The Long Way Home from Malaysia

After a bit of a sleep in, I get myself ready to check out. Because I don’t leave Malaysia until the evening, I arrange with the hotel to hold my bags. This way I can roam the city a bit more freely. After sorting out  everything with the hotel, I head out for some brunch/lunch.

Ho Kow Hainam Kopitiam

My Malaysian friend had recommended a great spot to eat, so I hop on a train and make my way to Ho Kow Hainam Kopitiam. When I arrive, I see that its already very busy. Leaving my name in their system, the wait takes a good 45 minutes! After settling into my spot I have a look at their menu. I really like the “newspaper” style of the menu. It makes browsing through the items more fun and actually makes the food offerings more appetizing too!

I make my selections which includes two dim sum dishes and a Nasi Lemek. It doesn’t take too long for all the food to arrive and being as hungry as I am, I devour all of it! All of the items I order taste wonderful and overall I enjoy the entire dining experience! I think the only thing I don’t enjoy is the wait, especially on a hot day I can see it being a bit uncomfortable! But other than that I would give this spot a solid thumbs up!

Exploring Kuala Lumpur

With a full belly I set off to wander around the city a little more. I end up stumbling upon some nicely decorated streets (near the restaurant). I also get a reminder that on this side of the world, Christmas typically happens in hot summer temperatures!

One of the things I did want is to find a souvenir or something I could bring back and share with my coworkers. So I end up at the Suria Mall. While the mall is a nice mall with high end stores (like a few I’ve seen this trip already), I wouldn’t say its anything spectacular. What I did find interesting is a small McDonald’s Ice Cream stand serving a “McDip”. I may be sheltered when it comes to McDonalds, but I don’t recall seeing this back at home or in other places, so I figure why not try one. I end up with the Mango McDip and given its a hot sunny day in Malaysia, it really hits the spot.

After an hour or two at the mall, I make my way to the food court because one thing I still needed to check off my list is to have Roti. We always order it at home and its a favorite. So I want to compare it to the real thing here in Malaysia. Roti is this deep fried flat bread that you dip in a bowl of curry and is delicious! It does not fail to disappoint and makes for a wonderful afternoon snack.

Good Bye Kuala Lumpur

Soon it’s time for me to head back to my hotel to pick up my bags. Thankfully, I’m also to make use of their shower facilities before heading to the airport. After freshening up, I take the short walk from the hotel to the train station and hop on the airport express back to the airport. I only have a few minutes to pop into the Plaza Premium Lounge to grab a bottle of water before its time to board. It’s a short 45 minute flight, but being able to snag the extra leg room emergency exit is always a nice feeling!

Changi Jewel

I have another overnight layover in Changi Airport. However unlike the first time, I need to exit security and eventually make my way to the new Terminal 4 building. (Which is separate from the main airport). Fortunately, this means I also get to visit the “Jewel” which is this large entertainment / shopping complex attached to the airport. In my research I have read its a worthwhile visit on layovers and even for many locals. So my intention is to explore it and see what’s up! Unfortunately, I still don’t have “too much” time since my flight arrived later in the evening. So, I quickly hustle over and spend an hour or two walking around the area.

In the centre of the complex is this beautiful circular waterfall surrounded by greenery in a huge open area. There are light and music shows that happen in the evening, however I arrived too late to catch them.  In addition to missing the shows, I also have limited food options open to me and I end up grabbing a roast chicken noodle dish from one of the food court stalls. Thankfully, I’m back here again in February of 2020 and I intend to allot time to explore the Jewel in its entirety!

Overnight in Changi Terminal 4

Eventually most of the stores and amenities begin to close at the Jewel and I make my way over to Terminal 4 via a shuttle bus. Changi’s Terminal 4 is a brand new terminal and upon entering you almost get that “new car smell” from it. Its a pretty terminal and has some cool little features of its own! This includes a part of the wall that looks like its just part of the façade, but is actually a screen that periodically has a small “show” that runs!

There is also a cool spot that has these free arcades setup that plays different older video games.

After walking around a little, I do end up at the Blossom lounge where I plan to rest for the night. It’s a nice lounge on the second floor of the terminal and has some nice laksa food options and a few great pods to sleep in. So I settle in for a few hours of rest only to wake to a pretty lovely morning at Changi airport.

To Hong Kong and Home

With a early morning flight to Hong Kong, I make my way to my gate where I’m again able to snag a comfy bulkhead seat.

HKG American Express Centurion Lounge

I don’t have a long layover in Hong Kong but I do have time to visit the Centurion lounge again. This time, my intention is to use their shower facilities before the 13 hour flight home.  After putting my name down, I eventually get in and am happy with how nice it’s setup. I’m always a fan of lounges with showers and will try to partake whenever I have the chance!

Hong Kong to Vancouver

Feeling somewhat human again, I head to my gate for my flight home. Initially, I was excited for this flight. Being able to select a bulkhead seat again, the extra leg room would be appreciated on this longer flight. On my outbound flight I found the experience to be pleasant and couldn’t find any issues.

However, on this return flight, I didn’t expect these bulkhead seats to be so narrow. Because these are bulkhead seats, the tray table is stored in the armrest. This makes the armrest inflexible, almost like a solid wall. So with normal armrests, there is a bit of “wiggle room” under them, these seats do not. What compounds this further is the remote control for the inflight entertainment is mounted to the inside of the armrest. So while I’m already a little wider than average, the inability to shift around made for a fairly uncomfortable flight. Add to this my hips rubbing up against the remote, and often throughout the flight, my movies would unexpectedly stop. So my advice is, if you value seat width more than legroom in an economy class seat. You may be better served avoiding the Cathay New Economy bulkheads. While I didn’t take a photo of it, I did find a good photo of this seat from Business Traveller.

I will say though that past the seat issue, the rest of the flight is still pretty good. The food offerings are good and the inflight service is pleasant! Seeing as this is the tail end of a fairly whirlwind 48 hours of travel, all I did was watch a few episodes of Chernobyl before sleeping for most of the flight.

Home

Soon the flight attendants were readying the cabin for descent into Vancouver. After a smooth landing I was home! Thus ending my quick week long trip to Thailand and Malaysia. As always, I am always happy to be home and thankful I have the means and ability to travel. I’ll do a quick wrap up for this trip in my next post. I believe Gimpy will also share her thoughts on the short time we spent together in Thailand!