Howler in Vietnam

Posted by GilaChess

November 2, 2008

It’s departure time and I’m not brain dead enough to miss my flight back to Malaysia.

However there was one last mistake to make and it was a big one. Yasser Seirawan calls bad blunders a howler and this qualifies as one. What I did was plain silly, stupid and absent minded.

There were two x-ray machines to go thru before reaching the departure gate. I had two bags to carry I left one at the x-ray machine and walked on. One bag had my notebook and the other a projector that was used for the FIDE seminar. I left the notebook bag behind!

I reached the departure hall and since there was one hour to kill I just sat down to relax. 15 minutes before boarding time I realised my bag was missing. I rushed back to the X-ray machine and was told that I should go down to the ‘Lost and Found; section.

The problem was I had to go 2 floors down and had to leave my passport while leaving the departure area. It was not a short distance. There were no direct elevators or lifts from the departure hall. I had to go out of the departure hall and get to the lifts at the end of the airport to go down. Halfway there I knew it was a bad idea.

With only 5 minutes left I knew I will miss my flight if I go all the way to the Lost and Found office. I turned back and went back to the X-ray machines. To compound matters, the officer holding my passport was not there. He was off somewhere else settling a problem with some other passenger. He was nowhere in sight so I panicked. The guard who thought I was cutting queue told me to step back into the line. Luckily at that very moment the custom officer returned to his seat and let me go thru and gave me back my passport.

By then it was already 7.00pm - the time for my flight!! The plane was leaving and here I was searching for my bag. Luckily I spotted the bag beside the X-ray machine. I told the customs officer it’s mine but they would not let me take it. The guard told me to let go of that bag and leave it there. I complied.

Since I was carrying the other bag I had to go thru the X-ray machine once again while one of the officer called his superior. This was an agonising few minutes looking at the two discuss in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, the PA was announcing “Ooi, Andrew. Can you please report to the boarding gate 16. Final call for AK147, Air Asia fligth to Kuala Lumpur” over the speakers. Finally they asked me what was the content and I described my Dell notebook and they gave me my bag. I ran like crazy to gate 16 only to find everyone had boarded the plane and the doors were closed.

Sweating profusely and out of breath, I told them I’m “Ooi, Andrew” and showed them my boarding pass. The girl shook her head and told me “not to be late next time”. Gratefully, I got on the plane only to find it full. Of course the plane should have one seat and I kept looking until found it. There was a big group of Indonesian passengers going to KL for some seminar on tourism/travel and with their huge carry-on bags they brought took up the entire overhead baggage compartment. I had to put my bags on my lap and under the seat. It was definitely cramped and uncomfortable but I told myself in just 1 hour 50 minutes - this ordeal will be over. Other passengers were asked to transfer their bags to the cargo compartment. That delayed the flight for another 30 minutes while the bags were tagged and brought down to the cargo of the plane.

730pm: Take off !! And I was so grateful to not have missed my flight. The plane even reached LCCT, KL 20 minutes early. However, I spent another 30 minutes waiting for my other baggage at the carousel and by then it was already 11pm.

All in all, I was lucky I did not lose my bag and reached KL safely. The cab was expensive from the airport to home but I didn’t mind. I didn’t want to take the hassle (and more opportunities for ‘howlers’) by taking the cheaper bus back to KL Sentral.

Personal, Travels

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