manchester

i requested for Kuala Lumpur flights last month, hoping they would give me one to see my family and friends back home. to my dismay/delight, they gave me 4. i just wanted ONE DAMMIT. too much of something is never good. my point of being here is to see different destinations, not to go home every weekend!

anyways, funnily enough, they took me off my KUL-MEL-KUL flight for visa issues into australia, and another one got replaced with manchester in the UK instead. it’s been awhile since i visited the UK so i was frankly quite delighted by the roster change.

we got put into this cute little hotel near the airport; which red bricks and verandah walkways; and because christmas was coming, filled with decor for the celebration spirit.

now we couldn’t miss the chance to visit the city, but we had to take a short train ride from the airport to piccadilly station. a male crew and i considered going to the old trafford stadium; him for his interest in football, me just to make my MU-fan friends envious. HAHA.

In the end we decided against it, as we shopped at PRIMARK for close to 2 hours; we couldn’t be bothered to find our way out of the city into old trafford. Primark is cheap as hell but with good quality stuff! *love love love* consisting of 3 whole floors they stock everything fashionable from dresses to nighties, winterwear, accessories and homewares. 2 hours was not enough. i did not even manage to look into the shoes or bag section!

 travel buddies for the day; (L-R) nina from south africa, leide from brazil and humberto from mexico

by the time we were finished with primark and urban outfitters, we were tired and most importantly hungry. so we headed into one of the many bustling bars for some traditional english grub. now since it was nearing christmas, we managed to visit part of the christmas markets along exchange street selling all kinds of things from tree ornaments, cupcakes and other local crafts.

a pity we did not follow the snake like market till the end to albert square which was considered the main highlight. we were just far too cold and could not be bothered. thus ends my 24 hours in manchester! it was nice to visit the city during christmas for it’s festivities.

 

on another note; i have got christmas and new year’s eve off in dubai. now what am i going to do in a desert during such times when all my friends are flying off to somewhere for celebrations…

whisky whisky

i hate to be stereotypical but if there’s a flight that every crew just dreads doing; are those to india. don’t get me wrong, some passengers are the most beautiful ever but there’s always a few that just ruins the image. the thing is, a lot of them do not speak english. and as far as i know, the word “please” is not in their vocabulary. so the one-sided conversation is devoid of any manners like “please” or “thank you”. thus they always always come across as rude, brusque and plainly demanding.

they also love scotch whisky. i have a feeling they do not understand what they are drinking, but because they have found out that they are complimentary on flights, they take advantage of them as much as possible. of course they don’t only order 5 whiskies from a single crew, but from different crew hoping we don’t find out how much they’ve been drinking (we know, we keep a tab on you alcoholics). once the random stranger finds out what their neighbour is ordering, they ask for the same, even if they don’t know what it is. then comes this chain effect of everyone wanting to have a scotch each.

you see, the brand of scotch we have on board is famous grouse (its yummy, but i’d recommend the glenfiddich or hennessey  more). these people don’t know the name of it. they just know that on the bottle there's a picture of a chicken-looking-bird and its whisky. so they call it chicken whisky. imagine me trying to argue with them that there is no such dish as a whisky-infused chicken.

let me paint this picture for you; an unruly indian man in his 40s; obesely overweight who god-knows-what sort of health problems he has and can barely fit into his seat. he keeps ordering whiskies and half an hour later, he feels sick and completely threw up onto his dinner tray because he could not get out of his seat fast enough to head to the bathroom. this grown up man then feels really embarrassed because now pretty little ladies have to help clean up after him like a big baby.

