Tej Turner

Travelblog#48: An Open Letter of Complaint to KLIA Management

*This was originally just a letter I intended to send to Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s management team, but after I finished writing it I realised that the details it contains provide a fairly accurate account of my time in transit, so I decided to include it as part of my travelblog.*

I am one of the passengers who was left stranded for several days due to the airport in Kathmandu being closed. This grievance was not the fault of KLIA but, for the sake of context, I would like to begin by giving you just a small idea of how stressful it was. We kept being sent back and forth. Waiting for entire days, at times, in departure gates. Just for the flight to be delayed over and over again before it was cancelled. And then, after all of that, we often had to wait for hours to receive our bags back so we could wash and change our clothes for the next day. Where we would repeat the process all over again.

It was much worse for the Nepali passengers who, due to visa reasons, were not allowed outside the international departure zone. They couldn’t shower, they slept on the floor every night, and they lived on a diet of McDonalds vouchers. Those of us who possessed passports which allowed us to enter Malaysia visa-free were much luckier than them. We could, between all the stress of spending entire days (and often nights) in the airport, get outside, so we could eat proper food and stay in a hotel. This arrangement also, I believe, relieved some of the pressure from a departure zone clogged with stranded passengers.

On the night of the 7^th of March myself and another 30+ passengers, having just found out for the fourth day in a row that our flights had been cancelled, experienced problems with Immigration Officer M.H. Low. He immediately, before we even opened our mouths to speak, began shouting at us, and then crossed his arms over his chest, smiled, and proudly proclaimed, “I am the authority!” in a manner you would expect a child to assume having just been given control of all the toys in a nursery.

As he was busy embarrassing himself, I walked over to some of the other Immigration staff (whom, may I add, looked perplexed) to ask if I could speak to his superior, and was informed, to my utter disbelief, that he was the highest ranking Immigration Officer on duty at the time. “Well, when does his shift finish then?” I asked, tiredly. “When is there a new one? This isn’t usually a problem…”

Despite how aggressive he was trying to be – with the way he was ostentatiously waving his arms around, proudly proclaiming “I am superior!” “I have authority!” “I have been here for 20 years!” – it was very hard to take him seriously. At first many of us thought that he was joking and trying to be humorous. It was like watching an over-the-top character in a farcical, slightly surreal, comedy sketch acting out a parody of their self.

I think a question that the management of KLIA needs to strongly consider is: do you really think this is the sort of person you want as the face – a representative – of KLIA? Or even Malaysia in general? An airport and country which both have reputations for being among the most modern and respectable in Asia? He truly acted like a child – he even literally stamped his foot a few times. There is no polite way to properly explain his behaviour… you would have had to have seen a video of it to truly believe how ridiculous it was, and awkward it was it was to watch.

I also suspect that I am not the first person to have ever complained about him. The thing which surprises me the most is just how did someone with his manner manage to ascend to his position of “superior authority!” in the first place, and maintain it for so long?

He started telling us that we could only be let through if we refunded our tickets. “No postponing anymore! No come back tomorrow!” To which I told him that our bookings’ and our airline tickets were between us and AirAsia, and not his concern.

The staff of AirAsia seemed equally shocked by his behaviour.

I eventually got very tired of it all so I interrupted one of his long self-important rants. I will admit, I was a bit rude – justifiably so; because it was not even a patch on how rude he was being to us, and trying to speak to him like he was a normally functioning adult had simply got us nowhere. “Yes! Yes!” I said. “We get the point. Everyone in this entire hall knows now that you are very big important man – that you have superior authority… can we go?”

I guess my words must have stuck true, because he finally looked as embarrassed as he should have felt, and stepped aside.

The following morning I received a phone call from AirAsia saying that my flight had unexpectedly been rescheduled and I had just one hour to get the airport. I had to madly rush there, catching a taxi followed by the KLIA Express train. When I got to check-in counter the woman at the desk told me that it was still possible for me to board the plane but I was going to have to hurry; the other 200+ people on the flight were waiting for me.

It turned out, however, that M.H. Low was still on duty. He recognised me from the previous night and, as soon as he saw me, he marched over and screamed, “I have a problem with you!” and took my passport and boarding pass from me. He then walked away and well… just stood there for a while, smiling smugly. He knew I was in a hurry and was trying to bully me. I eventually walked to him and calmly tried to tell him that there was a flight currently boarding – being delayed – for me, but he screamed at me the same old, tiring proclamation he kept making the previous night.

“I have authority!”

Anyone who was there would have been able to tell you that it was very transparent that he was not holding me up for professional reasons, but rather out of a personal vendetta he had – because I was one of the passengers who argued with him the night before. He began shouting at me very loudly, making the whole room stare at him, and a lot of the people who witnessed it were shocked. Yet again, he started stamping his foot, like child, and waving his arms around in a fashion that I can only describe as some kind of poorly scripted pantomime villain.

