7th MAY 2020: Along the way to the airport, my heart was beating real fast. We were actually on the road during the curfew hours imposed by the state during the month of Ramadhan which was from 5.00 p.m. until 9 a.m. What would happen if we were stopped by the police and not let pass the checkpoint? Would I reach the airport on time if we were stopped for too long. Regardless of the facts that we had all the necessary documents, all sorts of questions were playing on mind and I was extremely anxious of any possible mishaps that could happen. And expected, a police stopped our car, interrogated and my husband explained and produced the travel document. and Alhamdulllah, praise be to Allah, we were given the clearance to the airport.
Anyway, my worries had not yet ceased. We finally reached Dammam Airport at 4:15 a.m., but we were already 15 minutes late. I could not see a single soul inside the building. To make it worse, according to the directive given, only passengers were allowed to enter the terminal which meant my husband would leave me and my daughters on our own. (Yes, he would still be working in Saudi and not following us home, yet.) He was only supposed to drop us and the luggage at the designated area. Out of the blue, we saw a Malaysian friend from Jubail who was there to send his mother off. He told my husband just to leave the car at the site as there was no policeman or security officer around, and that was actually a big relief. He also told us that the check in counter was not opened yet and people were all sitting far away from each other so as to observe social distancing, hence the place looked deserted.
After getting inside the terminal, there was someone in army uniform holding a paper which looked like a name list of the passengers so we concluded he should be Lt. Cmdr. Azli, My husband registered our names and only after that we went to perform our Subuh [dawn] prayer. Then it was the time for the girls to bid goodbye to their father, and me to my husband and hopefully he would not be fined for parking the car illegally. We were instructed to go through the usual procedure: queuing up at the check-in and immigration counters, and we managed to get through without any hitch.
We had to wait for boarding at Gate 25. Wearing masks was mandatory and we sat far away from other people just to ensure social distancing took place.The airplane from Jeddah had not docked in yet - it was still early actually. I could see all the duty shops were all closed. The atmosphere at the airport was somewhat sombre, not what it used to be like and people seemed to look more cautious and eye everybody else suspiciously.
Eventually, the passengers were called for boarding. Before we got to our seats, the stewardess handed over a little bag containing a mask, a small bottle of hand sanitizer and a packet of anti-bacterial wipe. I was expecting there would be a strict social distancing too in the cabin the way it should be done during this pandemic, but it was just like any other ordinary day. I could chose to sit together with two daughters in the same row and it was a blessing in a way as were not separated.
If you think the stewardesses wore special uniform in the cabin during this COVID-19 scare period, something like the Personal Protective Equipment worn by the medical staff, that did not happen. It was the same attire, plus the face mask.
At 8:15 a.m. the plane left Dammam Airport and the cabin crew distributed a food packet consisted of a bottle of mineral water and orange juice, and a cold sandwich. As we were all fasting, we just kept the food for break fast later. The journey took about 7 hours and I tried to sleep a bit. When we were about to approach the destination, another food packet was given which had similar content to the one given earlier. The captain announced it was time for Muslims to break their fast. Nevertheless, I just forced myself to eat half of the sandwich considering the fact I did not take my sahur earlier that day. Most probably I was already exhausted or I was anxious to see what else I had to go through once we landed in KLIA. The whole journey was definitely not the same experience I used to have before this - too much anxiety of uncertain things ahead.
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART THREE ...
No comments:
Post a Comment