I. Wanna. Go. Home.
Regardless of the amount of "I don't wanna go back" I've said the day before.
O.M.G.
This is an entry with 2 photos and a whole load of words because it is definitely a tale to tell.
Let's start with Summary #1: Our flight got bloody delayed!
So we were all being reluctant and what not, doing as many 'lasts' as we can, then we headed to the airport and began our VERY LONG wait for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Being in a flight going back to Malaysia, one can expect at least half of the flight being Malaysians. And Malaysians being who they are and wanting to go home, some of them tend to get a tad too angry.
What happened to our KLM flight was that the aircraft got struck by lightning while sitting on the tarmac. Honestly, looking back, I really didn't mind what happened to me. Everything was better than being struck by lightning in mid-air or when we were already in the plane.
After some time, KLM got a substitute carrier, but a smaller one, thus about 100-over people were denied boarding that night. They did a very funny system though. Random lottery whereby you go up to the boarding gate, slip your boarding pass into this machine thingie and if it's a green light, good for you. I got a RED.
Which leads to Summary #2: I bloody got delayed 24 hours!
Lawson and I were both denied boarding that night. No matter how much I pleaded with them we weren't entertained. So instead of getting even more tizzied I finally gave up and accepted the fact that we were indeed going to spend another night in Amsterdam, trudged over to another counter and got our hotel vouchers and stuff.
The others got on the flight, but since it took off about 3 to 4 hours later, they arrived late, and all of our tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu were gone.
Back in Amsterdam. Lawson and I had to wait for the shuttle bus to the hotel from Schiphol at midnight, outside, in the cold, and it was raining. We were told that they'll put us on a MAS flight at noon.
The next morning, we went down to breakfast and this nice lady working in the restaurant that looks like a cafeteria said to me "Your lunch will be from 1 to 2 pm" and I was like "Erm...I don't think we're staying for lunch" and she said one of the most jaw-dropping thing at that moment: "Didn't you know? Your flight has been delayed again."
O.M.G.
Hence my summary of 24 hours. Basically KLM put us into their flight that night which is the same time as the flight we were supposed to go in (if the plane wasn't struck by lightning) the night before.
So we had another meal in Schiphol Ibis Hotel. What was good was that our extra night and meals were covered by KLM. Also a meal in the airport as we were given €10 voucher. Even checking in had a glitch. They didn't have Lawson in the record so he didn't have a boarding pass. That took another bit of time to deal with.
In the end, yes we got on the 8.55pm flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Yes, it took off on time. But guess what? Our luggage were already in Malaysia at that time. Yes, my luggage got on the previous night's flight and I didn't. Which is actually a very wrong thing to do on KLM's part.
Some time in the air, I had another one of my firsts (and hopefully never again): I blacked out while waiting for my turn to use the loo. I was standing, waiting, leaning against the wall, and the next thing I know I was on the cabin floor and the stewardess was next to me asking me if I'm okay in a worried voice.
Fine. I fainted twice. That's embarassing. It happened a short while after I stood up from the first one. So they actually made me sit at the back of the plane and paged for a doctor on board.
Embarassing. So not me.
Overall, the hold-up wasn't so bad. Sure, it was tiresome and exhausting, not to mention disgusting as we had only the clothes on our backs; and it wasn't like we got to enjoy Amsterdam one extra day. But, I had a good excuse to go home instead of flying back to KK and stayed back for a week. I came back with a tale to tell.
Oh, and I met a local celebrity :) Chua Boon Huat, national hockey player, was on the same flight and disposition as I was. He was on his way back home from Austria. I sorta chatted with him while we were waiting at the receptionist, and although it was kind of an odd situation, I got a photo with him!
After 12 hours in the plane, 3 hours running around the airport trying to get a ticket for Lawson to get back to KK, another 3.5 hours in the bus, I got home to Ipoh safely. Ipoh. It's so good to be HOME.
Sometimes, things happen in the oddest way, and when you look back at them, it wasn't so bad after all.
And I guess I have come to the finale of my story. The Tale of My First European Adventure. Next destination: Barcelona!!!
I'll work on that.
Update: Just so you know what you should get if you are ever this unfortunate, check for compensations for flight delays/denied boarding. I called up KLM as I found out that my predicament entitles me to a choice of compensations. I opted for cash -- €600. That's about RM 3,050 -- which is A LOT.
The End.
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