Champagne on a plane

This will be the last of the posts about airports and flights! (excluding the Copenhagen trip…but that part wasn’t business class, so it is totally different :P ) Finally we reach the part about Qatar Airways…and it is seriously impressive.

The business class seat itself already had me in awe.

Just look at that compartment!

Legs will stretch under the TV

Water and headphones in the storage compartment

And there is a door for privacy!

Below is my favourite photo from the flight.

This is the life…

I requested champagne, and chose the rosé (there were normal and rosé kinds) It came with the small bowl of nuts. The nuts were awesome…they were WARM, and there were also some cashewnuts and pistachios besides the almonds you see here. I just regretted not having more on the flight back, but there were already too many things to eat…as you will see later.

As we enjoyed our drinks, we took a few photos of us sitting in our compartments. I discovered that the windows could be adjusted to be tinted (there were about five levels of tinting), and I like this photo because it shows my windows tinted, while my friend’s (behind me) are clear.

And the food is soooo good.

The menu had dedicated pages to describe each wine/liquor offering. I did not snap those because there were too many!

After they laid the table.

seared beef

Was wondering whether there was a real flame inside :P It's a fake, but hey, it's still a flame! (and not a round lightbulb)

Laying out the utensils from the napkin. Comparable to MAS, there were six utensils.

The beef was good, and the bread also tasted quite good, except for the crust which was not so soft. I pulled out all the insides and ate it with butter. Another note: The bread was warm too!

lobster thermidor

The lobster thermidor was extremely good… the pasta was however all clumped together. No matter, even it had tasted awesome, I was already too full to eat much of it. I think I probably didn’t even finish one-tenth of the pasta, I just pushed it here and there to make it look like I ate some.

I ordered some Leffe (beer). I had heard the name before, and looking it up now, it’s a Belgian beer. It was not bad. Nowhere close to Augustiner (which I’ve mentioned before and which we’ll come to again later)…but already quite good.

Found that they had de-clawed the lobster for us.

Chocolate passion fruit cake for dessert

The passion fruit is in there!

Later I discovered that they had forward and downward cameras that we could look at.

Nothing much to see while we were up in the sky…so I didn’t look again until we were approaching Berlin.

I entertained myself with the cameras again when we were landing in Qatar on our return trip.

This view is from the window of the plane.

Back to the plane to Berlin… When we were about to land, they gave us a small box of chocolates.

I agree :P

Maybe you didn’t notice, but in the first photo, you could see something placed in the compartment for us. There was a “protective kit”, similar to the “hygiene kit” from MAS. Then there was also a gift bag/pouch. It seems that they have different designs…my friend got an all-black one. I’m glad mine was this one, I find it prettier. :)

Besides the usual eye-cover and stockings, they also included lotion and eau de toilette. I think I already mentioned in the post about the Qatar lounge that their lotion is amazing. I’m loving this gift bag. It’s now in my cupboard and the smell is amazing every time I open the cupboard. :D

This post is already quite long, but I think I will go ahead and finish it with the return trip. Since some things are similar, there won’t be as many things to say about it…

The gift was different this time; it was a box! In the box, the items were similar as in the pouch earlier. But the eye-cover and stockings are pink! ♥

A drink while we wait for others to board.

My friend also took champagne, and asked to clink glasses. And here I think this photo is lovely. It’s my second favourite photo from the Qatar flight.

But now I look at it, I might not have been holding the champagne glass “properly”. :P

After that, looking for something to try from the drinks menu, I decided to ask for port. I asked for just a little, to try. And I guess it was the right thing to do, because I found that I didn’t like it.

This is the menu on the return flight. The drinks menu was the same as before.

I asked for the poached lobster and salmon. So I was surprised when I was served this sushi-like item.

I couldn’t find it on the menu, so I wasn’t being served the wrong appetizer, and I decided to just go ahead and eat it. And it was amazing. It was so good that I thought of asking them after the meal was over, whether they had any leftovers and I could have another one. (but I didn’t ask…I was full anyway)

When they were clearing away the plate, I asked them what it was, and if I remember correctly, it was a beef sushi roll with wasabi sauce. It was a special item not on the menu. I wish I remembered the exact name…I’m still wondering whether I didn’t write it down somewhere. I remember telling them it was very good…imagine how good it must have been to have me initiate a compliment like that! :P 

Then came the actual appetizer, the poached lobster. This was good as well, though nowhere near as good as the beef roll!

Served with the same kind of bread as before.

