How to Survive a 13-Hour Wait for Departure
- By Jane Henninger
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- 16 Jul, 2023
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Making and surviving multiple cultural gaffs
How to handle an interesting situation. We were told to check out from the hotel by noon. However, our flight to Kuala Lumpur did not leave until 1:35 AM the next morning.
We packed up, left our luggage at the hotel storage and walked to a traditional Arab restaurant about a mile away; one way to get exercise. We thought we had missed it, but the manager of the Chili’s provided the final distance details and to keep going. At the Al Saddah Restaurant counter, we ordered the ubiquitous, Arab chicken and rice. The eating enclosures did not contain tables, but were divided, large cubicles where you sat cross-legged, on a carpeted floor, as if on a picnic blanket. Our food, a roasted half chicken with sauce and a large serving of steamed rice for each, was served on separate plastic sheets. Utensils were optional in the Arabian camp tradition.
We said a quiet blessing, before we dug in. The cubicles around us began filling with men, both staff and patrons, who were observing their noon prayers, led by one individual. Watching them change from standing, to bowing, to kneeling, to abject prayer and back, as they softly recited the required prayers, was an intriguing display. I thought of our Anglican and Catholic brethren or our other Protestants with standing and sitting.
When we finished our meal, the waiter came in and disposed of the food by placing it on the plastic sheet and by gathering all together with great efficiency.
Our entire meal was a cultural education. As we left, I noticed a side doorway marked “Family Entryway” which was unnoticed on the way inside. Likely, I was not supposed to be in the proper restaurant with the men, but nobody corrected us. The hotel staff explained some of the Muslim strictures for separating men and women in public are less strictly enforced under the ruling prince.
We returned by taxi to the hotel to wait in the lobby until the time to take another taxi to the airport. In the lobby, Don and I fell asleep while reading our tablets. Oops! The nice Egyptian desk manager, whom we had met earlier, approached us, offered us, at no cost, to go back into the room for rest, and to check out at 5PM. We accepted and took a siesta. I considered an an extra extension of service.
We arrived at the airport, thinking we had plenty of
time for our check in and to make our flight. But, again, long lines and plenty of waiting were required to check in our baggage and receive our tickets. The immigration check out and security screening went rapidly, which allowed a break for a bite of food and a wait for boarding.
I had just cleared my 70th country.
A composite of several encounters in our first 6 months of this yearlong adventure.
Therefore, we are changing out postings to almost exclusively show photographic images with short captions while seeking to post more days to make up for our almost 2 month backlog.
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I had bought a birthday card for him that I actually knew where it was and had it for the trip, but it was about camping and it was supposed to be when were in New Zealand or Australia. I bought it a good year before the trip. At least I had a card for him.
Today we are taking a Thai cooking class at a farm where they grow some of the produce. We are going to a market before to learn what the local products are. Don loves taking pictures at markets so this will be a good start to his day.
After our now standard noodle breakfast, we engaged a local taxi driver to take us outside the ancient city walls with their protective moat to both Wat Umong, the Tunnel Temple, and Wat Sri Suphan, the Silver Temple. After breakfast there were two other Wats I wanted to see. One was the silver wat and the other was outside the old city in caves on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. We got a cab to take us to the cave one and had him wait so he could take us to the one in town.
We cleaned up after playing with the elephants in the river and went to check out several local Buddhist Temples of interest.
On the way back to the hotel yesterday, July 20th, we had discovered Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang almost in the middle of the street, but Don had been too tired to appreciate it and he did not take any pictures, then.
