In KL!

The Chicago to Kuala Lumpur journey was surprisingly painless, despite:

1. ... assuming my flight was leaving from the International Terminal. Turns out because the flight was being run by United, I needed to go to Terminal 1. Nvm, lots of time...

2. ... being told to use the self check-in once I get to the correct terminal, only I can't get it to work, so I'm shown to another queue, takes longer than it should but finally get to the counter. Then it takes forever for the United person to figure out my name, even when I pointed out where my "last name" began on the passport. He insisted my first name was my last name. Grrr.

3. ... the little adventure when getting back from our post check-in brunch! Because I had 3 hours to kill before I needed to be at the gate, as planned Kosh and I went out for a bite to eat. NOTE TO SELF: do NOT go to the O'Hare Oasis on I-294 from the airport unless you are heading back into town. Because, yikes, there was no easy way to turn around to get back to the airport from there! Since we had lots of buffer time, our little adventure on a forced southbound I294 to 64 then turning around to get back in the right direction wasn't as stressful as it would have been in any other circumstances!

4. ... forgetting to take my 3-1-1 bag out when going through security. No one called me on it. I hear it's all too common an occurance. I don't want to think about the implications. (*lynne* buries head in sand)

5. ... finding someone sitting in my aisle seat once I board the plane. She insisted hers was the aisle at first - she probably knew otherwise but was hoping not to have a neighbour, or that I wouldn't mind switching with her. Helloooo? She was this rather large woman, no way I'd want to be trapped against the wall, window or no window! Thankfully the plane was less than half empty, so once the doors closed, I moved to the row behind me, and she moved from her window seat to "my" aisle with profuse gratitude. Yeah, whatever.

6. ... the underside of the armrest that protruded into my back as I tried to sleep across just 2 seats (the plane had a 2-3-2 seat layout).

7. ... being served baby food for breakfast. I usually order lacto-ovo vegetarian meals when I travel, and the lunch/dinner meals was great, a sort of colorful couscous with baba ganoush and lentils. Breakfast was applesauce and bread. I was gazing longingly and jealously at others who had yogurt and a danish pastry :p

8. ... once again having to point out where my last name begins when at Amsterdam, because, hey, once again, they had no idea how to figure the Malaysian passport / name / whatever. Grrr!

... ... yes, I have listed eight points, I've yet to reach Malaysia at the end of this list, and yet I call the journey painless!!? Okay, I admit I'm either weird or very very patient! :)

Stay tuned for more mundane minutiae in the next post :D

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