KiNiGu: Day 1 - 30 Mar 08

Say Goodbye

Saying goodbye was tough.

I just couldn't help turn back and take one more look at my two girls and saying one more "bye bye". Because Jae didn't get her afternoon nap, her nap time gotta be brought forward and could therefore not see me to the airport. I looked at my watch. 8:43pm. Got to go. I bent down and kissed both of them on their foreheads, steeled my heart and headed for the door. It wasn't easy taking in the fact that that was to be the last time I set eyes on them until 15 days later.
............................................................................................................
Red Eye

I couldn't sleep on the 13-hour flight. Not unexpected, since I have hardly fallen asleep on any of my previous flights.
Two meals and 2.5 in-flight movies ("I am Legend", "There Will Be Blood", "Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber From Fleet Street") later, we reached Frankfurt International Airport where we were to hop on to the connecting flight to Ben Gurion Airport. What was originally thought to be a boring 3-hour transit turned out to be quite an eventful one. Bertran, one of the members of the delegation was informed by Lufthansa Airlines staff that he "didn't have a ticket" and could therefore not be issued with a boarding pass.

"But that cannot be the case! He just came on the same SQ flight with the rest of us. This is where we are to catch the connecting flight to Tel Aviv. How can there be ticket for the first leg of the journey but not the second leg? In fact, his luggage has been checked in at Singapore for a direct trip to our final destination!", I argued.

"Sorry, he does not have a ticket."

"Can you check the database again?"

"We have checked. There is no ticket."

"Could it be that..."

"Sir, I am telling you - he has no ticket."

Phone calls were made. The keyboard was tapped on. As the minutes ticked into hours, I realised that if this was to go on, there would only be 5 (or even 4, if I was to stay behind to accompany Bertran) of us boarding the flight instead of 6. I told Bertran to go ahead and purchase a fresh ticket, and promised him that we will get this resolved before the end of the 2 weeks - either getting the airline or travel agency who made the mistake compensate, or claiming from the travel insurance and then reimbursing him accordingly. When we rushed through the gatehold room to board the plane, we were just 10 minutes away from the stipulated take off time, and literally the last of the boarding passengers.

The flight from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv was a short one, at 3 hour 45 minutes. Again, sleep didn't find me.
............................................................................................................
Knocked Out

Dan Panorama Hotel in Haifa turned out to be quite decent. Though not as extravagant as the David-Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv I put up at during my first trip to Israel in 2001, it still managed to come across as pretty cosy, and had good ameneties like gym, swimming pool and a business lounge with free snacks and drinks.

After more than 24 hours on the road without any shut eye, I hit the bed and crashed almost instantly, after getting a much welcomed shower.

I was hoping that I might dream of my girls, but I didn't. I was surprised though, to find myself waking up naturally 15 minutes prior to my preset alarm at 6:45am. Looks like my body has automatically adjusted to the local time (5 hours behind Singapore time) already. That's good.
....................................................................................................................