Day 1.1 : The Bumpkin in Biznis Klas

Just like I promised in the previous entry, this is post is dedicated to my flight experience from KL to New York via Dubai on Emirates Business Class.

This is absolutely NOT a flight review. It's just me, a J-Class virgin, documenting my time in premium class travel.

The Business Class treatment began at the check-in counter of KLIA where I got to stand in a different queue, followed by the 2-hour wait in the Emirates Lounge. So for the first time ever, I found myself in a section of the airport which I've never been before. Not only the lounge, but the whole section of the Satellite building.

Waiting in a lounge of course beats waiting at the Departure Gate hands down. It's ironic that the premium class gets a whole load of free stuff, like food, drinks and liquor, while the 'commoners' most probably have to shell out money for inflated priced food at the airport. But then again, premium most probably cost 4-6 times more than Economy, so okay.

It was past 11:00pm when I arrived at the lounge, and honestly, I was just too exhausted to be over-excited of anything (I was running on two-hours sleep that day). The Emirates Lounge in KLIA is warm and nice. Reminds me of a hotel lobby. They had some snacks, and some hot food, several types of beverages and booze. At that time, my stomach was already half-asleep so I had some OJ, a creme caramel, and a teeny prawn and glass noodle salad.

When it was time to board, they made an announcement in the lounge and we proceeded to the departure gate which was not very far from the Lounge. After security, the next premium perk was enjoyed - immediate boarding. There was a queue for economy but everyone in Business and First just went straight to the front of the line, flashed our boarding passes, and proceeded to a dedicated airbridge to the plane.

The flight from KL to Dubai is a Boeing 777-300ER and I had an aisle seat. I know it is Business Class and all, but I didn't really enjoy that flight. The seat pitch is huge and you have a bunch of buttons, but all that big space was very overwhelming to me. In fact, I felt rather small and really bumpkin-y! For one, my feet can't reach the seat in front of me, that's an indicator of how big the seat pitch is. Also, I can barely reach the overhead compartment where I needed to stow my handcarry because, ironically, all that overwhelming space and I didn't have much storage space for my stuff at the seat. So I was all crammed in with my handbag and pillows and blanket.

The Boeing also has less privacy so I kept having embarrassing bumpkin moments when I tried out the buttons! I made the reading light on top go on and off a couple of times, I accidentally made the partition that separates me and the next seat go up and down a few times too! And maybe because I was really sleep-deprived, I tried to go into an occupied restroom and took me a while to figure out why the door wouldn't open *puts head in sand*

I slept for about 3.5 hours of the 6-hour flight, and had the Banana Pancake breakfast before we landed in DXB. I might've been still in a daze and the appetite was asleep, because I didn't enjoy my breakfast at all. Well, except for the fruit platter. So when I was in DXB, I headed straight to the Business Class Lounge to see what they had in their food spread.

The Business Class Lounge in DXB is, in contrast from the one in KLIA, like a convention-centre-hotel buffet, and is very large. You have the resting/sleeping area at one end,the couch and armchair area in the middle, and the dining area at the other end. Among all that, there's a shoeshine stand and a spa. Buffet counters are dotted in intervals along the whole stretch.

And again I am so thankful for being in Business because the lounge provided free WiFi throughout. DXB has free WiFi but only limited to 30 minutes and one has to sign up for it.

My transit was about 3+ hours, and in that time I had a yogurt, a mini turkey slice sandwich, some fruits, and tea. Yea, it was too early for my appetite to handle anything more. So I spent the time updating the Luv and friends about my first leg of the flight.

I think I will stop here for this entry because it is getting way too long. Also, I think the next leg of the journey deserves an entry on its own because, it's the Emirates A380, baby! The part of the flight trip that I was really looking forward to :)

Cheers for now,

Day 1 : Welcome to the Big Adventure!

Am writing this with 4h 54m left in my flight and I really have to say, I LOVE Emirates Biznis Klas. But of course, I've nothing to compare it to and this is a first time experience. However, this is making a long haul flight really, really good. Firstly, it doesn't feel like I've been in a giant enclosed luxurious tin can, at 38,000 ft in the sky for the past 7 hours. And secondly, I'm in freakin Business Class baby!

Since I have several more hours to go and don't feel like sleeping (again) yet, I will write about the Big Adventure. This will be like the prologue before the first entry about a Bumpkin in J Class :)

I am on my way to one of the 'Greatest Cities on Earth' for a 2-week adventure with the Luv. We'll be hitting the Big Apple and her neighboring states, so expect entries on The City that Never Sleeps, Smithsonian geek fests, and a road trip up north to Seneca country.

And all this is happening because, in the words of the Luv, "I sold my soul to the devil." Luv is on a 6-month short term assignment in the States and his employers have generously allowed him to fly me over on his 'home leave' allocation. Hence the premium class travelling. And I am so grateful for this, because it is a freakin almost-24hr journey from KL and I get to do it with style, comfort, and yes, Free!