 

seriously, if you cant hold your drink. don’t start. just because its free doesn’t mean you need to binge on it.

cute kids and dads

i meet lots of random people in flight. some are horrendous. but some just makes me just melt inside. over time i’d hope to share them with you. because stereotyping customers is hell-a entertaining.

its quite amazing how many single parents travel alone with their child. alot of them are going to a destination to be reunited with the other half, yet there are many who generally doesn’t have a partner and is raising their kid single-handedly.

there’s so many good looking dads lovingly taking care of their child in flight. these kids are usually very shy and reserved. but they warm up to you once they see you bringing toys around for them. :D ah they are so eff-ing cute i want to kidnap them!

the bucket list - skydiving

i crossed out one of the entries in my big list of things to do before i die.

its a long long list. and truthfully, this is one of the only achievable things at the moment. the idea first came upon me when my elder brother did one in sydney, and came again after watching flo rida’s ‘wild ones’ video. so when my housemate announced that she was leaving dubai; we decided that this was one thing that we needed to do before she left. so we booked ourselves 2 spots in skydive dubai for a tandem skydive.

from the very start things were just so quick that i barely had any time at all to process any feelings that came to me. once we signed in a guy on a cam started video-ing me as the intro, then my tandem skydiver strapped me up and began explaining what i should be doing during the jump. basically 2 things; smile and be a banana. meaning arch my body upways like a banana and do nothing like a banana.

next thing we know, we’re walking up towards this little propeller plane, my partner asking if i’m ready, my heart’s pumping like mad while i’m smiling to her saying yes lets do this. we climbed up to 13,000ft, her pointing to the view outside, but really who the fark leisurely enjoys the view when you know you’re jumping off the plane next.

oh my, crazy doesn’t even begin to describe how it felt. i just remember screaming and screaming and screaming the moment we jumped out. and after a few seconds of that i remembered i was being videotaped so i started to attempt some cool gesture shots. what an epic fail. freefalling makes its really really hard to move ANYTHING when you’re up in the air. i had to use every single little ounce of muscle i had to make a tiny effort of hand, arm or facial movements! it didn’t really feel like i was flying really, it felt more like a continuous fall that would never end.

it was really enjoyable for me. i was more excited during the entire experience more than afraid. lots of people naturally imagine what happens if the parachute doesn’t deploy, what if my tandem jumper faints in mid air (lol!). but seriously, they jump on an average of 8 times a day. if something does go wrong, that will be my fate then. HAHA.

after a few seconds of falling you get used to the feeling. and start enjoying the view, as if falling was so natural and you don’t think about it. at a certain height my tandem diver deploys the parachute and adjusts the straps to make us more comfortable.

then she pops a question; “you like roller coasters?”

me: “i love them!”

and she starts twirling us around like a little puppet. omg that beat any roller coasters i’ve ridden in my life. after a few seconds of intense g-force,squealing, laughing and god knows what, i had tears in my eyes and had to tell her to stop.

it was a perfect landing. =) no wobbly knees or fainting spells. more like a happy wide-eyed kid who just got out of the best ride of her life. the whole experience was so quick and mind-blowing i didn’t really feel much. nor had time to think about it.

it costs AED1750 / ~USD475 for a tandem dive including still photos and a video. in total the jump probably lasted only a couple of minutes but the whole experience took probably about 2 hours including waiting time.

if i had the chance, i’d definitely do it again. just maybe somewhere else =)

part of the job

i’m a flight attendant. i’m part of the cabin crew. i’m a freakin’ air hostess.

telling people what i do for a living still feels like the oddest thing to me. even though i’ve been doing this for at least 2 months now.

its a love-hate relationship with this job. i think i have a love-hate relationship with everything i do. architecture was a torture, but i can never stop missing the beauty of creation. working as a flight attendant has personally been very demeaning, but the perks has been fabulous.

let me list them down:

1) everything is provided for.

