Ever been in one of those situations when you began trusting your Travel desk for taking care of your travel needs, since they had not goofed up, only to have your faith crashed to the ground in a second?
Well I am in one such disillusioned situation today. In the midst of the project when everyday firefighting was not getting on to people only because they were counting days to go back home, I was in that select group of unlucky people who were asked to stay longer than others. So naturally you can imagine how anticipated was the day when I would get to board the flight home!! My travel desk diligently sent me the tickets and I went about with a spring in my step that the ordeal was about to come to an end. One by one the days flew by. Checking the tickets and printing them out was the exercise which came to my mind right before leaving office on the last day when everyone was leaving office. However,it was at the time of the web check in that I realized that I had a 14 hours layover in Kuala Lumpur. For the journey from Manila to New Delhi which takes7.5 hrs (as recorded by the solo direct flight which started recently), I would be taking 18 hrs!!!
Deep breathe Neha....relax...you are going home...counting reverse numbers to calm myself down, I sat in the cab. Just on this day and this hour, the entire city decided to show off their vehicles on the road. I have seen traffic jams. This was not the worst,but when you leave 2 hours before the flight time, even the smallest of jams can turn you into jelly!
Naturally when all the vehicles will be on the road, they will have a destination...and Airport is one such destination...right? So the people traffic at the airport was beyond my expectations. Anyways, I timed myself 15 min to deposit luggage, 20min for immigration, 10 minutes for security....I still had 30 minutes to spare. Mentally patting myself, I started the process, only to stumble at the second step itself. The immigration line was serpentine (and not any serpent...it was the size of a mythical serpent (we have a very large sized imagination right?)). I crawled through it in 25 minutes,reached the counter, officer chats with me for a minute and then tells me that I was in the wrong line.I should have been in the line for the people with work permit (reverse counting...)...25mintues before boarding start...I walk up to the 'right' counter. There was a Chinese lady getting her visa checked and immigration cleared. In a style typical to Indians,once her paper work was done she sweetly murmured something to the officer at the counter who grudgingly agreed to it and pop came 5 of the Chinese lady's family members (who were tourists and supposed to b apart of the serpentine queue), for their fast stamping!!! (relax Neha....you are next after these 5 @#%&#&#)
Stamping done, security check done, I sat in the flight,not a minute too soon! That's it...I am headed home...and that's all that matters,right? What has happened has happened...I will check into the Transit hotel and take a nice long nap before boarding the next flight.'Nice Long Nap'...This phrase I can use to cheer myself anytime. But No....Transit hotel (which they have made in the farthest corner of the KL airport) was fully booked and there is only one transit hotel!!
So scrambling for a comfortable place to sit, I have finally found this Starbucks where I can pay for the coffee to basically be able to sit comfortably...so much so for the nice long nap! Its 2:45 in the morning and the cleaning boy of this Starbucks has cleaned the clean tables twice already (I guess he too needs to do something to not fall asleep)
Here's me closing this post hoping that nothing more will happen after this and I will peacefully be able to reach home and sleep through the day!!!
Well I am in one such disillusioned situation today. In the midst of the project when everyday firefighting was not getting on to people only because they were counting days to go back home, I was in that select group of unlucky people who were asked to stay longer than others. So naturally you can imagine how anticipated was the day when I would get to board the flight home!! My travel desk diligently sent me the tickets and I went about with a spring in my step that the ordeal was about to come to an end. One by one the days flew by. Checking the tickets and printing them out was the exercise which came to my mind right before leaving office on the last day when everyone was leaving office. However,it was at the time of the web check in that I realized that I had a 14 hours layover in Kuala Lumpur. For the journey from Manila to New Delhi which takes7.5 hrs (as recorded by the solo direct flight which started recently), I would be taking 18 hrs!!!
Deep breathe Neha....relax...you are going home...counting reverse numbers to calm myself down, I sat in the cab. Just on this day and this hour, the entire city decided to show off their vehicles on the road. I have seen traffic jams. This was not the worst,but when you leave 2 hours before the flight time, even the smallest of jams can turn you into jelly!
Naturally when all the vehicles will be on the road, they will have a destination...and Airport is one such destination...right? So the people traffic at the airport was beyond my expectations. Anyways, I timed myself 15 min to deposit luggage, 20min for immigration, 10 minutes for security....I still had 30 minutes to spare. Mentally patting myself, I started the process, only to stumble at the second step itself. The immigration line was serpentine (and not any serpent...it was the size of a mythical serpent (we have a very large sized imagination right?)). I crawled through it in 25 minutes,reached the counter, officer chats with me for a minute and then tells me that I was in the wrong line.I should have been in the line for the people with work permit (reverse counting...)...25mintues before boarding start...I walk up to the 'right' counter. There was a Chinese lady getting her visa checked and immigration cleared. In a style typical to Indians,once her paper work was done she sweetly murmured something to the officer at the counter who grudgingly agreed to it and pop came 5 of the Chinese lady's family members (who were tourists and supposed to b apart of the serpentine queue), for their fast stamping!!! (relax Neha....you are next after these 5 @#%&#&#)
Stamping done, security check done, I sat in the flight,not a minute too soon! That's it...I am headed home...and that's all that matters,right? What has happened has happened...I will check into the Transit hotel and take a nice long nap before boarding the next flight.'Nice Long Nap'...This phrase I can use to cheer myself anytime. But No....Transit hotel (which they have made in the farthest corner of the KL airport) was fully booked and there is only one transit hotel!!
So scrambling for a comfortable place to sit, I have finally found this Starbucks where I can pay for the coffee to basically be able to sit comfortably...so much so for the nice long nap! Its 2:45 in the morning and the cleaning boy of this Starbucks has cleaned the clean tables twice already (I guess he too needs to do something to not fall asleep)
Here's me closing this post hoping that nothing more will happen after this and I will peacefully be able to reach home and sleep through the day!!!
3 comments:
Pretty well written Neha. You should have been into journalism rather than SAP ;)
Thanks 'Anonymous' :)....
Thats generous of you...I enjoy writing and blogging is a good release!
Yes, Keep moving and keep getting different experiences that's what life is. Must enjoy every moment of it, if not that time at least later by remembering it and logging it.
Nice effort, keep writing.
Daaaaaad
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