I had asked for the salmon, but they came asking whether I was willing to switch to beef, since they were short of one salmon dish. I agreed, since I already had difficulty choosing between the salmon and the beef at the beginning. And the beef did not disappoint. It was very tender, much better than the beef on the MAS flights. The only thing that was not good in this dish was the piece of bread which was rock hard. I think I polished off everything but that…even the polenta.

There were a lot of Malaysians on the return flight. I suspect a lot were Chinese who didn’t eat beef. :P A little anecdote: My friend and I had been speaking Hokkien all along during the flight. When we were disembarking, there was something dropped into the aisle and I asked the Chinese-looking person next to me whether it was his. He replied to me in (Penang) Hokkien, so I guess he heard us and already knew we were from Penang…

Back to the meal, here’s the chocolate cake for dessert. Such a pretty presentation…

By the way, I mentioned earlier that I didn’t like the port. I disliked it to the point that I was planning to not finish it. But as I ate the beef, I sipped the port a little and somehow found it more palatable, so I did finish it after all.

I had seen dessert wine on the menu, so when they brought me the dessert, I asked for the dessert wine. I didn’t find it very good though.

And that's all folks! Next post about the trip will be about something other than airlines!

The hidden feature in MAS business class

Now it’s time for the international business class flight! The one with seats that can turn into beds. Are you excited? lol

Once seated, I snapped a photo of how things were presented (before touching how they were arranged)

There’s quite a big compartment to put “stuff”, but I’m not sure what. I didn’t use this. Maybe some people put their shoes there?

After clearing the blankets off the “desk”. (more on the “blankets” later…there’s a story about that!)

Blankets back on the desk.

The menu (it was the same menu card on the return flight)

Our TV and leg space. So our seat can recline and move forward till it reaches that leg space.

Our gift and a hygiene kit.

My friend said that he had received the same hygiene kit on his holiday (economy class) flight. It contains a face mask, gloves, and I can’t remember what else. We didn’t get it on our flight back, probably because face mask restrictions had already been lifted by then.

The gift pouch contained an eye cover, earbuds, stockings, lip balm, moisturiser…and I forgot what else. Basically the kind of stuff that you might need on the flight.

When meal time came, they put a tablecloth on our table. I actually didn’t even know where the table was…if you look back at the earlier photos, you might notice a small latch on the side of the desk…the table was tucked there.

Then we were served satay again…but this time we could choose between chicken and beef, so I chose beef (they didn’t have lamb).

It wasn’t that good… :P But at least I didn't eat chicken satay twice in a few hours.

I had red wine with it. I asked for a “less dry” kind of wine, and the air stewardess recommended me Shiraz. She also asked me whether I wanted to try the other two kinds (after pouring me some Shiraz to try), but since this tasted okay, I told her I would pass. My friend did try the different wines…he told me later that the “trying” already meant drinking a full glass of wine since each “sample” was already almost half a glass. (the glasses are small, but not that small either…)

Then came the meal… salmon starter was good (you can't go wrong with plain salmon!), but the main dish (braised lamb) was so-so. Unfortunately I forgot that it wasn’t that good, so I went for the lamb again on my return flight. It may not have been the best choice.

Allow me to draw your attention to the number of utensils...two knives, two forks, two spoons. The utensils came wrapped in our napkin...I spread them out to be able to take a photo of them!

I forgot what drink I asked for during that meal. Maybe champagne or sparkling wine. I don’t think I would have requested white wine… Anyway I think I took this photo when the drink arrived halfway through the meal. As you can see, the glass with the red wine was still there.

After that we went to sleep…and they woke us up for breakfast two hours before landing. They actually asked us when clearing our table, whether we would like to be woken up for breakfast, and what we would like to have. I heard them telling my friend that “egg noodles” on the menu was actually Maggi mee :P

I had Milo and the beef sandwich. Again, so-so.

fresh fruits with the breakfast

On the return flight, I was extremely sleepy (it was 2am!), so I skipped the satay, and just had the meal when I woke up.

The chocolate cake seemed to be the same as the one I had at the Qatar lounge, except that it was served with raspberry sauce. This time I finished it. :D

They had different kinds of bread. The square one looked interesting, so I tried it. I remember asking what it was, but I can’t remember now. In any case, it was too hard, and not to my taste.

The lamb briyani. So-so.

Now here comes the story about the blankets. Earlier I said that there were two blankets. I felt both of the material, and found that the bigger one (the light blue one) was softer. So I decided to use that one only (I don’t need two blankets unless it turns out to be extremely cold…)

Then on the trip back, I saw the person in front of me suddenly put something over her headrest. It looked like the material of the smaller blanket, but there was a sort of pouch to be fitted on the headrest. Then I realized…that it was not a blanket, but a “bedsheet”.

