Planes, trains and a disaster holiday

LILA SELING MABO

Sat 24/7/2022 -30/7/2022 Holiday

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I was about to leave the house for the airport, and I received  a phone call from the travel agency, who told me that there was an issue going on with my flight ticket.

I checked the website of The Etihad Airways Company and the passenger information but everything was fine according to them. I had no doubt that I would experience ticket problems.

The travel agency kept blaming the company that the airline had not given a seat for your flight today and suggested to me to contact Head office of the plane company so I contacted the main information centre and spoke with a range of staff members.

I had my seats confirmed from LHR to AUH but there wasn’t any seat booked from AUH to KTM. I contacted the agency again and explained to him and asked for another seat for Nepal. He was still not sure about the seat and texted me another contact number of the flight information centre to give help give some pressure to them from the passenger.

 I was meant to fly a week ago but I delayed my flight and time according to the request of the travel agency. This was due to not having enough seats on a very long 30 hour transit flight.

I wanted to go with only one stop because I was going away with my child. I discussed with him about all the changes made from him and still not sure about my seat for KTM.

I asked my daughter to call the flight office and they said that my travel agency has not booked a ticket from AUH to KTM and I was urged to contact the travel agency  for the next destination and  come to the  airport.

I recorded the voice of the staff from the office and sent it to the travel agency. I also contacted him and asked him but he said that  Etihad airways  were being a lot of trouble and it was the  company’s mistake.

My daughter also discussed with the agency and stated that it’s not fair, and asked why you did not book the seats properly for my mum and brother. He said that it’s the Airways mistake and the plane is now suspended from AUH to KTM ahhh…

My daughter contacted every member of staff and everyone was saying  the same thing. That the ticket was not booked and yet your mum’s ticket has been issued has been for a long time according to the staff.

My son and I ate food, and we were all packed and ready to go. We had finally closed our small suitcase and carry on bag. Our other three pieces of luggage were taken in my brother’s car the previous night, to go to the airport because my husband had to attend a relative’s wedding ceremony. I printed out the Covid pass certificate and filled in the arrival form for Nepal to make it easy for when we get to my home land.

Time was flying very fast, but still we kept discussing the flight ticket. I requested to the Airways company to book 2 tickets from AUH to KTM and I was happy to pay any extra money. The head office said that we have tickets but you have to tell your travel agency to book ticket for you then come back to us. I asked to the travel agency that could they please book the tickets now because the airline has seats now but he replied to me that, why they didn’t book for you? They shouldn’t wait for me.

I actually booked the flight tickets a few months ago to secure my tickets from the travel agency. I feel that the travel agency and Etihad Airways have deceived me very badly throughout this whole experience. I normally book my tickets for my flights online, but this time I thought I would support a business and chose an agency to do it for me. This is the very first time I have chosen an agency.

The Travel agency suggested to me that i better not go at this time of year and I said what a silly opinion, I had to wait for one week  on your  request. If you had told me this before I would have look online and have already gone to Nepal its waste of my time here because of this silly company.

We finally agreed to cancel this plane and started to look for another flight ticket for Nepal but it was very difficult to get a ticket at this time. I found  only one traveller seat and it was double amount of money but I have a child to take with me so one ticket is not suitable for me.

I discussed with the family and my siblings online, and all of them suggested to me, not to go, at the last minute.

It was a very stressful day, because of the issues with the flight and travel agency.

My son said that I had only slept for 4 hours because I wanted to sleep on the plane mum. My eldest daughter had another new fur baby, all the family welcomed a new kitten, and we decided to call him, Nuba. Nuba means handsome in Limbu language, mainly due to his black fur and pretty face.

My son said that at least we got a new cat, although we couldn’t go on holiday. The children and family were very excited and with some help with someone carrying our old cat, we began to try and introduce them to each other. I felt very emotional after the day and went to bed.

Sunday 24/7/2022

I couldn’t sleep very well throughout the whole night and woke up early in the morning. I contacted my parents and told them that I’m very sorry.

Everyone had already gathered at my house to welcome me and say good bye to my youngest sister, sisters and sister-in-law and they were saying that they were very excited to see us.

Mum said that I was praying with God for your safe journey, these words made feel very emotional  because we were going to celebrate one of our important festivals Saune Sakranti (sisekpa tangnam) with all our siblings and parents  after 22 years.

I also had just one night to see my youngest sister before she was going back to HK after the end of her holiday. Apart from that I made many plans to meet my relatives from both sides to introduce them to my child as  family interaction are very important at this time.

Immediately, I discussed with my husband and daughters and they suggested me to go on holiday in Europe so started to book a hotel .

We booked hotel in France near Paris for a few nights then started to look at travel tickets. Unfortunately, there was no tickets available and also there was a railway strike at  the same day on 27/7/2022. It was a very frustrating day for my son and me.  We went to a relative’s baby weaning ceremony after these problematic situations.

