Friday, June 08, 2007
A series of unfortunate events
A supposed business trip to Busan, Korea on Sunday morning ended up me hanging around at KLIA for a few hours because of an overbooked flight to HK. Check-in counter was still open and being put into the waiting list didn't help much either. The sympathetic counter manager requested me to see her after the flight to see what can be done.
Arriving at the ticketing office on the 3rd floor 2hrs++ later, she managed to book and confirm a flight departing to HKIA the same time next morning so I left feeling better that my superior won't taruh me kau kau (of course still kena taruh a bit after telling him).
Gone home and do what I was suppose to do, meeting up a pair friends from Penang and sending my car for a wash. Getting nervous of shit might happen again, so being a little cautious and I checked in my flight online and chosen one of the only 4 seats left out of the hundreds.
Things went the way it should the next morning and finally I touched down at HKIA to connect my flight to Busan. I ran towards the transfer counter and to my surprise, they said there's no flight from HK to Busan today, I was in daze and wondering how could this be? I referred back to my itinerary and then furiously thinking how could that stupid counter manager booked me for a flight where the connecting flight to my final destination is two days away, what the fuck am I gonna do for two days in HK, this is a fucking business trip alright, not a multiple cities stop-over vacation.
What is done is done, now I'm in the middle of nowhere (not exactly no where la), back to reality, I got my passport stamped (yeahhh... finally been to HK) and continue with my mission. If you have watched Amazing race (I'm sure you have la otherwise you won't be reading my blog because a country without TV would not have internet access also) Running around HKIA (mind you, it's one of the biggest airport & busiest in Asia) like the desperate Amzing Race contestants looking for the earliest possible flight to their destinations.
After a luggage pulling marathon, restless standing at various airline counters, Cathay staff managed to find, book & confirm me an alternative which was to touch down at Incheon aiport at Seoul and departing from Seoul to Busan the next morning at 9am (Better than nothing, IMHO)
Finally got to the Busan office and life gone back to normal. Meeting up some of the staff for the first time and it was a public holiday the next day, so they took me out (there I was preparing to get to passed out, I've been warned that this would happen) Having eaten the freshest Sashimi ever in my life (mind you, the fish head & mouth was still moving where only the bones was left intact with the head) Also consumed various type of UMOs (Unidentified Marine Objects) that night and of course not forgetting the constant pouring of Shoju... OK, the night went by, I got back to the hotel in semi-conscious state and I shot that photo the next morning:
Oh... no no, this is not the end yet, bare with me I know this is a little longer than my usual post but since there's nothing much I can do now I might as well make use of free time that I have...
Just a couple of hours ago, I've finished what I've came here for... so I packed my bag and say goodbye to the local staff here and a colleague of mine decided to send me back since I couldn't get myself a cab (it was raining heavily and the taxi booking line all jammed up).
He dropped me off and that was my nightmare started, OMFG... I couldn't find my hotel key card (you must be thinking, duh... what the hell, get the hotel to issue me a new one) Yeah sure, that was the least that I was worrying about.... because I couldn't even locate my wallet which I have my Malaysian IC, Amex Corp. Card, My own credit card, and the USD300 dollars (RM1,039) in there!!!
Called up the office and they said there's nothing there, didn't know what to do except to get a new key card from the hotel and start logging on to look for emergency contact numbers to report my lost cards. To my surprise, the front desk exec asked me for my name and telling me that someone found my wallet and left her with his name and contact number, MY GOODNESS! (I'm thinking... I must've done a lot of good deeds all these while... :)
According to her, the person (Mr. Kang) will be returning to Busan later this evening and retrn the wallet, what a good honest Samaritan. Well, the only thing besides blogging that I can do right now and keep my fingers crossed and it remains to be seen whether the cash still intact or not. I have the feeling he is the first person to came across my wallet, otherwise, bye-bye USD300 and hello bread and instant noodles for breakfast-lunch-dinner-&-supper!
I can't believe that I can actually blog in Korean interface too.... and this final incident is actually giving me the reason to post to my otherwise long-forgotten blog.
(credit cards had been made unusable prior to blogging this)
UPDATE: I met up with Mr. Kang the next afternoon and I got my wallet back with all the money, receipts, credit cards still intact, I was grateful and offered him a reward but he kindly turned it down. Giving out money is not really a Korean or Japanese to express your gratitude so I bought him a carton of spirits and some juices to show my appreciation.
