The Trip

After a very short flight from Singapore, I arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport, which is when things got interesting.

Before moving on, the photo on the right was taken the day after my arrival while wandering around the Kuala Lumpur City Centre park; it's like an island of calm in the ocean of chaos. More on this later.

Anyhow, back to the airport saga; there was someone at the gate with a sign telling us all that we needed to go to C5 for baggage collection.

Ok, but where is that? Shock horror, there was actually a sign for baggage claim, so off I went to follow the signs to C5.

It was a nice try; it seems that sign was one-of-a-kind, with no sign of anything called baggage claim. I even bumped into other passengers from my flight who were in the same situation as me.

I finally found a service desk and asked them where I needed to go, to be told to go to C5 and get on a bus to go to baggage claim. Yes, really, the baggage claim was in a different building, and following a reasonably long trip, it seemed the other building was not close.

Very annoying, but at least it seems there is a new train service coming between buildings, it's just still under construction.

After some digging, it seems this train service is expected by the end of January 2025, so maybe my next visit will include a much less painful experience at the airport.

And no, this is not the only time I have had to go to a different building for baggage claim; it's just usually via train service and not having to stand on a crowded bus. The train service under construction cannot come soon enough for me.

Anyhow, I finally got to baggage claim but had no idea which carousel was for my flight. And yes, there was a sign, but as I arrived, the display changed to other content.

Ok no big deal it will just change back soon, but no after 5 minutes it was unchanged, very annoying, so I asked a worker who was standing close by, he said "10 minutes, with a smile", then asked for my flight number and told me all bags where already unloaded and pointed to a mountain of bags at the other end of the nearest carousel.

Immigration & Digital Arrival Cards (MDAC) top

Now I have my bags, so heading to immigration to find out that I needed to fill in a digital arrival card, which is a new one for me, and no when I booked this with webjet.com, I was warned about the Singapore one, but not the Malaysian one. I must take this up with them when I eventually get home.

The next issue, not that it was unexpected, is the distance from the airport to the hotel, which it seems is around 60km, yes, really the Kuala Lumpur International airport is way outside of the city. Not a clue why?

Navigating Kuala Lumpur City Transport & Taxis top

Anyhow, I was planning to get a taxi, knowing how cheap they are, and yes, after many warnings, I wanted a "metered taxi" and not one of the "private cars" offered by some pushy salespeople located on the exit from customs.

Way more on this transport stuff later, as many gotchas need to be noted.

After a little over an hour and a very friendly driver, who offered many hints on things to see, and many warnings about the city traffic being the stuff of nightmares.

Now, it cannot possibly be as bad as Jakarta, India or some Chinese cities. Or can it?

As we got closer to the city, yes, the traffic, as expected, got worse, way worse, and no, not just slow-moving but chaos, with motorbikes moving in all directions, in and out of the other traffic. The taxi driver just shrugged at this mess.

Even decades after my first visit, I remember these motorbikes; they are the sum of nightmares, going wherever they want and ignoring what road rules exist.

I had hoped something had been done to at least reduce the mess, which was Kuala Lumpur's roads. However, nope, the motorbikes still do whatever they like, with the only change I noticed being the addition of steel barriers on some footpaths, which block them from the pavements.

Just check the photo on the right; this motorbike just missed me on the path and just sped off. And this was only one of many encounters with these things, so it's looking like all my travels in different regions have helped my reflexes.

Expect more on this traffic nightmare, including how to survive crossing the street at a pedestrian crossing. Yes, really, help is needed on this one, as it can be an interesting experience.

The question is, are the reports of taxis being cheap in Kuala Lumpur true? Well, based on this trip, I would put them at a little less than half of the cost in Sydney, with an hour's ride and around 60km coming in at around AUD$60.

Time to head back to my hotel, fuel up, and head out for some more exploration.