 

my apartment, my water bills, my electricity bills, my transport to work. i live with another malaysian and we both have our own bathrooms with a large bathtub. the apartment comes furnished, and my room is twice the size of what i had in melbourne. albeit a little old, but its so spacious i’m so grateful to be away from the tiny apartments in melbourne. also my apartment is right next to a metro station which means easy travel everywhere, at least 5 supermarkets surround me and being in bur dubai; its next to a very local community of textile traders.

because everything is provided for, we crew do save a lot of our salary. the only things we pay for are our food. shopping and entertainment will of course be on ourselves; and because of our weak currency i know a lot of crew who doesn’t save much at the end of the day as well.

2) the travel.

this was what i came here  for and its the best thing ever. the airline covers a lot of destinations; and being in the middle east is like being in the centre of the world. for each flight more than 4 hours, we get to stay at the destination we land in. usually for a good 24 hours. these are called layovers. Flights to the United States usually have layovers of 48 hours (2 days!). However, crew flying into the US require a special visa which i have yet to get, thus am kinda unhappy about the waiting.

At every layover they put us in a hotel. not dingy motels or backpackers. they’re usually 4 star hotels. most of the time these hotels are located in the centre of the city which makes it good location for sight seeing. some times its in the middle of nowhere but these are rare. then they give us ‘meal allowances’. meaning cash to keep us fed.

 

how can anyone not like this!? travelling. hotel paid for. food paid for (most of the time with excess money). we crew also get discounted tickets (up to 90% off) for ourselves, immediate families and extended family (meaning cousins and sister-in-laws) not only on the airline i’m working for, but on partner airlines as well! my brother pilots for malaysian airlines and i can say they aren’t as generous as this!

3) the extra time.

i work half the time i did back home (then again i was a workaholic) and am getting just as much. of the many things that came with the job, i’m appreciating this the most. i now go to the gym more often and get the time to spend on my hobbies more often. and since coming here, i’ve realised that i have ALOT OF HOBBIES.

there are many more little perks of being here. dubai, the parties, the free delivery, major discounts everywhere, but these are the extras.

4) easy work, easy money.

this job is like a joke. it really doesn’t require a lot of brains. everything is set out so the high company standards are met. you do this this and this. of course we need the skills to diffuse difficult situations like drunk passengers or medical cases but really, most of the responsibilities goes to the seniors. so my job becomes like a new social party every time i step onto the plane. i meet new people, learn about them, gossip about the crazy seniors and the crazy passengers. i don’t say i go to work like normal people do. i just say i have a flight to do.
 



now lets get to the not-so-great part.

1) i work like a slave.

its not a glamorous job. that view is so 1960s Pan Am era. we’re here primarily for safety and security reasons, but somehow along the way we have turned into waiters, waitresses, butlers or maids. personally, it is incredibly demeaning for me to be here doing this. i go back and forth bringing people their requested drinks. i have to fake a smile and be nice to rude and irritable passengers. i have to pick up the dirty trays after the meal service and push it strategically into the cart so everything fits well. when a call bell lights up, i have to be there right away to attend to whatever request there may be. i have to periodically check on the lavatories to make sure they’re clean (usually they’re not but i just spray some air freshener and that’s it. haha) god what did i get myself into.

so while all this is going on, i switch off. and think about the next destination. and fool around with the other crew at the back of the plane. haha

2) crazy crew, seniors and unrelenting management.

when i say crazy, i mean that they aren’t sound of mind. difficult passengers are nothing compared to these people. there are bullies, backstabbers, plain mean, racist, anything you can think of. whenever i encounter these people, i just go about doing my work quietly and shut my mouth. not only because i’m new and a junior, but more because they aren’t worth my time to retaliate. half of the time thinking what’s wrong with these people.

because the hierarchical structure is so prominent in the company, everything is so controlled. every word you say can be used against you. every little mistake you land you in trouble with the management. there is no leeway. there is no flexibility. which is such an irony with the core values of the company. from the very beginning, they brainwash you; we got to be flexible to attend to the customer needs, we got to be personal to bring the best customer service. oh yes we do all that, but we don’t get any back.

