12/31/2016

#TouchseGoesAsia tour: Koh Samui - Kuala Lumpur

...and it's time to move on...

My #TouchseGoesAsia trip's blog posts have covered so far

Blog Post 1: 
My first leg; long-haul flight by Finnair from Helsinki to Bangkok on A350 plane's business class, simply fantastic experience - as always, please feel free to enjoy the trip with me by reading about it here:


Read it if you want to get the sense of luxury they offer to their valued passengers!



Blog Post 2:
Arrival and stay at My happy place, Nikki Beach Koh Samui Beach Club Resort, Part I, feel free to join me, by reading about it here:

TouchseGoesAsia - Blog Post 2:Nikki Beach Koh Samui





Blog Post 3:
Now, on this blog post I will tell you about my
trip from Koh Samui to Kuala Lumpur...

With me even a simple journey from one destination to another can turn into an adventure! I guess that is why you guys like reading my blogs, you never know what's happening next - well, neither do I!

Here we go!


Time to say good bye...
I had enjoyed my time at Nikki Beach as always, 6 days of excellent service and rest. 

Unfortunately, it was time to move on to my next destination, namely to Kuala Lumpur. 

My flight departure time was at 10 am from Koh Samui airport, which by the is one the nicest airports I've seen.

I decided to go to the airport early since I knew that there will be fuss due to my excess luggage.

Linda from Nikki Beach drove with me to the airport, which I loved as we finally had some time to catch up.. It is always bitter sweet to leave Koh Samui and especially Nikki Beach.

I always love my stay and those amazing people there, but at the same time, heading to some place new is also so very exciting.



Check-in and some suitcase problems…
We arrived to the airport, got a trolley for my bags and even managed to fit in all my luggage! Now to the check-in counter, to face the challenge No 1.

Let me tell you, check-in at Koh Samui isn't like in other airports, here so many staff members are asking you questions, hassling around, with poor English skills.. at times you wonder if this person in front of me is even one of the employees... After all these years of tourism one would think that airport would function like well-oiled machine.. but no, not really – not when departing. Arrivals are a totally different story, no problems, not once.

So, I told them how many bags I had (1 suitcase, 2 sports bags, I carry on bag and my handbag) and they told me I have to pay 80 USD extra for the excess weight, which I knew already, so no worries there. 

I checked in the luggage and then I had to follow one of the airline employees to the terminal area, wherein their office was located in order to pay the actual fee. Not sure whether he was in a hurry or trying to loose me in purpose but I basically had to run over all the other passengers to keep an eye on him while he rushed through the airport, did he ask if I needed assistance with my belongings or use the ladies room etc.? No. He was plane ignorant.

Ladies at the office were nice, no worries there and I got that sorted and went to the gate. Right before I was about to get into mini trolley/van that takes passengers to the plane, that same man stops me and says: "Excuse me."
Yes, I said.

"Is this your bag?" and shows me a photo of my favorite fuchsia colored suitcase on his phone. (I'm thinking, ok, what now, don't want to miss my flight, please...)
I was so confused. I responded: Yes, that is my bag, what's wrong?


Who.broke-what?

With this kind of judgmental voice he says:
"Madam, it is broken, you checked it in broken."
  
HOLD ON, WAIT A MINUTE! Say what now? ...I said.
(and at the same time, inside of my head, there were much more worse words than those, I admit..)

I told the guy that I most certainly did not check-in a broken bag. If my bag was broken, I’d get a new one. So try again.

He said that there is nothing that can be done about it at this stage as my plane was ready board. Then, he told me that I need to go to "Lost and found" office at Kuala Lumpur airport and explain the situation there. So I asked if I could have the photo of the bag, but he said that he deleted it after he showed it to me. Right... of course it was deleted as it would have helped me a lot to explain the situation at the other end.
This tower stands at Koh Samui Airport and as you can see,
 there is "Singapore" sign up on the right.

Let me tell you, based on what I saw on this photo, my bag was totally broken, as in nearly in pieces. And it was a big, hard suitcase. I was quite nervous and wondering whether my belongings will be inside the bag once I see it next time, which will be in Kuala Lumpur 8 hrs later! 

Namely, I flew there via Singapore, which means that my bag is going to go through the Singapore airport proceedings as well... more tossing around.. oh no...!






Deep breaths & positive thinking

I was upset for a moment. 
Then I took a deep breath and decided not to worry about it yet as there was simply nothing I could do about it now. So I got to the mini car (not sure what to call these vehicles) and got into the plane. 



