Journey to Venezuela

We departed Singapore on Friday to Venezuela. First leg of the journey will be 12 hours flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Having prebooked our seating arrangement for bulkhead seats, I took comfort in the idea of being able to stretchJo my legs and enjoy the in-flight entertainment. The moment we stepped into the aircraft, all my wishes vanished. The air plane doesn’t have individual screen and the so called bulkhead seats the smart travel agent had booked was the row behind the emergency exit seats. Think he needs to go for serious refresher course! The next best thing that happened was we are seated with the other chief officer who happened to be on the same flight. All thanks to the TA once again as he must be the one who prebooked his seating too. Mao gave me the window seat which as compared was slightly more spacious and as result he got sandwiched between me and the CO. Poor CO doesn’t know that the guy who he played snatching the armrest with is gonna be his worst nightmare for the next four months. Therefore in his best interest we didn’t reveal our identity… or the poor guy would be rigid for the 12hours flight.
Arriving Frankfurt airport in the wee hours of the morning, we had a six hour transit ahead of us. My mission here at the airport was to go shower! With people all around us wearing warm clothing and carrying woolen. Mao and I set out for the mission of locating the shower rooms. As expected its empty, we paid Usd8 per entry and its bath time!!! Feeling nice and fresh after shower, we went to grab something to eat. After food we started our private tour of two of the airport grounds. Saw Hanutas selling at the store and for the first time I bought my own Hanutas (Previously Hanutas were courtesy from Michael and Drey) J
Finally arriving Caracas, Venezuela after another 12hours flight. We made our way to the immigration clearance for seamen. Most of the time while clearing customs, we are always standing at the counter. But over here for once we are seated. While the officer went through our papers, am sitting there sipping my coke. Hee hee
After collecting our baggage we spotted the local agent at the gate. While we were hoping that we could check into the hotel for a night rest before boarding the vessel. The agent broke the ‘wonderful news’ to us that indeed we don’t have to go to the vessel now cos we have another flight sector awaiting us. Jesus Christ, another plane ride and familiarization of the airport! This domestic flight from Caracas to Barcelona will take an hour and we have 4hours to kill again. Little did we know that the flight was delayed in the end and our gate was the only one left in the whole domestic airport still waiting to board after all stores and gates have closed. If the CO and the 3rd Engineer are not travelling with us, I would have lay on the floor and catch a shuteye. Totally tired and not able to stretch out and rest… torturous.
Getting into Barcelona Airport marked the end of our plane journey (phew… sigh of relief). Our wishes came through as well for the hotel stay which I regretted wishing so hard for later. Cos the hotel sucks… we have a room at the so called penth house (7th floor). However our suite was like those rooms that you saw in those old Shanghai movies. Miserable old bed, antique hot water flask with two kopi tiam glasses… Cool right?
At 7am in the morning when we woke, we realized that there’s no electricity and water running! Praise the lord! We tried our best to wash up using our rationed mineral water bottle. My darling Mao even managed to shave! Then we proceeded down for breakie. People often have candle light dinner, Mao and I have our candle light breakfast… Hahaha
After breakie we hung around as long as we could as both dread the climb of the stairs back to our penthouse suite. If the water and electricity don’t resume… we would not be able to bathe and we gonna have a hard time dragging our heavy luggages down. Only after going for a walk outside we realized that the whole town have no electricity and water. Cant tell you how much I miss my country and how proud of my country I am now.