Travel

In the middle of March 2020, due to the beginning of Covid, we were forced to cut short our visit with family and friends in Malaysia. We made it back to Canada just in time, although we did have to go into isolation for fourteen days. Two of Kim’s brothers, who were also in Malaysia, were not able to return to Canada until several months later.

Today, 1413 days later, we begin our journey back to Malaysia to see our daughters and grandchildren, having missed nearly four years of their lives.

Oh sure, we have maintained contact with them via electronic means on this thing called the “world wide web”, however as anyone can figure out, it’s not the same as being with them in person. It’s not even close.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, this has become another blog post stretched over a period of time. In this case, about six days, or maybe five, depending on how one looks at it, because the International Date Line is involved.

At 1600 hours on 30 Jan, we left home and headed to YEG to begin our journey.

Okay, if you know me, I use military time, the 24 hour clock, and write my dates different from some folks, and use airport designators. I write my blogs and you read them, that’s the way it is. <<Grin>>

So, off to the airport we went, have to get there a minimum of two hours before the flight, as everybody knows. Check-in was good, four checked bags, all comfortably under 23 kg, so no issue there. Then it was off to security, there we had a bit of an issue on a couple of fronts. Going through the detector, I beeped. Was asked if I had a hip replacement, said yes, so secondary it was. Hmm… there I beeped all over. It seems that the buttons on my cargo shorts are metal, so you guessed it, I beeped. Okay, got that sorted out, only to discover that my backpack had been pulled aside. Hmm… seems somebody had not emptied out his water bottle. The security chap was kind and did it for me so all was good. Nobody arrested me or even yelled at me, they were very good about everything. Away to the departure gate, waited a while and boarded the aircraft. At 1935, on schedule, we lifted off for YVR, experiencing a relatively uneventful Westjet flight, getting our glass of non-alcohol drink and bag of tiny pretzels enroute.

Now in the interest of transparency, I need to let you know that for this journey I am still having some issues with both my legs so am listed as requiring assistance, meaning a wheelchair. Having heard tales in recent months about folks with disabilities and the issues they have had when flying, I was unsure as to how things would go. I must state that for me on this trip, the service I got was exemplary from start to finish with the various airlines and airports doing exactly what was required. And I thank them for that.

Back to the journey. Upon arriving in YVR it was necessary to make the trek, and it is a lengthy trek, from the Westjet gate to the EVA Air gate. Thank goodness for golf carts. Once there, we had an almost three hour respite until we boarded the aircraft. At about 0015, on 31 Jan, we were ready to taxi away from the gate. I say we were ready, however Mother Nature was not. Vancouver had been experiencing a couple days of an “atmospheric river” and there were so extremely high gusting winds. After a half hour or so, Mother Nature said that we could go, so we did.

It was our first time flying EVA Air, I found the economy seating on the Triple 7 comfortable and the flight attendants were very efficient. Even so, it was nice to arrive at TPE thirteen and a half hours later. Once there it seems that connecting passengers have to go through what amounted to a mini security screening prior to heading to their next departure gate. This made us quite confused, however through we went. Our water bottles didn’t have to be emptied and our laptops, tablets and phones didn’t have to be removed from the bags. Personally I’m still not sure of the purpose of this process. Guess there must be some reason for it.

Then it was off to the departure gate for another close to three hour respite. I should mention that there was quite a distance from the arrival gate to the security to the departure gate, all done by wheelchair, no golf carts.

Boarding time came and there was a problem. Passngers were there, flight attendants were there, aircrew was there, but oops, seems there was no aircraft there yet. It appeared realatively quickly, however it had to be prepared for us to board, which took a while. Okay, then we were ready to load, but wait, it seems there was a passenger who had to be escorted on first. We don’t know what her situation was, but she didn’t want to go and was carried on by four or five people, while making quite the disturbance. Kim and I noted, although there was certainly a major kerfuffle, and while people were certainly paying attention, we didn’t see people videoing the event with their phones and we appreciated that folks seemed to be respecting her privacy.

Eventually we boarded the aircraft and departed just over an hour later than scheduled. Our flight to KUL was four and a half hours. The economy seating on the Airbus was not great and for some reason my seat would not recline, making it rather uncomfortable, with the result I was fairly sore by the time we landed. Once again the EVA Air flight attendants were highly efficient, although I will say that on both flights they were not all that friendly, basically just business.

Arriving at KUL was uneventful, deplaning went well, and then the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) trek began. At KUL we land at one terminal, however customs, immigration, baggage, and passenger pickup is all done at another terminal. Joining the two terminals is normally a train, but currently it is under long maintenance, so buses are employed. Not horrible by any stretch, however they are less efficient in moving the people. Once again there was an extensive wheelchair trip. A bit of a wait for immigration as it was quite busy, then baggage was acquired and contact made with our arranged ride who had been waiting patiently. Wait you say, what about customs. It seems that you only go through customs if you are selected, randomly or otherwise. I’m sure that baggage is screened on arrival. We try to do things properly and, I guess, have been successful thus far as I’ve not be called for customs on this, or previous, arrivals.

Now we are talking about baggage, this is a good segway to an action I took prior to this trip. One always hears horror stories about travel and baggage. Things like “I flew from YEG to YOW and my luggage went to YYC”, or worse “my luggage has disappeared”. We make sure that our bags are well marked, strapped, and we also place sheets inside providing information on our destination and contact numbers. In addition, for this journey I decided to purchase Samsung Galaxy SmartTags for each checked bag. It was kind of cool, at each stop, I would check my phone and see if all our bags were still with us, and they were. On a couple previous trips we had been short a bag upon arrival, but in both cases the bag had decided to spend an extra day in HKG. Both Cathay Pacific (our airline for those trips) and KLIA, preformed admirably and the bags were delivered directly to us the next day. To have the SmartTags was reassuring however, and according to reports, they, along with similar other tags, have proven their worth when baggage goes astray.

Once through all the process at KLIA, we also picked up Malaysia SIM cards for our phones, we connected with our driver and commenced our roughly two hour drive to Malacca and our accomodation provided for us by our granddaughter. The drive was uneventful other than a brief rain deluge and the ever present traffic.

Bottom line for the journey. We left home at 1600 on 30 Jan (Edmoton time), and arrived at our destination at 1930 on 01 Feb (Malaysia time). We essentially skipped 31 Jan entirely due to the International Date Line. Total time from door to door was thirty-six and a half hours, which was considerably longer than any of our previous flights, all of which were with Cathay Pacific through HKG.

So, 1413 days between trips, but now we are here, we have reunited with some of our family, a number more to go, and and are making contact with friends so as to arrange visits. Now we must make the most of our time here, but that is another story, or should I say, blog post.

Thanks for reading, catch you next time. Look after yourselves, and look out for others.