Now, i completely understand if some of you are going, "Nyeh. 13 hours? Big deal. My flight to (insert a location nobody from Malaysia really needs to go to) was ** (number 14 onwards) hours!"
But, you know. Good for you.
My flight to Paris took off from tanah tumpahnya darahku around 1150pm. You see, i reeeaaallyyyyy do not like taking flights. I really don't. Especially by myself. The reason why i was so cool about about it is because i travelled back and forth to New Zealand from Malaysia for four and a half years, so i'm totally used to it. Had to. Only the flight to Christchurch was about 11 hours. And i have been to the UK but i was 11 and had no recollection of counting the hours i spent on the plane (by the way, how many hours is it to fly to UK?).
The journey was alright, Alhamdulillah. We did hit some turbulence, and towards the end the plane plunged a teeny weensy bit, but that was not the worst plunge i've experienced (the word 'plunge' might be overdoing it. i don't know what else to call that thing that planes do that causes you to abnormally feel like your heart just jumps up towards your throat).
I sat in seat E, on MAS. This is the second seat from left in the middle. When i bought my ticket online, MAS asked if i would like to reserve a seat, but you better have an extra RM 50 lying around (or RM 100, since it's a return ticket) because that's what it's going to cost you. So i chose not to choose and take my chances. My seat stank, alright, but thank God, the two seats next to me were empty. So i moved to the middle seat. The furthermost left was this kind old pakcik (French and spoke really good English), who helped me get meals and drinks and stuff.
Shah advised me to get as much sleep as possible. Resulted in me not watching any movie even though i was itching to watch 50/50 (Joseph Gordon Levitt!). When i couldn't sleep, i listened to my 'Jukebox'; i had spent half an hour going through the songs available and add my favourite ones to my 'Jukebox'. I did get loads of sleep though, about 6 hours maybe.
One thing about me: i look forward to eating airplane food. It's a habit i developed since i started flying with Shah. It's the best, to share airplane food with him. Now, even when i travel without him, i decide carefully which meal to eat and try to enjoy it as much as i could. The first meal on my flight was pretty good! Lamb or chicken? I picked lamb, and it was surprisingly really good. I loved the appetizer, which was this salad with raw salmon in it. The single cherry tomato in it was what really made it delish. It sounds weird, i know, but that was probably the most delicious cherry tomato i've ever had in my life. Just the perfect amount of sweet and sour to it.
My second meal was not as fantastic. I heard "Would you like nasi lemak or ---?" and i didn't bother asking her "Sorry, what was the second thing you offered just now?". In Malaysia, when i was packing, Shah asked me, "Sayang, can you make nasi lemak for me here?". Bunyi macam mengidam kan. So i knew that would be the last nasi lemak i would eat in a while. Only the sambal was super pedas. Overall still good, but i was left dreaming about the raw salmon salad.
We landed safely - albeit in a super senget way, honest, the landing was weird - and i discovered what Shah had told me was indeed true. Paris is SUPER cool about receiving visitors. No filling up forms, no declaring things, i don't even remember if i passed security, and no questions from the immigration officer. Seriously, the guy just took my passport, scanned it for a nanosecond, then "Chop!". Welcome to PARIS!!!
On another note, unlike me, Shah got asked about 5 questions before he got the stamp. So i was quite lucky!
Bapak did warn me about Paris' airport. He was all, "Don't be surprised to see their airport. Incomparable to KLIA!". I saw what he meant. KLIA is the best airport i've ever seen, of course. But Paris' wasn't THAT bad. Maybe a tad gloomier than Auckland's airport. To be fair, i arrived in Paris at 7am.
For the record, my dad has been to Paris at least twice, and he's travelled all over the world, including NZ. So he knows what he's talking about.
And that was my uneventful journey (Alhamdulillah!) to Paris.
Yes, i'm in PARIS!!!