So, last I blogged, I was peeking in windows in Singpore during a little shopping spree. Well, at the end of the spree, and with minutes to spare, I arrived at the Singapore Airport with 59.6 kg of luggage and three carry-on bags (another 20 kg I'm sure) and sauntered (well, staggered perhaps) up to the ticket counter to catch my flight to Tel Aviv.
I was catching a Thai Airways flight up to Bangkok and then connecting to an EL AL flight to Tel Aviv and when the nice Thai Airways ticket lady saw my pile of bags on her scale, she turned to me and said ever-so-sweetly "You seem to be 40 kg overweight with your baggage. You may either repack your bags, leave some behind or pay us..." type-type-type, "$1,200 Singapore dollars." ack.
And then the nice ticket lady smiled at me and said in a sweet little whisper, "I'm only charging you for 30 kg."
So I smiled my charmingest smile and begged the nice Thai Airways ticket lady to be gentle and understanding and perhaps bend the rules just for me.
And of course in Singapore the rules really don't bend much.
But the nice ticket lady went off and came back smiling even sweeter and said in her conspiritorial whisper, "I've arranged so you only have to pay for 25 kg!" smile smile smile. still $1000.
So I asked the nice lady to check all my bags up to Bangkok please and I would argue and haggle with the EL AL staff in Thailand.
She seemed a little disapointed in me, but checked all my bags through to Bangkok and only charged me $200 and sent me on my way.
And this is the little tip for today: When flying EL AL airlines, the national airline of Israel, they couldn't give a rat's behind how much luggage you're trying to sneak on to their planes, as long as it doesn't have any explosives in it.
So when I got to Bangkok and the new nice ticket lady there pointed out that my bags had only been checked as far as Thailand I merely smiled blankly at her and wondered aloud: "I wonder why the nice ticket lady in Singapore would have done such a thing?" and the new nice ticket lady smiled back and replied: "That's ok, I'll just check those right on through for you and you can pick them up in Tel Aviv."
"Thank you new nice ticket lady. You have yourself a wonderful evening."
Of course, the danger of flying EL AL is that a big tough security man might come onto the plane and inform you that security has found what appears to be a computer hard drive in your checked baggage and will be holding it back to examine it. But they will be happy to send it on the next flight (which is, of course, five days from now).
But that's ok, because you trust them and they give you a little form to fill out and tell you to go to the lost-and-found once you arrive in Tel Aviv and they'll sort it all out. And when you arrive in Tel Aviv and wander over to the lost-and-found, the cranky lost-and-found lady checks your little form and gives you a bigger form and asks you to get the big scary customs men to sign it.
Now, another little tip for today: If you are coming from Singapore with a kajillion dollars worth of new fancy video equipment that you just bought the day before, getting your bags searched by big scary customs men is not such a good idea. So when I sauntered over to the customs area with my big form and my kajillion dollars of gear, one of the big scary customs men came running over, jumped infront of my baggage cart and pointed to his big metal table.
I immediately whipped out my big form and asked him to sign it and when he told me that I needed to come back to his big scary metal customs table after I had dropped my form with the cranky lost-and-found lady I promised I would and displayed my ever-charming smile to reassure him.
Of course, as soon as I had dropped my form with the cranky lost-and-found lady, I snuck back over to the customs area, waited until the big scary customs man was busy rooting through someone else's underpants and dashed through to the safety of my waiting friends.