13 – 16 April 2023, it was long holidays in Thailand (Thai New Year – Songkran festival – Water fesival, whatever you call 🙂 ). Bangkok would be empty and travelling inside Thailand was costly and over-crowded. I, who is not quite enjoy the water splashing war would be felt boring for sure during 4 days. So, I decided to escape myself to another place nearby Thailand where is inexpensive and worth to visit. Malaysia was popped-up in my head as it is just 2 hours flying from Bangkok and the air fare was just only 4,500 THB – round trip (135 USD) with the god of low cost carrier of Thailand, AirAsia.

The main target of this trip was not only in capital of Malaysia like Kuala Lumpur, it has another world heritage city nearby there, Malacca (Melaka). Thus, for this review, I will show the flight from Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi to Kuala Lumpur and travelling from the airport to Malacca by local bus. For the bus ticket, it has ticketing counter at ground floor of KLIA-2* (Arrival hall) or it can be purchased online in advance via Easybook.com.

Note : Kuala Lumpur Airport has 2 terminals, KLIA and KLIA2. The first one is main terminal while KLIA2 is for low cost carriers. Both terminals are connected by train and bus.

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Herewith the flight details.

Flight No. : FD 419 – Thai Air Asia

Route : BANGKOK (BKK) – KUALA LUMPUR_KLIA2 (KUL)

Departure Time : 06.05 PM (GMT +7)

Arrival Time : 09.15PM  (GMT +8)

Flight Duration : 2 Hours 10 minutes

Equipment : Airbus A320-200

Cabin Class : ECONOMY

***Actually, I booked the morning flight and would connect to bus to Malacca in the same day. But it was cancelled and I had been transferred to evening flight. It forced me to stay a night in Kuala Lumpur airport and catch the bus in the next day.

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The trip was started by arriving Bangkok – Suvarnbhumi airport (BKK) by Airport Rail Link. I had reached the airport on 3pm, about 3 hours prior departure time. As it was long holidays, sooner is safer.

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AirAsia has check-in counter at Row-D and Row-F at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. it has automatic check-in kiosk and self-baggage drop lanes. For me, I did internet check-in before leaving home. Just went to print the boarding pass at the machine and drop the checked-in baggage. It spent only 10 minutes to finish all processes. Very convenient. 😛

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After check-in and get the boarding pass, I had to pass security checkpoint and immigration. I would have to board at Gate no. E10. I still had time to find some place to relax and have a drink before get in the aircraft.

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About 30 minutes before departure, I was at the boarding gate. The passengers and the aircraft were there already.

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The boarding was started on-time. AirAsia has pritory boarding for “Hot-seat” passengers and passengers in more need first. Then, it would be boarding by zone of the seat, starting from the back of the plane to the front seat.

Boarding at the gate

The aerobridge boarding

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The seats were arranged as 3 – 3 like another single aisle aircraft. The seat pitch was quite narrow as low-cost style. It could be a little bit reclined (about 2 inches). In the seat pocket, it had safety instruction sheet and in-flight menu.

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When the boarding completed, the flight was pushed back and taken-off on-time. Once the flight had been set up, during waiting for in-flight service, let’s take a look the lavatory. It was well cleaned and had escential things.

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Then, the cabin crews had sold the food and served the pre-booked meal. For me, I did book the in-flight meal in advance (by online). Even it was just only 2 hours flight, but it was long enough to starve myself. 🙂 In addition, pre-booking meal was cheaper that order in the flight up to 25%.

As I was going to Malaysia, it was a good idea to “warm-up” my gut with local food, Nasi Lemak (Coconut milk flavored rice with chilli paste/spicy chicken/dried fish. It was served with complimantary bottled water.

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It was spicy but tasty 😛 After the meal, I was enjoy the sunset view for a while. 40 minutes before arrival time, the flight was descended and landed at KLIA2 safely.

Sunset View from FD419 flight

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Once I got in the terminal, I just followed the way to pass immigration. KLIA2 terminal is big, I took about 15 minutes walk to immigration area.

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Next, after immigration clearance completed, I could reclaim my checked-in laggage at the belt. It was I am completely arrived in Malaysia !

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As I mentionned, my flight to Kuala Lumpur was postponed from morning to evening flight. My plan to Malacca had to be shifted too. I had no choice to catch the bus in the morning of next day. So, I decided to stay at CapsuleTransit Airport Hotel @ KLIA2. It is located in ground floor of arrival hall of KLIA2. This hotel (or hostel) has 2 places in KLIA2, Airside (before passing immigration) and Landside (after passing immigration). I stayed at Landside. The sleeping pod as well as shower room and toilet were clean and comfortable for overnight stay.

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Next morning, I booked the bus ticket to leave KLIA2 at 9.45am with Transnational Bus by using Easybook.com. I had checked-out from the hotel at 9am and had some snack for breakfast from minimart. But, the e-ticket from Easybook.com could not be used to board the bus. It had to be exchanged to be paper ticket at the ticket counter first. The ticket counter is located at the same floor with Capsule transit hotel.

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The ticket coutner for ticket buying and exchange e-ticket to be paper ticket

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The bus was arriving at the platfom on 9.40am. The seat was wide and comfartable.

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The picture of the seats from https://www.easybook.com

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The bus was taken about 2 hours to reach Melaka Sentral, the main bus terminal of Malacca.

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At Melaka Sentral Bus Station, it has automatic bus ticket machine. I could buy the ticket back to Kuala Lumpur in advance by this machine. It accepted cash. For me, I would stay in Malacca for 1 nights (2 days) and back to Kuala Lumpur main bus station (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan : TBS). I bought the ticket for the next day at 4pm.

Automatic bus ticket vending machine at Melaka Sentral Bus Station

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From Melaka sentral to city center, actually, it has bus. But the most conveneint and inexpensive way is using the shared ride (or taxi) service by GRAB application. The distance from bus station to city center is about 6 km. The cost by GRAB was only 10 MYR (about 2.50 USD). The travel time was about 15 minutes.

Now, it meant I have arrived Malacca already. I have cheked-in to the hotel first to keep my belonging. Then, it had free time in the afternoon to explore the world heritage city and see how interesting and charming it is. I hoped this review can be one of the guidance and help you to get Malacca with the reasonable way and budget. Have a wonderful stay in Malacca 🙂

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Written By : Shipy Siwarit Tiasuwattiseth

https://www.facebook.com/shipyshipdotcom