I was so happy after the conversation. I was being so
high and all. As for now, its confirmed. I'll be going to madrid on november 10. Anyone who wants to
tag along is welcome to do so .. just pay for your own ticket. The booking was easier this time with the help of a family friend, adel.
To all,
Adel is the
country manager for
Lufthansa. I would love to have her job. Sounds so bloody fun. So we consulted her to get the cheapest fare. I thought she would give us lufthansa but she gave us
thai airways instead. I would have loved to fly lufthansa. It would have seemed like she was backstabbing her airline but then again thai and lufthansa are both part of star alliance. I've never flown on thai anyway plus they have a new, beautiful livery.
* Non aviation enthusiasts can skip this part *
I had actually few other routes in mind to reach madrid. I wanted to try other airlines which I've not flown on. I was however determined not to take
austrian airlines as much as possible. Their food and sevice is good but I didn't really like their seat pitch. Their timings suck too. I had too wake up at
4 am last year for my
6 am return flight. If that wasn't bad, the flight got delayed because of
snow in vienna and I missed my connecting flight back to kl.
Our asian airlines are better some way or another. I must commend austrian for their service though. They never seemed to stop serving bread and drinks throughout the flight.
KLM didn't really appeal to me because I flew with them to manila once. Anyway these were my other choices ..
Lufthansa --> Kuala Lumpur-Frankfurt-Madrid
Qatar Airways --> Kuala Lumpur-Doha-Madrid
Thai Airways --> Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Rome(stopover)-Madrid
Singapore Airlines --> Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Barcelona-Madrid
Qatar Airways would have been the cheapest but Adel said it might not be safe for us to travel alone. I don't really see why because I don't think that doha's that dangerous. I did think we were obviously gonna fly Lufthansa because we went through Adel but turns out we got
Thai.
As for
SIA, that would be long way round. There was gonna be two stops plus the SIA flight ends at Barcelona so thinking that they can get connections through Star Aliance it might happen. I personally would do anything to fly SIA if not for the price.
* You can start reading now *
So
Thai (TG) it is. Leaving klia on 10 nov at 9.00 pm on TG 418 which is a Boeing 777-200 flight landing at Bangkok at 10.05 pm. I leave bangkok at 12.01 am on TG 942 which is a Boeing 747-400 flight with a stopover in Rome for about 2 hours finally landing at madrid at 1.40 pm on the same flight. The idea of transiting at the new
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport really excites me. Can't wait to see it. I also hope we'll be able to venture into
Rome Fiumicino airport during the stopover. Some sightseeing, plane-spotting and who knows duty-free shopping.
Our tickets are not issued yet. Prices are not confirmed as Adel is trying her best with her TG friend's help to lower it. I hope to receive the tickets at least after the deeparaya holidays. As you can say through my timer, it is only about 15 days before I leave. Gonna be packing soon.
Throughout all this, there have been some bumpy events. I got a call from one of my mum's malaysian contacts in spain, an indian lady named
veny whom I got to knew during the Malaysian Embassy Deeparaya celebrations last year. Fyi, my mum's the vice-president of the
Malaysian Association in Spain (MAIS). She was asking whether her 15 year old daughter could follow us on the flight to madrid.
I was never quite happy with the idea so I just told her I'll check on it. I discussed with my mum and we decided we would just lie coming up with an excuse which would not allow her to travel with us. Veny couldn't help telling me that her daughter is "
small but very BIG" in a thick indian accent so it was very funny. You can just imagine ...
That problem was gone but a new one arose. I was told that two of the nephews and nieces of my mum's friend wanted to follow. We kind of just know these two rascals as we see them like sometimes once a year or so. Mind you they're not that modern and all and their upbringing's different. They're the rough
ah beng ah lian, cina cina type if you get me. I was shocked at that coz I would have to handle these menaces on an almost 20 hour journey in an enclosed 'metal bird'. Though they were not confirmed they had a huge chance of following.
In the first place, I was wondering why they bothered visiting madrid. It is so not their place so they wouldn't enjoy it. Its not like you go out and it's all joy and fun everywhere. You move around using public transport to see
art generally i.e. buildings, parks, museums etc. Not to forget, you should embrace the european
diet. They would even be staying with us which is even worse. Without doubt, this comes at quite a cost and less privacy. Me and my mum were
bitching (lol) about them hoping their plans would not push through.
Last week, my mum was told that they would be following and staying on for two weeks. I felt my world
crumble then , nah too dramatic. We were all shocked. She then inquired whether they would seriously enjoy and how they would go home since we wouldn't be bringing them. She didn't get much of a reply while Adel didn't even say anything when I was talking to her. Again we're unsure of their status but hoping it won't come through. This is what I call
hukum karma - from indian girl to these two rascals. I can't believe I used that many paragraphs to bitch about
cinacina punya orang.
Enough of
spain and we come back to another school trip. Mrs. Peter had 'declared' that all the librarians not going to japan should go for the pangkor trip. The Pangkor trip is actually
Mdm. Mano's 3C class trip but we were allowed to tag along. I asked my dad whether I could go so he said
yes since it was only about rm 300. Those who would be going are
yoong jie, krystal, caryn, nee ling, kai li, melissa, may ling and ka mun. I succesfully pulled in
jiam and
denise to go to since we needed more people. We are gonna go on
november 3 coming back on the
5th. Staying at some place called
seaview resort I think.
Don't tell
her this but I'm really hating what that someone who is the 'leader' for the trip is doing. When she put us all into teams and team leaders she made it seemed like we have to be nanny's and big shot facilitators. Its supposed to be a leisure trip so why bother. We just kind of watch though I'm just gonna to nothing else but tell them I'm your group leader with jiam. That's all.
Then it came to the rooming. She put me in a room with arthur chia and connecting rooms with hari kumar and yoong jie. Why arthur chia !! When she told me about it during english class, I shouted a big "
NO" that even people around had to tell me to calm down. I'm probably gonna be dragging my bed or mattress whatsoever to the other room away from arthur. Eww ..
That would be the end of this 'very long' post. Wish me luck with all my grouses here. I'll have more pictury, topical posts coming up though they may be rather long ..
-tata-