Asia Mega Tour 2026 - Days Two & Three...And We Are Where?

I really do love SE Asia. 

I really do not like the long-ass schlepp that is required to get to SE Asia.

So, I believe it is Friday the 27th here in Kuala Lumpur where we ARE NOT YET WHERE WE WANT TO GO. According to my computer's clock, it is still Thursday the 26th in Albuquerque. 

So far we started on Tuesday, taking our positioning flight to San Francisco so we could get our great deal on our business class flights to Kuala Lumpur (via Tokyo). Then on Wednesday we started the 21-hour journey (11-hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, 2-hour layover, 8-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur). This got us into KL at around midnight on Thursday the 26th. We checked into the hotel at around 1:30am on the 27th. 

Today, we have a very short flight in the afternoon that will take us to Pulandia (you will all remember the fabled transient, mythical Queendom of Pulandia) that currently resides in the Sumatra, Indonesia city of Medan, most recently known for horrific floods that took place their a number of months ago.

Despite it's length, the journey has been quite smooth. Our long flight was on All Nippon Airways (ANA), which is considered one of the best airlines in the world. I know that it seems to be a bit insensitive to those who don't travel like we do, but if you are flying business class a lot, and you are spending a lot of money on said business class, you develop a critical palate for the product you are getting both in terms of the hard product (the seat and other aspects of the plane and ground facilities) and the soft product (the service provided by the employees of the airline). 

ANA's hard product, as far as the seat on our Boeing 777, is truly superior. I will upload a very bad video when I finally get to Medan but it was one of the most spacious, comfortable seats I've flown and truly capable of providing a quality sleep/rest environment. Our second flight was on an older 787 with quite old, not fully lay flat seats, which was disappointing as we were really in body clock sleep cycle on that flight. Nonetheless, I conked out during the majority of that flight. 

ANA service is very good, though sometimes language is a challenge. They give you A LOT to eat and by airline standards, it is reasonably good. It is rare on any airline to get a really good meal even paying business class prices (part of the problem being how flight conditions affect your taste and smell). 

Arriving at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) was fairly smooth. We've been in and out of here enough times now to know our way around. They've done somethings to improve the passport control process making it go much quicker.  

We did our overnight at the Sama Sama hotel which is attached directly to the airport with a convenient buggy service. We have stayed there many times. The rooms are very nice, comfortable beds and very quiet. The service went through a dip the last time we were there in 2024. However, this time we were handled very nicely and given an upgrade to their premium level which meant a free breakfast buffet. 

Check out time was Noon which allowed Wife to sleep really late before we headed to airport. We are flying plebeian class on this short flight to Medan. Yet when I asked a young man if we could check in as early as we were at the airport, he sent us to the priority line where there was no wait. I'm not sure why that was the case, but we accepted it graciously. I had to show proof that I had a ticket out of Indonesia to check in. I guess the Indonesian government doesn't want any vagrant old people staying beyond their welcome.

We are using a PriorityPass club access since we get it with one of our credit cards. Airport clubs in general these days are not anything like they used to be. The airlines and credit card companies have marketed the heck out of them so they tend to be very crowded, sort of the antithesis of the kind of escape you seek out by have lounge access. 

Ah the trials and tribulations of the entitled. 

We are really looking forward to getting this last flight behind us and actually starting our stay in SE Asia.