2 posts tagged “travel”

This is cool beyond belief (thank you to O'Reilly Radar's Brady Forrest for writing about it). For example, here's a map showing the ridiculousness of US-style hub-and-spoke flying arrangements (unless you book enough in advance, or pay more, to get more direct routes), if you live in a remote place like Bloomington, Indiana (as yours truly do):

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday, after my Air Asia flight got delayed, initially by two hours (6 PM -> 8:05 PM), which they were nice enough to announce via text message (not e-mail, though, which caught a friend out a few days earlier). Got to the airport early, just in case there's traffic, and was just settling in with a newspaper at a departure lounge when suddenly at around half past six there was an erroneous announcement that the flight is now boarding. It was not -- the departure lounge was not even open yet!

Uneventful flight -- apart from a further half an hour delay in boarding (plane has not even arrived by the revised departure time) and another half an hour or so waiting for a take-off slot. The low-cost terminal was surprisingly decent, and arriving at night means short lines at immigration. First time since secondary school Malay oral exam that I have to use Malay for official business, and do Malaysians speak faster than Singaporean Malays!

Had a late night/early morning bak kut teh, and did a bit of sightseeing/shopping today. Malaysian transport infrastructure is surprisingly good -- the highways, and the LRT monorail, which unfortunately does not extend much beyond the city centre yet. The centre does get congested, but that's unavoidable, I guess. Saw a bus from a curious company, Durian Burung, but alas I forgot my camera. Some other time...