Where's Wally??

Post no 4. Sorry about the abrupt end to the last post. After waiting an additional 5 hours for the flight, I wasn't going to be asked twice to form a queue for entry onto the plane. Obviously the NRMA bloke knew what he was doing - he had that big bird purring pretty quickly and he even offered a free jump start if it didn't kick over the first time around. Not needed - not too long and we were up, up and away - destination KL International Airport!

And that's when he fun really started. Malaysia Airlines apparently have a pretty interesting customer service policy for in-flight service attendants (ISFAs as apparently they are called in 2010). That policy is to avoid speaking to customers as much as possible. Highly efficient, beautifully dressed, immaculately groomed - but mostly invisible and when in eyeshot, conspicuously mute, other than the one occasions when a member of the crew told us (again with a smile - or was that a smirk) that we were no chance of us getting out of KL that night while pointing to the message on the screen that that Malaysia has the death penalty for convicted drug felons. I was hoping that there was no inferred link between the statement and the gesture but for the next 8 hours I wondered what to expect once we got to Kualar Lumpar International Airport (KLIA).

Now we know. We arrived at 2.30am. The airport was deserted, except for us. Our ISFA was on the money - we were going nowhere tonight. And this was the offer:
# Accommodation in a KL hotel for the night (no worries)+ a rescheduled flight to Rome (no worries), in two days time (big worries). That didn't sound like such a good idea. We would miss the first two days of the Pilgrimage and the initial level of concern shown by our 'Customer Support Attendant' (CSA) was at the lower end of indifferent. And thus began 3 hours of negotiations with our CSA and her four Assistant Customer Support Attendants (ACSAs) about 'where to from here'. Elizabeth, our wonderful Harvest Tour Coordinator, showed every bit of her law background in negotiating an outcome for we weary travellers. The final result: we are now booked on a flight to London (not Rome) handled by a wonderfully helpful (and communicative!) Booking Attendant (that's a BA - all is forgiven Malaysia Airlines!), we are sitting having breakfast in the Premium Club Lounge (Malaysia Airlines rock!,)we still don't have a connecting flight to Venice or Rome of Milan or anywhere else, we have all been up for more than 24 hours, and spirits remains high. Ah the rollercoaster of international travel!

We have a wonderful travelling group who have remained positive and resilient throughout the whole experience. Harvest have been great when we've needed their help. I know I am going to crash as soon as I get on the plane to London but what the hell. If I can't sleep (and I usually don't) maybe watching the Twilight Triology that is now showing on the in-flight movie channel will bring on a deep and lasting sleep. It usually does.

A big thank you to all who have been kind enough to follow the blog to date and post a comment. There are many lovely comments and messages of support so thank you so much. Going to try for a video message before I leave KL airport so wish me luck and please be kind when/if you see it. It will look pretty ugly.

All for now. Hope the weather where you are is cheerier than this grey and hazy Malay morning.

Exhaustedly...
Mark