Firm travel to Kuala Lumpur
The Kuching Marathon started at 0100 this morning and goes until well after daylight for the stragglers. I felt sorry for the participants as it rained heavily through the night.
Afraid of road closures, I set off for the airport at 0745. With no hassles on the road I got the airport about 0815, some 2h30 before my 1045 flight to Kuala Lumpur. There was a 15 min wait in the queue to check-in, which isn’t too bad as it can sometimes be hellish.
Airside quickly, I killed over an hour before boarding. The Malaysia Airlines flight departed 15 mins early and arrived 25 mins early. Despite a 15 min walk to the carousel, I had to wait a further 20 mins for my luggage.
For a country of people who still don’t wear motorcycle helmets or car seatbelts, about 99% of people are still masked up indoors and inflight. That’s despite no longer being mandatory.
I have about 10h between my arrival and my standby to Istanbul and onwards to Baku. With 3h check-in prior, the time went reasonably fast with walking, admin, paying bills, fixing IT issues and a meal mid-afternoon.
Standby to Istanbul
There was already a small queue (and large groups in separate queues) when I arrived at Turkish Airlines’ check-in area about 3h15 prior to my departure. This is the first night they have two flights to Istanbul since he pandemic, I believe. Lucky for me travelling on standby. Very impressively, they had 19 counters open (plus a service desk and supervisor’s desk) for the two flights.
The check-in agent checked me in, reviewing my Azerbaijan visa, exit ticket from Azerbaijan and told me to return at 2100, which was 1h20 prior to the scheduled departure.
I had hoped to be given a boarding pass straight away, seeing that there were some 40 spare seats 10 days ago. My hope for having a shower in the lounge before departure was dashed.
I wandered the airport to kill about 90 mins and saw that that the queue had disappeared about 10 mins before the specified time of 2100. The lady dressed in Turkish Airlines uniform authorised the check-in agent to release the unsold seat to me and I finally had a boarding pass.
Despite having been told at my first interaction that my luggage would be sent to Istanbul only, I was pleasantly surprised to be told during the second interaction that it can be sent all the way to Baku. However, if I wasn’t able to be accepted for the flight to Baku, then I could collect it in Istanbul.
The extra 10 mins meant that I had the opportunity of a shower and some fruit in the lounge before heading to the gate. Boarding had already commenced and by the time I made it past gate security, they were calling for my zone near the front of the aircraft.
Onboard, finally
I had broken out in a rush of sweat on my walk to the gate and this continued on board while waiting for departure. I then realised that the body-wash supplied in the lounge was probably highly moisturising.
Even though the aircraft closed up before our scheduled time, it was a 10 min wait before we pushed back. An announcement was given by a woman captain, who was one of two captains on board tonight.
The unfriendly man in the aisle seat moved, giving me two seats to myself. It made for a pleasant flight. Unlike in Malaysia, most onboard (passengers and crew) were unmasked.
There was a Malaysian Chinese woman a couple of rows in front of me who had a small dog (wearing a nappy) in a carrier. Not many airlines in the region allow this and it raised a few eyebrows with Malaysian Muslim passengers.