He made me run all the way back to the AirAsia counter, so I could get one of them to come and tell him that my plane was boarding. He knew my plane was boarding; it was on the departure screen. He was just trying to get revenge on me for making him realise how silly he looked the previous night. He was, yet again, just throwing his weight around, trying to prove to the world he has “authority!”, and, in the process, making himself look very pathetic and small, and potentially delaying an international flight filled with people who had already been held up for five days.

I returned shortly later with a very helpful lady from AirAsia who just simply repeated to him in Malay what I had already said to him several times in English; that my flight was boarding – waiting for me – and I needed to get to the gate.

I would also like to mention that the same staff member said to me that if I wanted to make a complaint about him, she would be very happy give an account of the event herself.

I want to take this complaint as high as it can go, and I expect a reply, telling me what action is being taken.

Travelblog#47: Danum Valley – Borneo

25^th February-3^rd March, 2015

I returned to Borneo: a place I visited during my last adventure around Asia three years ago.

And why? Well, firstly; I discovered that when one flies from the Philippines to Nepal, it actually works out cheaper to go via Kota Kinabalu.

There were a few places I wanted to see last time but sadly missed, due to not having enough time.

But the main reason, really, is that I fricking love Borneo, and the five weeks I spent there back in 2012 were some of the most memorable and exciting from that entire trip.

So, on the morning of 25^th of February, James, Chloe and I boarded a plane from Manila. Pedro, who had been our travelling companion for the last four weeks, was flying back home to Taiwan, so it was now just three of us. James and Chloe (the lucky bastards) were going to be spending six weeks in Borneo, in all, but I was just going to be accompanying them for the first few days.

The plane touched down upon Kota Kinabalu in the morning and, after booking tickets for a sleeper bus heading south that evening, we went for a little wander around town. I spent most of that day experiencing flashbacks and feeling fondly nostalgic: walking past a bar and remembering it was where me and a friend drank beer a couple of times, popping into a restaurant to examine the menu and realising that I had eaten there before. Remembering some of the things that I love about Borneo. Such as the crazy equatorial weather: the constant flux between dark clouds and blazing sunlight with blue skies; that damp scent of a storm about to happen, frequently in the air; the occasional rumble of thunder in the distance.

In the evening we boarded the sleeper bus. It was fairly comfortable but unfortunately we had to get off at 3am because it rolled into Lahad Datu early. Luckily there was a 24-hour café open so we took refuge there, eating mie goreng and roti canai while we waited for the Danum Valley Field Centre office to open.

Danum Valley

Day 1

By lunchtime everything was organised and we were upon a 4WD for a bumpy two-hour journey to the Danum Valley Field Centre. We were all very tired by then, so our heads were slumping and our eyes kept rolling back. At one point I was sputtered back into a state of consciousness by James yelling my name. I opened my eyes and, as my vision switched from blurry to focussed, I saw that he was pointing to something outside the window and scrambled for my camera.

A group of bornean pygmy elephants; our first sighting.

A while later we rocked up at the dormitory, where we claimed our beds, and then James and I rustled up a vegetable curry in the communal kitchen. As we were cooking, a middle-aged German guy turned up with his parents and, as soon as I saw his face, I knew that I recognised him from somewhere.

“Errm, this might sound a bit weird…” I said. “But… did I meet you three years ago, when I was last in Borneo?”

“That depends,” he said. “Did you do any diving in Semporna?”

It turned out that he owned the outfit which I had done a few days of scuba diving with – the very same outfit which James and Chloe had booked to do their PADI Open Water courses with next week.

It was one of those ‘Small World’ moments.

We chatted for a while, as he cooked dinner for his parents. And after he left a group of Malaysian students came into communal area to make their dinners’ too.

Danum Valley Field Centre is primarily a research station for scientists – tourists are accepted, if there is room, but they are a minority – so it is not like a hotel or resort: the lodgings are very basic, and specifically designed so that people can do things independently. The Malay students were all from a university in Kota Kinabalu, studying subjects which ranged from the bio-diversity of ferns to renewable energy. They were all quite friendly and talkative, when they weren’t busy tapping away upon their computers.

Day 2

At the crack of dawn James and I went to the river, hoping to spot a few birds but we weren’t having much luck. I heard a rustling nearby and saw movement in the trees – and I could tell it was some kind of ape by the size of the disturbance it caused – so I went over to investigate.

I was expecting it to be an orang-utan, but what I found was even better; a small group of bornean gibbons.

