A journey to far far away…

When we took our seats on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH003 from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur we expected that 24 hours later, after battling through that flight and another after it, we would be in Melbourne. However, 24 hours later, we were not in Melbourne, instead we sat by the pool of the Pulse Grande Hotel in Putrajaya, about 15 miles south of Kuala Lumpur itself. Something had gone very wrong.

Indeed the journey we took ended up taking not an exhaustive 24 hours, but in fact an even more gruelling 36 hours including an unexpected trip to the Malaysian equivalent on Silicon Valley.

It all started when the engines of the new Airbus A350 failed to gain any thrust whatsoever on the taxing journey out of the gate at Heathrow. The pilot came over the intercom and said that a technical problem, had been encountered and that we would need to return to the gate but would hopefully be up in the air soon. We looked at eachother but shrugged and got back to playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on the in flight entertainment. A 45 minute wait to have the plane fixed and the re-fuelled led us fearing missing the connecting flight we had planned at Kuala Lumpur but we got a bit more relaxed once the pilot once again prepped the plane for take off. 3 hours later however, after frequent attempts to fix the shricken pride of the Malaysia Airlines fleet, we were asked to disembark the flight and given a £20 compensatory meal voucher for the terminal. The 09:20 connecting flight in Kuala Lumpur? No chance!

Thus when we finally got on the new Malaysia Airlines plane that had now been flown in, our 10:25 flight was now sitting on the board at Heathrow among flights to Doha and Mumbai scheduled for take off at 16:30.

Finally at around 13:00 local time, after a combined 6 films, 4 meals, and what seemed like countless hours of sitting on a plane, we had arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The first leg had been completed.

The airline staff at the other side were very helpful, ushering us over to a bench at the gate we had arrived in at and then giving us a new boarding pass for a flight that evening and some vouchers for lunch, dinner, and a hotel room in a nearby resort a bus ride away. The 2 hour layover we had orginally planned was now confirmed as now being a whopping 9 hours. Tired and getting agitated we stumbled through the airport customs and got out into the staggering 35 degree heat of Malaysia. After a further hour long bus ride we got to the hotel the airline had supplied us knowing full well that we had to take full advantage of what would an only 2 hour long stay. The shower was gorgeous, the pool stunning, and the dinner divine, we trudged back to the airport, ready once again to sit on another long haul flight, but slightly comforted by the thought that this was it, finally we were nearly there.

Indeed, at quarter past 9 in the morning we touched down in Melbourne. We had made it, jet lagged beyond belief and not fully aware of what day it was, we were further away from home than we had ever been.