I have 4.5 hours before I land in JFK, so I will settle back in my flatbed, watch some shows on the IFE, and enjoy the last few hours in the lap of luxury.

Looking forward to the Big Adventure and most of all, looking forward to the seeing the Luv again after 3 months apart :)

Come, join me in my escapade, and welcome to my Big Adventure!

♥ from 38,000 feet,

Teaser #4

'Cos #3 is on Twitter (see Twitter Feed on right).

Not much to 'tease' actually. I am so busy trying to finish all that I need to do before jetting-off on my Big Adventure that I don't even have the time to do more planning and be excited. Instead of enthusiasm, I have been on tenterhooks lately. The kind of stress where you get nightmares about your work when you are asleep.

That's fine. The excitement will come on Friday evening. Just hope the pent up excitement doesn't explode inappropriately.

Apart from the long-haul flight, I look forward to having a guy holding my name on a sign at the airport when I arrive (note to self: try to get a photo of that on that day). Also I wonder if I would be sharing the same cabin with anybody famous? You know, like this:

♥,

Teaser #2

Did you know that you can view the interior of the largest passenger aircraft in the world by last year's best airline worldwide on Google Street View?

Have a virtual tour of the upper deck of the Emirates A380 here! You will begin your tour at the Onboard Lounge at the back end of the aircraft. If you go all the way to the front of the plane (into the First Class section), look for the Shower Spas and see if you can spot the camera :)

I found my long haul seat! *gets excited*

Photo: Google Street View

This is a teaser to Part 1.3 of my Big Adventure. 35 more days to the big reveal ^_^

♥,

Teaser #1

Hello everybody.

It's been an extremely long time. The blog went into hiatus because there was nothing exciting worthy of documenting. Life fell into a rut: work-eat-sleep. Work is interesting but who wants to write about work when one has to write a lot at work? Also there's this risk of accidental breach of confidentiality.

But now, the blog will be revived for an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which I've come to call "Li Ying's Big Adventure".

Next month I will be off from work for two weeks on my Big Adventure - Big City, Big Apple, Biggest passenger airline in the world! 

And I want to document everything here.

36 days till excitement ensues.

Stay tuned!

♥,

Hello

It's been eons and epochs.

But a *teaser* will be coming up and I thought I'll revive this blog again.

Just a note: the banner at the top of this blog is rather inaccurate as the revival won't be about any adventures on either side of the SCS. In fact it is obsolete but it has a nice background of Mount Kinabalu - which I most probably have lost the original photo, so there it shall remain.

Before the excitement of any teaser, I would like to ramble a bit. Take it as a...warm up to writing again.

A random thought: One of the most difficult question I find to answer is "What do you do exactly?" when asked about my job.

I've been at it for almost three years, and there are times I love it, and there are times when I just want to crawl into a cave and not wake up early to go to work. But that's normal. I think anyone who constantly rave about how much they love their job is not being completely honest.

Back to the earlier question. How do you explain to people what you do when for the most of it, people are not even aware that what you do exist?

"I model and analyse effluent loads in a river to estimate the pollution impact of a project."

"I carry out studies to draft policies and guidelines."

"I help draft management plans of protected areas."

However, I think people in general have this built-in need to not feel dumb, so they don't question much when they are bombarded with things they don't really understand. Big, important sounding words usually stop them from asking further. Then they leave me alone.

Complicated as it might be, imagine being an SAP analyst in an MNC.

"So...what do you do?"

"Erm...I work in the toothpaste factory. You know, computers."

A jibe to AJ who is far away *evil grin*

Stay tuned for the real teaser!

Pre-teaser #1: Yellow cabs and fire escapes! Photo: AJ

♥,

I really don't care. Really.

I think people complain too much. WAY too much.

And with the rise of social media, these complaints spread farther and wider. Out of 10 people, 8 people have no choice but to have knowledge of a complain which they don't give a shit about.

Here are some simple rules to be a better human being:
1) If you don't like it, FIX IT.
2) If you can't fix it, ADAPT.
3) If you can't adapt, STOP USING IT.

So if you don't like the new Facebook layout, you can either
a) Mess around with the settings/hack/whatev to make it what you want.
b) Get used to it.
c) Stop using it. Go find an alternative if you "can't live without it".

I could be meaner and say these people should just die if they are so dependent on something as inconsequential as this.

Stop spewing hatred. The world has enough negativity as it is, don't make it worse with trivial matters. Also because I and at least 7 other people don't give a shit about you hatin' on the new layout.

It would do everyone a whole lot more good to spend less time on your anti-social gadgets, stalking on the social network (such an irony, really) and spend more time with the REAL people around you. There are more worthwhile things out there to be done, more worthwhile problems to be solved.

Life does not revolve around Facebook. Seriously.