Arriving at the ticketing office on the 3rd floor 2hrs++ later, she managed to book and confirm a flight departing to HKIA the same time next morning so I left feeling better that my superior won't taruh me kau kau (of course still kena taruh a bit after telling him).
Gone home and do what I was suppose to do, meeting up a pair friends from Penang and sending my car for a wash. Getting nervous of shit might happen again, so being a little cautious and I checked in my flight online and chosen one of the only 4 seats left out of the hundreds.
Things went the way it should the next morning and finally I touched down at HKIA to connect my flight to Busan. I ran towards the transfer counter and to my surprise, they said there's no flight from HK to Busan today, I was in daze and wondering how could this be? I referred back to my itinerary and then furiously thinking how could that stupid counter manager booked me for a flight where the connecting flight to my final destination is two days away, what the fuck am I gonna do for two days in HK, this is a fucking business trip alright, not a multiple cities stop-over vacation.
What is done is done, now I'm in the middle of nowhere (not exactly no where la), back to reality, I got my passport stamped (yeahhh... finally been to HK) and continue with my mission. If you have watched Amazing race (I'm sure you have la otherwise you won't be reading my blog because a country without TV would not have internet access also) Running around HKIA (mind you, it's one of the biggest airport & busiest in Asia) like the desperate Amzing Race contestants looking for the earliest possible flight to their destinations.
After a luggage pulling marathon, restless standing at various airline counters, Cathay staff managed to find, book & confirm me an alternative which was to touch down at Incheon aiport at Seoul and departing from Seoul to Busan the next morning at 9am (Better than nothing, IMHO)
Finally got to the Busan office and life gone back to normal. Meeting up some of the staff for the first time and it was a public holiday the next day, so they took me out (there I was preparing to get to passed out, I've been warned that this would happen) Having eaten the freshest Sashimi ever in my life (mind you, the fish head & mouth was still moving where only the bones was left intact with the head) Also consumed various type of UMOs (Unidentified Marine Objects) that night and of course not forgetting the constant pouring of Shoju... OK, the night went by, I got back to the hotel in semi-conscious state and I shot that photo the next morning:
Oh... no no, this is not the end yet, bare with me I know this is a little longer than my usual post but since there's nothing much I can do now I might as well make use of free time that I have...
Just a couple of hours ago, I've finished what I've came here for... so I packed my bag and say goodbye to the local staff here and a colleague of mine decided to send me back since I couldn't get myself a cab (it was raining heavily and the taxi booking line all jammed up).
He dropped me off and that was my nightmare started, OMFG... I couldn't find my hotel key card (you must be thinking, duh... what the hell, get the hotel to issue me a new one) Yeah sure, that was the least that I was worrying about.... because I couldn't even locate my wallet which I have my Malaysian IC, Amex Corp. Card, My own credit card, and the USD300 dollars (RM1,039) in there!!!
Called up the office and they said there's nothing there, didn't know what to do except to get a new key card from the hotel and start logging on to look for emergency contact numbers to report my lost cards. To my surprise, the front desk exec asked me for my name and telling me that someone found my wallet and left her with his name and contact number, MY GOODNESS! (I'm thinking... I must've done a lot of good deeds all these while... :)
According to her, the person (Mr. Kang) will be returning to Busan later this evening and retrn the wallet, what a good honest Samaritan. Well, the only thing besides blogging that I can do right now and keep my fingers crossed and it remains to be seen whether the cash still intact or not. I have the feeling he is the first person to came across my wallet, otherwise, bye-bye USD300 and hello bread and instant noodles for breakfast-lunch-dinner-&-supper!
I can't believe that I can actually blog in Korean interface too.... and this final incident is actually giving me the reason to post to my otherwise long-forgotten blog.
(credit cards had been made unusable prior to blogging this)
UPDATE: I met up with Mr. Kang the next afternoon and I got my wallet back with all the money, receipts, credit cards still intact, I was grateful and offered him a reward but he kindly turned it down. Giving out money is not really a Korean or Japanese to express your gratitude so I bought him a carton of spirits and some juices to show my appreciation.
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