Short Meeting with Doni at KLIA
On Wednesday 2 August 2006 afternoon, Frieza called from the office saying that his friend Doni is leaving for Nigeria today from Jakarta and will transit at KLIA for around 3 hours. So we planned to visit him there that night. Doni’s message was for Radit to have an afternoon map so he won’t be sleepy when we meet that night.
That afternoon Radit took a nap easily, maybe because we was still feeling rather sick and the cloudy and rainy afternoon was just perfect for an afternoon map. He actually slept 3 hours that afternoon.
Doni’s flight was not to arrive until 21.30 so we left our apartment around 8PM. The traffic was still congested but we made it at KLIA on time. Then it was rather difficult to find Doni because he could not be reached by his cellphone and according to the person in charge, usually transit passangers of less than 6 hours are not allowed to exit the airport. So we just waited for Doni to call while Radit played in the airplane shaped playground. Eventually Doni did call from a public phone and said that he had to exchange his tickets because he flew from Jkt to KL by MAS, but his connecting flight to Dubai was with Emirates. It was a blessing in disguise, for Doni had to exchange his tickets in the Emirates check-in counter and we could meet him there.
The check-in counter was crowded, mainly with Middle-Eastern people who seems to be going home after having a holiday at KL. We were amazed by their luggages… there were many oversized baggages, they must have been shopping a lot !
Doni was also carrying 3 bags, one large travel bag, one work bag and one laptop bag. If he wants to check-in the bags, he would have to pay for a rather large amount of money, but he also might not be allowed to carry all bags inside the airplane. So we went to buy a cabin sized luggage and Doni moved his stuff from the travel bag and work bag to the luggage. He had to leave behind several items that could not fit in the luggage. He seemed to be un-prepared for travelling, looking at what he’s carrying and by his story that he was the last person to check-in and borad the airplane. I was rather surprised because this is not his first time to travel abroad, although his previous trip was not as far as Africa !
But it was fun to meet him even for a short time. We hope he experience a nice and safe journey and enjoy his new life there ! We haven’t heard from him since, we just hope everything’s alright.
