Europe: Day 1 (Fly with MAS and Etihad)

Hey wanderlusters!

Finally I'm gonna blog about our Europe 2nd honeymoon. Our 1st honeymoon was during springtime in Korea. This time we wanted to experience winter wonderland and Christmas season. You can read about our budget and planning and a short summary of what I think about each city. There's also a video at the bottom of this post to let you experience a bit of my trip.

Beautiful ceiling of Abu Dhabi International Airport.

It was around 7pm when we arrived at the airport. This can also be considered a birthday trip as both of our birthdays fall in December with just a week apart.

Happy faces at Penang International Airport. 

 Let's give support to MAS. Actually we booked Etihad Airways from Penang directly to Amsterdam but since Etihad does not have flights from Penang MAS was used as a surrogate instead.

Check in weight was only 24kg for both of our luggage though allocated 30kg for each of passenger. Wonder how heavy our luggage will be when we return.

 Had dinner first at Secret Recipe.

 We are finally going to Amsterdam.

So excited!

 We boarded at 9:45pm. MAS domestic flights are similar to Air Asia except for free drinks and snacks.

Wefie on plane.

Arrived KLIA after 45 minutes.

Settled down at about 11pm and printing next fight ticket. At this very moment, our Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng walked pass but it was too late to capture and I was also intimidated by his bodyguard.

Just to show you my new two way poncho mum gave me. So pretty!

I've never seen or heard of camel milk chocolate.

 Chocolate zones are always our favourite at airports.

Believe it or not this is my first time in KLIA coz I never transit here before. All my previous travels are via direct flights.

 My number one favourite brand when it comes to chocolates. Gonna stock up lots of them in Switzerland.

Can you spot our airline?

Wish to go to Harrods in London next time.

Random spotlights seemed like stars. It's already 12:30am hence the emptiness. We only have 2.5 hours of transit but it feels like 10 hours coz all we did was walk around the empty airport.

One of my favourite spots in KLIA coz the lights look like fireflies in the background.

With nothing to do for 2 hours, we acted like the airport belongs to us. The sofa was smelly as hell. Filthy sweaty stinky odour like ikan masin. No mood to take a nap also.

We printed at MAS counter hence the logo but actually if u notice the flight is EY not MH. 

In the waiting lounge. Yippeee!

It's 2:30am...time to board! Can't believe that we are finally making our dreams come true. Do not forget to pray for safety as well especially during these days where lots of incidents happened.

Seats are quite spacious and comfortable. Etihad has this mood lighting effect. The color of lights changes according to time Love that they have prayers before every flight. Though I'm not a Muslim, I would love MAS and Air Asia to have this practice too. The prayers gives passengers a sense of peace and faith.

Ok, now I'm in love with middle eastern airlines coz they give a lot of goodies.

Wah! Usually I don't receive lots of stuffs with other airlines. They don't usually give toiletries.

Find out about our next flight to Schiphol.

Nice breakfast menu.

 I love love love this chicken keema! The pie crust is very soft so be careful when u eat this coz it falls easily.

Notice the lights changed colour to night mode.

What a long journey. 2nd transit and one more flight to go.

After like 4-5 hours we woke up for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs set with sides like bun, chocolate muffin, fruits and yogurt. So heavy and super duper yummy...every flight meal is yummy even Air Asia meals I ain't lying. I have the fetish for airline food. They are somehow organized, wholesome and delicious don't you think?

Hubby chose fried noodles for breakfast. I'm missing flight meals now and my tummy is growling.

Arrived at around 6:10am Abu Dhabi time. We had to get down Air Asia/Firefly style and transferred via airport coach. What the heck? Why such a world class airport doesn't have connecting gates? #firstworldproblems

You will see this iconic ceiling upon arrival.

Selfie dulu ye...

Can't get enough of the ceiling.

 It should be 10am in Malaysia by now...check in Facebook and Insta!

View from the first floor.

We walked to another terminal.

Starting to feel all Christmasy!

Goodbye, Abu Dhabi! Visiting Dubai has always been my childhood dream ever since it tremendously started to develop more than 10 years ago but other trips kept coming in. I promise I will tour around Abu Dhabi and Dubai ...erm... after Iceland, Turkey, Maldives, New Zealand...omg I just can't procrastinate no more!

Chilling at the waiting hall and put on a red lippie so that I don't look like a zombie. I remember washing my face countless of times since we were at KLIA. Washroom was like my 2nd home lol...

Notice the EY and not MH again. We printed at MAS counter in KLIA so that's how MAS logo got there. Our flight was at 9:15am Abu Dhabi time. It will be a longer journey for about 7 hours...that's as long as our flight last time from Penang to Osaka/Seoul. Really broke my personal record man!

It's time! Our 3rd and final flight of our journey to the west. Did it just display "Best of luck"? We sure need all the luck after all that's happening in the aviation world but this made us even more nervous to fly.

 We ride this coach for about 10 minutes. The planes were super far.

Saw some buildings along the way. We could see some construction going on. Shows that the airport keeps improving so I hope the new terminal could get flights attached to the gates.

Did you know Etihad is the official sponsor for my favourite football club, Manchester City? I used to support the red devils since I was like 10 or so but after Beckham went away and deteriorating performance I decided to turn to an uprising team that performs better.

Here we go again...

The seats are even nicer than the one we sat from KLIA to Abu Dhabi.

Wefie...I looked so tired due to lack of sleep, jetlag, no bath and many more coz this is the first time traveling to the west. Jetlag will be worse when we return to the east. Now we have 7 more hours to reach Amsterdam wtf!

 Let's see what's for lunch. The menu looks good. Every time after seated its my habit to check the menu.

It looks like we have traveled for 24hours including layover. One tip to reduce transit is to take KLM or MAS but also more expensive lah. Everything has its pros and cons.

We were served 3 times during this flight. 1st was this snack, 2nd was lunch and 3rd was tea. The kid in me said main game dulu.

Both of us had briyani for lunch coz it sounds tastier than the other 2 choices. I'll try the pasta when we return. I love the couscous a lot.

The cold chicken sandwich was not to my taste (I know it's meant to be cold) coz the bread was hard like a rock. After trying European breads every morning, I noticed their breads are dry and hard. We Asians prefer soft fluffy buns.

Haggard sia.. Ok its time to sleep now. See you in Amsterdam on my next post. No worries the lights were dimmed and windows closed.

Lastly, hope you enjoy my Christmas in Europe below.

11th April is our 11th Anniversary
11th April is our 11th Anniversary.. A special dedication to my wife.. Love Love..
Posted by Keong Da'Great on Friday, 10 April 2015