Well after nearly 2 months in Indonesia it was time to move on to our next destination, Malaysia. We packed up our things - takes no time now we are used to where everything goes and got a taxi to Flores Airport. The airport is only small with one hall for check in, a small security gate and a large waiting hall for departures with 3 gates! Our flight was with Nam Air and we arrived in plenty of time so sat around waiting for our plane for ages. As Daz had lost his transit bag, he treated himself to a large bag in Labuan Bajo (normally used by locals for carrying things like rice) which he customized with holes/string to close the top. This was to be the bag's first outing and hopefully would protect his rucksack from the baggage handler's fury!
The plane was late and with only 3 gates it was a bit of a scuffle but we made it on board ok, although slightly worried as we were due to catch another flight from Denpasar, Bali to get to Kuala Lumpur. All went ok and we arrived in Bali at 5pm but we needed to be at the departure gate at 6.30pm so made a dash to the check in counter. Here it was relatively quiet except for 1 couple trying to convince the airline steward they had paid for their luggage and the other a European family with too many kids & baggage! Typical, rushing around to be held up by these people!! We were a bit concerned when our turn came and Daz's bag was put to one side as 'Fragile' due to also having our luggage trolley held in it. We said nothing but we both had reservations about whether this was a good thing. We boarded our Air Asia flight more or less on time although after (once again!) some confusion over which gate it was going from - this is typical in Indonesia. The flight was about 3 hrs and our meal turned out to be a chicken pasty thing (we have been eating vegetarian all this time so this was different but quite tasty).
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur just before 11pm and headed to the baggage reclaim. My bag (K) came out on the conveyor so we waited for Daz's to surface. After waiting some time, only a handful of bags remained - we started to panic, where was his bag?!! We walked around looking but nothing. Time to head to the missing/lost luggage office. We spent well over an hour here whilst they investigated where our bag was, after filling out a report form and description of the bag, our guy handling it (really helpful with good English thankfully) said it had been left in Bali with someone else's bag as there was a problem with the conveyor belt (yeh right, we took that as meaning 'we forgot to put it on board your plane as it was separated from everyone else's luggage'!). There was nothing we could do but hope it would be found, flown over and returned to us soon. We left the airport at 12.30am, managed to get on a coach to the city centre (took about 1hr), arrived at our hotel after negotiating a taxi from the bus station and were greeted by a large Malaysian woman with a bulldog face on the reception!
We were given a temporary room which was a twin on the 2nd floor not far from the lift which stunk of fags but was comfortable enough with a kettle. We had bought a bottle of Vodka at duty free so we poured ourselves a painkilling drink before bed, consoling ourselves after our lost baggage ordeal.
The next morning we woke to a new country which was very developed in comparison and exceptionally humid in temperature. We moved rooms - making sure to take glasses, loo roll and hangers with us (we are pro's at this travelling thing!). We then spent the next day or so hunting around for a Malaysia guide book, trying not to get too frazzled by the heat - so humid in K/L and poor Daz having to endure wearing the same clothes. Anyway, we did eventually find a book in one of the many air conditioned shopping malls and Air Asia came through with Daz's bag - delivering it to our hotel 2 days later with a ripped cover bag but luckily the rucksack was in one piece. Now Daz could finally change his T shirt (and pants!). Also, our mobile had died in Lombok (wouldn't charge) so after buying a new charger (3 pin plugs in Malaysia) and sim card, we were over the moon when we plugged it in and it came back to life - things were looking up again!!
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