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it’s the time of the year again when all russian medical students come back to msia for their summer holiday…

it’s been rather smooth sailing for me in this 4th year….altho there were alot of killer exams…

just when i thought everything is going as planned and it would be another perect year without any obstacles…..well, russia being russia, never fails to surprise me with some unexpected stuff….preventing me from being too happy….remind me why i hate this place so much when i came here in first year….(just when i was beginning to like this place…..sigh….)

you know, things which i would expect to give me some problem, unexpectedly went pretty smoothly…..my exam was ok, the deans did not give me any problem with the visa….and the weather in this summer this year round was surprisingly kinda cooling….

the only problem was, up to the day before our flight, we still did not have the tickets yet!!!

ok…if the above statement did not give you the idea of how serious this is, the following explaination might give u some clue…

russia is NOTa place a malaysian wanna stay for summer…..life in russia in summer is not fun at all without the academic stuff…..coz if u are not studying…there’s pretty much nothing u can do there…the food is….err….unimaginable by whoever who has not been to russia…the summer is hot….the hostel is empty…..and one can go crazy just by staying in the room doing nothing…i know i almost did….

this is the first time after my exam i did not rush to go back home. instead i allocate 1 week after it before i go home. i seriously regreted making that decision…it’s the worst decision i;ve made in russia, besides choosing to go there in the first place…haha.(kidding..i kinda like this place now..)

thus i get to enjoy the luxury of doing nothing…..NOT!! besides getting bored of the nothingness, i still have to worry about my air tickets….

from the past experience…..as any msian medical students here would know…going back to msia is like a big project for the students here….some even make it the sole purpose staying in russia—-waiting to go back home…and as russia, still being in the transition period between communism and capitalism, makes this "project" a challenging one for malaysians….esp when the amount of students keeps increasing from year to year… 

ok cut the crap…..on with the tragedy……

it all started in February after coming back from traveling in Vienna, when we booked our air tickets with Egypt Air via Alamin Travel. The deal was that they issue our e tickets  within a few days and we give bank in money later….

Day after day we waited and they did not issue our ticket. From February we waited till April…..and still there was no news from them.

We decided to changed agent because they did no keep their promise. And that’s the beginning of our tragedy back here to Malaysia….

At first we decided to take Qatar instead of Egyptair because it was relatively cheaper, and the agent said that there’s no problem with that airline because he has full access to the seats of that airline. he did booked our flight, and sent us our reference number, which when we checked at first, all flights were confirmed….and the only thing was to wait for the agent to come to collect the money and give us the tickets.

Day after day we waited….up till end of may (1 month before our flight), we were suddenly informed that there’s a problem with our bookings. the earliest date we could get for our returning back to Russia is 21th September…..i mean what the heck……..that’s 3 weeks of missing classes….and I’m gonna work much more to make up for the missing classes if I were to come back that late..

So the agent (his name is Azad, by the way), gave us an alternative, which was Emirates which has the date we want, but 800 ringgit more expensive, and Egypt air, which is of about the same price, but we have to go back later and come back abit later…

Well, because we thought to save some money, we decided to go with the second choice….

Ironically, those students who booked with the 1^st agent have already got their tickets which were confirmed by the airline….that’s when we started to regret doing so many things in the first place.

Ok…in no time at all, the agent issued us the booking reference from Egyptair. But who knows that he can change the booking anytime he wants…..one day all trips can be confirmed, but the next day you check, the number might not be valid anymore…..so even if it’s confirmed before, it could be waitlisted on the next…..i dun understand why the airline can give such power for the agent to change anything he wants….what if the agent misuse it to cheat the student’s money…..i mean it’s rather easy if u think of it……

it’s not until beginning of June when the agent sent one of his ppl to collect money from us bringing the tickets with him. But our Egyptair tickets was in form of e tickets, so he did not bring any of ours. And by that time, our flight is still waitlisted (although it was confirmed at first…)

this might b ridiculous for u, but we actually gave that guy our 4000 ringgit worth of roubles to a stanger we meet first time without him giving us any receipt or proof of purchase…..just our names written on a piece of paper… what were we to do wor….if we don’t give him money at that time, how else are we gonna pay for our tickets……( the agency is from Moscow, by the way)…..

the only thing he said was : “trust me!!!” and “ I don’t like to lie. It’s against my principle”

“when will we get out tickets??”

“ ok, today is Wednesday yeah, and I’ll reach Moscow by tonight yeah, so tomorrow I’ll do your ticket directly yeah, and you will get your ticket yeah, by……tomorrow, latest by Friday…..i promise…..latest is by Friday…..you just gotta trust me. I’ll DO THE TICKET MYSELF and make sure you get it myself.”

of course we don’t trust him. But we can’t do anything but to give him the money and pray that he doesn’t cheat our money…..but honestly, even if he did, we couldn’t do anything about it.

Sso on the next day, I smsed him, asking him about our ticket. And his reply was : sorry I don’t feel well today so I didn’t go to work today. I promise I’ll do it tomorrow.”

