Flying up from Singapore this morning, the pilot came on the intercom when we reached 22,000 ft and announced that we would be cruising at that level for three minutes before commencing our descent to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). As there was no time to get my laptop out, I decided to pass the time by shooting a few pictures out of the window as we descended into KLIA.
The sun was to the east, so I had some good light on the west side of the plane, looking towards the Straits of Malacca, for these shots. The technical quality is not that good as I was using only a pocket camera, but given that the windows of the plane were quite dirty, I doubt that even using my Nikon would have improved the quality much.
The descent commences over the Muar river which is easy to spot because of its very well formed horseshoe bends. That is Bandar Maharani around the mouth of the river.
Three minutes later and we are descending over the outskirts of Melaka. I didn't realise that Melaka had an airport until I spotted it in this photo. (Click on image for a larger version if you can't see the airport)
In the distance I noticed what looked like large banks of silt along the coast just to the north of Melaka where there are a number of high rise holiday apartments. I wonder if that is land reclamation or whether it is silt from the river in the picture? (that's not the Melaka river – that goes through the city slightly to the south of this picture)
As we pass over the Linggi river, we have descended to below 10,000 ft
As we pass by Port Dickson the plane takes a slight turn to the right to line up for its final approach to KLIA
I didn't realise that there were oil tanks so close to the holiday resort at Port Dickson until I noticed them in this picture
One of many scars on the landscape as land is cleared for redevelopment
We are down to a couple of thousand feet as we cross over the Sepang river
As we approach the airport we pass over many oil palm plantations. That's a palm oil processing plant in the top left
On final approach from the south, the oil palm plantations stretch as far as the eye can see
The sun was to the east, so I had some good light on the west side of the plane, looking towards the Straits of Malacca, for these shots. The technical quality is not that good as I was using only a pocket camera, but given that the windows of the plane were quite dirty, I doubt that even using my Nikon would have improved the quality much.
The descent commences over the Muar river which is easy to spot because of its very well formed horseshoe bends. That is Bandar Maharani around the mouth of the river.
Three minutes later and we are descending over the outskirts of Melaka. I didn't realise that Melaka had an airport until I spotted it in this photo. (Click on image for a larger version if you can't see the airport)
In the distance I noticed what looked like large banks of silt along the coast just to the north of Melaka where there are a number of high rise holiday apartments. I wonder if that is land reclamation or whether it is silt from the river in the picture? (that's not the Melaka river – that goes through the city slightly to the south of this picture)
As we pass over the Linggi river, we have descended to below 10,000 ft
As we pass by Port Dickson the plane takes a slight turn to the right to line up for its final approach to KLIA
I didn't realise that there were oil tanks so close to the holiday resort at Port Dickson until I noticed them in this picture
One of many scars on the landscape as land is cleared for redevelopment
We are down to a couple of thousand feet as we cross over the Sepang river
As we approach the airport we pass over many oil palm plantations. That's a palm oil processing plant in the top left
On final approach from the south, the oil palm plantations stretch as far as the eye can see