Family time

Arriving and transit in Perth

I was out of the secure area at Perth airport about 0010. The early arrival and quick processing meant I had more time to kill for my red-eye layover. I had worked it out that it would have been pointless going to a hotel and over-nighting and trying to catch the same AirAsia X flight a day later. Waste of time and money.

I expected a 3h wait till check-in at 0340 then some more time till departure at 0640. With the flight to KL and a decent transit of 3+ hours to Kuching, I’d get there late in the afternoon, about 23h after taking off from Cocos. What a detour considering the direct distance is only 2126 km.

Many shops were closed but I managed to get a very good sandwich upstairs, attend to a bit of admin on good fast internet before having a shower. There was a little more time to kill before check-in opened. As I was amongst the first, it was quick.

I needed more food to keep me awake. Hungry Jacks beckoned. I downed it with a flat white before going through security to wait near the gate and write.

Onward to Malaysia

The plane arrived soon after daylight and turned around quickly for an on time departure to Kuala Lumpur. Once boarding trickled to an apparent halt, I shifted to a spare row in the centre block of the A330 which I managed to keep to myself for the entire flight. I had an hour lie down but didn’t sleep. It helped sufficiently to keep me reasonably fresh and awake. A second attempt at lying down only lasted about half as long.

We landed in KL on time but took an extra 15 minutes to taxi to gate. Disembarking, I noticed the man behind me had a yoga mat. I got chatting with him; even though he was completedly grey and a little wrinkled, he had an amazingly fit body. As it turned out he was 60 years old but his body said 40! He is on his way to Sri Lanka to do yoga. He is a power/vinyasa yoga teacher.

It didn’t take me long to walk the huge distances at KLIA2 and transfer through to the domestic area. After 45 mins from scheduled landing (or 30 minutes from gate), I was comfortably seated thinking about food and regretting not having booked a tighter connection to Kuching. I had booked a 3h15 connection whereas the earlier option was 1h45 which is fine if nothing goes wrong.

After a lunch of Assam Laksa and ABC, I kept myself awake and productive before boarding the flight to Kuching. It left 10 minutes late due to late arrival of the incoming flight. I saw my Kuching yoga teacher Tracy during boarding. In my sleep-deprived state I couldn’t be sure but managed to go confirm and say”Hi” before landing.

My brother and his wife picked me up from the airport and we had dinner with my niece who dropped me off at my apartment afterwards for an 11 day stay with family.  Here are some scenes from Kuching during my stay: