LX182

[my adventures in BKK, Part III)
When I felt it was time to check-in, I went to the Swiss check-in counter and sat on a luggage trolley, because all the seats (remember those blue chairs?) were taken by a huge group of Chinese muslims. Their features are of mainland Chinese features but they wear white headscarves and caps. One of them I spotted also wore a jet-black niqab and abaya. Though it was traditional and pious, she still looked quite stylish though. The weirdest thing was that they bought about 50 sacks of rice, which I presumed was the fragrant Thai Mali Rice. Other taped up boxes seems to be of agricultural produce. I guess their cargo was definately more outrageous than the 29inch Sony Wega TV I saw an Indian man carrying. In fact I saw two of those idiot boxes being packed. Hopefully, there won't be turbulance on his flight. Don't want those boob tubes (apparently that's slang for tv) bouncing up and down.

Anyway, when they opened the Swiss check-in counter, I went in, only to find that the customer officers won't be there till 1.45pm, which was like an hour later. So I just sat on my trolley and waited. I didn't mind the wait as I wanted to choose a particular seat number, 34A, which would offer me a good view of the plane's wing from the window. As I waited, the queue slowly grew as more kiasu Singaporeans joined the snaking line. I even overheard two aunties commenting that I looked Japanese, but I must be Singapore 'coz I was carrying a red passport. What a compliment haha. I After what seemed like eternity and a horribly full bladder later, I got my seat and jumped straight for the little boys' room.

I then paid 500baht for the airport tax (around SGD25) and marched into the portal of departure. Inside, there were the hustle and bustle of tourists and the situation was a little messy, with "final calls" announcements being continuously made. I saw two Aeroflot Russian International Airlines planes, which is really cool! But beside them, was an El Al Israel B777-200 (registration number 4X-ECB, plane name, {yeah, some airlines name their planes} "Negev")~! (o_0) woah.... One word, Spectacular!

Below are some other pictures I took.

When I finally had enough, I decided to go to my boarding gate. From there, I could see my plane was going to be parked next to the El Al Israel Airlines plane which was under heavy security.

I managed to take some pictures of my plane which had just arrived from Zurich, Switzerland. The plane registration is HB-JMI, the youngest A340-313X in Swiss International Airline's fleet.

On this new year's day flight LX182, it was quite packed with aunties who were doing new year's eve shopping. The announcements onboard were made in German, French, English and again, recordings in Thai and Mandarin. I was sitted next to a young Ang Moh guy, who looked rather crammed in that tiny seat. He was sleeping when the plane took off at about 4.14pm local time.

Later, when the stewardess was passing immigration cards for foreigners, I was surprised he declined it, explaining that he was a resident of Singapore. It was much later when I had a conversation with him that I found out he was previously of Canadian nationality and had been working in Singapore for sometime.

Soon, the meals were served and I was hungry. Yum yum. The meal was Pan-fried tilapia in black bean sauce accompanied by pak choy and egg-fried rice, served with a selection of fresh fruits. And guess what? I found out the meal the Business class passengers had is identical to Economy passengers', except they had another choice and perhaps better looking cutlery. I had also taken pics out of the window which I thought was a really beautiful sight to behold.

There seems to be more flight stewards than stewardesses on this flight. They were not as friendly as the ones I had on my outbound flight though. Quite amusing was when the stewardess walked by selling inflight stuff, calling out "Sales and watches, duty free... Sales and watches, duty free..." I thought it was quite unique to use the term, "sales and watches".

Anyway, the flight was quite uneventful, I was quite shagged by this ending chapter of my journey and all I wanted to do was get home and rest (actually to view the photos I had taken). Though I was worn out by my experience, I was satisfied and happy. It was worth it afterall. =]

We landed at 7.18pm local time and it was a breeze through the check-out counter. You can't imagine my excitement when I saw my dad's car coming to pick me up. It was a marvellous journey. Couldn't have been better.