Sunday, December 23, 2007 12:43 am
so, i got a call from MASkargo on tuesday morning telling me that my boxes have arrived and my deadline to collect them was on wednesday morning as they only have free storage for 30 hours. being the only one at home, i had no choice but to wait for a day and be there on wednesday morning at 9am with my mum. apparently, the process would take about 1-2 hours to complete. i thought, bah! just collect, show the customs and blah. so fast. i was so wrong.
the first thing to greet me at 8am was a dead battery, from
THE car. my mum went out with my bro's gf's little kelisa to scout for a battery. she came back 15 minutes later, disappointed. she went out again with my bro's car to look at other places. another 15 minutes but it yielded the same result. everything was still closed. die. how? we went anyway with my bro's car.
no problem locating MASkargo. but first, you need to surrender your IC and get yourself a visitor pass. done. the two malay lady officers were very helpful. this was incident 1. and then, i had to go to central processing office and before you can enter that area, you need a pass for the car. got down, filled in a form and everything was done. the two malay guy officers were very kind to me. incident 2. at the CPO, i looked a bit lost and was helped by an indian man. incident 3. at the counter, i was told that this was just the first stage. there were a few more before i was able to collect my boxes. incident 4; kind malay lady explaining to me the stages i need to get through.
i had to go all the way to the other side and pay my customs fee. again, i was a bit lost and was helped by a malay man. incident 5. located the office, paid up, came down to another department, looked lost (again) at the customs counters, helped by a young malay officer. that was incident 6. and now, i need to go all the way back to the CPO to pay the terminal fees. after paying, i was at long last, able to collect my stuff at another part of the building.
i have never ever seen anything like that before. i was able to witness the whole (not exactly whole whole) shipment collection thing. boxes being transferred here and there. the men driving those little cart thing to move the boxes, to stack the boxes. so fascinating! call me "jakun" but i was really amazed. i don't know why, but that was one of the highlights of my day. the malay officers there were very kind and helpful. one even offered his chair to me while i was standing there, waiting for my boxes while watching them work. and when my stuff arrived, some of the men there helped us stack and fit the boxes into my bro's ridiculously small car. this is incident 7. a few asked why we drove this car. in the end, everything fit perfectly well. only problem is, do i have to take them all out later for the customs check?
last stop of the whole journey: customs check area. the officer was a bit... yong sui. but he only opened one box. lucky thing i had a packing list. after that, i had to send a copy of the document to the officer at the counter in the customs office. looking lost one last time, a malay man helped me pass the thing over the counter and he even stamped it for me. he was just a regular guy completing his own documents at the same counter. incident 8.
the last stage, going through the gate and getting my IC back. with no problem.
8 incidents where kindness from other races were shown to me. it really made my day. malaysia is not that ugly afterall.
but my room is. open boxes, old clothes coupled with bags and soft toys on the floor, make-up and skin care products on the table together with old magazines and cables. and that's just the things you can see. gawd.
merry christmas.
186^arch♥byz
