Adventures of Lydia & Calvin

Monday, October 17, 2011

Aurora Hunting: Getting to Oslo

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We had flew in to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia and took the bus shuttle from the LCCT to KLIA. For the benefit for others who might go cheap like us, the shuttle costs 2.50 ringgit a person and is available on the outer traffic lanes of the airport right outside arrivals. A taxi transfer instead would have cost 15-20 ringgit but we didn't check.

After flying first and business class on our last few holidays, I kinda forgot how it felt like to fly economy. As we arrive at KLIA, we were greeted by a long queue of passengers already waiting in line to check-in. Like everyone else we got in line and then at that point appreciated flying in business or first class. It took about 30 minutes before we got to the check-in counter where thankfully it was only a couple more minutes until our boarding passes were provided and bags tagged all the way to Oslo. Calvin tried to see if there were cash upgrades available but the check-in agent said they didn't do that kind of thing. Oh well..

Long Check-in Line

We made a short stop at the plaza premium lounge thanks to Calvin's priority pass card where I had a shower and some snacks before we headed to the departure gate.

Aurora Hunting: Introduction

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We were already traveling too much and had exceeded our travel budget for this year. It took 3-4 days of research and deliberation before deciding that a fare of ~$450USD from Kuala Lumpur to Oslo via Doha was too good of a deal to say no to. Qatar Airways was just launching flights to Oslo and as part of the launch promotion was offering fares of ~$400-500USD from their Far East destinations like Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. Sure, it would have been great if this was a business class fare but heck, you can't even get to London from Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia for that price.

Since we already took one too many days off this year and with another trip to Australia in December, we were limited in the number of days we could go. Lydia had to tell her boss that this was a surprise anniversary trip and I had to negotiate with mine that I would be having my laptop and working remotely to make this trip happen. Why can’t we have better jobs that allowed us to travel guilt free whenever we wanted but I digress. Our trip consisted of only 4 nights in Norway with a purposely planned long layover in Doha to visit the city since we’ve never been to Doha before. We eventually splitthe 4 nights in Norway with the first 2 nights in Oslo and the other 2 in the northern town of Tromso after recommendation from mwinger Naim with the hope of catching the Aurora or Northern Lights.

The journey itself wasn't too exciting since it was going to be in economy and we were actually apprehensive about it since we had no status on Qatar. Oh the horror of not having business class line check-in, priority boarding and lounge usage. Since the Qatar flights originated in Kuala Lumpur, we had to get down from Penang. Flights on Malaysia Airlines direct to KLIA would have costs us 3 times more than our eventual Air Asia flights to the Low Cost Terminal. The slight annoyance with the Air Asia was having to transfer to KLIA via a crummy 2.50 ringgit 20 minute bus transfer. The flights on Qatar were all operated by A330 aircraft on all 4 legs so can't compare the hardware on their other aircraft.

Our flight details:

Penang - Kuala Lumpur LCCT on Air Asia
Kuala Lumpur - Doha - Oslo on Qatar Airways with a good 2.5 hour layover in Doha.
Flights to and from Tromso were on SAS.
Oslo - Doha - Kuala Lumpur on Qatar Airways with a 18 hour layover in Doha.
Kuala Lumpur - Penang on Air Air Asia

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Review: Genji Japanese Restaurant, Hilton Petaling Jaya

At our recent stay at the Hilton Petaling Jaya, we decided to have lunch at the on-site Japanese restaurant after hearing some good things about from our friends. It was about 1.30pm when we got there so the restaurant was pretty empty.

The restaurant was having a tempura promotion so I decided to have the “tempura set meal” where as lydia had one of their bento meals. Needless to say, the tempura set meal consisted of tempura inspired dishes. In included a salad, tempura sushi roll, assorted tempura, rice cake, miso soup and tempura bananas and ice-cream for dessert. The food itself was pretty good but wasn't out of the ordinary or mind blowing. By the time I finished the huge tempura sushi roll, I was actually already pretty full which might have made my judgements of the other dishes a bit off.

Tempura Salad

Tempura Sushi Roll


Dessert

Review: Hilton Petaling Jaya

This is one of the oldest Hilton’s in Malaysia but also one of the cheapest which makes a good mattress run hotel. The hotel was still undergoing much needed renovations when we visited. Our rooms were still the old rooms and yea, it’s about time they got a makeover. The carpets were old and dirty and what about the tiny television. The thing we disliked most about the rooms were the soft beds.

Review: Doubletree Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur

The Doubletree is Hilton’s latest addition in Malaysia opening in 2010. The hotel is located in the city with a metro station located a 5 minute walk across the street which gives easy access to the rest of the city. A cab ride to either the Petronas twin tower or the Bukit Bintang shopping area should cost you between 10-15 ringgit and take about 15 minutes depending on the traffic.

The hotel is located within the Intermark Building with check-in on the 2nd floor. We arrived at ~9 am before the official check-in time of 2pm but were allowed to check-in. Check-in was prompt and we were given our room keys and a chocolate chip cookie which I only later found time to be a "standard offering" for Doubletree hotels. There was no mention of any upgrades by the trainee that was helping me and I had to verify that we were indeed given upgrades to executive rooms as a Hilton Honors Gold member after she passed us the keys.

Reception Area

Complimentary Chocolate Chip Cookie