…………………………

ok fine. We were still worried. But still we decided to give him another chance and wait till Friday. On that fine morning I called him…and he said…yeah yeah I’m on it..you will get by today 4 pm

….

And as you might have expected. Nothing came thru our email by the end of the day…..

As we were having 2 of the most killing exam by that time, we couldn’t affort to give much effort to layan such ppl….altho we are much worried…and you know, having unnessasary stress doesn’t help with the exams.

After a few days not receiving anything from him I expressed how I was disappointed with him not keeping his promises and smsed him again an his reply was : JUST LIKE YOU I’M ALSO DISSAPOINTED WITH AZAD, FOR I THINK YOU KNOW THAT AZAD IS THE OVERALL MAN. I HAVE TOLD HIM 1000 TIMES TO SEND THE TICKETS, PLEASE I’M STILL TRYING.

It’s about 10 days before my flight and yet there’s still nothing from him. We were worried….

after our endless bugging, he finally smsed…

please, this is azad’s number.XXXXXXXXXXX. call him to find out with him. I’m sorry all this is happening.ok.

I mean what the fuck. This is not what he said when he took our money on that day…..

His name is KENEDI….something something .

Ok fine, we contacted azad, which was the first person we contacted in the first place. he is well known for not keeping his promise and have no sense of punctuality whatsoever……and that is why we asked this kenedi-idiot for help as we thought he could help making the process faster….mana tau this chicken deny all his responsibilities and wasted our time even more. He could have told us he has no power of doing anything, instead of acting like a big boss, as if he has the power to ask azad to do anything…..

Of course during the past 4 years, we’ve constantly have problem with our air tickets, as in there’s constantly delay, problem with the price…etc….but all of that was solved at least 2 months before our flight. That’s why I could tell you guys when exactly I was coming home last time. But this year, I was not even sure I could manage to get a ticket home….

We were counting the days before our flight while bugging AZAD from everyday to every hour to ever 10 minutes…..literally…..i’m not joking…..we actually called him every 10 minutes from 10am to 7pm everyday……..

We can become professional stalker edi….we know exactly how many lines he has, when is his lunch and dinner, how many workers are there. we even got his wife’s phone number, no kidding.

That 7 days after the exam was the most stressful days throughout my medical student life I tell you. Yes, this is more stressful than having path anat exam, and even neurology and int medicine exam….you see, at least when you feel nervous about exams, you could study to make you prepare better, but with that azad 800 miles away from us, there’s nothing we could do but to call him every 10 minutes , just to get a fake answer from him everytime….

Yes, he gives a lot of empty promises. Not that this signifies anything, but he is from Bangladesh.

His answer is standard one. When u call him at 10 am

…he’ll say….ok ok….check your email by 12 pm….when you call again by 12 pm after finding that your mailbox is empty, he’ll say “ yaya…settled edi…..i’m doing it now. You’ll get it by 4 pm….” Then finally when you call again by 5pm…he’ll say…: I promise you’ll get by tomorrow morning……

Very standard one his answer…..

12 pm,4pm,5pm, next day…..

So we were juggled around by him for a few days….and you know although we were very angry we dare not scold him….coz of the fear of him not wanting to do the ticket for us…..as it was very late edi to change agent by that time….besides….we did not have any proof that we paid him….very pathetic right….

And his assistants would answer the phone, and without giving much thought, would say : he’s busy, call after 10 minutes.” Or “he went out. Call back later”

We later found out that he biasa issue ticket last minute  edi….but those who bought from him will eventually get the tickets…getting tickets 2 days before flight is biasa for him edi……that sort of relieved our tension abit…..

But this time, he really broke his personal record…..

On the day before our flight….we were still at where we were in the first place, paid money, no receipt, no ticket, our booking reference not valid……

I woke up early that day. 5am.I can’t get myself to sleep peacefully although exam was over. The thought of not getting to go home and having to stay in Russia for the rest of the summer is just unbearable….you get the idea…

I called at 10 am. Azad picked up the phone himself. He personally told me that “ don’t worry, everything is settled. I have your tickets ready and I could issue it anytime.just that I have some problem I still have to resolve with the airline. you will receive your tickets by 12pm”.

Finally we couldn’t stand it anymore. We called him again at 12 to ask about the so called “technical problem”

This is that he told me:

There’s an increase of price from 24000 till 29000 since 1^st of july with Egyptair. but we made your reservation with them earlier in june. So it’s not fair you. That is why we were trying to negotiate wit you to get you a good price….

We don’t know how true it was, but our guess is that he did not make our booking till the last minute and that’s why the problem existed….

So we were asked to called back at 4pm….as usual….to wait for his “good news”

Again…we were disappointed.

5pm: he said: I’m running to the airline now…wait wait….(bullshit)

(mind you, we call all his available lines every 10 minutes)

I’m sure he’s frustrated……but so were we, as we had to bear the tension not a customer should bear…to worry things that were supposed to be their concerns…

His office closes at 7…….our flight is on the next day 6pm. We are leaving to Moscow by 4am the next morning….so we had to get everything done by that day itself….

