Puduraya, KLIA

I woke up at 5am this morning to get prepared for my 7am flight. Joey was to take me to the airport so I gave him a wake up call at 5.45am. Strangely, the call wouldn't go through so I ran upstairs to make sure he was awake. He was, so I got my stuff and we left.

When I walked into the Departure Hall, I was speechless. KLIA has become Puduraya! Queues that stretched all the way to the revolving doors greeted me, and it was with a sinking feeling that I saw the queue lead right up to AirAsia's check in counter. I was a little worried because my flight was 45 minutes away, and AirAsia supposedly closes its check in counter 45 minutes before flight time. I walked around a bit and looked for an AirAsia staff to enquire, and luckily one was right in front of me. He asked me to get in the same long queue, and my heart sank.

I began walking to the end of the line when I suddenly noticed a shorter queue. I was puzzled at this inconsistency. One line had almost 100 people in it while another had less than 10. I looked carefully, and to my joy I learned that the queue is for those who only have hand luggage. I quickly joined the queue and I soon got my boarding pass. Some passengers who didn't read the sign carefully (or didn't care) tried to check-in with luggage, but they were turned away by the firm receptionist. Unfortunately after all their waiting, they had to go to the back of the longer queue.

I tried to SMS my father to inform him about the possible delay but the message just won't get through. After 2 or 3 times of trying, I realized with horror that I had no credit left. More specifically, I had passed the validity date without reloading. I started to panic again because I could not inform Dad the moment I boarded the plane. I was glad however that he called me and I managed to tell him about my predicament. He wasn't too thrilled about it but said he will continually call me until he couldn't get through, and that would be his signal that I was on the plane.

I got to fly in AirAsia's new Airbus planes and they are quite comfy except for the fact that there is no way to lower the seats. As expected the flight was delayed but only for 15 minutes and I met up with Dad without any problems.

Penang, I'm home!