1 post tagged “arab”

May 02, 2009

The way back home at Damascus international Airport

Status: Stand By (possible upgrade?)

 

I’ve been told that travelling with an ID ticket (staff ticket) isn’t that fun. It wasn’t that I don’t believe but I don’t think it will happen to me.

 

Anyway, I’m standing here, well actually sitting here on the ground at the airport for quite sometimes and seems like an hour already… Such a terrible feeling not to know i'll ge a seat or not...

 

Are they lovely?

I’ve been told that we will get an upgrade seat. Probably we could have a business class or something… But look at the queue, well, may be its good sign that this flight is overbooked then I can get upgrade…HAHA! But well…I tell you what?  I am a bit freak out already.

 

 

What if I couldn’t catch the plane? What if I stuck here at the airport along with a hundred eyes roll over on me like I came from the other universe?!? It isn’t sound like fun to me at all…  It’s great feeling to know that somebody pay attention to you but… this is too much! This makes me

nervous… and uncomfortable.

 

I love the feeling that people don’t know where I came from… I could come from heaven or something… right?  

 Remembering people try to say hello to us by saying “Ni Hao!”

 

Well, I am not from heaven and obviously I’m Chinese! That’s good thing to know!

 

We wait till every passenger already check-in. We are the last 2 pax on earth…er.. on the plane.

 

It such a good feeling when you put your luggages at the check-in, and they put the sticker on it. You at least have something to assured that your luggage will

be arrived there where it suppose to... even you don't know yet you will be here where you suppose to be... lol

  

2 minutes passed… the staff still couldn’t get us the stickers… gosh!… he is so slow… He kept asking his supervisor if we can possibly get the seats, even his supervisor said that twice in Arabic! Tell you what learning language isn’t that hard when you have adrenaline.

 

If I miss the plane, I am going to kill this boy!

 

Another 3 minute, he still checking and checking his bloody computer with my passport and PNR… and he begun to asked his supervisor again… oh gosh! come on boy...

 

Anyway, we finally got the bloody tickets! We are heading to…   Well, actually runing to the gate… We are so glad that we are not the last of the last

passenger there. The flight was a bit delayed. The check-in wasn’t fast so

there are still bunched of people there.

 

We finally boarded and I really relaxed… I was begun to lose my power with all those stupid things already…

 

Anyway, we are gona be fine. I suppose in Dubai we have got a confirmed seat!

 

We arrived in Dubai international airport in the evening (Finally!)

We headed to the check-in counter to issue the ticket and we are planed to sleep at the sofa a bit.

 

After we’ve got the ticket and everything went wrong. It seems like we need to wait at the airport 12 hours…. Damn it!

 

We still doubt if we could get the upgrade seat. Just to make sure we did ask, not because we really want to. 

We asked the staff there if there’s chance to get upgrade coz we have been informed that we could get it. The staff said without any feeling on her face that “not at all”

 

Er… even the flight is fully booked? still no chance?

She stair at us and said again with the same tone “no…not at all coz it depends on our duty manager and your status are not meant to be upgraded”

Er…Great! Thank you!

 

After I realized that it was me who take care of the ticket and I didn’t realized in the first time that they have changed the flight for us…. now I want to cry…. May i, could i, should i?

 

Anyway, we manage to find the way to sleep at the airport because the hotel is super expensive. We couldn’t take it. So here we are at the chair… yeah... we meant  to upgrade this way! Great!

Anyway, we just want to sleep and wake up again tomorrow morning.  Its gona be fine.

 

 

I didn’t manage to sleep very well at the airport that night so far… I looked a bit more like zombie but … to my memory of Syria… it still bright and shine…

 

 The first day, I arrived at Damascus; my client got us the on arrival visa. They proceed that very fast, we didn’t have wait too long.

 

Later that day, we arrived at the hotel. We survey around the hotel a bit and back to rest at our rooms. Cham Palace is our hotel. I didn’t feel really tired or anything but I didn’t know what exactly to do in the afternoon.

 

We walked around the hotel again later in the afternoon. We didn’t feel hungry that much. I thought that would be a good idea to try some local foods, so we headed to street food near there. Street food in Damascus is cheap and hygienic. And one more thing that you must try is Arab Ice cream. It’s totally difference from American ice creams.

 

The first day we searching of history together with sightseeing. It was far from disappointed. It’s amazing. The city is very friendly with a warm welcome. I really admired Arab way, and I think I could fall in love with the city and architecture.

 

We walked through the al-Hamidiyeh souk. The most famous market in Damascus. The shops offered the famous Damascene textiles and antiques. The market is very busy, crowded. We didn’t buy anything that much.

 

Later that day, we went to Ummayad mosque. People come here to pray and it’s like a community that people can meet, talk and relax.

 

I also have a chance to try Damascus’s pizza, and it was really great! I really like it very much. The juice is something you can’t live without when you are in Damascus. They have a plenty of juice shops around the city and it was really great. I also enjoy Hummas and Kebab as well.

 

We didn’t have so much time for travelling nor shall I say we didn’t know where to go. We spent here for 9 days. Most of the time we went to the office and back to the hotel and spent the evening walking around near the hotel. We didn’t go that far.

 

With my 9 days experiences, I only can tell you that I think Syrian is modern Arab country. The city is more quite than I expected, and to my surprised I found Damascus is lovely city. And KFC isn’t something hard to find in this city, But if I have a choice I would prefer eat something more Arab coz its more interesting that way.