We called again at 630 pm…. Talking to his assistant.with abit of anger….: u close at 7, and it’s 630 now. If you can’t get it done, you should tell us …don’t give empty promises…..i want to talk to your boss now…”

“He’s busy now. He’ll call you when he’s free tonight…”

“what?? But you are closing soon!!!”

“don’t worry…he’ll be around until 10 pm" 

when we called again after 7pm……

no one answered the phone……………..

then all 5 of us call all his line at once…….ALL of them…..untill Azad couldn’t stand it and at last smsed me….:” plz wait. Will call you at 10 pm.You will get your ticket any how. please don’t call me now”

we were exhausted at that time…..esp me…I was dead tired…calling since 10 am…I actually waited his call till I fell asleep….

He finally called at 1145pm (almost 2 hours late) : I’M SORRY. WE CAN’T RESOLVE THE “TECHNICAL PROBLEM WITH EGYPT

AIR”

I was still feeling sleepy but when I heard that….my eyes terus terbeliak….

But he continued: I have 2 options now….you will still fly tomorrow but earlier with Qatar tomorrow….i can confirm the tickets straight away. Dun worry, I put your return date 21^st of September first, but I’ll adjust it later…..(after all that happen, do you seriously think we will trust you??? Do you think we’re morons?)

“the second one is that you take the 2^nd September flight with Emirates. And you return on 2^nd September. But I need time to confirm it.i give you the booking reference now….but you need to wait for me to send you the confirmation code by 11am

tomorrow morning….”

Anyone with the right side of mind would pick the second choice. And we did just that. But that means we have to spend a night in the airport…..and from the past experience….having to wait there for 12 hours is already very excruciating…. This time, if everything is according to plan, we have to wait there for 36 hours…..

After getting the booking  reference from that guy ( it was already 1am by then), I called back home….telling my mom that I’m gonna be one day late.

At that time, I did not have a bit of confidence that I would reach home on the day mentioned to my mom. And we depart to Moscow

without having any tickets….only the booking reference which could be changed by the agent anytime….

At 12 pm we finally reached Moscow….THERE NO STILL NO NEWS FROM THAT AZAD……….and when we checked with the airline….it says our booking to KL WAS CANCELLED and it was CHANGED TO MANILA……manila you know….freaking manila….!!

we called every 10 minutes….untill 1pm

when we got fed up…..and decided to serbu directly to his office…..

theres a distance from airport to the office. We had to take bus, metro, and bus again….not forgetting to mention we were stuck in the traffic jam for 1 hour…..

we finally reached the office at 4pm….once we reached……we ask Azad….

“do you know who are we?”

“no”

“we are from nizhny Novgorod……..we…..”

“oh hey, I’ve been trying to call you…..”

“there’s some problem with the booking ….they changed the system today and everything got messed up….(whatever)…”

only when we reached…..he started to ask his wife to settle our ticket…..only then he begin to work with our tickets…..imagine what would happen if we did not go there….

We waited for another 4 hours……yes…..4 hours….before we finally get our electronic tickets…..printed on a piece of paper….it was 8 pm and we couldn’t verify with the airline as it was closed at that time…

We reached back the airport at 11pm….exhausted….and hungry….

Counting down….we have 19 more hours before our flight….

We chatted, watched shows on our com…..trying our best to sleep on the steel bench which only reach half our back…..and try every single posture imaginable to fit to the chair…..trust me, you don’t know how your body can twist and turn until you spent a night in Moscow airport….

>>>>>>

finally it’s time to check in….and there was a problem…..the girls decided to check in together but didn’t know that their luggage was over the limit…and the airline wanted to charge them 600 euro…..i mean….you can even buy another ticket with that…..

not that we don’t wanna pay it…..we don’t even have the money to pay it…

but honestly I think it’s not the airline’s fault, and it was abit inappropriate for them to scold the airline lady….saying things behind their back….things you don’t wanna know….

But in the end , with abit of adjustment, we didn’t pay a single cent……see, with the same amount of weight boarding on the plane, the price paid could differ enormously….

If that’s not bad enough……I had to sit with a fat guy for 8 hours during my flight back from dubai to KL…..it’s not me being discriminative, but that guy is practically having half of his abdominal fat crossed over my seat…..seriously, I thought I was already very fat…..but he is double my size…. And he has that smell….i dunno how to describe…..but the whole journey was not comfortable at all……

But in the end, I managed to reach home by Friday evening after staying in my aunt’s house for 1 night…

I left nizhny’s hostel on Monday 4am…..see how much time I took to reached home??

So I’m sorry for not telling you guys earlier that I’ll be home…..coz as you can see….i dun even know it myself…..

i had a lot of craving of food, anticipation for seeing everyone, including my families and friends…..but all of the feeling sort of drained by long tiring journey…..no thanks to mr azad from aeroservice….

Well, this could be a good reference for the coming junior….

But for now,I’m gonna learn to enjoy the rest of my holidays….

Ciaoz…..