I think we were very lucky to see them so close; gibbons are creatures which you hear all the time when you’re in the jungle, because they make such a distinctive sound, but they are usually so high up in the canopy and moving so fast that they can be hard to see properly. During my four days in Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra, I saw only one gibbon, and that was just a fleeting glance as it swung between the trees.

We went back to the dorm for a while to eat breakfast and, while Chloe was brewing the porridge, this bizarre little creature crawled across the veranda. Apparently it was some kind of mantis.

We then set off again, deciding to walk along the ‘Coffin Trail’, which turned out to be a great place for spotting birds. We kept seeing this really beautiful black bird which had a distinctive feather sticking out from its tail, but none of us managed to get a good picture of it as it was moving around too fast. I did manage to get a fairly decent shot of this small spider hunter though:

About halfway along the trail I suddenly heard a branch snap. What was that? I wondered, expecting some kind of primate. A large tree was obstructing whatever it was from view, so I primed my camera ready and sneaked up behind the trunk to get a peak.

And that – to my utter shock – was the photo I took. I should also mention that it was taken with absolutely no zoom.

I immediately backed away.

“What was that?” James asked, noticing that something was up.

“It’s a f**king elephant!” I exclaimed. “Stay back.”

The creature immediately made a distressed trumpetting sound, followed by a growl. I never knew that an elephant could growl, until that moment, but it sounded like the kind of noise a predator would make.

I carried on pulling back, eventually veering to the side a bit to see if it was still there.

I then discovered that there were actually four of them, and that one was a calf – which was why the the older ones were being so protective. They carried on growling, and Chloe was – quite understandably – scared. I was a bit scared too, but I couldn’t resist taking a few photos as I gradually backed away.

Eventually the elephants stomped off into the trees, their trunks blaring out loud noises along the way. The path was clear, and we could carry on walking.

We reached the coffins shortly after that: they were placed there over 400 years ago by the Orang Sungai (literal translation: ‘River People’) tribes who used to inhabit the banks of the Segama.

We did encounter the elephants again on our way back, but the second incident was far less dramatic: the creatures were busily eating leaves on a little ridge above us and, once they heard us coming, they calmly walked away.

In the afternoon we came across a group of red leaf monkeys, which we observed for a while. They, and the gibbons I saw that morning, were the only primates which I didn’t manage to see last time I was in Borneo so, from that moment on, I could proudly say that I had glimpsed every species of monkey and ape on the island.

At the end of the afternoon we visited Danum Valley Field Centre’s Tree Platform. Due to my fear of heights, I never made it up to the upper level – I barely made it to the first! – but it was still an enjoyable view. We stayed there until dusk.

Day 3

We wanted to do at least one long trek while we were in Danum Valley, so on the third day we decided to hike along the ‘Rhino Pool’ trail.

We weren’t quite as fortunate with the wildlife that day, but we were so grateful for how blessed we were on the previous one that we didn’t mind. The trail was a very nice one, passing through stunning primary rainforest, and there were lots of sounds, making it audibly one of the finest jungle treks I have ever been on.

We reached the spot for which the trail gets its namesake (a rhino was spotted there by someone in 1995) after two hours, and then we took a different trail to loop back to the headquarters, arriving just in time to eat our lunch by a small beach on the bank of the Segama river.

In the afternoon we took it easy and strolled around a series of small paths near the headquarters. We spotted black squirrels, pygmy squirrels, a few birds, another group of red leaf monkeys, and came across a decomposing tree which was covered in mushrooms and looked like something out of a weird fairytale.

Just before sunset we sat upon a platform overlooking the river and were lucky enough to witness a pair of hornbills land upon the tree opposite us and swoop between the branches for a while just before they flew back to their nest.

That night we were taken out on a guided night walk, where we saw a fleeting glimpse of a sambar deer, lots of spiders, and this lizard:

Day 4

The three of us decided to venture off our own separate ways for our last day in Danum Valley, so we could spend it pleasing ourselves. I began it by getting up at 5am and walking over to the Observation Tower just before sunrise, so I could hear the dawn chorus, which was a very magical experience.

I wandered aimlessly for rest of the day and saw a few creatures along the way, including a group of red leaf monkeys, more squirrels, and lots birds. Towards the end of the afternoon I came across a group of long tail macaques, and I sat down to watch them for a while as they bonded with each other.

For more photos from Danum Valley, click here.

Travelblog#46: Baguio – the Philippines

21^st-24^th February, 2015

Me and my three travelling companions had originally intended to spend our last few days in the Philippines visiting a small village in the north called Kabayan – which is famous for its people having their mummified ancestors stored within caves – but when we looked at the transport options we realised that such a venture would have been impractical with the rather limited ammount of time we had left. We could have just about done it, but it would have meant an entire two days of travelling for just one to spend actually exploring Kabayan.