3) rostering and scheduling.

no we do not get a choice to where we get flights to. just take what is given. shut up and do your job. since i started i've flown to colombo 5 times, which can at times be much more than someone who's been in the same company for 3 whole years. we have no control on what destinations we go to or when we go. okay so we have annual leaves that we can request, but these are to be bid for half a year before. i cannot plan my future so far ahead! also like any other person working abroad, we miss out alot on our families lives; birthdays, first baby steps, anniversaries. and these are the most important things in life. just the fact of being there.


even with the good and the bad, i have to admit; things has been pretty entertaining so far. wait till i bitch about the passengers.

sri lanka pt.II

i managed to grab a shot over maldives out of the cabin window. i reckon in the future, we’d have airplanes with massive viewing windows just so everyone could gap in awe with such beauty.

Now what comes into mind when one speaks of sri lanka? the tropics? coconut tress and sweet pineapples? buddhist temples? succulent seafood? ceylon tea? we practically touched base on all of them.

Once we landed in colombo, we rushed out to King Coconut restaurant in Negombo. Its a favourite among the crew; not only because its close enough to the hotel, but also because it has great seafood at low prices by the beach. Prices start at about Rs800/6USD for a main course of seafood choice (prawns, fish, etc) with rice. How cheap is that! Considering this was proper al fresco dining by the beach! We however opted to eat in style and went for the fresh seafood platter; costing Rs2780 / USD21. Prices differ everyday depending on the day’s catch, but its generally within that price range.

The platter was huge, depending on your appetite, it was enough to feed 2 with more to spare. The seafood was really really fresh; it had king prawns and shrimps, a whole crab, cray fish, calamari and other random pieces of fish. on the side of fried rice, salad and a sweet chilli dipping sauce. It was divine! Alot of restaurants in Malaysia import seafood from Sri Lanka; after tasting this, i now knew how different fresh seafood could be.

What better to accompany the food with their local beer; Lion (Rs500 / USD3.80 a bottle). I’m not particularly a big beer drinker but it certainly went well with the seafood. However after a few bottles, everyone got really happy drunk and started ordering more ‘Tiger’ beer. tiger.. lion.. elephants… the animals people name after their beer.

anyways dessert was banana fritters (Rs350 / USD2.70) which everyone loved except me. maybe it was because i’d much prefer the ones from malaysia that had sweeter bananas and a lighter and fluffier batter. this one was dense but still very crispy.

We could not be bothered to take a cab to the city the next day, so we decided to look around the neighbourhood. We got honked by the cars, trucks, tricycles. Peered into people’s houses. And then we came across a lovely catholic church within the lush greens. It was a nice change to view a modest church compared to the large dominating ones in europe.

Then came my next favourite thing to do on every trip; scavenging for unknown groceries. The area still had a lot of little vegetable stores like these; and it was fun to discover new vegetables in different colours and sizes.

 a bread tricycle! it zipped past me before i could stop and get my fluffy soft bread.

 old school soft drinks. i used to drink from these bottles with a straw when i was little and kept the bottlecaps. seeing them again brought back many childhood memories.

a friend once laughed at me for being so amazed at international grocery shopping. but let me show you my haul from colombo. clockwise from top right; colombo red raw rice (healthy much!); bananas (wasn’t as sweet as the Pisang Mas that i love from Malaysia); cute tiny watermelons!; colombo pineapples (after having these, nothing else will compare to its juiciness and sweetness); large avocado (it took forever to ripen) and papaya. ALL FOR Rs300 / USD2.30! what a steal!

sri lanka pt.I

i’ve had 2 flights to colombo in sri lanka. From Dubai to Colombo, we do a transit stop to Malé in the Maldives, so you can imagine how many honeymooners there would be on board. Which is both lovely and disgusting as the same time when i’m trying to give them food yet they insist on displaying their affections in public. If gobbling up each other fills you up, don’t come back to me complaining you’re hungry.