Flights...

It was Singapore Airlines' flight and as always, the service was excellent. The flight attendants are always so kind, attentive, happy to help and serve you and what I especially appreciate is their excellent English skills. Planes are always in excellent condition, clean and well maintained and the staff's appearance always on par - love it! It's like flying in business class in an economy; service is almost at the same level that in some business classes even though seats are in economy. 

I have many food allergies for which reason I barely eat on flights but on their flights I even found something I was able to eat. This was only 1 hr flight, and yet, I almost wish it was longer as their service is so pleasant, and also, since the plane wasn't full, I had two seats for myself, so plenty of space.

(Off topic, I have to tell you, now that I'm writing this, the travel bug itch is getting worst, my wanderlust is getting out of control! I'm at the moment planning my next years trip but for the first time I haven't booked any flights yet and it feels horrible, traveling has really become a big part of my life, it's difficult to explain to someone who doesn't share the same passion.
Thank God, most of you do! For me traveling is like sports to some, simply can't live without.)

Ok... back to my trip: 
 Singapore views from the plane...













Plane landed, I had few hours in Singapore, Changi airport, which I love since it's clean, logical, friendly and simply very comfortable.



There was still one Singapore Airlines' flight left in order for me to get to Kuala Lumpur. This second flight was as pleasant and nice as the first leg was, no complaints at all. Thank you Singapore Airlines!





...and welcome to Kuala Lumpur airport – an adventure of its own!

Ok folks, has anyone of you been to Kuala Lumpur? If not, prepare yourself for a huge airport! There are actually two separate airports; KLIA1 and KLIA2. (So if you are travelling there and planning the either meet someone, have arranged transportation, or are going to continue with another airline, make sure you are at the right terminal!)

I arrived to KLIA1 as KLIA2 is for low cost airlines.

However, even KLIA 1 is big enough so that you need to take a train to another building wherein all the baggage claims were.


Panic in the train

So I walked quite a bit in order to get to the train station, the train arrived and I jumped in. It was such a hot day and despite the (poor) air con the train was quite hot and the humidity was noticeable. The train arrived to the station, everyone was ready to get out but… what?! Wait a minute, why is everyone still in here? Get out folks (I screamed inside my head, not out loud, of course not!)

 There were double doors there; train doors and the those doors that actually allow you the access to the train station's platform.

Unfortunately, doors on the platform's side opened. I tried to stay cool... Not managing very well. I started to panic, I’ve never liked closed spaces, such as elevators etc. places where DOORS CAN GET STUCK!
…and of course, there I was.
I was trying to breath in, breath out.
Took my phone, turned it on, tried to do something with it to distract myself so that I wouldn’t get into total panic mode. On a scale 1-10 I was somewhere around 5-6 at this point. Especially since everyone else seemed to get a bit restless as well, and we all know that panic creates panic.
There were no seats, felt as if we were running out of air, but that was just because it was so hot, I had nothing to drink… we were there only probably for 5 minutes but it felt like an hour. Finally one of the train’s 4 doors opened and people walked out. Aaaw.. Fresh air! I’m saved!

…well, so I thought until I saw the sign towards the customs and then around the corner all those people.

(Too bad I didn't dare to photograph this as didn't know whether it was allowed or not.)


Customs, not a walk in the park...

The customs line was insane, there were hundreds of people waiting to get into the country. Unfortunately, not until I was leaving the country I heard that in order to avoid the line you should basically run out of the plane as that way you may be able to get to the beginning of the line, instead of being of the last one of those hundreds of other passengers. (Although, most likely I was there because I was stuck in the train!)

There are separate counters for people that are Malaysians, separate counters for First & Business Class passengers etc. and then there were maybe 4 counters for us; the ordinary people, which, naturally, was the majority of those hundreds of passengers.

I guess there just wasn't enough of those counters and due to that those lines started to pile up. People started to get a bit annoyed, normally I wouldn't mind that much as it's all part of traveling, sometimes you just need to wait, but in this case I was getting nervous because
a) I wasn't sure if my belongings were touring around the airport's baggage claim as they may have fallen out of my broken bag
b) I knew I need to sort it all out with Lost and Found office before I get anywhere
c) and because I had made airport transportation arrangements with my hotel and they were supposed to meet me after the landing, i.e. 5.15 pm and at 6.30 pm I was still on the customs line...
d) I only had less than 2 days in this country so didn't want to spend that time at the airport!

