The moment you step on the ground of the foreign country, you must follow the follow the rule of foreign country.
Always prepare your abaya and head scarf. Put on the abaya before you step out from your plane.
Of course, in this foreign country big city, is more lenient, i do not need to cover the hair completely. However, always bring along a scarf in case the religious officers aka muttawa are around or on-duty.
What to expect in the airport?
1) Fill up the white card before you go line up at the custom counter. Make sure you have blue pen with you. Most of the official documents here required you to use blue pen instead of black pen.
2) Expect to stand in line for looooooonnnnnngggggggg time.... The custom officers may take their own sweet time talking to each other or frequent coffee break or even just sit around linger. They will not speed up their work just because there are millions of people awaiting to pass the custom gates....
3) Expect to read certain body languages or expressions for certain instructions because half of the time, you can only communicate with broken English....
4) Never walk to another line just because the line is fast and shorter than your current one, because the officer will ask you to return to your original line, but you need to start all over again from the back of the line.
5) Expect to put your fingers on the scanner for another looooonnnnngggg time because the system may work at 1/2 horse power, or the officers may want their coffee break, or the officers may want to great every of their habibis who past by their counters. Imagine there are ten habibis past by their counter, you will see 40 pecks of kisses over their cheeks, with your fingers still on the scanner.... Life is great... don't you think so... They will ask you to put your left 4 fingers, then follow with the right 4 fingers follow with both thumbs....
6) THIS IS FREAKING IMPORTANT-----> DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE YOUR HEAD SCARFS AND SMILE AS SWEET AS POSSIBLE WHEN THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE YOUR PICTURE AT THE CUSTOM COUNTER BECAUSE THAT AFTER-SIX-HOURS-IN-PLANE LOOK WILL FOLLOW YOU FOREVER TILL YOU DECIDE TO LEAVE THE KINGDOM FOR GOOD.... (In another word, go to washroom to freshen up your face first, put on some concealer and lipstick before you line up at the custom counter)
7) NEVER LET THE PORTER CARRY YOUR LUGGAGE OR TOUCH YOUR TROLLEY, OR ELSE YOU HAVE TO TIP THEM.... AND YOU WILL FEEL THEY JUST CUT YOUR FLESH WHEN THEY WANT AT LEAST SR10 FOR PUSHING THE DAMN TROLLEY FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE ENTRANCE. WHAT CAN I DO, I AM A CHEAPO MALAYSIAN - TIPPING IS NOT MY CUP OF TEA YET...
8) Bring out the recruitment company tag and wear it so that the person who are in charge to fetch you will recognise you immediately. The local guy looks like serial killer when he saw my tag. Obviously he waited for us very long....
9) Do not forget to refill your water in the plane because a bottle of 500ml Evian will costs you SR5.... and dammit, i left my bottle in my trolley.... there goes my SR5... -----> Once again, i am a cheap Malaysian.....
10) Last but not least, always expect with humour.... Laugh at it quietly in your heart. I find it funny when i watched my custom officers kissed 5 guys' cheeks in one night.... The sound of the kisses still ringing in my ears.....
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