The only thing I quite don’t like from traveling is flying. I already hate the part where I have to go to the airport, 2 hours before taking off, just to find out that taking off is delayed for another 2 hours. Great! My husband, who is born and bred French, who takes the deliciously comfortable (and expensive) TGV for whatever destination in Europe, is a newby in flying. So when we met for the first time in France, he asked me, curiously: “When you took the plane from Jakarta to Paris, was it your first flight?”. Unfortunately, NO. I, as someone who was born and lived in the biggest archipelago in the world, couldn’t avoid flying (well, I could. But seriously, taking bus in the Indonesian highways? Not to mention the overloaded boats with no safety jackets? No, thank you. Not that Indonesian air companies are much safer, but at least I got to point A to B faster, which in my irrational logic, reduces the TIME where I could be in an accident).
As a matter of fact, I have been flying more often than I would like to. I have tried the air company with the stewardesses so so genuinely nice (seriously, I love flying Malaysia Airlines), to the cheapest ones who never allow you to bring food from outside the plane, but instead insist that you have to buy their VERY overpriced sandwiches. I have had delayed flights, been ignored completely by the airport staffs as if I had been invisible (in Charles de Gaulle, where else?), enjoyed the most coffee-smelled airport in the world (ah Changi Airport, I only keep good memories about you), flown pregnant against my doctor’s suggestion, and spent many, MANY of boring hours on board, over the international seas.
I guess I’m a lucky flier. I have never had a super-fat-guy-who-just-had-big-amount-of-tacos-at-lunch aside of me. I have never lost my bagages (knock on wood), although my bags are always the last ones on the rolling thingy (er… how do you call it? I guess oficially they call it a caroussel). I have never had to stay overnight in a cold airport, er… 7 hours don’t count, right? And I have been lucky to have the best airplane staff when I was flying pregnant and a year later, when I was flying alone with my 9 month old baby (again, I heart Malaysia Airlines).
But you know, even then, I still think that flying sucks. Having to squish my butt in a small seat and not being able to stretch my legs… And the weird pee-pee smell in some planes. And the delays. And the waiting. And the bad food (when there’s some). And the getting lost in the HUGE airports while you have the worst jet lag in history. And the part where you pass the security check and have to take off your shoes. And the hours of insomnia because you just can’t sleep while being squished in your small seat… Gosh…!! Seriously, I love travelling. But when I can, I prefer taking the TGV (God bless you, whoever you are who invented the TGV).
PS: No air company paid me to be mentioned in this blog post. But they are wellcome if they want to 