Monday 25/7/2022

I Woke up early in the morning with a grumpy face and started to think how to travel to France, sometimes we thought to go by car, train or by  aeroplane to France. But we checked everything and none of the options were great for that date.

Suddenly I changed my mind and began to look for holidays to Spain. One of our relative sisters was also available and wanted to go with us

We searched for many places and found cheap and affordable price and booked the flight, that included the hotel.

We prepared our small baggage and small hand carry bag picked up the other person form her house and we got ready to go to the Airport.

With regards to Covid-19 test, my husband tested and was found to have a positive result. It was another upsetting event. After that I decided not to go for a while, but my daughters and other friend said that just let’s go without him because the cost was non-refundable and  money would be wasted.

We left the house at 2 am to Stansted international airport which was 2 hours away from our home, this is because our flight was at 6.30 am.  It took 2 hour 40 minutes to land in Corvera international airport Spain. We went by taxi to hotel it took an hour to get Guardamar del Segura .Myself and my other friend don’t know any word of Spanish only 14 years old my son speaks a little bit this language, because he was taught it at  school.

I asked the taxi driver what is your name, he put my voice on google translator’s  3 times still he didn’t understand. He dropped us up in the hotel and we asked his mobile number  for the next time to drop in airport he couldn’t understand again.

Once we got to the room in the  hotel, we immediately changed our cloths and then went out to the El Moncayo beach. This was in the town of Guardamar del Segura, this beach  has  fine golden sand and it’s   halfway between the town and the dunes at the southern end.  There were beach bars in the area. Tourists were having great fun like they are on top of the world

The beach has a lifeguard, lounges for hire, and taps for washing sandy feet.   We came back from the beach then went to the swimming pool which is inside the hotel it had very beautiful and luxurious pool.

The food was in the style of a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was very nice, and tasted very nice. It was very nice to enjoy it. The weather was over 33 degree Celsius and was very hot.

We visited many places in Gardamar, such as Gardamar castle, church, museum and many places with archaeological significances.

We weren’t aware of the shops closing during the day time, town, cities are all quiet apart from the seaside.

We couldn’t find a taxi during the lunch time so we used the bus service to get into the main town to visit the main tourist places. Shops, bar, restaurants and all offices open from 5.30 pm after lunch but we did not know this.

We went to Reina Sofia Park it was quite a long time until it opens the castle, museum and shops. It was very beautiful with its nature, there was various kinds of chicken, hens, birds, peacock, tortoise and water fall which attracts the tourists.

It was funny that most of people are having a rest inside the house but we had to lay down on the ground in the hot 33-degree weather for around 4 hours. It was an amazing experience that we had and then we went to Castell (El Castell). This Castle is located in the top area of the town and can view of sea and land lock of the whole Spain.

The museum has collected many old historic elements and documents. I spotted many hand made indigenous pottery because the world’s indigenous day is coming soon. This picture was taken in Castle (El Castell).

We came back to the hotel at 8.30 pm and had some delicious food, they display the food very nicely, and I had a lot of fish items, especially cooked salmon.

After another beautiful morning, we had a nice breakfast and went to pool and lying down on a mat under the bamboo umbrella.

The birds were chirping, sky was clear blue and the sun was getting hot but I was feeling like I was in Heaven.

We went to the beach again for our final splash in the sea waves.

Meeting and talking with other people in the reception area of the hotel was so funny because no body understood each other.

I said to them, how are you? And how beautiful you are and they were just smiling and nodding their heads. Finally, my son tried very hard to translate but still didn’t understand.

The Spanish language is problematic and it reminded me of the first time I came to the UK and how our parents are still suffering from language barrier problems in the UK now.

I also felt I had a total lack of understanding, regarding the inability to understand what people where saying. I felt useless, and couldn’t stay in a place without any Spanish language skills although I did have fun.

Only one receptionist understood the English language, I used to feel secure when she was in so we request that she called the taxi for us . The taxi man came, we showed him our airport ticket and he drooped us at the airport in Alicante. Only my son speaks a little bit of Spanish so I trusted him fully and thought he told the taxi correctly. We did not realize that he dropped us in the wrong airport after 2 hours.

We went to the help desk and asked but couldn’t understand us. We felt bad for while but we still had enough time so took another taxi and went to the right airport. It took us 2 hours from the wrong airport to the correct place.

We finally landed safely at 11pm and arrived home at 2am and went to bed.

When we woke up, the next day we decided to unpack out suitcases and take our COVID tests for after the holiday. When, my son and I took our tests, we found out that we were positive. This is the third time we have had COVID, both before and after our vaccines.

The positive results, sums up a very stressful time, of trying to have a holiday, whether it was suppose to be to Nepal or Spain. Nothing has gone smoothly.

Whilst we were stuck inside with COVID our whole family was able to watch England create history by the woman’s England football team. The woman team went onto win Euro 2022 final against Germany.

It shows that woman’s equality is getting better, and producing positive role models to younger females especially in a male dominated sport. More men watched the Euro female 2022 finals than ever before, and more men have come out to support the female sport.