Had you guys been in my life 10 years ago, I might have died on Malaysia Airlines (MH) 370. Connecting in Beijing was the quickest route from Kuala Lumpur to New York. A trip that took a day or longer on other routes comparably could be done in 18 hours since the layover in Beijing was only two hours, give or take. In fact, my colleague took that same flight to return to North America a few months prior.
Making any travel reservation typically took me a god-awful amount of time back then. Not knowing how many more opportunities there’d be to see Asia, that was probably an understatement given the circumstance. While I wanted to superficially explore different cities, time unfortunately wasn’t abundant. It was rather restricted by my then-wife. She gave me a hard time with just about everything.
Flight MH370 typically ranked high in Kayak’s search engine. It was listed as a top result regardless of sort. The flight was usually price competitive – especially after filtering out anything Aeroflot related, quick, and relevant. Over the course of a week or two, I attempted multiple searches, multiple times. Many hours were spent pouring over price and schedule, itinerary-by-itinerary, at the desk during the evening hours. My heart was torn between appeasing my then-wife or fulfilling, at least in part, my dreams.
Ultimately, the latter decision was chosen but not without her in mind. Rather than taking a week or thereabout, the trip took an extra two days. I strongly considered taking flight MH370. When push came to shove though, I didn’t want to sacrifice my needs again. Under the circumstances, some might think that was a selfish decision, regardless. And, I would agree, in part. But those circumstances weren’t enough. Two extra days wasn’t going to make any difference other than keeping her passive rage at bay.
Especially when you’re young, it’s very difficult to predict how your potential spouse might evolve over time. You’re still learning about you, full transparency. That’s partly why a lot of young (or young-minded) people make bad decisions. Stupidity is another part. She saved my life.
Like much of the world, I don’t know what happened to flight MH370 that morning. Your guess is as good as mine. However, I am aware that, at least publicly, Malaysian government officials, including former prime minister Najib Razak, lied about some potentially key information and failed to provide full disclosure regarding the state of its then-airport immigration operations, which have only got marginally better in the decade since. Many, unfortunately, would give them the benefit of the doubt but I’ve learned that’s not a courtesy to extend to them or any other non-dual Western citizen Asian national, especially the Vietnamese people. So, I’d bet they covered “something(s)” up. The 2010s was a dark period in Malaysia’s history.
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