Proton Malaysia Badminton Super Series 2011

Sorry... Been busy following in the High Court a trial which has been quite extensively reported in the newspapers. That gives me very little time to do work in the office, which consequently means later hours (slightly only, mind) and thus less time to blog.

Which means I have to wait till now to tell you about my most recent trip. But first, my Dad - he's 73 this year and still as active and zippy as they come. Plays badminton twice a week, goes out with his friends at day-break and chats up restaurant waitresses while fitting in 20 cigarettes a day. I wouldn't be able to keep that up for a week and I don't know how much longer my Dad can, so I figured I should go with him on more trips while he's still on turbo mode.

Following the success of our Asian Games jaunt, I figured 'sports tourism' was the way to go with my Dad. And one of my Dad's disappointments of the Asian Games was his refusal to succumb to the scalpers' requests for 2000Yuan a ticket to watch his favourite badminton player, Lin Dan. So when I found out that Lin Dan was playing in the Malaysian Open Super Series, I didn't hesitate to make arrangements.

Now, I know that 2/3 of my last few travel blogs have been about trips to Malaysia so I won't wax lyrical about KL or the surrounding sites, scenery or attractions, keeping the photos limited to things I haven't really shown before. Like, I don't think I've really shown a photograph of the exterior of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Malaysia before, have I? Mundane stuff like that...



Or the bus that for RM8 a person brings us from said terminal to the heart of the capital - KL Sentral...



Which looks like this...



Indeed, I think the highlight of this trip is not so much the places that we saw but the people that we met that fired the imagination. First up was Anton in the Airasia flight to KL, who worked for - Airasia! He was on his way back to KL after zipping down to Singapore in the morning for a meeting and was friendly, chatty and admirably zesty despite his day having commenced at 4am in the morning.

I was struck by his passion for his job as he held me spellbound with talk of Airasia's history, its progress and its vision for the future. Unassuming and candid, he nonetheless oozed the kind of enthusiasm and determination to continuously strive for excellence which has characterized Airasia's meteoric rise over the last decade. He spoke to me of his CEO, Tony Fernandez, and how approachable he is (the man does not even have a segregated office but a desk at HQ such that anybody can approach him for a chat).

What really got my attention, however, was talk of Airasia's contribution to Sport, one of my favourite subjects. We talked about the bet that Tony had with Richard Branson of Virgin (and how Richard 'backed out' from the forfeit citing injury). He told me that Tony was a West Ham fan (poor man) but that he personally supported Manchester United before we talked a bit more about Airasia's involvement in the Asean Basketball League. Cool conversation, cool guy. On the assumption that there are lots like him in the company, I have asked my broker to see how I can pick up some Airasia shares on the Malaysian bourse.

Yup, where was I? Oh yes, the trip. We stayed this time in the Melia Kuala Lumpur which was $25 cheaper than the Royale Chulan. It was not quite as luxurious as the latter but in its favour was the fact that it wasn't situated in a side road which necessitate a considerable walk but smack in front of Times Square Berjaya and Imbi Monorail. It was also very adequate and comfortable, the staff cheerful and pleasant.




I seem to be spending a lot of time at KLCC and the Petronas Towers these weeks and can happily report that there is a new live-sized F1 Car on display there. Lotus, right?




This is what happens when you take pictures in front of the Petronas Towers when the sun is directly behind....



This is what happens when it isn't...



In keeping with my different approach to photos this time round, this is a picture of the interior of a typical station of the Rapid KL train service. I don't think I've posted this before have I? Train fares are generally a lot cheaper than those in Singapore and I would recommend this mode of travel for the cost-conscious traveller.



Proton Malaysia Open
----------------------


I have to talk about this eventually, right?

The reason why I waited till now is that though the atmosphere was good, because we came only just before the first match started, the best seats were filled up such that we were quite a distance from where the action was.



The only consolation being that we were closer to the prize-giving podium.



All in all, especially because it was my Dad's first time watching a badminton extravagaza live, we quite enjoyed ourselves. A lot of it had to do with the atmosphere generated by the partisan crowd, who mostly went away happy after Malaysia's Datuk Lee Chong Wei put Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat to the sword in the final match.



KL International Airport (KLIA) Proper
---------------------------------------
Despite this being a short trip, there were several firsts. Like this being the first time I had taken an SQ flight from KL to Singapore (I was too late to get cheap budget airline fares so I used my Points to redeem two one way tickets to Singapore). That meant that we got to take the KLIA express train to the airport (Note KLIA is not LCCT).




The price, as you can see, is RM26.50 per ticket from Bandar Tasik Selatan, which if I recall correctly, is not much cheaper than the fare from KL Sentral a few stations before.

For all the splendour of Changi Airport, I must say that KLIA is also very pretty. At least, for someone used to the bare functionality of LCCT, KLIA is hell of a lot classier.








But as I said, it was the people who we met who were fascinating. In the plane, my Dad made conversation with a lady from South Africa called Uluande (I think) who was almost as passionate as Anton as we spoke about a myriad number of sports, from football, to rugby, to cricket, to cycling (of which she actively participates in). She also regaled us with a very vivid description of her country as well as the surrounding countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

That was our weekend jaunt to Malaysia - the 1st of its kind for 2011- really. But now my Dad wants to go to South Africa...