Crossing borders!
The last time we used our passports was in January 2020. We visited my sister Virginia in the UAE, before we started our channel, then a few months later the whole world closed down.
Our passports soon expired in December 2020, and with no reason to renew it our passports were left idle. In that time a deadly cluster was detected at our condo which was then locked down, surrounded with barbed wire and army personnel armed with M16s.
The trauma made us very reclusive and paranoid, barely going out except for essential errands.
April 2021 marked a new beginning as we emerged from our shell and started our channel, as a means of assimilating ourselves back into society. Then Cat and I were infected with the virus in December 2021.
We were laid up for a few months before resuming creating content for our channel. For the next couple of years we were bent on visiting each state in this beautiful country we call Malaysia, culminating in our recent day trip to Muar, Johore.
This marked the 13th and final state, and we can now start using our passports free of guilt!
We bought our flight tickets to Jakarta during a recent MATTA fair and got a fairly good deal. Our return tickets cost us approximately RM858.00 each (approximately USD182/EUR168).
With Brendan starting his post-graduate studies this would be a couple’s trip.
We arose at four in the morning and within an hour Brendan drove us to KL Sentral's Departure Hall. Alas the KL City Air Terminal would not be open till 6:00am.
We then made an executive decision to head straight to KLIA, so we walked across to catch the KLIA Express train.
We bought our train tickets online and enjoyed RM10.00 off each ticket, so it only cost us RM40.00 each (approximately USD9/EUR8).
The train departed KL Sentral at 5:40am and arrived in KLIA half an hour later. We rode an elevator up to the Departure floor and headed to Malaysia Airlines' domestic check-in counter!
We realised our mistake a few minutes later and made a beeline for the international check-in counters instead.
Twenty minutes later we checked in and safely dropped our large luggage. We were due to board MH711 at 9:00am from Gate G6, so we made our way to the Departure hall.
We cleared the Immigration then Customs checkpoints without incident, and by time we emerged it was 7:00am.
We then decided to have drinks at Dunkin' Donuts. We both had the Spiced Chai Teh Tarik; I had mine hot while Cat opted for them iced variant. Our drinks came to RM22.50 (approximately USD5/EUR4).
An hour later we made our way to Gate G6, and five minutes later navigated past the final security checkpoint.
We then took our seats and were finally allowed to board the plane at 8:30am. The flight was full, and the final group of passengers boarded at 8:55am. The plane then pushed back and after a short while taxiing onto the runway the plane eventually took off at approximately 9:05am.
The one hour and a half hour flight was largely uneventful, and the plane began its descent at 10:25am. MH711 touched down at 9:49am local time.
Kudos to Captain Andrew Ha and Chief Steward Mohammad Hamdan for an excellent flight. We disembarked 10 minutes later and headed to Carousel 2 to collect our luggage.
Welcome to Jakarta!
📍 Location:
KLIA Express Transit Station @ KLIA
Terminal 3 Soekarno–Hatta International Airport
