By Idries Abdur-Rahman, M.D., FACOG

Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is about 40 miles from the city center which meant a 1-hour long drive from the Doubletree hotel to…

KLIA terminal 1 (terminal 2 in the new low cost terminal).

The KLIA-1 checkin lobby has high ceilings but I feel like it could have been designed to let more natural light in. Nonetheless, it gets the job done.

For the most part, Malaysia Airlines’ operations at KUL are largely self service (you check yourself in, you tag your own bags and you drop those bags off). We were traveling with a wheel chair however, so we had to check in with Special services which was a wee bit chaotic.

The security and immigrations lines moved quickly and we were soon airside at the gate waiting to board MH853.

With some time to kill, what else would a good aerophile do? Of course I decided a little bit of spotting including the Sri Lankan Airbus A330 bound for Colombo in the distance and 9M-MXV, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800 that…

was bound for Saigon.

The spotting was a bit dry, thankfully we only had to kill a few minutes before it was now time to board 9M-MXL, the 2012 built Boeing 737-800 that would fly the 1,222 mile flight to Denpasar/Bali in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Yup, the TV screen confirmed it, we were definitely aboard Malaysia Airlines.

After getting settled in, I had to checkout the activity on the tarmac. Unfortunately it was largely a sea of MH 737-800’s.

I explored the seat back contents which included the safety card and…

Going Places, Malaysia Airlines’ in-flight magazine.

Malaysia Airlines has definitely simplified it’s fleet centering it primarily around the Airbus A330 and Boeing 737-800. The few Airbus A380’s in their fleet truly are white whales..get it? because they are white and, well, they are whales…Okay, okay, that was my one and only attempt at an airplane joke for today.

My little princess was all strapped in and ready to go. The last time we were in Bali, my wife was barely a month pregnant with her. The difference 9 1/2 years makes!!

I decided to warm up the in-flight entertainment system which had a decent offering of movies and TV programming as well as my favorite channel, the flight map.

We pushed off of the gate on-time and after a relatively quick taxi were airborne over the Malaysian countryside.

The mood lighting was set to a purplish-blue hue for the entire flight. This looked nice with the 737’s Sky interior.

We soon reached our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet as…

we cruised over the Malacca strait.

Soon the aroma of lunch permeated the cabin as the kebaya clad crew appeared, starting the lunch service.

The neatly arranged mealbox (I swear it was neat when I first got it) included…

roasted chicken (which was phenomenal), leeks, spring water,…

salted peanuts and a cookie.

During lunch I started to watch a movie called A Ghost Story. The movie was really, really weird and I honestly almost turned it off during the 4+ minute pie eating scene. I was trapped however (you know, the whole stuck in a metal tube at 35,000 feet situation), so I decided to persevere, and it really was one of those movies that you need to talk about afterwards. To be honest with you, I’m still not sure that I got it. Anywho…

after the movie I decided to get up and stretch my legs before we started our descent. I like the look of the MH 737 cabin with the Sky interior, the mood lighting and the burgundy seats.

Got a quick shot of the two lavs and the galley in the rear. With the majority of my 737 flying being US domestic, I almost forgot that there are still 737s with ovens and food carts.

I got a quick shot from the starboard side behind the wing before heading back to my seat.

The mood lighting remained blue throughout the flight.

We were about 20 minutes out of DPS over the Java Sea when…

we started our descent.

The air breaks deployed, quickly bringing us down from our cruising altitude.

Doesn’t that shore looking inviting?

Oh yeah, it definitely looks inviting. Daddy is going to spend a lot of time with you sunning my sun starved midwestern buns.

We landed at Denpasar/Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport just as a beautiful sunset brought the day to an end.

We parked alongside an Air Asia X Airbus A330 getting readied for it’s next flight to Kuala Lumpur. Now Everybody Can Fly Xtra Long.

Being in the bulkhead row, we were amongst the first to disembark. I bade 9M-MXL a found adieu from the terminal building.

As we made our way towards immigration, I got one last look at our Boeing 737 with a slightly less obstructed view.

Okay, I swear, this really was the last shot. Confirming 9M-MXL as our registration.

My proof of life pic, I was indeed in Bali baby!

Since my last visit in 2008, Ngurah Rai airport has definitely been updated and modernized. We shared our luggage belt with Singapore Airlines flight SQ946, an Airbus A330 from Singapore Changi airport.

Our bags came quickly, unfortunately my mother-in-law’s wheelchair did not make the flight (don’t ask me how that happened with a nonstop flight that we checked in for two hours before departure). After filing a claim with the Malaysia Airlines baggage office, we were headed to the parking lot to rendezvous with our van to the Conrad Bali resort.