Dear reader,

Let me as best I can get you up to speed on flying to with Malaysia Airlines. The first thing you should note (of special interest to me at least) is that if you have dietary restrictions you must make them aware of these restrictions more than 48 hours before you fly. So, it's best to make sure during booking to make that clear. If you find that impossible call them directly after booking and sort it out.

I totally failed to do this. Which was fine on my first flight because I downed some sleeping pills and spent the trip in a contorted position passed out. Which thinking back on it was a terrible idea because of rather horrible pain it left me in. On my second flight however I was filled with dread because I would be awake the entire flight. My fears were ill founded when the cabin crew went out of their way to stick in me in an exit row seat (I'm 192cm tall) and provide me with 5 meals and heaving piles of useful goodies.

My advice when flying long haul is this; If it's Australia to Europe break up the flight into two sections. Do a two day stop over and visit what ever halfway point you find yourself at. This on it's own however is insufficient to avoid the horrors of jetlag, cramping and back pain. The trick you see is to make sure that you end each flight in the afternoon at the local destination. Sleeping on planes is a retarded idea, and it never works out. I flew Brisbane to KL and felt like crap. I then flew KL to London, stayed awake the whole flight chatting with the stewards which in turn rewarded me with the best service I've had on a flight Economy or otherwise and upon arriving in the UK I'd been awake a mere 16 hours and was ready for a bed. The result has been zero jetlag. In bed a 10 back up at 7. Hard to beat that!

That's all for now. Soon to come, "How get shaken down for hard ringgot, avoid getting a hand job and generally navigate KL"