Day 0 : From KL to Roma

First time on a Cathay Pacific flight. What struck me most was the Hongkie accent - really. "Mm koi saiii" : with the saiii tone pulled up high. The Cathay stewardesses were so polite to each other, the mm koi saiii's were getting on my nerves. However, I have this to say : they are really nice. And because they couldn't differentiate if KF and I were Hongkies or not (cheh wah), they treated us okay. I didn't feel that indifference I always get when I sit on MAS. (Maybe it's my fault 'cos I like to dress comfy and casual on flights).

So anyway, landed in Hong Kong, with local currency provided by my mum in case we were looking to grab a bite. However, the flight fed us a meal. And our next flight was in an hour's time. So, we roamed the food area (lotsa restaurants serving all kinds of food, so no worry of going hungry) and roamed the transit area (KF got excited taking pictures of Chow Tai Fook, some goldsmith shop featured in some Chow Sing Chi show, but paranoid me chased him off because he was taking-pictures-of-a-goldsmith-shop!) :P

So, next, boarded British Airways flight to London. 14 hours ehh, don't play play. It's been 2 years since I boarded a long-haul flight, so I'm not sure what the culture is with code-shares these days. But the flight had announcements made in both English and Cantonese, throughout, for every single thing. This was good, but it cut alot of time between movie-watching.

No problems with food. No problems with service. I quite liked the steward, actually. He's an Englishman - I presume. Chats with people in the cabin preparation area, while we're getting water or waiting for the loo. So, British Airways is not as pompous or nose-in-the-air as some people told me they were. Not much difference in service levels if compared to MAS. However, I did notice that the in-flight entertainment did not have games to play, because the controller cannot be pulled out from the seat. Small matter though. The movies kept me entertained enough, though I can't remember what I watched. Failure To Launch, I think. Not a very memorable movie, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was better.

I had the misfortune of sitting next to a guy who had smelly feet. Yucks. And he took off his shoes to air them too. Double yucks. Told the air stewardess that the smell was appalling (this was right before take-off). She politely told us the flight was full, she could only offer us a bottle of air freshener, which worked okay. KF was super-nice and offered to switch seats with me, so I got the aisle seat while he cramped in the middle. (Ps. air freshener is a great thing to carry when travelling, because that bottle came in useful throughout the 2 weeks to spray on sweaty shoes, smelly bathrooms, musty rooms, etc.)

Oh, and another thing, British Airways served cup noodles! Yummy ones too, from Nissin. The smell woke me up in the night, and boy, these noodles were a godsend, particularly on the return flight from London to Hong Kong, after 2 whole weeks of bland European food. All in all, I really have nothing to complain about Cathay Pacific or British Airways. Other than the long flight, and the usual cramp-ness in economy class.

So, after 14 hours, we landed in Heathrow Terminal 1 at about 5.30am. I double-checked that I had the necessary university graduation invitation letters, and our flight tickets to Rome, just in case the super-mega-strict immigration officers (who are known to particularly turn away Malaysians and strike crosses on our passports) decided to be grumpy. We passed without any event *phew*, waited for our luggage which transited safely *another phew* and then proceeded to take turns to brush our teeth at one of the airport toilets. Nothing like toothpaste to feel fresher.

Yes, Day Zero lasted more than one day, and it consisted entirely of travelling from one point to another point. So, let me continue.

We took the Piccadilly Line tube from Heathrow to Liverpool station, with a switch at King's Cross station. This cost us 4 pounds each and the trip lasted about an hour. Good thing it was a Sunday, early morning at that, so we didn't have to cope with dirty looks over our luggage space. We walked out of Liverpool Street station, which is a rather nice big modern one, and found the Terravision bus stop. We were a bit early, but since the bus wasn't full, we were allowed on it. And, we met JC here too! So, off we went to Stansted airport to catch our flight to Rome.

At Stansted, we hung out at Pret-a-Manger. Okay, how do you pronounce that? I called it Pret-Er-Mang-ger. JC said it's French, so it's Pret-er-Mon-jhay. Haha, learnt something new. Sandwiches here are fresh and nice, but cost. We had breakfast here and roamed the Stansted airport while waiting to check-in (the Ryanair counter opens only 2 hours before and the board will not tell us which counter to head to until it is exactly 2 hours to go). Stansted airport is quite modern too, clean, with lotsa bookstores, cafes, clothings and shoe shops, etc. And it's crowded.

Finally, we lined up on the super-long-line for Ryanair flight FR3006 to Rome. Backpacks had to be checked in at "Fragile". And, oh, when Ryanair issues tickets, they issue queue numbers. So, when we're waiting at the departure lounge, those with ticket numbers i.e. 1-100 get to board first. Those with 101-200 board second, and so on. Of course, all these are after elderly and families go first. Quite a good system. AirAsia should implement this. However, I think this system is only in Stansted. Because we didn't have the same system when returning from Rome to Luton.

Ryanair is similar to AirAsia inside. Seats can't recline. But, KF was smart enough to book the emergency exit seats for us. These seats have very large leg space, much more spacious than our long-haul flights. So, although KF and I were rather tired by now, it was still comfortable enough. The stewardesses were kept busy servicing the food trolley, which miraculously had very good response, particularly from families with kids. We didn't get anything, being typical Malaysians who can't stand the conversion rate.

But finally, finally, less than 3 hours later, we arrive in Rome Ciampino airport. Yippee! Bad thing about sitting in the emergency exit seats, we practically exit last, because we're in the middle and the exits are at the front and rear. Ah well. We crowded into the buses that took us to the main airport terminal, lined up in the air-cond-less area to clear immigration, and waited for about an hour for our luggage to finally arrive on the belt.

Final leg of the race - we walked out of the airport to look for the Terravision bus which would drop us at Termini station in Rome, very near to our hotel. But because this entry has gone on too long, and I know you're as tired of reading as we were of commuting, I shall stop here. Continue later, because the stories really don't stop here ;)