"Bedsheet" fitted over my headrest, a long piece going down to the end of my seat. And me sitting on top of it with my blanket.

My trip out was a lie…

The best part about this “bedsheet” is that you don’t have to put your bare face on the seat when sleeping, and you can hug your pillow instead of putting it under your head.

For this, I applaud MAS. However, it is a little hard to figure out… I was lucky I saw this before I went to sleep on that flight.

(Qatar airways gives two pillows, so you can hold one and put the other one under your head. No complaints there either)

Quick meals and personal wellness bags

As I mentioned before, it was my first time taking business class on a flight.

Our first flight was from Penang to KL. I had been through the business class compartment before, on one of these small planes. Instead of three seats on each side of the plane, there were only two. So now I actually got to sit there.

My friend and I had spread out while selecting seats, in the hopes that no one would be sitting next to us. Our wish was granted.

We were served orange juice (or apple juice) as we waited for other passengers to board. After we took off, I was surprised to be served an in-flight meal for a flight that was less than an hour long! It was a little stressful to need to finish food that quickly :P

I noticed one thing about the seats… there was plenty of legroom, but that also meant that my feet couldn’t reach the footrest (you can see it folded against the seat in front), unless if I slouch down in my seat. Side effect of being given more luxury…

And that was why, on the trip back, I noticed that the plane had a different kind of footrest. They stretched out from our own seats instead of being attached to the seat in front of us.

Also on the trip back, I noticed that Qatar Airways had a “nice” name for its air sickness bag. "Personal wellness bag". What a euphemism. :P

I wondered whether it was a new practice adopted by all airlines (since I haven’t taken a flight in a while…) So on the MAS plane, I took note of their bag…nope, it was still the same.

On our flight to KL, the chief steward actually came around to each of us at the end of the flight and thanked us for flying with them, addressing us by name. I was impressed…but that did not happen on the international flights (probably because there were too many passengers…there were only 16 business class seats on the domestic flight). It did not happen on the return trip to Penang either…but that may have been due to the flight delay which caused the flight attendants to be extremely rushed in their service. Or it might have been a personal gesture from that particular employee.

In fact, I realized when looking back at the photos that they had cut off the ends of our satay sticks on the trip out, but on the trip back, we were served the same meal and those sticks were not cut. They probably did not have enough time!

I'll write about the other flights in separate posts, so that the posts don't get too long.

Fiery car

 

We seldom see a car in such a fiery orange colour!

A jungle in the airport

Here’s a short one about the KLIA jungle.

Upon reaching the satellite terminal, we were greeted by this sight.

There are trees in the airport!

We went up to take a look.

Then we went back down and went inside (initially I thought we needed to pay to visit it, but turned out it was free, no one was even manning the entrance).

There were some paths inside.

It was actually slightly smelly inside (bird droppings?). It is totally under the open sky, so I’m not sure whether they need do anything to maintain the plants, like watering, etc.

I like this photo :)

All in all, it was pretty small, and then we went out (there is one entrance and one exit).

the exit (the entrance looks similar)

Why we shouldn't put off taking photos

I’m surprised I haven’t posted about my kokedama before. It was from a teambuilding event last year (September 24th, from my photos), and even though I have been caring for it in a “minimalist” way instead of the recommended way (I dump it in a plastic box and pour some water sometimes just so it won’t dry out), it has been surviving pretty well.

This was how it looked in May (unfortunately, the last photo I have of it green).

Then I guess I stopped taking photos because it was simply growing quite well, with new leaves on top once in a while.

When I came back from Berlin, it was thriving, with rather big leaves on top. I was going to take a photo, but put it off because I simply had too many things to do!

I didn’t expect that it would dry out in less than two weeks…

Last week I already noticed it being dry, and poured more water into the container. Somehow the water dried out pretty quickly (hmm…now I have a thought, was the container leaking?). But it didn’t seem to work…this is how it looks today.

And I suddenly noticed a snail…see it in the corner? Is this what killed the kokedama? (as long as it’s not me… :P )

I had a thought that maybe the snail drank up all the water (I'm not sure how much snails love water :P ) So I poured water into the container again. The snail came out.

A church in any kind of structure...

...is still a church.

When I received the photo theme of church, I was wondering where the nearest church was.

Google Maps to the rescue...there is actually one at Golden Triangle, and also this one that I often see on my way back home from work.

Not the usual kind of buildings that we associate with churches. That said, I'm glad I managed to get the cross into the photo. :P