Good evening from a room in a house in Labuan. Room number 1, to be specific. Rooms number 2 & 3 are taken up by 2 very nice D&M Schlumberger guys, but I will get to that later. First things first. I am here! Finally! After a year of waiting, weeks of frustration, and 24 hours of ridiculousness. I smell disgusting from airplanes, travel, and sweating; I have friction burns on my ankles and feet due to my new boots, and I officially don't care if I ever eat or talk to anyone again as long as I get to sleep this evening. However, I really am happy I have made it. Even if I don't have a towel to shower with tomorrow :) Psh. That is what bad t-shirts are for.
Anyway, so my traveling adventure started out with an early deposit by SLB at the Abu Dhabi Airport. Flight loaded at 2:45 am, we got dropped off at 10 pm. Checking in usually isn't a problem, but this time an issue arose. As I checked my 2 bags (like I was told to) the stewardess told me I was 12 kilos over 23 kilogram weight limit and that I would be assessed a fee because of this. I said ok, thinking that (a) I had no choice and (b) in America it is only like a 25 dollar fee. Nope. On international flights with Etihad Airways, it is 73 durhams (durhims?) for every kilo over, or something like that. 73 durhams is like 20 dollars. So take 20 times 12 and you get? Yes. 240 dollars to bring my bags. Needless to say I was NOT happy, but went over to the guy to talk about payment and because I amgoing to Labuan he tacks on another 120 durhams and I decide that I will try to lighten my luggage because I really can't afford this business. So, I go to the bathroom, try to toss out some things I think I might be able to do without...this includes my ksu hoodie and 1 pair of shoes, btw so I am slightly traumatized by this. Then, I walk back to the desk and I have only gotten rid of 5 kilos, (oh yes, and I put on my work boots cause they are kind of heavy). I cannot get rid of anything else so I resign myself to paying the stupid fee. Then, right before the stewardess prints out the fee ticket, the steward next to her looks at me and asks, "Did you come from Chicago?" I reply in the affirmative, and he proceeds to say that my fee has already been paid and I am allowed the weight of two bags. I threw away my things for nothing. Needless to say I am kind of angry. I quickly go back to the bathroom to get my belongings back, but at this point they are gone and I am incredibly upset. I go back, grab my tickets from the lady and proceed to go through security. The boots already are rubbing on my ankles and feet. By the time I get close to my gate, there are painful raw spots and I have no choice but to wear these boots for the next 24 hours straight (I did take them off when not having to walk though). Pretty much the only good part to my evening yesterday was the fact that Adam was online and I got to talk to him for about 2 hours on skype while sitting on the airport floor. It kind of made everything feel alright again.
After getting on my flight to KL, I promptly felll asleep and only spent about an hour and a half of my 7 hour flight awake. This was nice. I sat next to a very nice couple and their 3 or 4 year old daughter who did not speak english, but just stared at me a lot. She was well behaved so I did not mind. After arriving in KL, I exchanged my money for Ringgit, the Malaysian currency, checked in for my next flight and proceeded to limp my way to my next gate. Got to talk to Adam again in that airport too! I appreciate his willingness to talk at potentially awkward hours of the day or night! After I got into Labuan, we were supposed to be picked up, but the driver did not have room for all 3 of us and our mounds of baggage in his van (cars are a bit smaller here!) so he left two of us at the airport and said we would be picked up, but we got confused, didn't go with the driver that was supposed to pick us up because he didn't have slb identification on him, etc. (neither of us speak malay...my friend was from Myanmar) so there was much confusion. We ended up accidentally calling the D&M manager for all of western Malaysia and he called our manager and sent him to the airport. At the same time the engineer and the tech with whom I am currently staying realized I was late getting in, got worried and came to pick me up! So, I did get home eventually.
My house is pretty sweet It has tv, a kitchen, phone, and a bathroom for each person. I like it a lot. I even have a balcony attached to my room!! We have a maid who comes in and picks up after us each day and does our laundry. This is kind of awesome as I have always hated doing laundry. My only complaint is that my shower is a bit chilly. It definitely wakes me up in the morning!
I have had two days of work already, at the time when I post this. I started it my first evening, but was too tired to stay awake to finish it. I would love to tell you about them and what Labuan is like, however I am tired and slightly jetlagged still, so I think it is time for me to head to bed.
Selamat Malam!
Becca
P.S. I did get a towel to shower with. It's the little things that make life wonderful :)
2 comments:
Obviously you have never read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You are ALWAYS supposed to carry your towel, even if you have nothing else, and I quote,
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
Hahahaha! I completely forgot about how important remembering one's towel is. Thank you so much! I promise to never forget mine again.
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