The Journey

After a marathon walk to Gate 22 which took ages followed by a very long walk down the ramp we finally boarded the plane! I have never been on such a long walk to board a plane and was glad we had left the lounge before they called us or we could well have been late boarders!!

The flight was quite full and we had a mum and a two year old sitting in front of us and the dad was back in economy - very strange!! The little girl fell asleep as soon as we took off and we didn't actually hear anything from her until about two hours before we landed when she was sick!! The crew were very good and cleaned it up and there wasn't too much smell. I felt sorry for the mum and I think in the end dad was better off in economy although he did pop up to see them every so often.

We had dinner as soon as we were up in the air and I watched one film. We then settled down to sleep and surprisingly we did both sleep for sis or seven hours, when I woke it said 2.48 before landing and I was shocked. Jon slept very well, too which is even more unusual but then we had had a very busy time in the UK.

When we woke they gave us breakfast which was very strange as when we landed it was 4.30 in the afternoon.

The flight was very good with very little turbulents which probably helped with sleeping. The service was also very good. They collect the headphones and shut down the TV screens quite a long time before you land and I had five minutes of 50/50 to watch!!! I will have to wait till the next flight.

As we were in the upstairs bit of the jumbo we were down the stairs and Jon was second off the plane and the heat really hit us. We then had a short walk followed by the train to the main terminal. We had been given fast track passes for immigration and so we were out with out luggage in double quick time.

We walked along some very long corridors to the hotel and it was so hot and humid. We arrived at the hotel to see golf buggies for passengers and realised we should have checked in at the arrivals hall to get a buggy but we had got out so fast we didn't look around!!

The hotel was lovely and we checked in and were taken to our room on the fourth floor which was very nice and a very big bed. However, there was a very strong smell like varnish.

I decided to go and look for the swimming pool which took me quite a time as the whole place was huge. I found it and checked they had towels there and then went back to the room for my camera, of course, and my swimsuit before going back again.

It was by now dark as it goes dark very fast in the tropics and you don't get dusk as we do. The pool was lovely and nicely lit up. I had a swim and a sit in the jacuzzi next to the pool, took some photos and then headed in to get changed. I spotted some hot pools and gave them a try but didn't use the steam room or sauna.

After a shower I went back to the room where Jon was already changed and ready for dinner. After a quick change I was ready and we went down.

We sat in the bar and asked for a menu and couldn't believe it when they brought out two iPads with all the drinks on. You click what you want and it goes through to the bar and it is brought to you!!! I am not sure how old people cope with all this technology - Oh hang on I am old!!!!

I had a 'pink' pina colada and Jon had a mojito. When we had finished and we had to go and sign at the bar, so there is some security, the waitress asked if we had enjoyed our drinks and I said yes and asked her why it was pink. She told me they don't like to use sugar syrup and so use a pomegranate syrup to sweeten it! It was nice though.

We went into dinner where it was a buffet or menu. We asked for the menu and out came the iPads again. Every dish and drink has a description of what is in it but it makes choosing very hard work so we opted for the buffet and were so glad we did. They had such a choice of food and all of it pretty good. I had some really good butter fish with a lovely homemade tartare sauce. One thing that was strange was the carrots. They were baby carrots and very rubbery texture.

We had a bottle of wine and it was very expensive as wine is not popular in Malaysia and it is all imported.

The desserts were to die for with an amazing choice and I really pigged out but I only had a teaspoonful of each. However, the chocolate fountain had me drooling and I consoled myself with the fact that the grapes, bananas, apricots and figs were some of my five a day even though they were covered in chocolate. They had some lovely little cakes and fruit tarts and a lovely melon pannacota type dish, tiny chocolate chip cookies and some little chocolates and sweets which I think were made of quince. They had four varieties of ice cream, chocolate/vanilla, mint, green tea and mango. I loved them all even the green tea and the mint was with fresh mint and really good.

After all those puddings I was really glad we had walked to the hotel from the airport and I think walking from the lounge to Gate 22 was a good job, too.

We went up to bed and I thought I would sleep but the smell in the room was not nice and being very sensitive to smells I really didn't sleep well and woke pretty much every hour.

We were due to have an alarm call at 6.00 but I was up at 5.30 and in the shower and ready and dressed by the time the call came.

When we checked out and payed the bill I told the receptionist that the room had a horrible smell in it and he told me that they had had other complaints the night before and it was a lot of the rooms on that floor and the housekeeper was looking into it. A bit poor really as it was not a cheap hotel and I would have expected more than that.

We went into the lobby and the bellboy put our luggage onto a golf buggy and once out of the hotel the heat hit us again but not for long as the driver raced us along the corridors and we had to hold on tight with the wind blowing my hair all over the place but it was good fun.

We checked in and even our three kilos overweight was not a problem (the girl on the way out had told us off!) and we were soon through immigration even after a hold up with one man being searched and then taken off to another room for more searching!!! I'll never know why.

We then got on the train to international departures and then up to the Malaysian lounge where we had a very nice breakfast. Once breakfast was finished Jon told me we had 341 of the currency left and so I just had to go and spend it!! I looked at Channel No 5 but was short of 50 so bought the new Chanel, Chance which was 340 so I have one left. I was back in the lounge very soon and Jon said it doesn't take me long to spend money!!!

We still had a little while to wait so we had a glass of champagne.

Our flight was called and we headed off to gate C2 which was not too far away and boarded our flight

We were on a 777 for this leg and strangely it has a lot more leg room than a jumbo.

We tried to stay awake for most of the flight and I did pretty much but Jon had a sleep.

I watched  last five minutes of the film I watched on the previous flight and then a
a couple of others, I am Sam was one and it was really good I also watched The Help again. We had lunch and then they put the lights down. I got to the stage where I didn't know what day it was let alone the time! The steward brought round ice cream in the middle of the night/day for all those that were awake which was us.

Once again a good flight with very little turbulents. We were served dinner and once again satay. We have had four flight and eight meals and chicken and beef satay to start them all - I never want to see it again even though I liked it. They start to serve two hours before you land but it really isn't enough time and they do rush you but it was a good meal, I had chicken byriani and Jon had lamb shank pudding was tirimisu.

Landing was very smooth and we touched down at 10.45 and had picked up our duty free bought on our way out, and cleared immigration and got our bags and were in the hotel at 11.15 pretty amazing!

I felt very tired and really hoped I would be able to sleep. It was also very cold in Auckland when we landed.

WEATHER
Cloudy as that is all we saw!