JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim

KLIA: KLIA is damn hugely bulky and we nearly missed our flight. Walking from the main atrium to terminal C24 took about 15 minutes while the airport speaker keep retorting "Flight KL 0810 announcing final call. Passengers please proceed to Gate C24 for immediate boarding" and its counterparts in English and Mandrin (they have Mandarin announcers now). It’s a Boeing 747 (applause). Before that the air-stewardess in the check-in counter gave us much troubles. Having a group-fare ticket means toeing the line strictly. Eesh’s (you don’t know her anyway) luggage was 23 kg and she was forced to re-pack (limit: 20kg). However, mine was 27.7 and all the air hostess said was "it’s heavy" and quickly tied the airline baggage sticker and lumped it to the railings. Anyway, the aircraft was a little packed and stuffy. No personal TV screens but a small 14-inch on the aisle, one for every 3 rows (so the next time if you’re going to Amsterdam, i would suggest using MAS). Food serving was small, and just moderately appeasing. Jun Yi was quite tired and having ebing reminded of jet-lag he slept for 3/4 of his journey, while the plane fly across a large portion of India and the northern regions.

Airport Amsterdam Schipol: Having heard of how organised and comfortable the hub of Europe was, Jun Yi was disappointed to see how dull the colours selection turned out. It looked more like a hospital than an airport. However shopping facilities were widly avaliable, even at 6 in the morning. There’s a casino (we’ll never have that in M’sia), LCD departure/arrival screens and a lot of vending machines. Immigration officers have such a weird slang I actually answered "thanks" when they asked "where’s your final destination?". Sector Amsterdam/Roma takes 1 hr 50 mins, in which the new air hostess are quite friendly and the food are much more nicer. Boeing 737.

Aeroporti di Roma: The design is much more dashing than in Schipol, but Rome was showering that day. My luggage was soaked, and i hesitated whether or not to report to the lost and found counter. "It’s soaked Madame, and God knows the €3000 laptop inside is still working. You should take good care of it you foolish! See this ‘priority’ sticker? I’ll sue you if you don’t compensate me!" Anyway, AFS coordinators in Italy are just cute. I’ll save the orientation and much more 3-course lunch and 6-course dinner in the hotel. It’ll bored you to death by then.

Aeroporti di Torino: Alitalia have much more catching-up to do if they were to emerge as good as MAS or KLM. Anyway, the next day the sky was cloudless, and sitting beside the window i think i saw the whole Peninsular of Italy. Turin (Torino being the Italian name) Airport is cutely comparable to Penang Airport, except that it’s under renovation for the Paralympics 2006 and all you see are grey cement pillars and signboards in Italian with a lot of exclamation marks. Picked up by an AFS volunteer, who later become my coordinator. She didn’t spot how tired I am and drove round the city of Torino once (which took about 20 mins) before deciding to head for the highway for Cuneo (my host family’s town). As mentioned, snow is only fun when it’s pure white, and sadly much of it aren’t. Generalisation: Italians drive frantically fast, even on one-way streets when at any time there might be a car coming up from the opposite side. Anyway, if you’re crossing the street, you don’t have to ‘pandang kiri, kanan, kiri dan lintas’, just do it straightaway. Chances are they’ll stop for you (if you’re fortunate enough, though).

Anyway, i observe that this blog is too damn long, so i’ll just stop here. I pwomise i’ll shrink the next (if you care to read after all).

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