I
had planned to visit my niece in Kota Bharu and after pondering over the
calendar and asking her schedule, decided to visit her on International Women’s
Day. I reluctantly decided to fly cattle airline because of the cost factor and
decided to fly out on Friday afternoon.
I
had to bring dad to Hospital Ampang for yet another check-up (February had been
a challenging month. Maybe I’ll share that in another post) and it was a long
drawn-out wait, first for the doctor, and then at the pharmacy. I was even told
to go have a drink at the cafeteria first as the pharmacy was still waiting for
the doctor to key in the medicine in the system before they could dispense it
out. After some time, our number was called only to find that they wanted us to
go up and inform the clinic that one medicine had yet to be entered into the
system. I was not best pleased and hurried up to see the clinic counter where I
was directed to see the doctor directly. All in all, it took way too long.
We
finally left the hospital and I reached KL Sentral at 12:15, in time to board
the 12:30 bus to KLIA2. We arrived an hour later but ditsy me overlooked to
notice the boarding time. I knew my flight would depart at 14:20 and thought I
had ample time to perform prayers. Well, when I left the prayer room, it was
close to 14:00 but what with the queues to check our boarding pass and security
clearance, it only dawned on me that I was running late. I ran to the gate and
my goodness, the gates never seemed so far before (and my gate was changed from
K12 to K18 so it was even further down wtf) but of course by the time I reached the gate, the door was all locked
and the boarding gate was empty.
I
sat to assess my options. OK, there was another cattle flight after 16:00 or so
but it would cost a whopping RM404 or so. And there was one by MAS costing
RM434 or so. I next checked Malindo and there were two flights, one at 16:00
and another at 17:40. But my, the website was crawling. I then decided to
return to the city and make my way to Subang Airport and buy my ticket on the
way.
So
I headed back (and maybe it was just me but the trek across the terminal seemed
shorter compared to when I was trying to get to the blasted gate) and took KLIA
Ekspres (gulp, karchinggg again!) back to KL Sentral. I finally managed to buy
my Malindo ticket online. I chose the 17:40 flight as I doubted I would reach
Subang SkyPark in time (I still had to check in at the airport and couldn’t check
in online as the flight time was less than four hours). From KL Sentral, I
decided I had enough time to take a bus which I did. It took a good hour to
reach Subang SkyPark and I quickly went to check in for my flight.
I
overheard the lady in front of me commenting about her flight being delayed to
the bloke at the counter so when my turn came, I asked if the 16:00 flight was
delayed. He said yes and I was relieved that I chose to fly the 17:40 flight. I
only had some cereal for breakfast, a curry puff in the cab travelling from the
Hospital and a small cereal bar thus far so decided to have some burger at KFC.
After
that very late lunch/tea, I cleared security and went in to the boarding area.
I was shocked to find that it was pouring torrentially. It was a good thing I
arrived at Subang SkyPark when I did. Any delay and I would have to run in the
rain from the bus stop to the terminal building. And similarly, I was glad I
didn’t fork out money to ride SkyPark Link as there’s no shelter from the train
station to the terminal.
My
17:40 was delayed to 18:00 then to 18:30. The rain raged on. A few other
flights were also retimed. Finally, there were two flights to Kota Bharu: the
first leaving at 18:20 and mine leaving 10 minutes later. The rain eventually
eased and stopped and we were able to board. We finally took off at 18:50 and
landed at Kota Bharu airport 65 minutes later. My niece was already waiting and
we called for a Grab ride.
We
had dinner at one restaurant near the market. I had eaten there twice before
but was less than satisfied with the food this time. We then walked to ParkView
Hotel, a budget hotel about ten minutes’ walk away. There were a few stalls set
up along the road, something like a night market but mainly selling clothes.
We reached the hotel at about 21:30 and after checking in, I freshened up, performed prayers and hit the sack. It had been such a long day after all.
On Saturday, I woke up to find the tap dry. There was no water in the hotel! I went out and one of the staff confirmed the water supply got cut off since around 04:00. She offered to get me a bucket of water for me to perform ablutions. Funnily enough, the house below the hotel had water supply. I told her to just get a half-pail of water as it would be too heavy to lug the water up the stairs.
There was still no water at 07:45 so I had a quick bath with the water in the pail (now a quarter-full) and then my niece had her turn. We then had breakfast sans hot drink as there was still no water. We checked out at 09:15 and went to Mydin to get some water. Then we headed to the market. I wanted to look for some prayer attire and meat floss while Akak wanted some fish crackers. We spent more than an hour at the market.
We walked briefly around the ground floor of the market which sells local produce before going to a restaurant to have early lunch. After lunch, we walked to the bus station stopping en route at an alley where there are colourful murals spanning the buildings on both sides of the alley. Funny that I never noticed this alley before in my previous trips.
We reached the bus station at 12:45 and waited and waited. 13:00 came and went and no bus no. 9 came. I finally asked the bus counter and was told the bus broke down. So we sat on until the 14:00 bus pulled up at a quarter to. My niece went down first and I got down at the airport about two km later. I went out again to get some mineral water at a grocery store across from the airport before re-entering the terminal. I went through security check and on to the boarding area – no way was I going to miss my flight again! I performed prayers and then waited for about 20 minutes before we were called to board.
We landed at KLIA2 at 17:01, about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, but the passengers sitting in the seats before me sure took their time getting up. I hurried through the terminal and boarded the 17:30 SkyBus back to KL Sentral.
Until my next trip to Kota Bharu then.
We reached the hotel at about 21:30 and after checking in, I freshened up, performed prayers and hit the sack. It had been such a long day after all.
On Saturday, I woke up to find the tap dry. There was no water in the hotel! I went out and one of the staff confirmed the water supply got cut off since around 04:00. She offered to get me a bucket of water for me to perform ablutions. Funnily enough, the house below the hotel had water supply. I told her to just get a half-pail of water as it would be too heavy to lug the water up the stairs.
There was still no water at 07:45 so I had a quick bath with the water in the pail (now a quarter-full) and then my niece had her turn. We then had breakfast sans hot drink as there was still no water. We checked out at 09:15 and went to Mydin to get some water. Then we headed to the market. I wanted to look for some prayer attire and meat floss while Akak wanted some fish crackers. We spent more than an hour at the market.
We walked briefly around the ground floor of the market which sells local produce before going to a restaurant to have early lunch. After lunch, we walked to the bus station stopping en route at an alley where there are colourful murals spanning the buildings on both sides of the alley. Funny that I never noticed this alley before in my previous trips.
We reached the bus station at 12:45 and waited and waited. 13:00 came and went and no bus no. 9 came. I finally asked the bus counter and was told the bus broke down. So we sat on until the 14:00 bus pulled up at a quarter to. My niece went down first and I got down at the airport about two km later. I went out again to get some mineral water at a grocery store across from the airport before re-entering the terminal. I went through security check and on to the boarding area – no way was I going to miss my flight again! I performed prayers and then waited for about 20 minutes before we were called to board.
We landed at KLIA2 at 17:01, about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, but the passengers sitting in the seats before me sure took their time getting up. I hurried through the terminal and boarded the 17:30 SkyBus back to KL Sentral.
Until my next trip to Kota Bharu then.
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