At approximately 1.05am on Tuesday morning, the wheels of the Facebook Fan Trip #2 (now affectionately known as FBFT) Emirates flight EK 408 touched down on the Tullamarine runway, and I’m positive that I’m speaking for the whole group when I say that with the brakes in full force, a distinct feeling of depression and sadness began to creep up as it dawned on us that an amazing trip had come to its conclusion!
For a trip that began with a few small hiccups (more on that in a second!), the last few days had been a successful whirlwind of new places, new tastes, new experiences, and above all else, very close new friends. It was definitely a challenge to ‘rip off the band aid’ after walking through customs, and leave Lucy, Jess, Lynda and Kieron and our good times behind, but hey – isn’t that the best part of travelling – the people you meet!?
For a trip that began with a few small hiccups (more on that in a second!), the last few days had been a successful whirlwind of new places, new tastes, new experiences, and above all else, very close new friends. It was definitely a challenge to ‘rip off the band aid’ after walking through customs, and leave Lucy, Jess, Lynda and Kieron and our good times behind, but hey – isn’t that the best part of travelling – the people you meet!?
FBFT on a night out in KL - the start of some great friendships!But first, the start. At around 11pm on the 14th of April, the 5 of us arrived at Tullamarine, suitcases in tow, a little nervous, and super eager to get our trip underway. Meet and greet out of the way, skip forward around 45 minutes of standing around watching the departures board, and admittedly, maybe a few games of ‘pick the tears reason’ (break up? Serious plane phobia? Missed flight?) of a few overemotional people around us, and it is gradually beginning to dawn on us that seeing as our flight number hasn’t popped up yet, perhaps all is not alright.
Cue Jess marching up to the Emirates counter, and the consequential stomach-sinking news that due to poor weather conditions, our flight had been slightly delayed. And by slightly delayed, I mean diverted to Singapore and as a result our 2am flight had now become (hopefully) a 6pm flight the following day. Suddenly the crying lady made more sense.
Enter Scott, the very tall and very friendly Emirates customer service guy who made the whole experience as easy and well informed as possible. He gave us our options, was cool, calm and collected in the face of endless streams of abuse from other passengers – funnily enough the choice between cab charges to and from home, a hotel in Geelong, or the Mercure in Caroline Springs isn’t one that tends to warm the heart when you’re meant to be off to an exotic location - and never faltered in providing the high class service that one would expect from an airline like Emirates.
Finally it was decided that Kieron (who had been travelling in Singapore until 19 hours previous!) would head home, Lucy who had travelled from Echuca would head to her parent’s hotel and stay there, and Lynda, Jess and myself would brave the Mercure at Caroline Springs before we’d all meet in the same place at 3pm the following day.
After a hairy cab ride and what seemed like an endless wait to actually get a room at the Mercure (great timing – their systems failed the same night, and they were therefore reliant upon manual booking entering), the three of us settled in to our room at around the same time as we should have been taking off.
The best way to lighten the mood?! Drinking games!! Barely knowing each other’s last names, the three of us began pouring and before we knew it, had polished off a large quantity of fairly average wine, shared laughs aplenty, and given ourselves the beginning of a large hangover that only grew larger.
Arriving at the airport at 3pm the next day, we were greeted with the news that our flight had been further delayed and would now be leaving at 9pm. With a 6 hour wait and hangovers to boot there was nothing to do but settle in at P.J O'Reillys with the rest of the crew and get to know each other!
L-R: Lucy, Kieron, Lynda, Myself, Jess killing time before boarding at Tullamarine In the meantime, we had managed to get in touch with the great team at Travelscene American Express who were doing their best to alter our arrangements (having now missed nearly an entire day, and the possibility of not being able to extend the time by a day at the other end, our itinerary was looking a little messy). Between regular updates from them and the Emirates team we were definitely well looked after, and eventually, something like 20 hours later, we made it through check in, customs, ran into (and hi-fived) our tall friend Scott again, and boarded the plane!
Having never flown Emirates before, I was reasonably impressed by the service we received over the next 8 or so hours, though it could have been a little quicker at times. Our greatest problems probably came from other passengers - like the ones in front of Jess and I who decided that take off was the perfect time to drop their seat back - meaning that we shared the unexpected surprise of them practically sitting in our laps during the ascent. And repeat the same at meal time - as a result I wore a great deal of my (fairly yummy!) aeroplane food!
I was especially infatuated with the 'runway cameras' as I called them; cameras situated on the bottom and front of our aircraft which allowed us to see take off and landing, and during day flights, a whooooole bunch of clouds!
I was especially infatuated with the 'runway cameras' as I called them; cameras situated on the bottom and front of our aircraft which allowed us to see take off and landing, and during day flights, a whooooole bunch of clouds!
My only real gripe with Emirates was their seats. I'm not a tall person, but I wouldn't say I'm less than average height, and I really struggled to put my feet flat on the floor. This meant that as the flight progressed, my legs began to ache more than your ususal run of the mill flight ache from being stuck on a strange angle. It wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying the pretty extensive in-flight system, or grabbing a few hours sleep though, so I guess it was manageable in the end!
EmiratesLanding in the early hours of Friday morning, we were over the moon to finally be greeted with the personal FACEBOOK FAN TRIP KUALA LUMPUR sign of our driver for the stay, Kumar from Asian Overland Tours . Jess and I were staying in the Parkroyal Hotel located on Jalan Sultan Ismail, in the shopping heart of Kuala Lumpur, while Lynda, Kieron, and Lucy were to stay in the Parkroyal Serviced Suites about a block away. If we had been excited about our rooms prior to arriving at them, actually walking in was another experience altogether! Greeted by the largest king bed I think I have ever seen and beautiful welcome platter of fruits and roses, my deliriously tired self could barely contain a squeal (and I may have jumped on the bed in excitement... I'm only human!)
My room at the ParkroyalWe were definitely in for some spoiling, having been put up in the hotel's Orchid Club executive suites, which granted us not only beautiful rooms, but a great deal of privileges around the hotel itself. Amongst other things, the Orchid Club gave us complimentary snacks through the day, complimentary broadband access, private access to Orchid Club floors through the Orchid Club lift, access to the Orchid Club Lounge; where each day a large buffet breakfast would be held, as well as complimentary cocktails and canapes each day between 6 and 7.30pm, and for the business minded guest - business meetings could be conducted through the day.
the orchid club lounge
The Orchid ClubSettling in at 6am for what would be just a two hour nap before our day really started (wake up call for our Malaysian Cooking Class at LaZat was at 8am), it finally dawned that we were in Malaysia, had made it in one piece, and that the best (and a nice surprise!) was yet to come.
KL - FBFT was now well and truly ready to meet you!
Mim xx
7 comments:
I can't believe how much excitement you guys had before the plane even left the ground! lucky you made it. Can't wait to read more.
Hello Miranda!
I loved reading it, It all sounded so much fun! Wish I had a trip like that, perhaps when you come over to Penang Island, I'll join you :)
Thanks Mei! It definitely was fun, and I haven't even got to the good part yet! Penang's would be great fun!! haha :)
TALENT!
oops, Mei that was meant to be Penang, not Penang's!
What an awesome blog Miranda - loved reading it! :) Monica
Brilliantly written Miranda!! You depicted things to perfection!! Cant wait to read about the FBFT POLIS night out!
xx
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