Diary of a Whirlwind Trip to KL

Thursday, 3.20am: Alarm sounds. Urgh!

3.32am: Drag self out of bed. Brush hair, stick matchsticks under eyelids ;), dress in comfortable travel clothes – thank you Nikki for the Country Road maxi skirt advice almost 12 months ago, I still love it! Head off for the long drive to the airport.

4.24am: Long term car park. Shuttle to the terminal. Hit the bag drop queue for Air Asia X (I have already checked in – Air Asia X allows you to check in from time of booking until up to 1 hour before your flight). Still tired!

5.01am: Queue for customs. Hit with a wave of pregnancy blood sugar dizziness and the need to sit down. So glad for bag full of snacks. An apple while I am waiting makes me feel so much better. Why do customs officers never smile? Or talk?

6:00am: Resisted as long as possible but I may have just made an impulsive, rather large Duty Free purchase. What else is there to do during the long wait for international flights?

6.03am: Looking at the queue for boarding, this plane is going to be rather full. Eat again. This pregnancy is like that.

6.29am: On plane. It IS very full. Sitting next to an arm rest hog who turns out to be rather useful when I have a huge dizzy spell during the flight. Snooze on and off during flight, a task made particularly difficult thanks to a young boy who sneezes and sniffs loudly the whole way to KL. Arm hog travels with her shirt over her nose to avoid germs. Wish I had a tissue to offer him.

12.34pm: Land. Disembark. Maxi skirt and largish belly see me decide not to use squat toilet in immigration area, my balance isn’t that great at the moment! Quick trip through immigration and customs to then be greeted by some lovely local Nuffies. Wondering why I am perspiring heavily in a t-shirt and skirt when said local Nuffies look cool as cucumbers in jeans???

2.30pm-ish: Arrive at the lovely Marriott Putrajaya with Lynda of Nuffnang Australia. The hotel is a gorgeous and a cool oasis from the heat.

First stop is food (surprisingly!) and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy all of the meals at the Marriott, especially the extensive breakfast buffet.

View from my room is amazing (see above) as is Rachel, my roomie, who arrives on Friday morning.

6.10pm: Decide TV, room service and an early night are in order. Alone in a big bed in a hotel room and there is nothing on TV (can anyone say Miley Cyrus bio!!), it’s just wrong! Exhausted, sleep well!

Friday, am-early afternoon: Eat, meet up with other Australian finalists and bloggers who have flown in for the awards, catch up on emails, eat again, have amazing head massage, wash and blow dry in resort spa (photo above right: Styling You). Drink watermelon juice as sustenance for the long night ahead. Nap.

4:58pm: Time to start getting ready for the big event. Hair – check, make up – check, glad rags – check, bling – check! Meet up with the Aussie contingent for pre-Awards drinks. More watermelon juice for me!

Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards 2011: Once again, Nuffnang have created an awesome evening like nothing I have ever had the privilege of attending before – from corsages for the finalists to all sorts of entertainment throughout the evening, they have thought of everything!

9.00pm: Childhood 101 wins Best Parenting Blog! It’s quite surreal to see an 8ft high image of yourself projected onto a huge screen. Manage a short speech without blubbering, hope I thanked everyone I should have as I am kind of overwhelmed at this stage.  (Image above: Grab Your Fork)

With three of the other amazing finalists for Best Parenting Blog – Dee and Dorothy of Prune Nurture, Leonny and little Brie from Our Everyday Things and Daphne of Mother Inc. (Photo above: Prune Nurture)

Saturday day and night: Touring, shopping (wish we had more of the big name stores in Perth!), socialising! From early to late! Hanging out with bloggers is so much fun.

Sunday daytime: More shopping!  Interesting taxi ride through Putrajaya (which has some really beautiful architecture) on the way back to the hotel. Not fair that I go home without an our-taxi-driver-didn’t-know-where-the-hotel-was story of my own 😉 Made taxi stop and let us out at the Shangri-La. Asked kind concierge to call us another taxi to take us back to the Marriott.

Sunday, 7pm: Hormonal pregnant mama packs bags and makes long journey to see her lil family once again! Thankful for a row to myself on the plane.

Monday, 4:40am Woke to see the sun rising over WA!

5.11am: Landed. Now to tackle customs, the long term car park and the drive home.

5:29am: One customs officer for very long queue. Feel tired and hormonal but choose not to complain loudly like the lady behind me!

5:45am: Still in queue. If I don’t sit down soon I may fall down, really this time. Finally make it to the front of the queue and promptly burst into tears (these hormones!) Suddenly customs is full of helpful officers 😉 Unsurprisingly, am helped to get my bag and waved through. First stop orange juice and something to eat then once again face a wait. This time for the shuttle to the car park where my credit card won’t work! Finally sorted and once again on my way.

6:59am: It was a fabulous trip but there is really no place like home!

* * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *   * * *

I attended the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards thanks to Air Asia X. Air Asia X provide budget travel options to to 16 destinations worldwide including Japan, Korea, Australia, India, China, Taiwan, Iran, Paris, London and New Zealand. Air Asia X provide a range of extras that can be pre-booked online – including premium economy or hot seats (more legroom), meals, comfort kits and portable entertainment devices. Why not like their Facebook page so that you can be the first to hear about their latest specials?

7 Comments

  1. Amazing! Congratulations by the way!!!
    That hotel looks gorgeous too. Loving the Christmassy decorations in the lobby. The pool looks way too good. Love the 8ft high pic of you too! Awesome weekend indeed!

  2. Wow what an amazing hotel and clearly a great trip to remember always 🙂 Congrats again on winning the award!

  3. Congratulations on winning the award!

    You had a good view of the KL skyline, didn’t you? And you and your friends even made it to KLCC? Not bad!

    And why am I not surprised that you enjoyed the food? Haha… Malaysian food, ahhh…. I miss that most (other than family, of course!).

    Congratulations once again! 🙂

Comments are closed.