I am finally back in Singapore. =))


The way home was a nightmare. And words cant even describe the horror I felt. Whatever I say here gotta be multiplied by at least 100 times worse.


People say the conditions at blah blah country's airport's terrible. I would say, try U-tapao (the Thai military airbase that we used to get out of Bangkok), and you would think that the rest of the world's airports are luxurious.


Woke up at 3am on Saturday to make our way to the U-tapao airport that is located at Pattaya, a few hours away.


The roads to the airport was surprisingly smooth. The day was freezing (yeah, freezing in Thailand), while we all dozed on the bus.


Reached the airport at 630am, in order to check in for a 11am flight. More than sufficient time one would say.


Wrong.


We were only allowed to start checking in our stuff at 9am for the 11am flight. Normal, one would say.


Wrong.


Starting to queue at 9am, and the people just suddenly started piling into the airport. A tiny airport that is about the size of the SBS lobby, with only one X-ray machine and 4 counters. One counter for the Malaysian Air flight that we were on. One for Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. And another two to who knows where.


And so, started the pushing, the shoving, the cutting queue, tempers flaring as the Ah Tiongs, Indian nationals, ang mohs tried to cut our queue, luggage being rolled over our toes, air gotten increasingly stagnant as thousands are breathing out carbon dioxide.


There we were, trying to prevent people from cutting queue, yelling at those that attempt to do so, hungry 'cause we didnt have anything since 4am, protecting our decency, and looking after our luggage as we queued for the check-in.


11am came and past. We only moved less than 3metres towards the check in counter, thanks to those Ah Tiongs, Indian nationals, and ang mohs that cut our queue.




You would expact an ang moh to be more civilized. Singaporeans? Supposed to be kiasu right? But hell no. In that kinda situations, Singaporeans are the ones that were civilized. The Ah Tiongs and Indian nationals just barge their way through using force. Ang Mohs? They bluffed their way through, pretending to direct traffic, while in actual fact, they were cutting queue.





This is such a long dreary post, and everytime I retell this to someone, I'm like reliving the terror of being squashed by so many people. The stuffiness, the angry, the hunger, the shock at how barbaric people can get.





And so, finally, at 3pm, we finally managed to check our luggage in.





Rested for awhile, before the shoving began again as we tried to make our way to the immigrations.





It was so utterly packed. It's worse than Singapore MRT during peak hours, Japan's packed bullet trains and Bangalore trains with people overflooding outta the train combined.





The Myanmar people didnt care who they were shoving, be it old, or young, or whatever. The Arabs too.





Ay, no matter how much I type, it's just gonna be the repeated shovings, stuffiness, lack of oxygen, uncivilized people, etc etc.





And so, we tried to get through to the immigrations. You know the part where the police officer at Changi airport would check your passport and boarding pass at the glass doors before letting you through to the immigrations where someone would be sitting at the pink tall counter, stamping your passport, as your family and friends wiped away tears of reluctance of seeing you leave etc?





Yeah, we were stuck at the place where the family and relatives would be standing. Trying to get pass the glass door. Instead of police officers, there were some females from the airport, shoving against the crowd, only letting those whose flights are gonna take off soon through the gates.





I got through the gates via trickery.





Or rather, I faked lost.





Going towards the gates (as some kind Malaysian guy shoved me and Grass to the glass door to help us get through), the stupid woman stopped me saying that my flight isnt due to take off yet.





Her: "No no. Your flight not yet. LTU ONLY!! LTU ONLY!!" (LTU is some flight to God knows where)





Me: "But I'm stranded here! My Mom has gone through and I'm still here!!"





She didnt get it. This happened like 5 times with her repeating that "LTU ONLY!! LTU ONLY!!" and me yelling that "I'M STRANDED HERE!! MY MOM HAS GONE THROUGH THE GATES!!" when it finally penetrated through her skull and asked:



"You alone?"





And so I grabbed Grass' arm and yelled: "No! With my sister!!!"





And she finally relented and let me and Grass through.





Phew.





But apparently my Dad, Jo Yee, Jas, Allan they all were still stuck behind the gates, and they were smashed against the glass walls so badly that the glass walls were crackling under the stress, as if they were ready to shatter anytime.





Sigh.





Anyway, Grass and I cleared the immigrations without any events. It was only till the part after the immigration whereby one has to put the bags through the X-ray machine, and walk under the sensor whereby this guy stopped us yet again.





"LTU ONLY!! LTU ONLY!!"





So I tried the trick of my Mom's pass the immigrations already blah blah.





But it didnt work.





Freak.





Having to change strategy, I yelled that my bags have already gone through, and I'm still stuck here without my stuff, before me and Grass finally made it through again.





It was really that terrible.





And so, we waited for our flight. Seeing people board SIA plane, going back to Singapore straight while we have to wait for our Malaysian Airline plane. We finally boarded the plane at 6.30pm. And the plane only took off at 8pm.





Thus leading to us missing the connecting flight from KL to SG at 10.30pm.





=((





Spent the night sleeping on the lounge chair in the KL international airport, before taking the 8.05am flight back to Singapore.





Sigh.





It was such a trauma. The second major incident of my life. And I had doubts of seeing my bed, cuddling my pillows again.





But well, it's over. And I'm just thankful to be back in Singapore again.