Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Anyway, for this one home trip, we took 11 flights, through 11 different airports, on 7 different airlines, in 7 different countries. And all this, just because of the blasted airfares! (And some cool holidays on the way, ahem!) We’ve guessed from the start that the airfares for the trip back home would be high. (After all, this was the first summer break in the UAE since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic which people could travel without the strict COVID-19 restrictions. Plus, my leave coincided with the end of the school year, and the start of the long weekend Eid Al-Adha holidays!) But we never imagined that the tickets would be ...nothing less than an Extortion! - C'mon, 4 FRIGGIN TIMES the pre-COVID rates!?!! You can thank the airlines companies for this. I could almost hear their evil sniggering... “Now's the time for recouping our losses for the past few years, hahaha.”
6,000 friggin dirhams for ONE measly passenger to get to Penang and back!?! That’s close to what we paid for the ENTIRE FAMILY OF 4 prior to COVID! (It was 7K+ I remember for 4 of us – direct flight from Sharjah to KL, then train to Butterworth, and returning by flight from Penang to KL, then KL to Dubai via Brunei). 6K per person would cost us AED 24K!!! (We flew all the way to NZ and back in 2018 with less than that - 20K, and that was on a Cathay Pacific flight!). No way we’re gonna let the airlines do that. The only problem is that there’re very little choices to this. Normally, what we’ll do to overcome this, is to get the flights with a stop, or 2 in between. That usually brings down the price, but this time round, even the flights with stops are friggin over the top. I tried looking for flights to India (there’re scores of low-cost airlines flying between the UAE and India, plus we have lifetime Indian visas, hehe) and getting an Air Asia from India back to Malaysia, to bring down the costs. Heck, the Indian tickets’ airfares (even the low-cost ones) are as high as as the Malaysian ones! If not more!! There’re no Chinese airlines to choose from this time round to bring down the costs, due to China’s ridiculous Zero-COVID strategy (c’mon, the entire world has opened up. What’re you waiting for?) There’re no Saudi stops due to the Haj. There’s a flight with a stop in Sri Lanka for nearly a day, but we don’t fancy participating in the Colombo riots, or being stuck in Sri Lanka with no fuel to get anywhere else. Oh, what about Bangladesh then, sez the missus??
Oh yeah, why not, indeed? (And we can visit a country we’ve never been before, wink! That’s why I love the missus so much!) Oh, here’s one option – Salamair (Oman’s low-cost airlines) has flights to Dhaka for AED 2,300 for the 4 of us! Great! Now, let’s see, there’s Air Asia from Dhaka to KL, or we could fly Biman, Bangladesh’s National Airlines, for only a little more, plus the timing’s better. Alright, that’s done then, Dubai to Dhaka with a stopover in Muscat, Oman. 2 nights in Dhaka, then a flight from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur! Returning would be using a Scoot flight from Penang to Singapore, with a 2-night stopover to spend some time with Jason and family, then a Vistara flight back to Dubai transiting Mumbai! Less than 10K! OK, that’s the best option so far.
