the final leg.....Peking trip
We arrive at the
airport by 1:30pm. We had taken a slow walk around the departing area. Shops with
great restaurant that cost you a hand and a leg. That was one of the reasons we
grabbed the meat pie of the way. While eating the pie, the anxiety surge all
over me, I was still haunted by the connecting flight.
The security was tight however the police patrolling the airport on a mini cart was carrying shotgun !!! ; the determination of keeping peace at no course beyond my doubt.
We had checked in
our luggage after we finished our meal and headed to the restriction area.
The first area was
a baggage check with a long queue. After that we proceeded to the document area
to stamped our passport. One locals in front of us was taken away by the senior
officer and never return…I sweated as it happened in front of our eyes. It was
not rumor after all…
It took us one and
the half hour to hit the boarding area. We boarded the plane without difficulty
and I started to stared at my watch.
According to the
flight radar; the flight had delayed once to twice every week. Any delay of
take off of more than 45 mins will jeopardize our chance of catching the
connecting flight. We boarded the flight as scheduled but the plane was
stranded on the runway for more than 30mins.
I had to cross my
finger hoping the best as we had reached the upper limit of the delay.
I was too tired
and slept through the flight. The plane did arrived on time however as my club
mate had told me it would take a good 20 mins before it reach the gate.
The CP flight
system was well designed as it had shown the gate of our connecting flight on my seat display well
before the flight landed.
Bad news was the
gate for our connecting flight was so far apart as I glanced it over the seat
display. We had to go down to the base level and take a shuttle train to
another satellite building. I doubt it we could make it as we only had 40min left.
When the cabin door opened and as I had expected, there were a female ground
staff waiting for us with a signboard. There were 2 groups of passengers taking
the same connecting flight. The ground staff had specifically told us that no
assess to any toilet on the way. We could only go for nature call once we board
the connecting flight.
It was a fast walk
for the next 25mins where we could only take a rest on the shuttle train. We
managed to join the line up of boarding passenger when we reached the gate. I cheered in my heart while refraining my bladder sphincter during the queue for boarding
The senior member
from another group had grumbled to the ground staff during the run that why can’t the flight
wait for us as it was the same flight company we were taking. I answered the
question for the ground staff, “the KHH airport had curfew from 0000-0630H and
our last flight had to take off before 10:30pm so that we would not be directed
elsewhere, moron” (the last word did not slip out from my mouth and I had used a polite tone).
We managed to
board the flight and arrived at the airport by 2340H. We reached home after
midnight and I was back to the desk for work the next day.
It was one of the
daring trips that I had planned and we had completed the journey with hiccup as
usual.
It was a short
trip to Xiamen initially and later expanded to a 6D5N trip to the heart of my
ancestor homeland. Spectacular experience for everyone for us. Especially for
Xian; He had taken a leap of faith out from his greatest fear….
Source:
the final leg.....Peking trip