Someone once told me to request a seat in the flight deck if we were ever flying over the maldives, so naturally when i had the opportunity to; i did. and it was mind-blowingly beautiful. i refrained from taking any photos (the flight crew aren’t supposed to allow me in in the first place) just so the pilots don’t get into trouble, but imagine seeing little islands dotted around clear blue sea with little brown chalets and a variety of white yachts.

photo credited to justpasteit

sunny all year round, unspoiled beaches and incredibly touristic; i can understand why newly wed couples would come here for their honeymoon to do nothing and make sweet lovin’ on the beach (there really is nothing else to do anyway).

on my airline we always strive to make someone’s day a little more special. hence on occasions when travel agencies actually informs us that they have honeymooners on board, we surprise them with a free cake with a big ‘congrats’ written on it and 2 glasses of champagne.



most of the time passengers turn up delighted from the little extra attention. however we had this one japanese couple that looked at us quietly unimpressed and said “but we’re not married”. then there was the few seconds of awkward silence between the couple and the crew.

before i replied; “you can have the cake anyway!”

okay so we landed in colombo airport which is actually almost an hour away from colombo city. we the crew get put into this lovely hotel in the tropics which is 5 minutes away from the airport. there’s nothing near the hotel but a main street, a couple of mini markets and fruit stalls, and the jungle…



yes it was naturally really beautiful tho. after putting up with so much of sand in dubai, i never realised how much i missed the greens until we touched down to be greeted with the lush green jungle. oh yea and the mozzies as well.

we landed during dinner time, and most of the crew decided to stay in for the night, wake up early (like 5am) to take a 2 hour bus ride to visit the elephant sanctuary and ride on elephants. Imagining waking up at 5am for a 4 hour return bus ride made me think twice if i really wanted to join them as i’ve already done some elephant riding in bangkok. So this male purser managed to convince me instead; “don’t bother with some stupid elephant ride, by the time you get back you’d be so tired and you have to do the flight. come with me and i’ll bring you somewhere fun and cheap”

so guess where he brings me to; a casino. now before you judge my senior for his destination of choice for my very first colombo layover, i have to admit, i did have a lot of fun. absolutely random but eye opening at the same time.

 

“ballys” and “balenciaga” were part of the same group of casinos in colombo. it wasn’t a huge one compared to the ones i’m accustomed to in melbourne or singapore, but they still had the normal tables of poker, roulette, pontoon, baccarat and more. however as long as you were a patron of the casino and you spend a little money on the tables, there’s a buffet table ready for you and unlimited drinks to be ordered. alcoholic or non. oh my how happy i was. there was a live band, free food, free drinks on the price of whatever you lost in the casino (or win as a matter of fact)

still early, the crowd has yet to arrive.

so we ate drank and won some money which paid for our taxi ride there. i was sooo glad to sleep in the next day, instead of waking up at some ungodly hour. i thought the hotel was pretty cute; as they had a yoga channel and a yoga mat in the wardrobe. so i woke up at midday, did an hour of good stretching and yoga before heading down for the breakfast buffet.

   



it seems like that’s what i’m living off right now; hotel breakfast buffets. anyways i did skip this one in colombo and ordered a lamprais/lampreys/lumprice from the alacarte menu instead.





so what is a lamprais? you may ask. i asked the same question after my new found hotel chef friends recommended me the dish. Its a very traditional sri lanakan meal where spiced rice is wrapped in a roasted banana leaf with sides of curries, vegetable masala and chutney. it had a boiled egg and fried mashed potato in a little ramekin on the side, but to my knowledge, some places don’t. the banana leaf-wrapped-meal is then baked in the oven allowing all the flavours and spices meld together. it was certainly very yummy and flavourful but its not something i would eat everyday as it can get a little dry. well worth a try though, if ever you’re in sri lanka or come across a sri lankan restaurant.



after lunch was just enjoying the green green jungle and some cheap grocery shopping; but that’s part two =)