On Monday morning at 2am my flight to Dubai was scheduled. Here is what happened in the evening: After the final I had plenty time to pack things and had some lunch in my favourite Restaurant called Old Town near Sogo Complex. Surprised by a group of 6 nice ladies calling my name when I was about to pay I realised that it was Louisa together with other members and outsiders who were about to take a late shopping session. What an impression - to sit in a random restaurant and members being just there! We had some nice talk as it was raining anyway and finally said goodbye at around 9pm. Getting to the airport was a bit messy because I bought a return ticket KLIA-Central Station and wanted to enter the train at Tasik Selatan, however at that station they told me that my ticket is only valid from Sentral and I could not board on stations in between... they offered to buy an additional ticket for 38RM. Very strange. So I went back to Sentral, entered the KLIA Express, just to be one hour later at exact the same station refusing me to embark. The reward was though, that at the airport at around 11pm, when the shops were about to close and there were only few passengers around, the complete national team of China was heading to Beijing and players did some duty free shopping. They were very relaxed but wore still their official team dress and had their bags as hand luggage, so you couldn't miss them. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so I could not make the best fotos you ever could do with these guys:crying::crying::crying:. The players went freely through the shops and most of them teamed in couples. Here and there I thanked them for the great games and did some smalltalk with Yun Cai and Jin Ma. I also pretended to be sorry for the ladies . Only LD I did not see at all. Next surprise was, that suddenly the russian ladies team sat in the waiting area to my flight. I tried to talk to them but strangely they did not speak english (or, more likely, they did not want to talk to me...), and my friend Ella Diehl was not around. Along with this team also the Nigerian team flew to Dubai plus Michael Fuchs of Germany was also on the plane. I told him about the forum and maybe we will have a new member?! So in total there was still Badminton around until getting to Dubai. And I loved it!!
If I guess it correctly, it's Emirate Airlines. The route should be from KL then transit in Dubai, and landed in Schipol Airport. I was there two weeks ago
Yes, that's correct. My flight was an Emirates flight to Dusseldorf via Dubai. I think Emirates uses Dubai as a hub for all destinations. Chinese team took an Air Malaysia flight to Beijing.
You're always welcome. Although we had to draw back our Bundesliga-team for the next season :crying: But Mulheim (Yonex Open) is not too far away from here
Been to Lake Titisee @ Germany? Nice view and yummy pork knuckle... Agree... Dutch language is very difficult to master...
Its nice to have met you Hagen. I know how tiring it is to travel back to Europe. Personally i like to fly on Emirates whenever i go to Europe. Yes.. usually they transit in Dubai or Abu Dhabi at times. Im sure you are very happy with your stay in Malaysia as well as meeting the players in the airport.
Hope you enjoyed your trip here, Hagen. Good choice using Emirates, it breaks up the journey into 2 almost equal segments, less pressure on, err, mature bodies ..... I normally fly Emirates too to Europe, but via Singapore. Cheaper than from KLIA by miles.
Thanks for sharing the story, Hagen. And I am glad to meet with you. I enjoyed the match with you as well. Haha... I will train harder to get my revenge in the future. Haha...
I like the "pretending" part. Anyway, nice to have met you. Have a safe journey back home. Hope to see you in the near future. Btw, Emirates rocks.
Haha, that's a nice story and a great way to end the trip. Had a great time sitting with you in our section. Met some very nice people in the same area too. Safe trip and see you on BC sometime. P.S. I will send the pics once I process them. Posted a few on the UC Final pics thread already.
Thanks Hagen for the sharing....hmm, you gotta wait for madbad to upload his pics as i lost my camera during UC final...inside are our pics...