sooyindotcom

12 September 2005

After two days of hastily buying extra cardigans and tops, another pair of jeans, preparing our itinerary, packing and repacking, we were off!

We left the apartment at 6pm, just in time to catch the connecting train to KLIA at KL Sentral. Unfortunately, since we were one of the last ones to get onto the train, we ended up having to stand for the entire 28 minute journey. Five minutes in, I could feel my high-heeled boots starting to pinch my feet…*ouch*.

Upon reaching KLIA, we checked in, went through the immigration counters and boarded the aero-train to the satellite building in search for dinner. Honestly, KLIA might be big, but it is really really lacking in good shops and good restaurants. We ended up at Delifrance where I had a cold sausage croissant-like pastry and a horribly artificial pineapple pastry, while hubby had a bowl of soup. Unsatisfied (and still hungry), we headed up to Burger King on the 1st floor where we continued our dinner with a packet of french fries (McD�??s are much better!!) and hash browns. After dinner, we browsed around the bookstore for awhile, and after paying for a copy of Louise Bagshawe�??s latest book, Tuesday�??s Child, we went to our gate and waited to board the plane.

As soon as we got on the plane, we realized that we had been assigned seats apart from each other! I got the window seat, while hubby got the aisle seat at the middle section in the same row. The ground staff must’ve mixed up the seating numbers when pre-assigning our seats earlier. Darn! Luckily, the lady who got the seat next to me was willing to exchange (which was a mistake on our part as it wasn�??t a full flight and all the seats next to hubby was empty!!) though she did give us a rather nasty look for putting her through the trouble of taking one step to another seat…*tee hee*.

Since uni days, I’ve always had my little routine when going on long flights. Once I settle down in my seat, I’ll say a quick prayer for a safe journey, check out the movie listings, wait for the headphones and menu. And don’t laugh…but I kinda enjoy the airplane food. Especially the dessert. I know, that’s quite pathetic. But when you’re stuck in a plane flying who-knows how high, there’s only that many things to look forward to…*grin*.

Unfortunately, there were no good in-flight movies during this flight, or rather, I’ve watched most of them, so I tried to go to sleep instead. But the seat was horribly cramped, somehow, the leg room seems to have reduced! Can’t be my legs have grown…! And worst thing was that no menus were given out for dinner choices, so I had no idea what we were going to have for dinner. By the time the food cart reached us, I was ravenous and eager to have a good meal (or as good as you can get on an airplane). But whaddaya know? All the chicken meals were gone! Gone! I was left with a choice of lamb and�?�.lamb. The steward asked me why didn�??t I request for a special diet? I replied that I had booked online and there wasn�??t a choice for red meat vs. white meat under the special diet column. To which he retorted back: �??Next time, choose the seafood meal.�?� What the…? Is it my fault that you don’t have a choice of red vs. white meat? What if I don�??t eat seafood?!? Duh. In the end, he said that he�??ll prepare the vegetarian meal for me. Beggars, choosers and all that…so I said ok. When he brought it over, it was vegetarian, alright. Vege covered in curry sauce (I can’t eat spicy food). Sigh. I forced the only thing that I could eat down my throat…ie. the cold hard bun…and went back to sleep with my tummy growling. Breakfast wasn�??t any much better. Firstly, we only had 2 hours of sleep before breakfast was served, so I was all bleary and grumpy. And secondly, everything was cold. Cold croissant and bun, hard butter. Sigh�?�first class, this ain�??t.

Not a very auspicious start to the beginning of our vacation…