So instead we ended up going to Baguio – a mountain city in the highlands of North Luzon, which is surrounded by many attractions – and it swiftly became my favourite city in the Philippines. Throughout this blog I am going to catalogue the places we visited.

St Louis University Museum

This is definitely somewhere to go if one has a particular interest in indigenous tribes, but it is not for everyone. I visited alone, while my travelling companions – who are not quite as geeky about history as I am – were busy shopping in SM Mall.

Hosted in the basement of the University’s library, it contains a vast collection of tribal artefacts from across the Cordillera, and the exhibition is wonderfully illuminated with enlightening information. The curator, Ike Picpican, is clearly very passionate about his subject and appears to have a particular interest in the magico-religious traditions of animist tribes. I found the details about indigenous talismans – such as tangkils (bands warriors wore around their arms) and dulis (necklaces made from snake vertebrae, which Bontoc women wear to protect themselves against malevolent spirits and thunderstorms) – and the stories about the gods and goddesses of the Cordillera pantheon, very intriguing.

Entry was free but, as it is on the grounds of St Louis campus, I had to pass through security, leave my passport at the entrance and wear a visitor’s badge. It was quite interesting to see the inside of a Filipino university.

Baguio Museum

As far as tribal history goes, the museum at St Louis University definitely had the upper hand, but Baguio Museum was still a fairly good (and educational) way to burn an hour or two of time, and it was also home to a genuine Kabayan Mummy.

There was also an art gallery downstairs and, if any of you readers have a burning desire to see a portrait photo of every mayor Baguio has ever had, then the second floor of this museum is the place for you. I, admittedly, may have breezed past that particular section…

BenCab Museum

Possibly the highlight of Baguio for all four of us was this treasure. It was a little out of town so we had to catch a taxi, but it was definitely worth the trip. It was more of an art gallery than a museum, but a very good one, and it somehow managed to cover a whole range of traditional and modern styles while still keeping the tribal theme as a distinct nucleus.

Baguio is a very arty place. Every museum there seems to have at least one room (or several) dedicated to displaying works made my local hands and minds. I found that the standard was generally very high, and much of it captured what I sensed was the essence of a tribal – and formally animist – identity caught in the throws of modern urbanisation and a Christian doctrine.

Tam-awan Village

Tam-awan was okay, but not quite deserving of its status as one of the main attractions in Baguio. It was essentially a collection of remodelled tribal buildings scattered around a copse, with a few art galleries and new-agey things – such as dream-catchers, and tires painted in psychedelic colours – thrown into the mix. There is quite a nice atmosphere there, though. I would recommend it to future travellers if they have some time to burn.

Baguio Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens were a little rough around the edges – if they had just cleaned up the few little parts of it which let it down it would have been great – but it was definitely an enjoyable place to wander around for an hour or so, and we couldn’t really complain when it was free.

Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary

The ‘Cosmic Journey’ (which involved walking through a series of gardens giving a very brief history of the universe and life on our planet) was a bit cheesy, but the gardens themselves were very nice and the energy there was pleasant. The gift shop was stocked with lots of naturally made products, including soap and insect repellents, and there were a variety of interesting books about spiritual philosophy for sale. I ended up walking away with a copy of a book about the pre-Christian religious traditions of the tribes of the Cordillera – a subject I had become increasing intrigued by.

Mine’s View

It was just a short jeepney ride away, and the four of us caught a great view of the mountains.

We did, however, have to walk past a tourist trap of street stalls selling various forms of tat on our way down.

Vegetarian Restaurants

Being vegetarian in Philippines has been very frustrating, at times – there have been occasions where I have wandered around towns for what felt like hours, trying to find something without meat in it – but Baguio was definitely an exception to that rule and there was a good variety of places for me and Pedro to eat. ‘Oh My Gulay’ is the restaurant which all the travel guides rave on about, but we actually found the food there a bit bland. There was a Taiwanese style vegetarian restaurant in the food court at SM Mall which was always good for a spot of lunch, and on the final day in the area we discovered a place called ‘Health 100’, which just so happened to be opposite the road from Baguio Village Inn (the guest house most backpackers end up staying at).

The Earthquake

On the morning before we left, we went to Health 100 to eat breakfast and just as we were waiting for our food, the table suddenly began to shake and the floor rumbled. It didn’t last for very long, and I was a bit unsure what was going on at first, but, when I saw the panic-stricken café workers running towards the doorway, I realised that I had just experienced my first earthquake.

Its epicentre was 13 kilometres away from the city, and it was a magnitude of 4.1. Nobody was hurt, so I am actually glad it happened because it was quite an exciting experience.

For more photos from Baguio, click here.