The guy that ruined it for everyone

I’m in layover hell – KL (Kuala Lumpur) airport at 10pm on a Tuesday is a pretty surreal place. There is free wifi, that’s a good thing, it’ll keep me occupied for the next six, yes – S I X hours that I have to wait for my next 8hr flight to Doha, followed by 6hrs in the airport and the final 3hrs to Cairo. That will get me there sometime next week, just before tea time. So what makes it surreal? Well the airport is all but deserted, save for a DJ spinning music – apparently he’s an 80’s hair metal fan – Guns and Roses was cranking as I arrived in the arrivals hall, followed by Van Halen and then some AC/DC just to set the mood – odd, very odd. Awesome in an acid wash-mullet flowing sort of way, but still odd.

The real highlight however was in Immigration. It’s rare that Immigration can be a highlight, but I saw something that has got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in an airport. Some guy was so drunk I don’t quite know how he was able to stand. He was Scottish (appropriate) and had obviously been dabbling in the dram on the flight over. He was flanked by two Malaysian customs officers who had an arm under each of his in an effort to keep him upright. As he approached the counter he almost elbowed one of them in the face as he flamboyantly threw his passport down onto the counter. The immigration guy stamped his passport – purely in an effort to just get the guy outta there and become somebody else’s problem. Mr. Drunk was so stoked that he’d been let in he offered up a high-five to the immigration officer, amazingly he declined – what a stickler (music update: Lionel Ritchie: All Night Long (live) - awesome!) as he was sort of shoved through the threshold into Malaysia he tried to hug the other immigration guy that was holding him up. It was absolutely classic – I’m sure he’s around here someplace, having a quiet pint and enjoying the tunes…

Sometime in the not too distant future they will ban booze on flights (or more realistically) make you start having to pay for it – some will blame changing time and the economic downturn – I will blame this guy.

Cheers from a very odd night in KL…
SK