Airports, burgers, and such

Up early.  I've never missed a flight.  Hope to never do so.  2,000,000 lifetime miles (many of which were credit card driven) since Mom opened my AAdvantage account for me in 1988.  Late occasionally, canceled occasionally, misconnected frequently, but never missed a flight.  Bring a book, find a quiet corner and just unwind.

2 roti pisang for breakfast.  Indulgent.  I'll miss that place.

Grab to the airport.  Grab really is what Uber should be be.  Quick, easy, politely, timely, seamless.

I had lounge access.  Some fried noodles and a bowl of Laksa.  Penang style laksa.  The broth was amazing.  Everything was.  Even the fish balls.  (Hey, we eat roe, no???)  No, this is meatballs made of fish.  Funky texture, but fine.

50 minute flight is a 50 minute nap.

KLIA has great baggage handling.  It was set aside for me when I reached the baggage claim.  E-hailed another Grab.  I screwed up and waited on level 3.  I was supposed to be on Level1.  He was cool about it and just circled while I made it down there.  Grab crushes Uber.

Originally I had booked a hotel in KL Sentral on points.  Common sense won the battle.  With an 0945 take off and the KLIA Express being about an hour I realized paying for a hotel was the smart choice.

This is a $60 hotel here:

Nicer than the ~$50/night condo (when looking at fees and transaction costs), at least twice as nice (NYT Crossword puzzle answer last week!) as the $30 one in Kuah  (and that was perfectly fine.)

It's frosty here:

Really?  Not absurdly hot?  How can that be?

Dinner was at the hotel bar.  Having a cocktail in an Islamic nation seemed like a bit of forbidden fun.  So I had a Martini made with Suntory Roku Gin.  Tasty enough.

I sipped it while having a big burger.  Knife and fork stuff.  Onions (grilled and raw), cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried egg and just simply wonderful.  Burgers are pretty common here: lamb, chicken, beef, etc.  This was beef.  The local version of an American classic passed muster.

When I checked in at LGK, there was a small placard that caught my ete.  Common sense.  But also a reflection of what I have experienced all throughout this journey:

I think I love this place...