Review of EVA Air flight from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei in Economy

It has been a very long while (perhaps more than 8 years) since I last wrote and posted a trip report. After reading all the wonderful trip report here, I guess it is about time that I begin posting trip reports again. This will be my first trip report in this community. I hope all would enjoy my writing.
Background
Back in March, I was discussing with my wife on our year end vacation destination, when I proposed Taiwan as a possible consideration. After some consideration and budget calculation, we decided that it would be a suitable place to visit for our family, plus I could visit a few friends along the way. A look at the possible flight options, surprisingly, gave us Cathay Pacific as the cheapest alternative between Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, obviously with a transit in Hong Kong. So we purchased our tickets almost 9 months in advance of our scheduled departure, and started our painstakingly long countdown for my long awaited (it was almost 19 years since I last visited Taiwan) and my family’s first visit to Taiwan. We would depart Kuala Lumpur on CX722 at 1:45pm, arriving at Hong Kong at 5:30pm before connecting on KA5482 departing at 6:20pm and arriving at Taipei at 8:10pm.
Online Check-in
48 hours before scheduled departure, I proceeded to check-in for the four of us (myself, wife, and two kids), and I was ecstatic to find out that KA5482 would be operated by a CX B744. What a great chance to catch B744 again before Cathay retires them. On the other hand, I was also very concerned about the very short transit time at Hong Kong. Any delay in CX722 would mean my missed opportunity with the Queen of the skies. Well, I could only pray that everything would go as plan.
To KLIA
From Melaka (where I live) to KLIA, the two alternatives to commute to airport are i) taxi or ii) bus, other than self-driving. As this was an early afternoon departure, it gave us the option to try out the express bus service for the first time.
StarMart is one of two running between Melaka and KLIA. The other one is Transnasional.

Comfortable seats

We took the 7:30am bus and arrived at KLIA around 10:00am. Cathay had just finished up with the check-in of CX790, but we only needed to wait for about a quarter of an hour before they started to prepare for CX722.
Cathay Pacific check in counters at KLIA

Check in
We were first in line and were called upon when the counters opened. After she typed our names into the system and did not print our boarding passes, I could smell that my worst fear was just about to become a reality. True enough, after a few phone calls with her supervisor, I was told that, due to late arrival of incoming aircraft, our departing aircraft would be delayed, which made the connection at Hong Kong not possible. As all subsequent flights to Taipei were fully booked, Cathay would arrange to rebook us on another carrier to Taipei. While it was normally a fun experience to try out a different airline, but my mood was rather gloomy and disappointed as I had missed my opportunity to fly the B744 on Cathay again. However, there was nothing that I could do other than to accept the fact. To compensate for this mishap, CX offered us food vouchers while they looked for alternatives to rebook us.
Cathay Pacific food vouchers for four of us

We used it to have lunch at this restaurant close to Cathay Pacific counters

We went back to Cathay counter as instructed at 12:30pm, and ground personnel led us to EVA Air across the aisle.
EVA Air check in counters at KLIA

Due to our last minute nature, we were unable to secure window seats. Instead, four of us took up seats in the center row. With check in done and plenty of time before departure, we took the KLIA transit to visit KLIA 2.
We returned to KLIA about 1.5 hours before scheduled departure and went straight to immigration. Once inside the terminal, we visited the jungle broad walk before heading to the gate.
Boarding & Flight
BR228 was operated by an A330-200. We did not begin boarding until around scheduled departure time.
BR228 operating KUL - TPE today

The seat pitch was a rather comfortable 33” with personal AVOD entertainment system. However, it was of an older generation with no touch screen function, and no power socket to recharge electronic devices on board.
Personal screen at each seat back

Once boarding was completed, we were pushed back and headed to active runway. We were held short of the runway for a good 10 minutes, before we were allowed to enter the active runway and took off close to 4:30pm.
Once the captain released the cabin crew from the seats, we were first served a round of beverage with rice crackers.
Orange juice, water, and rice crackers

Dinner service soon followed.

Choices of main dish included chicken with rice or fish with potato. Both were complimented with a smoked duck salad, fresh fruit, cake, and bread roll.
Chicken with rice

Fish with potato

The meal was nothing spectacular. Presentation wise, especially for chicken with rice, was rather unimpressive. However, the taste was not bad and portion quite filling. After a couple of movies, we were ready to land on Taipei Taoyuan International Airport.
Landing & Ground Activity
We landed at 8:30pm and then it was a rush to the immigration. Once luggage were collected, we got ourselves a 10-day unlimited 4G data plan with NTD100 worth of call fees for NTD500, which I thought was good value. Afterwards it was to the bus counter for tickets to our stay at Taipei.
We would be taking bus 1968 to Xindian

Rather spacious seating in the bus