Flying in the dead of the night

The bright lights emanating from the aircraft's lavatory woke me up again. Dang, I should have bought the eye mask I saw earlier on at the shop in LCCT. Flying at night has its perils. We were given AirAsia's first row of Hot Seats - the ones in the middle of the plane. I told Chanchan, "How nice it is to be able to stretch my legs!". And she said "Yeah, wait till you experience people walking past going to the loo." And so, she was right. My sleep disrupted by the bright lights and shuffling of the lavatory shutters. If only I had the eye mask... Talk about being unprepared. Lesson learnt!

While I drifted in and out of my sleep, I noticed the passengers' "airport fashion". I had heard about this term from the Kpop variety shows - whenever celebs are jet-setting, there's a small window of opportunity for fans and papparazzi to catch a glimpse of what the Kpop celebs are wearing. And then, they would make a fuss of the style the celebs bring down from the plane. I took a glance at Chanchan. Her "airport fashion" was a black hoodie over tights and green, army-print sneakers. While her sister had pink boots strapped on. Sound trendy? :D

I believe that some people have compartmentalized in their head, certain clothings to wear when they are boarding a plane. While most of us do it casually, some like it eye-catchy. On the other hand, a handful of  passengers did it in their own stride, wearing sleepwear and bringing pillows; the type you would drool on at home. Respect earned. I would be too shy for that!  As for myself, I had been wearing my fave batgirl Tee, harem pants and a nice chequered stole I got from Uniqlo, KLCC. This piece of warm cloth saved my skin throughout my backpacking trip. (More on that later!)

And so, back to where I was being groggy...I - COULDN'T - SLEEP. The aircon was blowing icy-cold and I sat there observing people going in and out of the lavatories. The sound of toilets flushing was akin to a vacuum. Sucking human waste into a (black hole?). And then my mind started drifting towards how the people at the airport would handle the waste. That's what sleepiness did to me.

Many moments of imaginary thoughts later all going in confusing directions, an announcement came. We were almost reaching our destination. A blonde "angmoh" lady in a black skirt - (yes, a skirt. How could she stand the cold!) was pacing up and down the aisle and doing side lunges to stretch herself. We smiled and said hi while she unabashedly stretched in front of the sleeping couple on my left. Gosh, maybe that's just the shy me being doing such thinking again. I told myself I shouldn't think it looked strange! Everyone should do the same that she did, when they are strapped onto their seats for 8 hours.

Others were still sleeping with their colourful eyemasks on. A few ladies were queueing up with their toothbrushes for their turn to use the lavatory. Another lady came out from the lavatory looking fresh with full makeup on. I was thinking, "Wow.. what sorcery makeup can do."  Couldn't think straight at all. All the nonsense started sprouting again like mushrooms in my head. What I could think of then later on, was SLEEP!  And so I looked to my left. Dawn was approaching. What nice colors the sky has when you are up above the clouds!

While groggy, I did myself a favour and took a photo. Although the color green did not appear in this photo. I swear there was a layer of bright green... the colours were almost the full spectrum of a rainbow. I had hijacked the empty seat next to the girl sleeping in her pink windbreaker and colourful eyemask and this is what I have shot.