Above: My Nasi Padang in Melbourne.
Flying to Malaysia
I fly out to Malaysia tonight at 2330. Julia dropped me off at their local station early and I headed into the city for a wander. It was the first day of good stable weather I’ve had in Melbourne.
I couldn’t resist having an Indonesian meal, this time opting for rendang, dendeng and silverbeet in coconut milk.
I took the Skybus around 1930, getting to the airport around 2000. I joined the already significant queue immediately and the counters opened shortly after, some 3h15 prior to departure.
Many people had lots of luggage and there was considerable rework for them to repack or go pay for their excess luggage beforehand.
An Indian couple was offered the chance to remove 3kg from their checked-in luggage and carry it by hand, because they had hardly any cabin baggage. They declined but were happy to pay AUD100 for the excess baggage. I wish I had money like that to throw around.
After an hour, my check-in was completed. Going airside was easy with high-tech scanners, meaning that laptops and liquids etc could remain in the bags.
I had over an hour at the Marhaba lounge. They had a selection of small savoury pies in the warmer and various hot dishes, seemingly all made from mince (beef, lamb). I had a couple of pies, some fruit and pastry before chilling.
Boarding for my Malaysia Airlines didn’t start till quite late so I was surprised that we closed up and pushed back on time!
My airfare
Everyone seems to be complaining about how expensive airfares are right now, as the world opens up after the pandemic. Lucky me, I bought up large in April and got some bargains.
This trip just meant to go to the Caucasus and use up my SGD250 Singapore Airlines cheapie from Istanbul to Penang. But when a friend Boo invited me to go hiking with him in Nepal, I investigated options.
Fares from Malaysia (where I expected to be) to Nepal were pricey at around NZD645 return and later increased to about NZD800.
However, from Australia, it was about only around NZD1090 (AUD1000) for about triple the flying time. Malaysia Airlines’ booking engine was quite clever in pricing four domestic add-ons to the itinerary so I wouldn’t have to “self-connect” either with them or with another airline.
So, I purchased for NZD1378 (AUD1264) an itinerary that went MEL-xKUL-KCH//PEN-xKUL-KTM-xKUL-KCH-xKUL-SYD.
For those who are interested, it was priced as a return longhaul fare from Australia to the Subcontinent plus two sets of domestic roundtrips. The booking engine was a little sensitive and if I had changed the order of the stops, it would price it as a longhaul fare from Australia to Malaysian domestic cities plus a hefty add-on to the subcontinent, plus another domestic roundtrip.