As usual, this year would be the 6th times that I had been assigned to designed and lead our company’s trip after Langkawi(2003), Tioman(2004), Redang(2005) , Pangkor(2006) and Penang(2007).
This Kuching’s trip is the most expensive trip that I had ever organized with RM800.00 per person consisting of 29 staff all together. Half of the cost goes to the flight tickets while the other half goes to the ground arrangements cost.
Our flight were supposed to be at 7pm was being re-timed to 9pm. All participant gathered at LCCT at 7pm and after we took our dinner, we did the normal check-in process.
An incident that I think would be the first for Air Asia throughout its operations happened that night involving my group. After boading the aircraft and had chosen my seat, one of my participant reported that there were still 3 staff that was not on the plane. I asked permission from the air stewardess to go back to the ground to look for them and she gaveme the permission. Once myself was on the ground, I saw that something was not right happened just a few feet away from the boarding gate. 3 of my staff were being surrounded by Air Asia crew. I sensed trouble and directly went towards them to makes queries and hopefully to settle any matter arises. The first thing that I did was asking my staff of what had happened and why they were still not boarding the aircraft. One of them mentioned that his Identity Card had accidently dropped in the drain just outside the gate. I looked at the drain and straightly I knew that this would be a trouble matter to be solved. The drain is very narrow and deep. I think it would be less than 10 inches wide and about 2 meters deep. My staff told me that the Air Asia officer won’t let him go into the plane as he will surely not be given the permission to enter Kuching without a proper Idenfication Card. I asked the officer to give us a few minutes chance to try our best to get the ID Card out from the drain. He nodded and then we tried. Almost all of the Air Asia Ground Crew helped us that night. They even provide us with torchlight and long stick to bring the ID Card that can already been seen out. We tried almost more than 10 minutes and it is time for the plane to depart. The officer insisted myself and 2 others staff to board the plane while the staff that had dropped his ID Card to go to nearest Police station to make a lost report, get the report and board a next day flight. I can’t let this thing happened and asked the Officer to talk to the pilot to give us another last 10 minutes to get the ID Card. While the officer walked to the plane to asked the Captain, one of the Air Asia Ground Crew found a way for a human being to get into the drain which is situated almost 30 meters away from where the ID Card dropped. He went in and walk slowly towards the ID Card and at last he managed to get the card and handed it to my staff while he was still inside the drain. We can’t really shakes his hand to appreciate his effort because once we had the card, we were told to get into the plane as soon as possible. Once we walked into the plane, most of the passenger claps their hand towards us. I can’t really judge either the claps were sincerely meant or the other way round. Due to this, the flight that was already 2 hours re-timed being delayed for another 15 minutes. On behalf of the group, I wanted to make an official apologize to all the passenger (AK5214, 30th April 2008), to praise with many thanks to the Captain of that flight and of course to awarded credit to all the Groud Crew that had given us the helping hands to enable my staff to fly to Kuching that night. They had shown the quality of service to do something extraordinary for us the passenger although they can just mighy ignore us and strictly denied my staff to board the plane. A salute to you guys !!!
Well, we reached Kuching and being welcomed by another incident with the Immigration’s Department. Another participant being denied to enter Kuching as she was only bringing an official report of her lost ID Card. I can’t believe this. This report is an official report and receipt from the Registration Department of Malaysia and still she had been denied to enter Kuching. This one officer were very rude in asking and I did not notice even a smile from his face while interogating the matter. I had to beg him a few times to let this participant in before we gave us the green light. He did not have at all the spirit of respecting tourist and with Malaysia aggresively promoting tourism, this attitude may jeapordize the campaign. In fact, we are Malaysian also.
Our host that night was Miss Cornie from the travel agent that we had appointed. A brief intros and greetings from her conducted on the tour coach. We checked into the Kuching Harbor View hotel and straightly went to sleep, might due to the tiredness.
The next day, we did our City Tour (visited Kuching’s Tower, Sarawak’s Vase Factory, Cat Monument and Layered Cake Factory) and in the evening was the free and easy activities. Most of us did our shopping while myself and another 3 staff gathered together and taking the boat ride along the Sarawak River. It cost us RM30.00 for an hour slow cruise. We had our dinner at Saddat Restaurant in the middle of Kuching’s town. They served good halal chinesse style food mixed with local foods as well. The owner is a local muslim while the chef said to be a chinese chef.
Our 3rd day in Kuching, we went to the Sawarak Cultural Village. This is a must visit place if you are here in Kuching. All of us were given a ‘passport’ and every traditional or local tribe’s houses visited, the ‘passport’ will be stamped. The highlight of this visit was the 40 minutes cultural show which really entertained us all. From here, we visited Damai Beach Resort and took some photos here before headed back to Kuching. Of course the evening session would be our free and easy activities and this time it times for myself to shops for a few items/souvenirs to bring back to Melaka.
On the last day, we woke up early to visit the Malaysian-Indonesian border village Serikin. Here we visited the famous Serikin Market and some of us did their shopping here too. As for myself, surprisingly, I didn’t buy anything. 
From Serikin, we went back to the hotel and did our check out. After check out, we went to the Kuching Museum and after that to the Satok Wet Market to buy some famous ‘Sarawak Salted Fish’ or local called it as ‘Ikan Terubuk Masin Sarawak’. Here I had a chance to eat the local dishes called ‘mee kolok sapi’ or ‘kolok noodles with beef’ (I guess). It’s very delicious indeed.
From Satok, the tour coach brought us to the airport. I did the checking in process and everything went smoothly. I was afraid of our baggage limit might burst as most of us did a very ‘crazy’ shopping activities but luckily the combined weight were below the limit. The maximum limit per person is 15kg only.
We reached LCC Terminal somewhere at 9pm and I reached home at 11pm around that.
This trip can be considered as a successful trip as I sincerly admit that I did not really spend much time in planning the trip due to my heavy work commitment. This trip also seen the most participant being hospitalized after the event due to high-fever and almost 11 staff took MCs after getting back from the trip. We realized that the weather was not really that good during our trip, very hot and humid.
Next year, our target is either to visit the Cameron Highland in Pahang or Labuan Island in Sabah.
In Memory – My wife late grandmother’s house in Alor Rambai, Jitra, Kedah. I took this photo just before we went back to Melaka.
Plus, I didn’t do my practices at all and I think I had forgetten some of the moves.
