The Flight

And then the later half of the Saturday I needed to mobilize and head to the Miri airport to catch the 6:25PM flight to make it to the family gathering dinner later at 7PM in Sibu. No rush for me and I got there in time. Just that I got hogged by a Vios from Eastwood to the airport carpark who seemed pro (Mirian, and me humbly being a non-Mirian just follow) until I slowly realized it was her first time driving around the carpark. Luckily I didn't follow her all the way or else I would have to go out of the carpark, go out of the airport, come back in, and get another parking coupon just like what awaited the Vios. Anywho this was my first time flying this year since I've always prefer 7 hours bus trip.

It was good to see some upgrades in the airport, especially the Starbucks outlet. Perhaps slightly expensive from the town variant, but hey I'm in a rush and a few cents does not matter. And also for the first time I triggered the metal detector device. I've always been "dry" all this times, passing through the detectors from KL to Brisbane without fail. Guess I've packed too much silver and bling-blings over these few months. Getting body searched by a dude felt obviously awkward too, and fortunately I did not have a "I'm Islamic, Don't Panic" t-shirt on (don't think that will work here though).

Now here comes the plane. I LOVE Fokker 50s. Why? Everytime I have a Fokker flight, I'm seated around row 3 which is near the prop engine. The deafening roaring sounds of the props coming through the not so soundproof wall promotes the use of MP3 earphones to actually PROTECT my hearings. But luckily this deafening scenario was compensated by the MASWings stewards (nope, no stewardesses in this flight) are friendlier than the ones I can remember 2 years ago.
And of course what's flying nowadays without the H1N1 scare. With obvious oblivion of the people here of the pandemic, I took one of the leaflet to see how Malaysia is handling the case. Sadly the instruction of prevention is more like how to wash your hands properly. exactly the same as what they taught you in kindergarten. I was expecting things like passengers are required to go through a fever scan, wear face mask if sick etc. We are sure taking things calmly compared to how much panic, chaos and deaths H1N1 has caused in the West.
When I browsed over to the other parts of the leaflet, it was clear that we are heading to some kind of a Resident Evil style ending. DIrect translation;

How can you avoid this infection?
Stay away from people who look sick and having fever and coughs.

Wow, I hope the new cure is really potent. Else I'll be avoiding a lot of sick people and might end up barricading myself in my room with 6 weeks supplies of stolen food and a 12 gauge shotgun while shoot anything that looks sick outside my window.

Until then, fly safe. And cough/sneeze politely.