I Am Coming Home...

It's always a nostalgic feeling when you have to have leave a place that you have stayed in for so long. Within our tenure in that place we have built so many memories and relationships which becomes a part of us and our existence. My time had come to leave Malaysia, and with that i was leaving all that i had built up in my 4 years of stay there. I had a built a family consisting of friends from all around the world, month by month year by year , i collected friends who became family. We would cry together , laugh together and share happiness together. I never realized when this family became a part of me, and now as i have left Malaysia i feel like a part of me is gone and now i am left with emptiness.

When i come to think of it , i realize that each stage in our life is a transition period and our final destination is death. When i say death i do not mean that we have come in this life to die , all i mean is that our permanent life is the hereafter and not today. This stage of life is just a transition that we go through collecting our family , friends , deeds (good & bad).

Coming back to my theme.. coming home… it was a blessing to come home and do Ramadhan after a full 4 years in Malaysia. The spirit of Ramadhan in Dar-es- Salaam is just different and comes with a lot of positive vibrancy that uplifts your soul bringing in the true spirit of Ramadhan.

BUT..! as they say that good things come with patience, and i experienced something similar. I was supposed to depart from Malaysia on the 24th of July , everything was set, i said bye to my friends , closed my house , gave away my room and everything sealed and packed to return back to Dar-es-Salaam. Little did i know that i wouldn't be boarding the flight that night.

After reaching the airport on time and heading towards the check-in counter i was in for a shock ! I had actually purchased an extra 40kgs to aid me in bringing my luggage back to Dar-Es-Salaam ( Ladies stuff are always A LOT). Upon reaching the counter the lady at the check in desk first tell me that i am overweight and i need to pay 6000 Malaysian Ringgets, and i was the whaaaaaaaaat..!!! So i then informed her that miss i have an extra baggage allowance. Upon further checking she realized that i actually do have an extra baggage allowance. She comes up to me again and then tell me that i have already used my extra baggage, SNAP ! i lost my cool.. i re read to her my entire ticket stating that my extra baggage allowance is only existent from KL-DAR sector..!!! As she checks further i see her call her supervisor.. he checks and tell me there is no registry as such for my extra baggage for which they cannot allow me to board the flight.




And here start the calls to and fro to my dad cum agent. I call my dad , my dad calls me agent and me again and there i fight with the supervisor to allow me to board the flight and he can keep my luggage till my extra baggage paper is sorted. He refuses to do so.. its already 1.20am and my flight is departing at 2am. I try talking to the supervisor explaining him my situation that i have no where to go as i had checked out of apartment and my room has been taken my someone already. Nothing worked and he finally closes his check in counter and giving me the last blow that it was impossible for me to fly out. I was so upset, if this was not enough, my bags were already on the baggage carousel and when i asked the attendants to assist me get my baggage off the carousel, the attendant rudely replied me by saying " Sorry there's no one you will have to pick your baggage yourself, we can't help you", while there were three attendants seated over there. Eventually i gathered my luggage myself and was wondering where to go… i called housemate and asked her if she was awake so i could come , luckily she was awake and at 2.30am i took a ride to go back to my apartment that was a good 30 minutes ride. I was so disappointed with everything and specially the Emirates services.




Oh and did i tell you that the fault actually lied in Emirates system? The Tanzania Emirates office updated its system from Manual to Digital and in that process the deleted my extra baggage ticket thinking that i had already used it. How unorganized could they be??? Because of their system changes i had to suffer and was denied to board my flight and furthermore i had to hear the tantrums of their staff who were rude and had no sense of ethics or moral at all.




I had to wait till Monday to wait for the Emirates office in Tanzania to open in order to get my ticket and extra luggage sorted. My whole monday was spent at the Emirates Office. The lady who served me the office was one gem of a lady! She was working on my case the whole day and she didnt even spoil her face or reply me rudely , she was so much better than the airport staff!!




Oh Well, as they say all's well that end's well , I managed to fly out on Monday night and was home on tuesday afternoon! The feeling of home was just amazing..!!




PS: I wrote a 2 page complaint letter to Emirates Customer service for which they still haven''t replied me , i have been n Dar-es-Salaam for 12 days now. How much more inefficient and unorganized can they get??




Henceforth, i would never advice anybody to travel with Emirates , it used to be my favourite airline but sadly not anymore..!!!