Gonna go back home later on a 2 1/2 hours of bus travel... Sigh...
Just realized that I've been travelling back home like this for years. During my uni days (hah, sound like it's been so long!), i couldn't afford to travel back home every weekends/month. Too far away and the only transport available is airplane. So, I went back twice or a year, sometimes during holidays, sometimes during term break.
Remembering back then, we students are really good in calculating the lowest expenditures to go back home.. Many of us had actually mastered all the required skills (accounting and planning skills) and can easily passed off as travel agents or accountants. We even mastered our acting skills especially to the staffs in airlines booking agency and airports (it's due to the fact that we are almost certain to bring overweight luggage every time we stepped on an airplane)..
The whole process of getting back to home is a complex process. Therefore, a simple error in calculating is definitely unforgivable. I'll try to explain how it's basically done.
1) Booking tickets
It's never easy as we need to consider alot of factors. Dates of the term break, length of the holidays, examination schedules, promotion in Air Asia, standby tickets available in MAS, and even the availability of friends (or simply any students that we met) to form a group to get cheaper fares. Then particularly for Air Asia, we are constantly aware of every single promotions they have. Everytime we saw something like 9.99, 19.99, 29.99 and so forth right up to 99.99, we'll raced to death to the ticketing agency in the city or simply try to find the fastest connection to the internet (online booking of course!!). Sound simple, trust me do not underestimate the power of desperate students. So, after the gruelling race, tickets are bought, good... what's next?
2) Journey to the airport
Ah...the journey to the airport. Sound boring huh? NEVER!. The mode of transport determine every single cent that we can save (for the next trip back..). A cab or a bus? Friends? And if we decide to rent a car, which agent?? Who's gonna drive? What type of car do we need (it does matter to choose between a Kancil and a Kelisa, you know)? How much do we have to put aside for petrol? How much time do we have (between the time of the final class/exam and the flight, and therefore how long do we need to rent the car) ? See... it's not as simple as ABC, it demands a lot of careful planning. Any mistakes here will be disastrous. I have seen some friends who miscalculated the time and ended up spending more than they should or worse still, they missed the flight
3) Luggage
How many boxes should we bring? How heavy is the total luggage? Which ones should we put as hand carry? Is there any friends to could share the weight of our luggage? What about posting it instead? Air mail, sea mail, express mail????! ARGGGGHHH! You get the idea. In the airport, it depends on how good you are in persuading the staffs to actually let you in without paying any extra fees. How did we do that? Here comes the "The Attraction of The Opposite Theory". For gals, they'll prefer male staff as it's easier to charm them than the ladies. For guys, it's the opposite. Apart from the theory itself, the acting skills played a great deal to actually seal the deal. Some may succeed but others failed. Nevertheless, trust me, i've seen a lot of Oscar winning materials here.
4) Lastly, after the holidays end, the journey back to campus is as exhilirating as going back home. All the 1st 3 steps will be repeated time after time. And as soon as we step back to the campus, we're hunting for the next flight home again.
Interesting isn't it? For this, I'm highly recommending to all the employers who are looking for people to manage their financial planning, or event planning, or even further down to the theatrette companies, please consider these wonderful students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah(Which by the way, this includes me..); for they have mastered all the skills needed through the simple deed of going back home.
*Particularly for Tony Fernandez in Air Asia, you might want to take a look at these potential employees as they know all you companies' trades, rules and regulations like their back of their hands. And foremost, they did this without any formal training from your airline company. Oh...I think I've spotted some of "Brad Pitt" and "Gisele Bundchen" materials here.
And for the future UMS graduates, please stay up to your reputation of your fellow seniors who work real hard for this recognition. So, that's all for now. Case closed
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