13 Hours in Malaysia and arrival in Tokyo

I thought it was going to be awful, but transiting through Kuala Lumpur from Thailand to Japan was a breeze.

We left Kho Phangan yesterday, then dove into the following: truck taxi to dock, catamaran ferry to Samui, van to Samui airport, 1.5 hour flight to KL, airport shuttle, night in KL, airport shuttle, 6 hour flight to Tokyo, shuttle to Ginzu Station, taxi to apartment in Roppongi.  It was a largely enjoyable journey -- lots of variety over a day and a half -- and best of all, it began with a delicious noodle soup lunch in Thailand, and ended with a commuter soba noodle place in Tokyo tonight.

I've never been to Malaysia before.  On the plus side, the KL airport has interesting snacks.  

The Toblerone ferris wheel lights up and moves

Oscar, whose job it is to load the luggage carts, was thrilled with the ones at KLIA.  Something about their capacity and ease of handling.

The expert at work

All the people we met, including the taxi touts, were friendly and helpful.  KLIA has not only the fastest airport wifi we've ever experienced, but the fastest wifi we've had during our entire trip.  

What else?  The infamous Concorde Inn KL Airport Hotel, with 81 excellents and 149 terribles on Trip Advisor, was not bad at all.  Neil had booked the place, and then I had gotten myself into a crazy state the night before reading horrible reviews of it online (bed bugs, incessant noise, surly staff, etc.).  After a pleasant night's stay, I realized that it all depends on your perspective. It's certainly not great if you're expecting the Hilton, but it's vastly better than any hotel we stayed at in China and better than most we saw in Ecuador.  I tried to give it a honest review.  

Neil outside our room at the Concorde -- reminiscent of Forbes College, circa 1986

As an aside, I'm starting to get annoyed at the ubiquitous snarky comments on travel websites about mainland Chinese tourists.  Yes, they're loud, they sometimes wear cheap clothes, and they tend to travel in large groups.  They've become today's ugly American.  Everyone just needs to relax about them!

In Malaysia, the mainlanders we encountered were not too troublesome....except the woman who tried to cut me off at the breakfast buffet egg line (not happening!), or the other woman whose plastic wrapped wood pile   (not clear why she was traveling with it) narrowly missed my toe when it fell over on the bus.  She didn't bat an eye, just moved the wood like it was my fault it had fallen over!  

Okay, I obviously need to take my own advice.  Back on topic - it was a bit surreal arriving in Malaysia the day before the end of Ramadan, seeing all the local press about the recent Malaysia Airlines crash.  Lots of sad stories about the pilots, flight attendants, and victims' families at what should be a happy time.  Our flight to Tokyo was probably 40% empty, so we got to spread out and had great service.  I'm not rushing out to fly them again, but I do hope the airline survives.

My initial thoughts on Tokyo?  We are a long way from Bolivia (except for the Doritos).