Flight Log of Xiamen Air Flight 878 from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou (via Fuzhou)
Chinese New Year Day morning.
After a not-so-merry new year "celebration" under the KLCC Towers, followed by a two-hour nap, I was walking past benches filled by homeless people at Pudu Bus Station, and boarded a early-morning airport bus to Kuala Lumpur Airport.
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There was little traffic on the highways surrounding Kuala Lumpur, and in an hour I was at the airport bus station. It was a 50-seat bus and I recalled seeing only five faces.
Since it's still early for check-in (Yes, somehow, check-in counters for Chinese carriers didn't seem to open as early.), I ate some biscuits bought last night as breakfast, scouted around the airport for currency exchange kiosks, and found there was sort of alliance between them as they offered exactly the same rates.
So I did something I never did in my life and exchanged all my remaining Malaysian Ringgits. Somehow, I didn't find Malaysia appealing to me, and it had managed to convince myself not to visit it again.
Simplicity at its extreme.
At the boarding gate, there was a second round of security. Since I preferred chairs to queues, I was among the last to pass through it. And I cleared it just the moment when the boarding actually began, which made me one of the first to board the plane.
KLCC Towers barely visible.
After an uneventful takeoff, we were told there was no breakfast service, and lunch would be served at 10 which was like halfway into the flight. Thank God, after some nap I found the lunch quite palatable. (Guess won't be the same if it's breakfast.)
By the way, since it’s Chinese New Year’s Days, candies were also served onboard.
I picked chicken noodles, which had the same sort of Malaysian curry as flight MH765 a week earlier, and I quite liked it. Also, the meals prepared in Kuala Lumpur were much more a feast than the inbound flight from Fuzhou.
And an occasional glimpse outside the window revealed the beauty of a nameless island in South China Sea, contrasting the vicious dispute among neighboring countries for its sovereignty.
The layover at Fuzhou(福州) was relatively short, as most people in the airport seemed to be Chinese holiday makers bound for the island of Hainan(海南).
Better than nothing.
Again, meal services on a flight barely over an hour.
Off to Xiangfan(襄樊).
Finally, given the strange nature of this stop-over flight, we needed to clear customs but not immigration at Hangzhou (杭州), which came with a short but unique tour of the Airport's international baggage distribution center.
END