It was all set to
go by October. I had finalized everything; flight and hotel were properly
booked but still, no peace of mind had I.
It was a long
streak of shift before the start of journey. I had a run of 4 day shifts in a
row. On the D day, I was exhausted and decided to ask for an early leave of 1 hour.
K gladly complied and I reached home by 8pm. I took a small nap and awaken by
9:30pm. The push off was delayed as we had to return to the house to pickup
Ving’s credit card.
We officially hit
the road by 11pm. It was 360+km after all; we could reach the airport easily
within 5hours. I drove in a relax manner; cruising at 110km. We reached
Clearwater R&R by 2:30am and took a short nap before we resumed the journey.
Ving had hit
dreamland during the journey; she was too tired packing and cleaning the house
for the past few days. Dragoncat was sent to the Vet for temporary lodging as
no one could took care of her in her current state.
The intermittent
rest had helped to counter my fatigue. The driver assist was truly a very
convenient tool; you just laid your hand on the steering and stay alert. Using
it in the night is much more dangerous in the daylight and half closing your
eye is not an option (yeap, I did it before during daylight). It is good enough
for me at the moment; even if it had FSD grade of driver assist I would still
not comfortable using it in the current driving environment.
I reached T city
by 4:15am and found a convenient store and took a rest till 5am. I had booked a
parking at the T2 basement instead of a outskirt parking facility. The parking
facilities around the airport had received a lot of negative comment lately
over the internet. The transportation to and fro from the airport might take
ours and I don’t like to squeeze with load of passengers during the post
pandemic area. The pre-booked promotion came with a 50% reduction of parking
fee. As expected the parking is not packed and I found a “good spot”. A good
parking spot means no parking lot located over the left and right side of the
parking lot. Seems impossible but yet there is sometimes a few of such parking
lot in some of the parking area.
The Cair departure
is located at the T1 and we had to take the shuttle train to reach it. However
it would be simple for us on the return as EVAir operation was mostly around
the T2.
We hit the counter
by 6am and checked in without difficulty. I had done a web check in and only baggage
drop was needed.
The security check
and immigration clearance was straight forward as usual. Nothing had changed compare
to two years ago. We did not use the autogate as we did not renew our status
after the APRC change due to passport renewal.
We had later
proceeded to the lounge complimented by the purchase of air ticket with my
credit card. The food was so so but yet the seat was nice for another round of
nap.
The boarding was
exciting for both Ving and I. After two years of trapping on the island, we
would be leaving it again.
I did everything
that was prohibited during the pandemic on the flight. I use the toilet a few
times, enjoyed the meal and drinks served. The rule is simple now, no check =
no contraction. The in flight meal was up to the standard with my favorite bun and
butter as finish. I viewed part of the Maverick again during the meal. After
the meal, I had failed to sleep and had played the Zombies vs Plants game during
the lower half of the flight as I was too excited for this journey to come
true.
We reached KLIA on
time and took the aerotrain from the satellite building to the main building. There
were still travelers donning full PPE suit waiting for departure…I presumed
most of them were mainlander. I felt pity for them as the Main land was still
imposing strict quarantine order.
The passing via
autogate was stunning; no more finger print check….face recognition mechanism and
I passed the gate within 20sec. I grinned while looking at the long q over the
foreigner immigration checking counter.
The baggage
claiming area was heart beating and thrilling for me as Xian’s baggage incident
still haunted me until today but with grace, I got our luggage in one piece.
The rest of the
journey was uneventful as we passed the KASTAM, bought an airport limo coupon
and reached our in law’s house smoothly.
No urge of
kneeling on the ground and filled my eyes with tears was noted when I stepped
on the Bolehland again. Everything was smooth until now but I had an uneasy
feeling disturbing me… On the next day I finally knew what was waiting for me…