Post 4 : Life In Transit

G'day from Hobart!

...So it's a good couple of weeks since the last blog which was jettisoned out admist the rush and mania of our last day in the UK before we taxi'd to Stansted in time to catch our flight. I've just had a quick read of my last update (Post 3) and I think it's fair to say that my emtional state that particular day managed a pretty good imitation of Hobart's weather patterns since our arrival here on the 20th - 4 seasons in a day!!

Suffice to say it's been a very busy last couple of weeks for us. We were picked up in a taxi on the 13th of September, together with our hefty 116 kg of luggage, and we drove to Stansted in time to catch our Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. Given that we were supposed to travel with 20 kg (check-in) and 7 kg of hand baggage each ( and were therefore more than double the limits), the check-in procedure with Air Asia and with those that followed before we finally arrived at Hobart International (really?) Airport five flights later was anything but fun. As we lined-up for each check-in, we had to pysche ourselves up for serious battle and you'd have found us ripping open bags, unpacking, packing and then re-packing them, checking stuff with Left Luggage, until we had finally managed to find an optimal solution, minimising our excess baggage fees whilst checking-in successfully (without triggering a riot at the check-in counter)!

Waiting outside our Disraeli Road flat for the cab to Stansted with our 116 kg of baggage!

Needless to say, if we were ever relaxed about flying with too much stuff previously, this notion has now been well and truly beaten out of us for good.


Air Asia Review
We caught 4 flights with Air Asia and as a result, I think we came away with a fair representation of what the airline offers an economy traveller. The flights were very reasonably priced, although you do seem to have to use KL as the central hub for all international travel. Perhaps we were lucky but all 4 flights departed to schedule and arrived on time (or even ahead of schedule). I'd best describe it as the EasyJet of long haul travel, where seats can be pre-allocated online at no additional cost. But after that, you pay for pretty much everything from in-flight entertainment (about £6 for the player) to meals and drinks, although again these can be pre-booked ahead of flying. In short, we felt like we received a value for money service and would use them again - but good to be aware of what you've paid for (and what you haven't) upfront.

Anyway, we arrived into Kuala Lumpur and enjoyed a couple of days' exploring Malaysia's capital city ahead of 3 nights on the beautiful and untamed island of Langkawi...

Highlights

• Fish Spa & Reflexology - both new experiences for me and seem to be offered everywhere in KL. The Fish Spa basically involves sticking your legs (from the knee down) into an acquarium whereupon thousands of fish swarm in and feed off the excess skin until you've silky-smooth pins and tootsies.
• Para-sailing above (and island hopping around) the 99 islands that make up the archipelago of Langkawi (103 islands in fact when the tide is out).
• A new number 1 entry to my "Best Sunsets Ever" chartboard surveyed from the Babylon Beach Bar (awesome vibe and super-chilled) on Cenang Beach (Langkawi).
• Fantastic value pretty much everywhere in Malaysia (from hotels and food through to shopping and transport), eg the Royal Chulan Hotel in KL where we enjoyed 5-star service at 3-star prices.
• Wild monkeys - everywhere!!

Our experience at one of the many Fish Spa's in Kuala Lumpur

Sunset from Cenang Beach, Langkawi (outside Babylon Beach Bar)

Lowlights

• Travelling with 116 kg of baggage between the two of us.
• Missing breakfast at the Royal Chulan Hotel in KL (alarm set incorrectly). For anyone that has ever travelled with Brierlie, you may well be aware of just how important enjoying the complimentary breakfast is to her. Not a good start to the day, sends a nervous tingle up my spine to think of it...
• Entirely inexplicable laptop mal-functions (mine and Brierlie's) as soon as we took off from London. They're both in with Hobart's Hypertronics at the moment but with so much critical information stored on mine, it feels like I've lost a limb.
• And obviously, way up there is missing loved ones back in the UK ;-(

Unforced Errors

• Shopping in Kuala Lumpur despite being ridiculously over-weight (baggage) before we even touched down.
• Setting our alarm for 8.30 on what we thought was a 24-hour clock (and missing Royal Chulan's incredible and complimentary breakfast).

So to bring you up to date, we arrived from our adventures in Malaysia into Hobart early last week and since that time it's been seriously full-on and a hazy blur as we have studiously worked through out-of-control To-Do lists, ranging from sorting out bank accounts, tax file numbers (like National Insurance), settling in our new home (currently living with Craig, Brierlie's dad in his beautiful but uniquely eccentric house in Sandy Bay), looking for a car, fixing up phones (ongoing...), sorting out Medicare (equivalent of NHS), driving licenses, joining gyms, catching up and seeing friends and family... not to mention getting stuck in at the Drunken Admiral with gusto! We worked our first two shifts at the DA on Friday and Saturday nights - not the gentlest of starts however, doing over 140 covers on each night.

I will save a proper update on life here in Hobart so far and at the Drunken Admiral for my next update as my head's still spinning.

View over the river Derwent from Craig's house in Sandy Bay (Hobart)

...And to finish off, I'll include a random monkey shot - one of the 1,686 we took whilst we were staying on Langkawi.