8 hours Experience at KLIA

Immediately after the President Special Address on May 4 2010 at KL Convention Center, I skipped the refreshment part of the program, grabbed my luggage from the concierge, paid the hotel taxi service sums of RM 150 and off me go to KLIA. That was around 16:50 hours. It was raining heavily during the first half of the journey. Arrived at the KLIA around 17:50 hours. The ETD of my flight to Doha was actually on May 5 2010 at 02:55 hours. But, I decided to go to KLIA early simply because I want to study the people character and behavior or to specific, travelers. Basically I have 7 hours to do that! After I have placed my medium luggage and a box filled with dry foods onto the trolley, I went to the food court at the second floor of this modern contemporary majestic building that had won several awards. I pressed the “down” button of the modern industrial size elevator. Then, I waited for few minutes. After a while, the tempered glass door of one of the elevators opened. The indicator indicated me “UP”. However, I decided to go in. There were few people inside the elevator – a man at late 30s with his 3 kids I think and an old woman. “ops, it goes up!” I blurted “well it’s ok” I continued talking to myself. After few seconds of silence, the man with his three kids candidly reminded us; “if you see the green button, it means ‘UP’ and the red button for ‘DOWN’.” I responded courteously; “Oh .. Yes, it is…emm..thank you…,really ignorant about it!” ‘Ting’ the bell – the audio level indicator indicating the elevator has arrived at the booked level. The door opened and the man with his three kids and a trolley went out, without saying ‘hi’ whatsoever. He is not obligated to do it anyway?. He did nothing wrong. The point that I want to make is; that was a character by itself that colors our life.

The 2nd floor level indicator blinked and another ‘Ting’ came out. I went out from that glass box and pushed my trolley out to the 2nd floor – the food court of this majestic building. I parked the trolley not far from one of the food outlets, while keeping my eyes to it, and grabbed one of my favorites Malaysian dish – fried cat fish with chilli..yummy yummy! Then, I went to the beverages counter. I stood there for few minutes while enthusiastically watching one of the crew preparing ‘teh tarik’. Another guy came to left side of the queue. Another crew came to the counter and without feeling guilty she asked the guy who came later his order! I whispered to myself; “cool down Saiful…don’t say anything!..relax”..then she gave her me her egoistic look, starred at me and said nothing! I opened up my mouth; “Hot lemon tea please!” I asked politely. She shook her head. I guessed she did not catch up my words. I smiled and repeated nicely my order; “Hot lemon tea…..” she then put her fingers on the cash register and claimed; “4.50 ringgit..” I took the small change that I kept inside my pocket while she prepared my order. After not more than one minute, she returned to the counter with the hot lemon tea. She put the drink on the counter and I handed over the money to her. I had to carry the paper cup filled with almost full hot lemon tea to my table which was about 10 meters away. I mean literally hot tea! Along the way, the hot tea spilled onto my hand and fingers. And, it was really irritated! I ran to the counter for tissue paper. Again, the same girl, somberly hesitant responded to my request. I poured my mineral water on to the tissue paper provided by the girl and placed it to the burnt part of my hand and finger. The simple first-aid helped reducing the pain. It was just a minor burnt though. Again, the point that I want to make is; that one of its kind Cashier –girl was another character that had taught me another lesson.
I spent almost one and a half hours at the food court, watching Discovery Channel. Few meters away behind me was a romantic Chinese couple planning their future, laughing and joking mesmerizing their future so as to enhancing their relationship. In front of me, I saw a European lady struggling to order a local fruit juice. I think the local vendor; a young teenage boy was not able to converse fluently in English that caused the miscommunication. I did not make any move though and that was bad of me! Suddenly, the Chinese lady behind me walked to the stall and helped the European lady with her order. I continued watching the Survivor series to kill the time.
The hot lemon tea had been cooled by the chilly atmosphere of the food court. I walked out from the court and went to the departure floor. Both power packs of my satellite guided devices had drained out. I looked at my watch for solat el Maghrib – 40 minutes to go. I still have ample time but I decided to reach the Prayer room to recharge the power pack of my mobile units. After completing my ablution, I went in and found one three-pin-socket on the wall. Unfortunately, it was not functioning. I put back the charger and sat quietly at the back side of the Prayer room. 5 minutes later, I saw three Uzbek performed their ‘Asar congregation @ 19:05 hours? After the second ‘salam’, one of them left. An old Qataris man who speaks good English sat on a chair few feet away, called him; “Where are you from?” he asked politely but with his husky Arabic slang. “Uzbekistan” replied the young good looking guy. “you had prayed 4 raka’at ‘Asar” asked the Qataris; “actually you can pray only 2 raka’at” he continued while showing his two fingers. The Uzbek explained to him that; “I cannot pray 4 raka’at because I stay here and I am not musafirin….my other two friends can”….. He left the room and I just smiled at him. At 19:20 hours sharp, one guy at mid 30s made the Prayer Call – Adzan, while the Qataris voluntarily lent his hands with the prayer mat or ‘sejadah’ in Malay or even in Arabic. I joint him. Sad to mention, some of the mats had worn down and some produced reeking horrible smell! The same guy recited the ‘Iqamah’, and we, mainly the Malays invited unanimously the Qataris man to lead our congregation prayer.
After the prayer, I went to the check-in counter information board. I’d learnt nothing about my flight information yet. Thus, I went to the information counter and asked one of properly dressed young little girl named Azirah; “where would be the check-in counter for Qatar Airways, Miss?” She gave me her big smile, which clearly shown her steel braces clamped on the two rows of her teeth. “F, Sir” she replied. I was skeptical with the answer, because normally it was ‘J’, thus I asked her back; “Are you sure?”. “Yes, Sir….I am very sure” She re affirmed and continued; “Yes, I know it was normally there…’J’, but now the authority placed it at ‘F’.” I thanked her and smiled away. That was another character of people. I walked out from the Information Counter and pushed my trolley to a book store at the other side of the building. I went in and made a round; nothing attracted me and went out! I roamed around at the International Departure area; I saw one guy was sitting on the floor of the wall near the KLIA information kiosk on his left and ATM machines on his right. As I getting closer, he was actually charging his mobile set using the socket sets. That had reminded me about the drained out power of my blackberry. There was a ‘machine’ called Free Charging for Mobile Battery not far from that guy. I had a close look, tried to figure out what is it and how to use it and yet skeptical about it. It looked dodgy to me!...what about if it ‘swallow’ my battery set? Anyway, not to waste my time I used another socket available to charge my Nokia set. There I was, ‘stranded’ waiting to get my phone at least half charged. I sat on my trolley that I parked near one of the futuristically clad beams while experimenting the two lenses that I’ve bought 2 days ago.... to be continued.