So, we got our Bangladeshi visas, we checked and arranged for all the friggin health apps, declarations, what you have… Then came the bombshell. Salamair cancelled our flight! ONE WEEK from the day of the flight! So, we had a mad scramble to find an alternative flight to Bangladesh! Shit, all the flights are even more expensive now! The cheapest tickets from anywhere in the UAE one way to Dhaka is now 8K (for 4 of us) on the same day (and on some crummy low-cost airlines)!! There’re no more Salamair flights to Dhaka until at least 5 days after our original flight date! Hey wait, the flights from the UAE to Kathmandu, Nepal are still reasonable (it’s the monsoon season, not a high season for Nepal, plus Nepal doesn’t celebrate Eid). And flights from Kathmandu to Dhaka are not too bad. No time to waste then, let’s grab it – Kuwait’s low-cost airlines Jazeera Airways from Dubai to Kathmandu, transiting Kuwait. Then, in Kathmandu, we have a 5-hour window to do our transfers for catching a Biman flight to Dhaka. Done then, all booked and ready to go for 4.8K. We have an extra country to get visas, and health declarations, but it's better than paying 3K+ extra. And so, we started our journey…
Jazeera’s flight from Dubai to Kuwait was delayed by an hour. Now big deal, since anyway, we have a 5.5 hours’ wait in Kuwait, till our flight to Nepal. That’ll reduce it to 4.5 hours. No problem. (But little did we know at that time what Jazeera is
And here we are, Terminal 5 of Kuwait’s International Airport, reserved specially for Jazeera Airways. “Our new Jazeera terminal at Kuwait Airport has been designed to enhance your travel experience. Complete with self-service kiosks, parking facilities & more. T5 features a dedicated Customer Service team, self-service kiosks, duty free, dining outlets, complimentary Wi Fi at each gate and more. Our new gateway for Kuwait will make your journey easier and more enjoyable.” The truth can’t be further. If you don’t believe me, go try it yourself.
We were only there for ummmm… 8 friggin hours. Our flight to Kathmandu from Kuwait, was delayed by 4 F#*$in HOURS! The terminal has One Costa Café. One Indian tea and sandwich shop. One Duty Free Shop. One toilet. And like one seat for every 5 passengers! We were lucky we got there early and glued ourselves to some seats near some power sockets (hey, you think our phones are gonna last 8 friggin hours, when it’s about the only entertainment you get?!?) Or we would have to sit on the floor like many other travelers. Also luckily, I brought a book. Many have called it the worst airport, IN THE WORLD. And many have declared that they’d never fly Jazeera. Ever again. (Not us... we may have no choice...)
This is the result of the 4-hour Jazeera flight delay - a day off in Kathmandu, Nepal. Here's the view from our hotel, Hotel Moonlight. The temple on the hill in the photo above is the famous Swayambhunath Temple (which we visited way back in ummm 2010). Thanks to Jazeera’s delay, we bloody missed our connecting flight from Kathmandu to Dhaka, despite our mad rush. We cleared Nepal immigration in record time (I think like 15 minutes), by persuading everyone to let us go first, but then we had to wait for the bloody luggage, which took only about an hour to come out. Thanks also to Jazeera, I had an intense workout pushing the damn luggage trolley up the damn ramp from the Arrival Terminal to Departure Terminal of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport. By the time we got to the check-in counter of our flight out of Kathmandu, I was red and sweating profusely. And the counter had closed, with no one in sight. (Hey people! Where are you? We reached there 5 minutes before the flight time!) We spent the next hour or two roaming around the airport looking for some, any Biman Airlines staff to assist. Finally, some staff came back (there were all assisting the flight take off), and the lovely missus smooth-talked some officers into helping us get the next flight to Bangladesh (on the next day), for just a cancellation and rebooking fee of USD 40 per person. Whew!
Nah, here’s another view of Nepal – Nagarkot, a hill station near Kathmandu
Finally, Bangladesh. Thanks again to Jazeera, we had to cut short our Dhaka stay from 2 nights, to only one night. Luckily, the hotel (Raintree Dhaka), had a free cancellation policy of up to the day of arrival, and they graciously accepted our cancellation request, without any charges. Kudos to Mr Suman Dey, the manager!
Guess where this is?! China? India? Nah, this is Hob Nob Café, in Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Here’s us with the Bangladesh side of the family! Surprised?? Yeah, we have some Bangla links! Anu has some long-lost cousins on his father’s side in Bangladesh. We’ve met some of them before, years ago, when they visited us in our Silchar home in Assam, India, when we were there. They’re not exactly from Dhaka city. Their home, Sreemangal is near the Indian border, about 180km from Dhaka, but they came all the way just to meet us! What a privilege!
Breakfast at the Raintree Dhaka, Bangladesh – That red shirt that I’m wearing is a gift from the Bangladeshi family. Dhonnobad!
From here onwards, our plan went smoothly. Thank God. Next stop, Kuala Lumpur. (To be continued…)
