Day 95: In Transit to Kuala Lumpur

Long day of travel today. First thing we noticed on waking up was that it was pouring rain - torrentially. The first time we actually really *had* to leave the hotel, and it was hammering down! Oh well, can't be helped. Hotel breakfast and said our goodbyes to the staff, who offered to give us a lift to the bus station. We'd been planning on walking since it was less than 10 minutes away, but would've been very unpleasant in the rain, so we gladly accepted.

The bus (actually a 12-seater minivan) left at 10am on the dot, still in the driving rain. The driver was very enthusiastic about his skills, making for a very intense ride. We definitely felt every one of the 762 corners! Despite all the apexing and cutting and engine braking, at least he wasn't overtaking on the wrong side of the road around a blind corner like Indonesian drivers do. But it was still on the ragged edge a bit at times, and it still puzzles me how a country so dependent on tourists can have such a disregard for people's safety at times.

The drive took about 3 hours and the rain gradually thinned out; by the time we arrived in Chiang Mai after lunch it was only drizzling. Hopped straight into a songthaew (the utes with bench seats that pass for communal taxis) to the airport which we shared with most of the other people from the minivan. Very uncomfortable ride as the woman driving wanted to squeeze as many passengers in as possible, but I had literally no space for my legs as there was a crate of water bottles in the way! Oh well, at least the ride was only about 20 minutes.

On arriving at Chiang Mai airport we had quite a long wait, as our flight wasn't due to leave until 5pm (we arrived around 1:30). The lunch offerings were fairly unappealing, and eventually we settled on McDonalds mainly because it's at least reliable and they have free wifi which we made good use of for the next couple of hours.

Eventually we wandered down through emigration and to our gate, where of course the AirAsia flight was running a bit late. Not too late thankfully, and we were boarding within about 20 minutes of the scheduled departure time. Off we went, up into the heavy clouds with plenty of turbulence for good measure. My stomach had been feeling a bit off all day, so for dinner I only had an AirAsia pre-made Vietnamese bahn mi, which was actually surprisingly good! Gradually the skies got darker and I realised as well that this was the first time since Singapore that we'd landed somewhere at night.

By the time we'd touched down and walked through the leviathan airport it was 9pm (bearing in mind the +1 hour time zone change between Malaysia and Thailand), but thankfully we'd booked to stay in a Container hotel in the shopping mall attached to the airport.

The container hotel is essentially a bunch of shipping containers stacked together, fitted out like a hotel. So our "room" was the size of a queen bed and about five feet high, with just enough room to fit small bags (larger luggage goes in a separate locker) and a blind for privacy. It's designed for long layovers as an alternative to staying in an expensive nearby hotel or just sleeping in the airport. We'd opted for this as our flight to Brunei was departing at 6:40am, and KLIA is about 50km from the city proper.

So after a quick shower and freshen up, we settled down in our little capsule to get some shut-eye.Read more