Airasia: Now everyone can “always” fly

It was 12 April 2008 and a clear morning in Kuala Lumpur. I was going back to my hometown in Bandung, Indonesia. My flight depart from LCCT, using Airasia departed 9.05 AM from Kuala Lumpur. I left my home in Subang Jaya around 6.15 AM and reached LCCT around 7.00, the taxi driver thinks he was a KL Drifter with constant speed of 120km/hr or more on the highway. I checked-in, and there’s still 2 hours left before departure. I bought some chocolate for my brother and a newspaper to kill time. After that, I ate at Asian Kitchen. This is the first time I ate there, most of departure to my hometown I always had breakfast in McDonalds. But this time, I want to try something new. I ordered Nasi Lemak with side order chicken rendang and soya milk, totaled around RM 14.20. Guess what? Don’t expect the price come with the quality. It was okay, nasi okay, sambal okay, quite lousy chicken, for the price I paid, it’s not a least worth it (At Subang, you’ll find tastier nasi lemak at RM 4.00 to 5.00). I don’t know about the other menu, but I preferred to go McDonalds if I go to LCCT again.

After eating, I went to the immigration pass get my passport chopped and went to departure hall. Oh yeah, I always wondered this weird regulations. Most of airports now forbid liquid items in hand luggage, I’ve experienced these several times, one in Changi Airport, we can’t bring perfume and liquid soap, I understand they forbid perfume as it can possibly ignite fire; but mineral water? I also can’t bring, either you dump it or you piss several times during flight (drink.... drink... drink....). In LCCT, also experienced it several times, but the odd thing, the duty free shop is located just after the baggage check in. Thus, the immigration officers may confiscate our liquid things, but we can always buy Jack Daniel, Chivas Regal, perfume, or any liquid and alcoholic things after we pass the baggage check. Funny, eh? Sometimes to pass the baggage check, we need to drink up all mineral water we brought, so if brought beers, you'll be happy to get drunk in the morning.

Okay, it’s already around 8 AM, I brought duty free Contreau chocolate for my friends (luscious, especially if you like the alcohol). 1 hour to go, I waited in the departure hall by reading newspaper I bought. Around 8.45 we all went to the plane. Not long after, we departed and bye bye KL, we’d see u in 5 days. Time to sleep, and I slept during 2 hours flight and woke up when we almost reached Bandung. I saw very cloudy sky as we reached the Bandung city. When we almost landed, the plane suddenly went up again. The pilot then announced, “We’re experiencing a difficulty as the weather is not so good, we will try to land one more time”. I also overheard the stewardess telling a passenger that the wind may blow the plane if the plane forced to land on that situation. Then the pilot announced again “We’ll try to land again, if we cannot land then we must land in Jakarta”. Damn it......, I almost home but can’t get home. The pilot tried to land again, we were approaching the land, down, down, almost....., then suddenly the plane went up, againnnnn..... My house is just 5 minutes away from airport, I saw my house twice from the plane, and then it redirected to Jakarta. Holy S***!!! Seemed not only I disappointed, many other people also seemed skeptical and cynical. Of course, we wanted Bandung not Jakarta.

Around 11 AM, we landed in Sukarno Hatta Airport, Jakarta. Just like sheep, we were gathered in the departure hall to wait for further confirmation. Then the stewardess announced, “we needed to wait here because the weather is not good to land in Bandung, harap bersabar...”. There I was, killing time by the newspaper I bought again; no food, no go out from departure hall, I was hoping they could give away Airasia’s nasi lemak. Around 1 AM, the pilot came back and announced “we will depart to Bandung again now, but if still cannot landing, we will go back to KL again.” How wonderful!!! I saw my house twice, but can’t go back. I imagined myself jumped from the plane with parachute when I reached Bandung. Maybe some of you will wonder, why can’t we just get our immigration chopped in Jakarta? Some people are complaining about this including me, they said that the boarding pass is to fly to Bandung, so the immigration won’t approve if we come out in Jakarta. I even saw a person (Malaysian) scolding the stewardess about that procedure. Well, what can she do? Maybe it is the protocol should be followed.

We are gathered like sheep again and went to the plane again. The plane off from Jakarta, when we approached Bandung (5 minutes from the airport), I saw a middle-aged male chattering his pray. When we were approaching the airport, the plane is quite bumpy and unstable, maybe it’s because the wind. The plane was unsteady, then it came down...., down...., down...., and yeah it’s finally reached the ground and safely landed. There’s a woman clapped then followed by all the plane audience, then followed by “hip hip hooray” thingy. I looked the middle-aged man; he’s still chattering his pray even when the plane already stopped. But all of us are grateful that we finally arrived in Bandung safely and intact, the pilot made the right decision rather than risking passengers’ life in that unfortunate event.