Part 9: Paris - Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta - Denpasar - Sydney
Here's a very belated conclusion to this report. Unfortunately time away meant time away from work and commitments back home, do I returned to an overwhelming storm of things to do. Oh well.
I spent the night at the Basel Hilton. No upgrade, but a nice room on the executive floor with a view of the park and a pleasant stay. Would gladly return to both the hotel and the city.
With no TGV booking with Eurail pass realistically feasible it was a long and convoluted series of local and regional trains to Paris. Train changes were at Strasbourg, Nancy, Bar Le Duc, Paris Est, Paris Nord with underground from there back to CDG. All trains except the underground were quick and comfortable. More than happy not to spend any time in Paris. Spent the night in the CDG Hilton. It is a short walk from the terminal (forget which one, but the one where the LCCs etc operate from. It is via a covered walkway most of the way. The Hilton is nice, very comfortable. Lounge and breakfast were fine. Would stay there again, although the Sheraton is more convenient with entry from inside the airport terminal.
In the morning very quick and easy to get to the correct terminal for my MH flight to KUL.
Long travellator at CDG. I enjoyed these:
Check in was ok, but the staff were pretty rude. A woman at the next counter was noisily complaining about how unpleasant the MH check in staff were being. It was quick enough, and security was also fine so I was soon enjoying the underwhelming lounges that I had access to.
1. Icare Lounge. I had access to this thanks to Priority Pass membership. It was basic, but comfortable enough and quiet. Very small with a nice view of some bamboo in a courtyard outside. Here is a view of some seating and the self-service drinks area:
2. MH uses the Air France Premier Lounge. It is pretty similar to the Icare lounge, but bigger. With an A380 flight about to leave it was very, very crowded and noisy. Kids running around too. I didn't spend long here.
The design of CDG means you are more or less trapped once you have gone to your gate lounge. Luckily there were good views of the tarmac and planes to pass the time. It was crowded. Took some photos while I waited and then took advantage of priority boarding to get on first, which gave me a chance to take a couple of pictures of the upstairs J cabin in the A380. Before long the cabin was full. Will post photos soon, limited to 5/post.
Seat was nice, meals and IFE all good. I read a book and slept and the flight was over all too soon. To be honest, I couldn't tell much significant difference between MH F and MH J. More crowded cabin, bigger seat and more personal space/privacy perhaps.
Landing at KUL there was a really annoying kid, about 10, screaming uncontrollably at the pain in her ears. I got the impression it was the first discomfort that one had ever encountered in her life. Back in my day we used to just suck on a lolly and shut up. Her mother was working hard to console her, but crew ignored it. Guess they did have important things to do.
Spent some time at the KUL lounge before the short flight over to Jakarta from where I had to transfer to the domestic terminal and fly on to Denpasar on Air Asia. J in this short-haul MH flight was a bit below the standard of domestic J in Australia. The newspaper I got upon boarding had a front page story about how turbulance can cause a plane to disintegrate. I think it was about the missing Air Asia plane.
It was hard to figure out at Jakarta how to transfer, but found the bus eventually. Standing room only for the short , free journey. It leaves from the curb just outside arrivals. One must ignore the swarms of taxi touts who'll claim that the domestic terminal is a very long, and expensive, way away. It isn't.
Passed the time at the Domestic terminal searching for the Priority Pass lounge that was supposed to be there. It wasn't, it is fictional. So long wait, no lounge, but all their multiple security-tax-etc stops do help pass time.
The Air Asia flight to DPS was quick, but seemed longer than it really was. It was not very comfortable, a small seat - although I had no one next to me.
At DPS I retraced my steps from a couple of weeks earlier and walked from domestic to international. More security-tax and so on before the red eye VA flight back to Sydney. I was in J. It is a domestic J seat, but I didn't care. I was so tired that I slept pretty well the whole way back. It was an epic trip, and lots of fun. Glad I did it. Lots of flights, but no SC towards VA as those flights were points plus pay. It did give me a few SC and miles towards QFF, which I mean to build on this year.