However, to my joy I had two elderly gentlemen from New Zealand standing next to me on the line and we had such a nice chat while slowly approaching those custom counters... without them it would have been insanely boring as I didn't even have my internet passwords, couldn't read as had to focus.

By the way, these gents had had very cheap flights to Kuala Lumpur and they told that if they had paid about 30 USD more, they could have had business class seats but since it was such a short flight they didn’t feel the need. Now that they saw that there was no queue to business class counters… well, let's just put it this way; they certainly regretted saving that 30 USD!

In general I do like being at the airports, especially in a new country. It's amazing and wonderful to notice so many different cultures and people, all at the same space, all waiting for the same thing; to get that stamp to your passport and get into that country. 

I finally got all those entering the country formalities sorted and with very quick steps (tried not to run, maintaining my dignity, or what was left after the flights, panic and the line…) I walked towards the "Baggage claim" signs, wondering where my luggage might be after all that waiting and what’s the condition of my broken bag...


Reuniting with my luggage - finally!

Finally I got to the baggage claim and found my luggage already on the floor, and 3 staff members standing around them, one of them talking to a phone, two of them standing around looking a bit confused.
I walked to them and told them, these are my luggage, and asked if there is a problem or are they here because they’ve been here unsupervised for such a long time. The answer I got was: “Yes.”

Ok, let me think, “Yes” to what? I showed them the broken suitcase and I explained them what had happened in Koh Samui. Apparently they understood English better than they spoke as they actually guided me and my trolley full of luggage to their Lost and Found office.


Lost & Found fiasco
At this point it just all of a sudden came to my mind, wait a second, I’m here in Kuala Lumpur less than 48 hrs, how an earth I manage to get a new bag to replace the broken one… Ok, let’s talk to these officers first, maybe they can help me with it. 
Oh, how naive of me, I realized about an hour later.

I consider myself quite good if not even excellent in solving problems, even quite well known for it, so I was confident that things will be sorted out. That’s the salt and pepper of traveling, sometimes things just happen that are out of your control and you just have to adjust, and work on them under the given circumstances.


Chaos and No Trolleys!

Once I saw the class doors of the L&F office I realized what a chaos there was. There were bags all over the floor, and it all seemed very unorganized to me who is, indeed, very organized.
I had just packed everything I had with me for my 4 week’s tour around Asia to my trolley, and was about to enter the office when I saw the sign “NO TROLLEYS INSIDE!”

Of course, let’s not make things easy. Let’s make it a bit challenging!

Right, and what am I supposed to do now?
Leave all my belongings, worth thousands of euros outside the office unguarded?
There was no way I’d do that.

So I asked one of the employees of the office to come outside.
This person had no idea what I was talking about, luckily his colleague, lovely lady (whose name I forgot) spoke relatively good English so I explained her the situation, which was to say the least, tricky; I couldn’t even enter their office if I can’t bring my trolley in, and I had a broken suitcase that was their responsibility, I had no time to get a new one, my driver had been waiting for me for over 2 hrs by now and so on…
This sweet lady just simply moved some of the bags from the floor and told me I can bring in my trolley, just to put it on the side so that it's not on the way. Ok, maybe this will be easier than I feared. Oh, how wrong I was!


Step 1: Call the driver

So, the first thing I did was I asked if someone could give a call to my hotel so that they can send a message to my driver that I'll be LATE, as in very much late. I might have gone insane without this English-speaking lady - or I'd still be there. She asked me for my hotel's name and when they heard it I guess they took me a bit more seriously as it was one of the best hotels in town; Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur.

She got the message to the driver, one worry less for me; the driver will wait for me as long as necessary – well, that’s the type of service said hotel offered for the entire stay, i.e. excellent.

Step 2: "No fix 1 day"

 I had to fill up all kinds of forms relating to broken suitcase.
(I noticed that the English-speaking lady had disappeared…)

 After all the paperwork they told me they get the suitcase repaired.

Let me tell you, it was literally in pieces, there was no way in hell (pardon my English, I was getting quite frustrated) it could be fixed and I told them that and also explained that I'll be going to next country day after tomorrow, so there’s no time for me to find a replacement, to which they answered; “Madam, bag no fix in 1 day.”
(I said, in my head: Daaahh, I know!! That is what I just said!) Outloud I said; Yes, I know. Kindly.


Step 3; Good idea!

Now what? Well, lots of discussions between the staff, and there were about 10 people there, trying to fix the problem.... or at least that’s what I hoped they were doing.

