Above: Meals were included in my fare for less than what I would have paid on a budget airline.
Leaving Kuching
I didn’t want to bother my brother for a ride to the airport today. Being Sunday, it was his only day for a ride into the countryside with his mates. I had planned on taking a taxi because Uber seemed to be nearly non-existent in Kuching in the past. A taxi had cost MYR50+ before.
I thought I’d give Uber a chance. I looked on the map and they had no cars around but placed an order anyway. Surprisingly, someone took the job and was at my doorstep within 5 minutes. The 18km ride cost me MYR16 (USD4).
The driver was a KL Malay married to a local Malay, working in a government laboratory and sidelining on Uber nights and weekends trying to feed two kids. He was so nice and chatty I just wanted to give him a little extra. He declined but I left MYR5 with him. I’m not from a tipping culture but when I did give it, it is from the heart.
Today I fly Malindo Air to KL connecting to Perth. I had chosen a longer connection as I’ve often seen delays and cancellations on the monitors when in KLIA. While my check-in went smoothly, I noticed that the later flight to KL (the standard/shortest) connection had been cancelled. I checked with the ground staff what would have happened if I had booked on that flight to connect to Perth. He said they would have tried to transferred me to the earlier connection. As the earlier flight (my booked one) was full, they would have put me in a hotel. I’d probably be at least a day late.
Malindo was a lot cheaper than AirAsia X for this date and also included 30kg of baggage (which I didn’t use at all) and meals. This confirmed my suspicion that if Malindo was only slightly cheaper, it wouldn’t be worth the risk.
We departed Kuching on time. A sausage bun and a mini muffin was provided for the domestic flight. Coincidentally I managed to catch a friend in KL while on transit. He was on his way back from Lombok and we had a short catch-up before I moved to the international Plaza Premium lounge for some food.
Back to Perth again!
We had on-time departure to Perth on Malindo’s B737-800. As today was my first experience with this “hybrid” (low cost, light full service) airline, I was interested in what they included as meals. We were presented crackers and water to start followed by a chicken, vege and rice meal as standard. No choice was offered but I hear they keep some vegetarian meals as a backup. Drinks were boxed orange cordial or fizzy.
We jiggled most of the way to Perth. I was hungry a few hours later and asked if I could buy some food. The crew offered me a yummy “chicken steak” (fried pieces of chicken breast) with black pepper sauce. I must say both meals were both very generous with meat. Just before landing, they came out with drinks and two tiny packaged cookies.
We landed a little before midnight, some 25 mins ahead of schedule. I exited Perth airport very swiftly once again, to find the bus to town had just left. I waited a little just to be sure before returning into the terminal. To make use of the time, I brushed my teeth and freshened up so I could go straight into bed upon arrival at the hostel.
The last bus did arrive as indicated on the schedule (some staff thought it didn’t operate on Sun night aka Mon morning).