After spending 8 weeks in Vietnam, it was time to start a new chapter in our long journey. In Vietnam, we saw and experienced so many things it’s hard to pinpoint one favorite…the local people, the vast assortment of delicious food, the stunning scenery ranging from huge limestone karsts to vibrant green rice paddies to relaxing beaches, even the chaotic scooter traffic…all of these reasons and more made up 56 wonderful days.
Our travel day was smooth leaving Vietnam, but got a little bumpy after landing in Malaysia. We left Phu Quoc, Vietnam on an early morning flight to Ho Chi Minh City where we had a 6 hour layover. We spent our time waiting for our next flight in one of the airport lounges relaxing as we both have lounge priority passes (a nice perk with our Chase Sapphire Travel Rewards credit card). Our 2 hour afternoon flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia left slightly late, but still landed on time at 6:00pm. We de-planed and followed signs to immigration which included hopping on 1 of 2 airport monorails to switch terminals. The monorail ride was good until it stopped on the rise in elevation just short of the main terminal. From here the operator tried to move the train forward, but it did nothing except jolt a few feet forward and then roll backward. This continued for 20 minutes before they tried to reverse all the way back to the international terminal where we’d boarded. Except we didn’t make it…our train stopped in the middle of nowhere in between both terminals. After a short while a maintenance person approached from outside, boarded our car, and continued to try to move us forward using controls inside, but it was still no go. So, after what seemed like an eternity, they finally brought another monorail (it used the rail parallel to ours) out to where we were stuck. The car doors opened and we were all directed by several airport personal to cross to the other “working” train using the open unguarded large concrete section in between the two rails. After well over an hour, we finally arrived at the main terminal. One bonus was the tremendous lightening show happening a ways behind the airport.
Once at the main terminal, it was time to go through immigration and pick up bags. Unfortunately, all the immigration lines were long and we waited another 45 minutes. Once through the line, our immigration check and passport stamp was quick taking less than a minute. After immigration, we found our checked luggage quickly (it was already off the conveyor belt and sitting on the floor near the baggage claim area). After several hours of waiting, we were finally free to find an ATM to get some local currency (the Vietnam airports didn’t offer Malaysia Ringet exchange) before our 45 minute ride to downtown Kuala Lumpur on the KLIA Express, a monorail which travels directly to and from the airport to the KL Sentral station.
We found the KLIA Express entrance relatively easy, bought tickets, and waited only a few minutes before we were boarded and headed toward downtown. Once at the KL Sentral station, we had to switch to another monorail to take us near our hotel. We had to ask directions to the specific monorail terminal as there are many monorails going in all different directions from the KL Sentral (main) station. The directions went something like this…”walk until you see McDonalds then turn left and walk toward the mall and go upstairs, it’s easy to find from there”… It really wasn’t too bad to find, but it was very odd because you actually walk upstairs and into a mall and through a department store before you come out to signs for the monorail stations. We finally found the one we needed, bought a ticket, and waited a few minutes before riding 8 minutes to our stop. By this time, it was nearing 10pm and we had only a “5 minute” walk to our hotel…we hopped off the monorail and headed down the stairs to start our walk only to find it was raining. Oh well, we had endured everything else in the last several hours since touching down in Malaysia, what was a little rain 😉 We finally found our way to our hotel in the dark, late on Wednesday, April 19th.
As we walked into our hotel (we booked a nicer 4 star hotel using airline miles), we looked slightly out of place. We were carrying our larger backpacks on our backs and daypacks on our front, and the bell hops didn’t know quite what to do except open the door for us. The receptionist at the counter was courteous when she asked “if we were checking-in” and then smiled and said “you didn’t walk here from the Imbi Monorail Station, did you?” We asked her if it was that obvious and if it was the sweat dripping off us and bags on our backs that gave it away. What a day…we were both so exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep to be ready the next morning for the start of a new adventure – which just so happened to be figuring out how to get across town to a dentist office where Rick had an appointment to get a crown installed on a cracked tooth…
See video and photos below highlighting our 4 days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To see all images of this location click the link at the bottom of this post or go to our gallery.
