Offbeat Travelogue: Which part of AISLE SEAT don't you understand?
Technorati tags: Offbeat Travelogue, English, Manglish, KLIA
This post comes to you from Miri, East Malaysia's premier Oil Town. Yeah, Walski's travelling again. Miri, sometime last year, was accorded city status, and is called The Resort City. Walski's renamed it The Last Resort City... naah... Miri's okay in Walski's book. Pretty quiet compared to the bustle of KL. It's just that coming here so often for work and all, it's probably second last on Walski's list of to-go vacationing spots... last place being Kerteh, Terengganu.
In any case, at KLIA earlier today, when Walski checked in, he specifically told the person behind the counter that he wanted an aisle seat. In most normal people's English vocabulary, this typically means the seat that's adjacent to the aisle. In the case of the MAS Boeing 737-400, it's usually seats C or D.
Boeing 737 Series 400 seat plan on MAS
Well, Walski didn't bother to check the boarding pass (until much later), 'cause usually they'll either give the seat you want to you, or in the case of a very full flight and bad luck (or late check in) they'll apologize and say that the aisle seat isn't available.
Walski prefers the aisle seat 'cause it's easier to get up and go to the bathroom, without having to climb over the neighboring passengers. It's just one of those Walski idiosyncracies...
So, having gotten his boarding pass, Walski happily walks away, making trails to the departure area while stopping along the way to buy a couple of books. Incidentally, if you're ever at KLIA, flying domestic, just after the escalators down from the security checkpoint is a small bookshop, and currently they're offering 15% off on purchases of two books or more.
Walski gets to his designated gate, and finally looks at his boarding pass... and guess what?
(the check-in guy's idea of "aisle", and more, in the full post)
Boarding pass for the "aisle" seat Walski did not actually want...
The guy who checked Walski in put him in seat 17B instead! By any stretch of the imagination, a seat that's snuggled between two other seats DOES NOT QUALIFY as an aisle seat. On this planet at least...
Now fortunately, Miri is only about a two-hour flight. Exactly which part of AISLE SEAT did the guy not understand?? Pffft! What probably disappointed Walski most was that the guy didn't even bother to mention that there weren't any aisle seats available (assuming that was the case). Walski's not that fussy, but he at least expects some courtesy to be told that the seat he wants isn't available...
So, anyways, while waiting at the departure lounge, about 5 minutes before boarding, this announcement comes over the PA:
Ladies and gensmen [which is how 'gentlemen' is usually pronounced], we regret to inform you that the flight has been rescheduled to 1:45pm, due to technical
End of announcement...
Eh? Technical WHAT? Technical foul, technical idiocy, technical language error, technical crawled up my ass and strangled my vocal chords.... WHAT? What the fuck is "due to technical" supposed to mean?
Side note to MAS: you probably want to make sure your ground staff attend Basic Remedial English classes... Being visit Malaysia Year 2007 and all that, it would probably save the country from more embarassment it probably doesn't need...
Yes, kiddies, Manglish is very much alive and well in Malaysia... and KLIA is a great place to witness it in action!
So all was not lost... a small comedic moment to compensate for the 30 minute delay... which really isn't all that bad, considering some of the other horror-story flight delays Walski's experienced, including one that caused Walski to have to take the ferry (bumpity bumpity bump) from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan...
But that, boys and girls, is another story for another day...
Walski's totally unrelated book purchase footnote: Just in case you were wondering, the two books Walski bought were "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, and "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka. Both good reads, Walski's been told...