About 10 - very frustrating - minutes later a man with very poor English told me that “May you take one bag here.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant. He showed me one suitcase on the shelf and said, you take that? After taking a closer look at the suitcase I thought, finally, a good idea, as the suitcase was slightly bigger than the broken one and it was brand new, still with all the guarantee tags etc. on it. Didn’t know why they had one of those there among all the lost bags but I didn’t ask because I was pretty sure they didn’t know it either.


Step 4: Not a smart suggestions on their part

Man with poor English skills, presumably some type of supervisor said: You pur things from this (pointed my broken bag) to this (pointed the new one) here.
I looked around, the place was full of people, bags, pure chaos.

Me: “No, sorry, but no. I will not empty all my personal belongings here in front of everyone. Do you have an office back there (they had offices there) that I could use to do it?
I guess he understood as he said: “No, you put it here.”

…at this point I was about to loose my sh.. oh, sorry patience. I asked if they could get that English-speaking lady back. I refused to go any further with their plans before she gets back as it was so difficult to explain a bunch of men why I don’t want to show all my personal items to all of them. That was so disrespectful on their behalf. Luckily that lady came back after they called her!


Step 5: The talk – woman to woman

I explained her the situation; that I didn’t feel comfortable to spread all my items here in front of everyone and that since I had plenty of them, considering that my (broken) suitcase's items were in total 23 kg, it would take a long time to properly pack them into the new one etc.
She seemed to understand me, completely, and was very sympathetic.

Now they discussed it - again - for a while. Then she suggested that I take both suitcases to my hotel and they send someone to get the broken one once it's empty (they needed it as evidence or something), I could just leave the broken one to concierge's desk.

Finally! I could kiss this woman, she was clearly the smart one. Naturally I said, gladly, “YES, please, that sounds excellent!”

So she said her goodbyes and I was ready to leave; took everything out of my trolley, which was quite full already and started to rearrange all of my bags so that also the new suitcase would fit in, being more than ready to leave that chaotic airport.
(Funny enough, the airport was very clean and quite nice if you just looked at it!)


Step 6: No, no!

Suddenly that same man comes back and says: "No, no, you no take bag to hotel, you change here."

Ok, is he joking? I will literally go nuts, about right now!
At this point my patience was gone, I had none left, none.

I bet my look was freezing when I told him;

“No. The lady said I can take both suitcases to my hotel and I will do that because I want to get to my VERY EXPENSIVE hotel now. I don’t have time for this anymore.”
(For your information; I articulated in a polite voice, with a smile, which didn’t reach all the way to my eyes though, so I guess he realized I was being quite serious about it at that point…and also, I spoke  v-e-r-y   s-l-o-w-l-y  so that he would understand me better, as I have a habit of talking fast and a lot – just like when I’m writing..)

I think he understood most of what I was saying but still was not agreeing with me, and yet, at the same time he seemed as if he was a bit hesitant to disagree.
To be honest, at that point even I wouldn’t have wanted to disagree with me, it was quite obvious that I had had it.

I simply decided to ignore him and packed everything to my trolley and at this point, English speaking lady returned (yay!!!) so I asked her if she was kind enough to explain the situation to his colleague AGAIN as he doesn't seem to get it.

That she did and it seemed that in her opinion it was all good, however, the man seemed to feel as if us, 2 women had just walked all over him, based on his passive aggressive behavior. I felt he was upset but to be honest, didn't care anymore.
I didn’t realize it until then that maybe this was about his dignity, women were not supposed to decide, it was not about serving the customer the best way possible. How foolish!


Out and into good hands

Phew! 

Finally, I got out of there, me and my very FULL trolley.

I walked towards the exit sign and what a relief it was to see my driver right outside the exit door…
At that point I knew that now I'm in good hands as these men (driver and his assistant) work for Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, so I'm sure they know what is hospitality and how to treat guests, and I was so right!

It took over 3 hrs to get out of that airport...

On the left, my very full trolley after the extra suitcase was also in it. On the right, the exit of the airport.


...but it was worth it as my visit to Kuala Lumpur was incredible and I can't wait to get back - despite of the airport action.

You get to find out more about my fabulous visit to this amazing hotel soon as my next blog post will be all about my visit to Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur. There will be plenty of photos and also links to my Youtube videos showing hotel views and surrounding areas. Trust me, that blog post is absolutely worth reading!

This one was a long one, a lot happened considering that this was just one stop at one airport, but hey, that’s traveling, things happen and they you just sort them out!

Keep reading, keep traveling, keep smiling!


#Wanderlust rules!

xoxo! 😘😘


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