Sunday 31 March
One interesting thing that was new to me was near the end of the flight before landing, the MH crew assumed positions at the front of each cabin. A PA then came on thanking everyone for flying Malaysia Airlines and hope that they enjoyed the Malaysian Hospitality (a play on their IATA code, MH). Each crew member then bowed reverently with their hand touching their right shoulder.
At least there was no Malaysia Tourism video with cheesy song playing at full volume before landing!
On docking into gate at the KUL T1 satellite, I guess it should come to no surprise that several passengers, particularly those in Y, were hit in their bleary eyes with the full brightness from KLIA's terminal white lights. The terminal was as quite as a mouse, with next to no retailers open.
Now I had about 10 hours of transit. Of course, I
could have just stayed in the Golden Lounge the whole time, especially since there are nap areas, but like Sydney, I had other plans. But first...
Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge at KUL T1 Satellite
...it was off to the lounge for a bit of a nap and a freshen up. It was, after all, merely 0420h or so in the morning.
The Golden Lounge at the T1 Satellite is divided into two main areas: one side is for Business and
oneworld Sapphire members (like me), while the other side is for Business Suite and
oneworld Emerald members. I hadn't visited the Business/Sapphire side of the lounge since they had renovated it. It definitely looked like it had more character compared to the older lounge that used to be there.
Business/OWS side of the Golden Lounge at the KUL T1 Satellite, featuring multiple seating areas and two cooking stations...
...including this station and seating area that was set up to be a somewhat upscale version of a Peranakan dining scene.
The main central cooking area, where chefs prepare food to be placed on the buffet stations around the island, as well as a chef's station and barista station
There was no shortage of food available, ranging from hot to cold selections, and in the morning, of course many pastries, cereals and baked items. The drinks selection was much more limited. I was surprised there was no guava juice or anything else apart from orange juice, apple juice and infused water. Soft drinks were limited to Coke, Coke No Sugar and Sprite. Alcoholic drinks had to be obtained at the Sports Bar area, near the entry to the lounge.
But I wasn't too interested in eating just right now. First priority was to get a nap. There are nap areas with a limited number of recliner loungers near the rear of the lounge. Luckily one was free, so I settled in for a little kip. The nap area is not completely dark nor sound proof, and that's besides the people snoring in the area, so light sleepers are advised to take an eye mask and ear plugs or noise cancelling earbuds (but don't forget to set an alarm - no wake up calls, here).
Part of the nap area in the lounge. Of course I did not take this with the lights turned up, as the area was relatively dark. The camera and night mode took care of this.
Once I woke up, I enquired about a shower. Showers are located within each of the toilet complexes and there can be a queue for them. I had to get in line for one, whereupon I was given a buzzer. While waiting for my shower, I headed out to the Peranakan station for hopefully some tasty noodles.
Noodle bowls available at the Peranakan station, including Asam Laksa, fish ball noodle soup and a vegan noodle soup of mostly mushrooms
It may not look like much, but the asam laksa was very tasty, with a deep and flavourful stock. Some pieces of fish or even meat would have been nice, but for a quick, near instant meal, it was very good.
Asam Laksa, served with a fish-based broth, fresh onions, pineapple, mint and coughquat. Sour, spicy and savoury.
Not long after, my buzzer shook so I headed back to the shower attendant to collect a packet of towels.
The shower rooms in the lounge are a bit compact, but everything is in there - sufficiently sized shower with good pressure (and hot water, in case any of you were curious), a toilet, basin and sufficient space to hang clothes. One small gripe is that the seals on the shower area may not have been the best, because I could see a bit of water seeping out from under the shower compartment towards the rest of the room after I had finished my shower.
Shower in the Golden Lounge (Satellite)
Vanity basin
One small thing that might put some people off - the doors to the shower rooms are this wooden louvered style. Obviously this is supposed to be a nod to the architecture in Malaysia of louvered windows. Those who are concerned about their privacy should be reassured that the louvers point downwards. In other words, if someone really wanted to have a peek, they would have to be look
up the door rather than merely through it.
Louvered doors to the shower rooms
My plan after having a shower was to check out a bit of Kuala Lumpur before returning to the airport to catch my flight in the afternoon. I mentioned this to the lounge reception and she very helpfully mentioned that I could use the lockers near the reception to store most of my items so I didn't have to carry them into the city. After thanking her for her advice and storing my belongings away, I proceeded to the shuttle station at gate C5 to ride back to the main terminal building. Higher status and class of service passengers can avail themselves to a more exclusive chauffeur transfer, located at the lobby to where the Aerotrain used to be, but at least for the rest of us, there was no shortage of shuttles lining up to transport passengers back and forth. At some times of the day, cups of refreshing tea were available for passengers to drink before they took the shuttle.
At the MTB, I discovered that I could use the ePassport channel, but it actually required registration first (i.e. you register your arrival details before you use the channel). A few passengers and myself found this out, so here we all were using the airport's wifi and filling out the registration details. It took a while with the flaky reception, but I eventually showed the helpful staff that I had registered, and they confirmed, allowing me to use the ePassport gates.
It might have been quicker just to use the standard passport line in this instance, plus I would have gained a stamp (or "chop", as they say in Chinese-Malaysian English or Singlish) in my passport. Oh well.