The final day.... least exciting, I suppose. But it's always nice to come back home after being away for some time - no matter how exciting the trip had been.
My flight was at 11.45 a.m., but as usual, one needs to leave early for the airport etc. I was lucky that the airport wasn't too far away, so I had the luxury of a decent breakfast before checking out of the hostel. Had done some homework the night before and found that I could take the bus all the way to the airport - with just one change in Haarlem. I budgeted an hour plus for that, so left around 8.30 a.m. Excellent choice because I only had to pull my luggage about 10 meters from the hostel to the bus stop opposite. If I had to drag it all the way to the train again I would have cried!
I was really glad buses in Netherlands had a schedule and they actually came on time. Compare that to our chaotic system.... no schedule and always being stuck in traffic. If there was a schedule, it would be impossible to keep anyway. The first leg to Haarlem was quite short and the second bus was just about to leave when I arrived, so there was not much waiting at all. The only glitch, if you could even call it that, was that the information online was outdated, so tickets cost a bit more than I prepared. I had enough change though, so no issue there.
Got to the airport more or less on time, but got a little confused on where to go. Asked information and off I went. Again, the only problem was that the check in counter was very, very, very far from where I started. Having decided to not take a trolley, it was quite a distance to pull 25 kg of luggage around. My wrist got a little twisted from that...
Check in was easy. Discovered my limit was 30 kg, not 25 as stated on the ticket. Darn, it could have saved me a lot of repacking if I knew that! A bit of drama at the security checkpoint, because they detected the presence of liquids in my laptop bag - which turned out to be moisture in the pack of bread and cheese I had stuck in there. Ha.
Boarded soon enough, no drama at takeoff and found there were enough open seats on my row to actually lie down and sleep! So the flight went by nicely. Took Jim's advice and slept at approximately 12 Malaysian time. The dinner and breakfast timing was a bit weird, but it worked.
Arrived in KL at 6 a.m. the next morning, got a cab home, unpacked a little, then went for Mandarin class. Was a bit blur, but it was OK. Evening I went to the office for something (I forget what), and snoozed a little in the car because I was REALLY sleepy then. Otherwise it was fine, and it was much easier to recover from the jetlag compared to the 2006 trip. Bless you, Jim.
A month later, I still have not updated my blog and am still going through my thousands of photos. Oh well, it's not urgent. Am trying to catch up with work actually. Happy Maal Hijrah! May this year bring me a lot of good rezeki and a decent husband :D Ameen....
My flight was at 11.45 a.m., but as usual, one needs to leave early for the airport etc. I was lucky that the airport wasn't too far away, so I had the luxury of a decent breakfast before checking out of the hostel. Had done some homework the night before and found that I could take the bus all the way to the airport - with just one change in Haarlem. I budgeted an hour plus for that, so left around 8.30 a.m. Excellent choice because I only had to pull my luggage about 10 meters from the hostel to the bus stop opposite. If I had to drag it all the way to the train again I would have cried!
I was really glad buses in Netherlands had a schedule and they actually came on time. Compare that to our chaotic system.... no schedule and always being stuck in traffic. If there was a schedule, it would be impossible to keep anyway. The first leg to Haarlem was quite short and the second bus was just about to leave when I arrived, so there was not much waiting at all. The only glitch, if you could even call it that, was that the information online was outdated, so tickets cost a bit more than I prepared. I had enough change though, so no issue there.
Got to the airport more or less on time, but got a little confused on where to go. Asked information and off I went. Again, the only problem was that the check in counter was very, very, very far from where I started. Having decided to not take a trolley, it was quite a distance to pull 25 kg of luggage around. My wrist got a little twisted from that...
Check in was easy. Discovered my limit was 30 kg, not 25 as stated on the ticket. Darn, it could have saved me a lot of repacking if I knew that! A bit of drama at the security checkpoint, because they detected the presence of liquids in my laptop bag - which turned out to be moisture in the pack of bread and cheese I had stuck in there. Ha.
Boarded soon enough, no drama at takeoff and found there were enough open seats on my row to actually lie down and sleep! So the flight went by nicely. Took Jim's advice and slept at approximately 12 Malaysian time. The dinner and breakfast timing was a bit weird, but it worked.
Arrived in KL at 6 a.m. the next morning, got a cab home, unpacked a little, then went for Mandarin class. Was a bit blur, but it was OK. Evening I went to the office for something (I forget what), and snoozed a little in the car because I was REALLY sleepy then. Otherwise it was fine, and it was much easier to recover from the jetlag compared to the 2006 trip. Bless you, Jim.
A month later, I still have not updated my blog and am still going through my thousands of photos. Oh well, it's not urgent. Am trying to catch up with work actually. Happy Maal Hijrah! May this year bring me a lot of good rezeki and a decent husband :D Ameen....
