Heading off to Malaysia! (March 30)

We're off to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia!  Hope you've packed your swimsuits, snorkel gear and lots and lots of sunscreen!

 

Our driver is coming to pick us up at 10:00am to take us to the Tianjin airport.  While you can certainly fly to more places directly from Beijing we really enjoy flying out of Tianjin – it's only a thirty minute drive from our house.  

 

Hope you've got your bags packed and are ready to go because I just saw our driver pull up.  Passports?  Check.  Cameras? Check.  Locked doors?  Check.  Big bag full of sunscreen bottles?  Check. Check.

That was a fast ride to the airport!  Did you get a little nervous when we spotted the huge traffic back-up? I was!  It went on for MILES.  Thankfully it didn't effect us at all.  Whew!  

So now we're waiting to get into the international section of the TJ airport.  For some darn reason they're not letting anyone in.  So that means we have to wait until they open it up for us to check in.  What the heck???  Oh…security personnel are arriving right now.  Either they're late or we're early!  There are a LOT of people waiting to get checked in as well.

We've got two sets of flights today.  First we'll fly to Seoul, South Korea.  Then we'll quickly boogie on over to our next flight which will take us to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

All checked in!  Okay… time to stand in line to have our passports checked.  Now we have to go in another line to have our passports checked.  Dejavu anyone?????  Now security.  Now we're done.  The airline gave us two vouchers for the Premier Lounge.  The last time we were here we also received two vouchers AND the last time they didn't balk at all at us for taking our daughters with us.  This time they said they couldn't accept that.  We explained that the last time we, in fact, had two vouchers and were allowed in. She finally let us in.  (I just wish they were consistent). I'm not complaining though.  I think technically it was a fluke they let us in the first time.

Time to get on the flight!  Ready to board?

Oh wow!  We just realized that there are a LOT of other IST families and even a teacher on our flight. It's nice to say hello to our friends.

Now that was a short flight.  I do like Korean Airlines!  They serve real meals… and that smoked salmon sandwich was a real treat- on an airplane or off!  

Time to head quickly through the Transfer station (where you get your passports & boarding passes checked and go through security AGAIN).  Now let's speed walk to our next gate.  Whew.  Not boarding yet…but we won't have to wait long.  We're just going to hope our luggage makes it with us!

Time to board our next flight for KL.  This flight will be around 6 hours…so not the longest we've been on but also not the shortest.  Okay, I think I've watched too many movies and I *tried* to nap.  Not successfully.  We're landing soon!  

Hurray!  We made it!  We added another new stamp to our passport!  We've also exchanged whatever Chinese currency we have into Malaysian Ringgits.

Now comes the bit we're a little bit fuzzy on.  We've arranged for lodging at a bed & breakfast fairly close to the airport.  We'll be spending on night in KL and heading on to our final destination tomorrow.  Right now we're concerned with getting our luggage and finding the right train.  Ugh…..we're still waiting for our luggage.  I sure hope it comes!  Getting kind of nervous now… at least we've managed to get one of our suitcases (we've checked in two- one with clothes and the other with swimming gear).  WHEW!  Mark just grabbed our other suitcase.  Now we've got to find the KLIA Transit (a train).  I don't know about you but the signage could be a bit better!  There's a place that looks like a train station…but nope.  Wrong one.  The man behind the counter told us to go back upstairs and to the other side.  Yep.  The signs could be better!

Another big sigh of relief.  We just found the ticket counter for the KLIA Transit after a bit of walking.  Next train leaves in about 10 minutes.  We've been told that we need to get off at the next station so we should expect a 10 minute train ride. There aren't many signs on the train to let you know if we're on the right one…. Sure hope so 'cuz here we go!  Aaaaaand…..just like that we're at the next stop.  Mark did call the b&b while we were on the train.  The b&b owner, Walter, said he'd pick us up at the station.  And there he is!  Fantastic!  

It's after 10pm and we've arrived at Jawadene B&B.  It feels so great to be out of the airplane and in a nice place.  Oops!  We somehow missed this part- they only accept cash payment at Jawadene.  We nearly have enough to cover the cost of the room but not quite.  Thankfully Walter said he'd take Mark to the nearest ATM – no problem. *sigh of relief*

We're done for today.  And I mean I'm REALLY done. 🙂

Our interconnecting rooms in Jawadene: