Monday, March 30, 2009

once in a lifetime experience that i dont wanna experience ever again!

be warned that you might want to read this over a few days, but if u r in need of a good laugh, then laugh at my misfortune by all means. (this post is not organized at all cos i dont have d time to do it separately.. so i'm adding on everything to this one post)

updates first:
-2 days after touch down in Penang, i'm 2 tones darker already
-still havent gone out to eat!!
-i'm running on a tight schedule. can u believe it.. i havent even had d time to switch on d tv!!
-i only have 2 more sundays left! :(
-apparently i speak a wee bit like the Brits now...hehehhe!



back to the 27th of March:

If you ever wanna work in an airline business, pls learn wat is a 'window seat', 'aisle seat', emergency exit door seat', 'extra room space seat'. when someone asks you if its possible to get her a 'window seat', you do not give her the 'emergency door seat' and tell her that you've managed to pull some strings and do her a favour. i repeat... you DO NOT give her the 'emergency exit door seat' and tell her that you've done her a favour! my best bet is that, she wouldnt be too happy to find out what kind of a window seat that she has ended up with.

when the emirates staff at the check in counter managed to get me a window seat, i was so happy that she managed to do it in such short notice and especially when it was such a busy say with a full flight. when i reached my seat in d flight, i wanted run back to the check in counter in the airport and take back all my 'grateful thank you's. but d air hostest said she couldnt let me go out without me missing my flight. i decided to take care of the lady in the main terminal when i get back to glasgow on the 20th of April! she bloody gave me d emergency exit door seat and the window was miles away from me!!! i couldnt look out the window without having to unfasten my seat belt, and get out of my seat and walk a few steps to the front!! i was stuck staring at the air steward who was sitting at the emergency door exit, couldnt sleep for even 5 minutes cos ppl where walking up and down all the time, more ppl standing in front of me to relax and stretch in the ample space in front of me, and definitely no window, clouds, sun, moon, stars whatsoever for 9 hours!!!

the only tolerable thing among everything above was the air steward, cos he was cute and good looking, and had such a dashing smile and cute dimples... but even that became akward after some time cos he kept looking at me all the time. i didnt even wanna look up from lap or my comp screen... cos his staring was becoming too intimidating. he thought i was going to KL for the 1st time! i'm not a Sri Lankan for goodness sake!! y is it that i dont look like a Malaysian enough!



i asked if it would be possible to change my seat if there were any other seats vacant. and guess wat he did..he tried to convince me that my place was really convenient and comfortable. yea.. convenient for him of course... but not for me!

fine... i managed to survive 7 hours plus with all this nonsense (and with no sleep most important!) and was sort of getting excited of the india of roaming around Dubai airport and buying souveniers, and guess was the pilot announces. he said we wouldnt be able to land for more than an hour cos of weather and traffic congestion. there goes my site seeing and shopping in Dubai airport. an extra hour of cramped in that uncomfortable position in the so called comfortable seat!


fine, i managed that too. there's nothing else i could do. when we finally reached Dubai airport, i literaly had to run about looking for the transit flight gate ( PS: i was wearing pencil heels-knee length boots cos i was wanted to look all cool and British-ish when i landed in PG after 6 months of being away. so much for my effort in making an impression isnt it! ). i had to remove my boots during the customs check (this was d second time, d 1st time was in Glasgow airport... it was like partly undressing urself-going throught the scan machine-and then dressing up. y bother dressing up at home then?!! y cant they make machine that scans heels too!?) and then continued running some more. finally reached the next transit flight gate, queued up at the gate for boarding for ages, and found that this time i was seated next to a muslim couple, and my seat was along the aisle.

at least i would be able to look out d window, and i was hoping that i could catch up on some sleep and that the couple sitting next to me wouldnt get in and out of their seats too much. sigh.. no luck either. the kids behind me made sure i didnt close my eyes long enough to even think of the shortest possible thought i could think of, and their mother wasnt helping any more with her fake-messed up accent, the couple next to me were restless and had to move about for their prayer time. so, another 7 hours plus of sleepless, restless journey. by now, all hopes of looking fresh and good when i met my mum and friends were dead. at least i had another peaceful 50 minutes flight ride to look forward to... (that was d flight ride that never came!)

Emirates touched down at KLIA at 2.00pm, i was out of d flight by 2.05pm, was running like some mad woman in a running race for the Olympics gold medal to get to the immigration and my luggage and catch my next flight on time. cleared immigration, and reached luggage collection section by 2.15pm. waited for luggage till 3.15pm, ran to the check in counter at 3.25pm , and obviously missed my 3.40pm flight back to PG.

great ... just great!


ran down again to the MAS ticketing office to ask for a refund and another flight, was told to pay 3 times d amount of my current ticket for a new one, lost my cool and started fighting with the staff.left that place n went searching for maxis sim card. i dont believe the whole of KLIA doesnt have a maxis booth that sells sim cards! had to settle for Celcom which is costing me my left arm and left leg! all i did for about 3 hours after that was run up and down KLIA for banks that would exchange bank of Scotland pounds so that i could at least get a bus and go back home. but no luck. i dont get it. wat difference does it makes if the pounds was issued by bank of scotland or bank of england. i am going back from scotland, so naturally my money would be issued by the bank of scotland! wat about ppl who were travelling from Scotland, wont they be able to change their currency at the banks in KLIA at all?! thats total rubbish u know!!

so, i just gave up. i was totally stranded in the airport! not enough malaysian currency, couldnt exchange the pounds that i had, no food, no flight back to penang, bloody celcom sim card was charging me so much for the calls and texts, and loads of uncivilized indians staff in the airport who were literally stalking me and testing my patients! i waited in the airport for my uncle to come n pick me up n somehow get me back to Penang.

i didnt wanna take a bus cos i was too tired, but i had no other choice if i wanted to go back home d same day. so i agreed. d bus driver said the bus would leave at 8.15pm, but it didnt. then he said he'd leave at 8.30pm, he still didnt. he finally left at 9pm and said that he wont stop anywhere along the way and that he'd reach butterworth at 12am. but he stopped in Ipoh, he stopped in KL, and he even stopped in Juru! i finally reached home at 3am!

thats y it took me 13 hours to get to penang from Kl. today, everybody tells me that i could have left my luggage n caught my flight back to penang, and then call the airport and complain that my luggage was missing and get it sent to me to penang. i could have done that... but didnt know it was possible. not like i had much stuff in it anyways... sigh... all i care now is that i'm back, and i had such a terrible ordeal that i dont think i wanna come back anytime in d near future again. i think i'm quite good not travelling long distance for quite some time.

(i'm too sick n tired to talk about it in detail.. so this will have to do. its almost a week overdued anyways. hopefully normal blogging will resume soon, cos i've got loads to talk about... but i just dont get the time to sit online like i always do! i'm dying to sleep like i imagined my holidays to be and i want to catch up on my sitcoms n series! tomorrow i got to go and get my neck adjusted again... thanks to d stupid long flights n bus rides! n then i've got chores to complete and errands to run)

3 comments:

Anya said...

emergency exit row is the best row..

a detailed travelogue... sleep well and get back to blogging

www.chronicwriter.com

maidinmalaysia said...

yay!
and phew!

are u halfway on the food-ing plan?

Chumi @ Lakshmi @ Lucky said...

Chronicwriter: i hate emergency exit rows!

maidinmalaysia : i'm no way near my list at all!! i dont believe i'm not even halfway through it, and i've got less than 2 weeks left now!! :(