en route to Malaysia

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts we have been planning a holiday in Malaysia for a long time. So finally we finalized our trip and we were traveling about to travel in July 2022. I have written a couple of blog posts regarding this trip including how we planned the trip, how we got the visas, how to get a travel sim and etc. If you haven't read those yet and if you are planning to travel to Malaysia I think it might be helpful for you. So I'm adding the relevant links below.

• How we planned - https://www.sunkisseddiaries.com/our-malaysian-trip-plan/
• Must have app when traveling to Malaysia - https://www.sunkisseddiaries.com/traveling-to-malaysia-soon-read-this-first/
• How to get a travel SIM - https://www.sunkisseddiaries.com/here-is-how-to-get-travel-sim-when-traveling-abroad/

Okay since I have covered most of the planning part in this article I thought to write about the day of the travel and our first impressions of Malaysia.

Our flight from Colombo to Kuala Lampur was scheduled for departure at 00:05 h on 7th July. So on the 6th, we had to leave for the airport. Since my and wife both had applied for leave for the coming days we didn't apply for leave on the 6th. We both worked the day. But we had our bags almost packed. So after finishing the work around 5 PM we didn't have many things to do. So after that, we went to my wife's in-law's house. They also came with us to the airport. Around 9 PM we arrived at the airport. Since we had fuel issues those days it was advised for us to come early as possible to the airport. After arriving at the airport I purchased three visitor tickets for the inlaw wife's sister so that they also could come with us to the airport. Then after entering the airport we went through some baggage and security checks. Then there were a couple of banks inside the airport and I checked on a couple of those to see if there are any USD to purchase. But most of them didn't have and only two banks had. Then I bought some USD and Malaysian Ringgit from them. Then we took some photos with the family and went to the departure lobby. Then we had to say goodbyes to the family. After that, the parents left the departure lobby and we went inside the airport to do the check-ins.

As I have mentioned in previous articles I did the air ticket reservations using Malaysian Airlines. Normally airlines provide online check-ins so that travelers can have a smooth check-in process at the airport. Once the online check-in was enabled I also wid the chicken for myself and my wife so that it would be easy for us. There was a lot of crowd at the check-in counters. So we had to wait some time there and after doing the check-in we handed over our luggage to them. After that, we had our carry-on bags only.

After handing over the baggage and doing the check-in we had to head to immigration. There we had to fill out a form and hand it over with our passports. Then they put their seal and it's good to go. So after passing the immigration a person is considered normal as out of the country. So we were also out of Sri Lanka theoretically :D

Then going towards the departure terminals we went through the duty-free section. There are several shops around. Mostly for chocolates and liquor. We didn't have any intention of buying anything there. So we just walk through the shows and just observed the prices to have an idea. After spending some time in those shops we went to the departure terminal.

Since we had some time we had to wait there with the other people until the departure gates open. After waiting some time around 11 PM as I remember the gates were open.

So we queued up and went there. There was a security check after that we were sent to a lobby area to wait until the flight starts passenger boarding. So after some time, we got onboarded to the flight. When getting onboarded to the flight we were given a hygiene kit at the entrance of the flight. Then we found our seats and seated there. Headphones were provided for every passenger.

After around half an hour all things were set and the flight started the journey. It was a really beautiful view to see the lightful Colombo from the sky.

After around 45 minutes, flight attendants started serving supper. So we had two choices to select from. The choices were rice with chicken curry and the other was chicken noodles. We selected both options. When I was traveling to Malaysia in 2019 the meal had many items compared to what we got on this flight. Seems everyone is cutting costs due to these hard times. We had several drinks to choose from and we selected a couple.

Since it was colder I checked whether we could get a blanket. But the flight attendant said they have blankets only for children. Cost cutting there as well :(

Around 6 AM flight started descending.  Around 6.40 AM we were out of the plane and we were inside Kuala Lampur International Airport. Since it was early morning the airport was not much busy. Then we had to head to immigration. We had to take a train for that. There was a train connecting one terminal to the other. It takes around 2-3 minutes to go from one to the other. So we took the train and went to the other terminal. There we went through the immigration and successfully completed that process as well. Some interesting incidents happened there as well. We have to put our fingerprints in a machine there. My wife's fingerprints were not recognized by that machine and the machine continuously prompted her to re-enter the fingerprint. After about trying more than 10 times it was successful :D

After all that process then we had to collect our baggage. It was a bit hard for us to find the place. But after asking a couple of people we found the place. After claiming the baggage all things were done and were ready to leave from the airport to the place that we were planning to stay.

There are a couple of modes of travel to choose from when you are traveling out of the airport.

• KLIA Ekspress
• KLIA Transit
• Grab
• Taxi
• Bus

There could be more options than the above but I think the most used ones are the above ones. I'll explain them one by one.

KLIA Ekspress

This is an express train service running from  KLIA to the KL Sentral station. This doesn't have any stops in between. At the time of my travel ticket cost was like RM 55. Time of travel is like 30 minutes from KL Sentral to KLIA and KLIA to KL Sentral as well. Also, trains are available every 10mints.

KLIA Transit

This is also an express train service that runs between KLIA and KL Sentral. The difference is this has a couple of stops in between. Normal travel time is 40mints. This train is also available every 10mints.

Grab

You might have used Uber for taxi-hailing. Malaysia and most of the countries in that region don't have Uber and what they have is Grab. So you can install the app and create an account and use it as you have used Uber.

Taxi

Some airport taxi services are also available right outside the airport. But be cautious when selecting them. Always better to ask the fare for the ride beforehand to avoid any surprises at the destination.

Bus

Public transport is very developed in Malaysia. So there are a lot of bus services that you can take as well.

Even before you come to Malaysia you can book KLIA Ekspres and KLIA transit tickets online if you plan to use that service. Otherwise, there is a counter in the airport as well where you can purchase the tickets from there as well. To get the train you need not travel elsewhere. There is an entrance to the train station right at the airport. It's so easy.

But in our case, we decided to choose a Grab taxi. If we were traveling by Train it would cost us RM 110 for two. But the cost for the Grab ride was RM 72. So we booked a Grab.

We waited right outside the airport until our ride arrives. After a couple of minutes, he arrived and we loaded our bags into the car and started going to the hotel that we had booked. The place that we had booked to stay was very close to KL Sentral. It took around an hour to come to the destination.

After coming to the hotel we checked in. Since we were early we had to pay some early check-in fees as well. But we thought to pay for it and take the room rather than wait outside since we both were tired after the journey. So we did the payment and got the space. Then we had a change and decided to rest in the hotel for some time since we were very tired and very sleepy and then go out after a couple of hours.

So we had a couple of hours of sleep and were waiting to go outside and explore Kuala Lumpur.

I think this is enough for this article and will write about our first impressions of Kuala Lampur in the next article.