More photos soon. Thanks.
Here's a very belated conclusion to this report. Unfortunately time away meant time away from work and commitments back home, do I returned to an overwhelming storm of things to do. Oh well.
I spent the night at the Basel Hilton. No upgrade, but a nice room on the executive floor with a view of the park and a pleasant stay. Would gladly return to both the hotel and the city.
With no TGV booking with Eurail pass realistically feasible it was a long and convoluted series of local and regional trains to Paris. Train changes were at Strasbourg, Nancy, Bar Le Duc, Paris Est, Paris Nord with underground from there back to CDG. All trains except the underground were quick and comfortable. More than happy not to spend any time in Paris. Spent the night in the CDG Hilton. It is a short walk from the terminal (forget which one, but the one where the LCCs etc operate from. It is via a covered walkway most of the way. The Hilton is nice, very comfortable. Lounge and breakfast were fine. Would stay there again, although the Sheraton is more convenient with entry from inside the airport terminal.
In the morning very quick and easy to get to the correct terminal for my MH flight to KUL.
Long travellator at CDG. I enjoyed these:
Check in was ok, but the staff were pretty rude. A woman at the next counter was noisily complaining about how unpleasant the MH check in staff were being. It was quick enough, and security was also fine so I was soon enjoying the underwhelming lounges that I had access to.
1. Icare Lounge. I had access to this thanks to Priority Pass membership. It was basic, but comfortable enough and quiet. Very small with a nice view of some bamboo in a courtyard outside. Here is a view of some seating and the self-service drinks area:
2. MH uses the Air France Premier Lounge. It is pretty similar to the Icare lounge, but bigger. With an A380 flight about to leave it was very, very crowded and noisy. Kids running around too. I didn't spend long here.
The design of CDG means you are more or less trapped once you have gone to your gate lounge. Luckily there were good views of the tarmac and planes to pass the time. It was crowded. Took some photos while I waited and then took advantage of priority boarding to get on first, which gave me a chance to take a couple of pictures of the upstairs J cabin in the A380. Before long the cabin was full. Will post photos soon, limited to 5/post.
Seat was nice, meals and IFE all good. I read a book and slept and the flight was over all too soon. To be honest, I couldn't tell much significant difference between MH F and MH J. More crowded cabin, bigger seat and more personal space/privacy perhaps.
Landing at KUL there was a really annoying kid, about 10, screaming uncontrollably at the pain in her ears. I got the impression it was the first discomfort that one had ever encountered in her life. Back in my day we used to just suck on a lolly and shut up. Her mother was working hard to console her, but crew ignored it. Guess they did have important things to do.
Spent some time at the KUL lounge before the short flight over to Jakarta from where I had to transfer to the domestic terminal and fly on to Denpasar on Air Asia. J in this short-haul MH flight was a bit below the standard of domestic J in Australia. The newspaper I got upon boarding had a front page story about how turbulance can cause a plane to disintegrate. I think it was about the missing Air Asia plane.
It was hard to figure out at Jakarta how to transfer, but found the bus eventually. Standing room only for the short , free journey. It leaves from the curb just outside arrivals. One must ignore the swarms of taxi touts who'll claim that the domestic terminal is a very long, and expensive, way away. It isn't.
Passed the time at the Domestic terminal searching for the Priority Pass lounge that was supposed to be there. It wasn't, it is fictional. So long wait, no lounge, but all their multiple security-tax-etc stops do help pass time.
The Air Asia flight to DPS was quick, but seemed longer than it really was. It was not very comfortable, a small seat - although I had no one next to me.
At DPS I retraced my steps from a couple of weeks earlier and walked from domestic to international. More security-tax and so on before the red eye VA flight back to Sydney. I was in J. It is a domestic J seat, but I didn't care. I was so tired that I slept pretty well the whole way back. It was an epic trip, and lots of fun. Glad I did it. Lots of flights, but no SC towards VA as those flights were points plus pay. It did give me a few SC and miles towards QFF, which I mean to build on this year.
More photos soon. Thanks.
