, we told a couple of the backpackers that we were getting off at the Sky Train station.
Getting out, we headed straight from the metro and onwards to Thonglor. An hour later, we walked through the door of the awesome Playhaus Thonglor hotel. Like the day before in Kuala Lumpur, this again felt like a homecoming. For Nathalie and I, our trip really began here. It was in this hotel that we camped out from back in January and February when I had my dental problems. We knew and liked the neighborhood and the hotel staff treated us like family; a rare treat during our travels. We went out to eat at a nearby Thai restaurant, treating ourselves to what we now know as some of the best food in the region. Afterwards, we simply went to bed; both exhausted from our travel and wanting to get an excellent night's sleep before the long day ahead of us.
Monday 20, July: Bangkok to Brussels, Belgium
Here we are. The last day of our trip in Southeast Asia. We started on January 20th, exactly six months earlier. Before we would leave, though, we had the opportunity to say our final good-byes to the city where it all began. Slowly waking up from an excellent night sleep, we headed down the street to the small cafe where we'd have breakfast prior to my dental sessions. Returning to the hotel, we asked for a late checkout, getting the possibility to keep the room until six that evening. This worked out well for us as our flight wasn't until midnight and could instead spend the day relaxing.
Nathalie decided to go for one last Thai massage and while she was getting her back contorted in ways only the local masseuses know how to do, I paid one final visit to my dentist for a last checkup. It was oddly comforting to be back in that office (maybe I should speak to a psychologist about that) but there was this reassuring feeling about seeing a familiar face and chatting with someone who I had developed a bond with that made me again reassess my feeling about Thailand and once more give me another tiny bit of closure.
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| Thai breakfast of sausage and eggs |
After we finished our respective appointments, we headed back to our room for the few remaining hours we had left before checkout. Slowly moving from the bed, we packed our backpacks one final time. No longer would we pack them the same way as we had done it for the past half year. No more would we have the same items to arrange in the same way. The almost robotic motions we had programmed into our memory would no longer have to be recalled. One last time, for the road.
Check out rolls around and we make our way down to the lobby. Our friend and the hotel manager, Nez, had just begun his shift and we spent the better part of the next three hours hanging out with him near the reception and the hotel bar. Nez spent nearly 12 years in the UK and speaks English not only fluently but with a British accent as well. We chatted it up more or less nonstop, only taking a break to grab one final Pad Thai for dinner.
Our flight was at 11:55 that evening and we needed to be at the airport two hours before. Nez ordered a taxi for us, and feeling lazy, we opted to pay the 12 EUR/14 USD for the 45-minute ride in lieu of taking the 90-minute tour on public transport (which would've cost around 8 EUR/9 USD).
Arriving at the airport, we checked into our flight and killed the time waiting for boarding by walking around the terminal. The flight back was 11.5 hours long; I wanted to take every opportunity to move and stretch my legs as much as possible. Getting to the gate, we saw something we hadn't seen in nearly six months: hundreds of Belgians. While nothing wrong with that on it's own, it was definitely a big sign that indeed, we were leaving Southeast Asia and heading back to Europe. Boarding rolls around, we hop in the plane, and off we go for the longest of the four flights that we had slated for the week. Wheels go up, and we go to sleep, all whilst traversing 12 different countries and five different time zones. To be continued.
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| The Playhaus Hotel, Thonglor, Bangkok |
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