Day 1 - Hong Kong Trip

It all started once upon a time in July 2013, as I was browsing airline sites just in case I stumble upon “just-the-right-priced” ticket.  Initially, I wanted to go to China mainland (Beijing), than take a train to Xi’an – where my bestie resided at the moment (see, one of my ‘2013 NY resolution was to visit either my bestie in Xi’an or Dubai). Long story short, after calculating costs and convenience, for both Beijing and Hong Kong (HK)... the winner is HK!

I booked the ticket with my travel partner-slash-neighbour, Anna. We booked an Air Asia (AA) return ticket, Jkt-HK, for November 10-14, 2013 with transit at Kuala Lumpur (KL) for both flights. This particular trip has learned both of us some valuable lessons, I tell ya...

We departed on Sunday (10/11) at 11.30 am and arrived at KL at 2.30 pm. According to our tickets, our plane would depart from KL to HK at 4.25 pm – giving sufficient time to eat, pray...not so much on the love department :p We (were supposed to) arrive at 8.15 pm in HK. Travel lesson no. 1: whenever possible, choose a flight schedule that arrives at day time, instead of night time – you’ll have more time to explore places. But, if you must, extend your visit to one more day.   

All pumped up for our  trip

Air Asia arriving at LCCT

According to our boarding pass, we had to wait at Gate Y-2; but when we asked the officer, we were directed to wait at gate T-6. We waited for quite some time...when there’s a FINAL CALL for our flight. We were more than shocked, and by the time we approached the gate officer, he made a gesture that the plane has departed...without us! We complained and made a scene, “Why weren’t there any announcement? We were told to wait here, and suddenly a final call?!? Get us on the next plane!” Our complaints left us to no avail. Apparently, they didn’t announce the boarding time because we were not in the right area at the first place, and we didn’t effin approach the officer. On my previous trip to KL, when it was Final Call, my name was, in fact, announced to hurry and get on the plane...however, I realized that it was because I checked my baggage. In this case, we didn’t check our baggage, hence the airline had no obligation to call either one of our names *sigh. Travel lesson no. 2: make sure you’re on the right gate, and ask the airline officer for absolute confirmation. Don’t settle for up-in-the-air answers. If your boarding pass tells you Y-2, it means Y-2, not T-6. If he asked you to wait there, ask him to direct you to Y-2  in the next 3 minutes. International airlines, especially Low Cost Carriers, expect passengers to be assertive. If you’re unclear about something, ask.

All puzzled with what-now’s, we were left with options such as: go back home to Jakarta or spend the night in KL or take the quickest flight possible. We decided to go choose the last option and head to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), hoping that there’d be more airlines to choose from, since AA’s next flight would be at 6 am in the morning. There’s still a slight chance that we could hop on another airline and get our bums to HK as soon as possible. We took a bus called Airport Liner (RM 5) to KLIA, wandering about from one airline ticket counter to another, asking if they had 2 available seats. Every flight’s full booked, except for this one red booth...we finally decided to buy the 6.25 am ticket for the next morning from, you guessed it, Air Asia! Hahahahaa..

A very neat tagline from Malaysia Airlines

Inside the Airport Liner bus to KLIA

With printed tickets on our hand,purchased with Anna’s credit card (thank God, ‘cause I don’t own any CC), the tension got a lot lesser. Phew! We had nasi lemak (RM 8) for dinner at KLIA food court, and embraced ourselves to spend the night at LCCT (Air Asia’s airport) – we couldn’t take the risk of getting left behind for the second time, thus we didn’t spend the evening at KL. Even though the price we had to pay for our plane tickets had been upscaled, well...it’s probably the best. It could’ve been worst, really.

Nasi Lemak at KLIA

After dinner, we took another trip to LCCT by Airport Liner. We took a seat and tried to sleep on seated position with our suitcases before us and Indian guys on our left and right. It felt like a smack on the face, ‘cause I’ve mentioned earlier to Anna, a few times even, “I don’t think I can survive sleeping on an airport bench.” Ta Daa...and there, a living proof that something UNWANTED SO MUCH can create a request to be granted by the universe as equally as something WANTED SO MUCH. What we resist, persists.