My (lack of) sense of direction and memory is appalling.

I found my way to office much quicker this morning as compared to last evening, but that was after exiting through the wrong side of the underground tunnel, and after I got out alright, I went to the wrong office building. 😂😂

#throwback this morning.

Good thing our helper follows the way I dress Clarissa. Hehe.

I love stripes and monochrome.

#throwback this evening.

My two lookalikes.

#weeirdtravels -1

This happened a few years back in 2011/12.

I was in Jakarta. It was the seventh month and a time where there were scares of terrorism attacks in hotels.

I went to the gym and then got back to my room. I tried to swipe the room key but it didn't work.

I must have tried like 7 or 8 times, and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe a housekeeper was in the room.. so I knocked. And tried to swipe again.

The door did not open.

Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door from inside the room.

I felt my heart turn cold.

Who is inside my room??!

And then, whoever was in the room knocked on the door again.
This time, a petite lady opened the door slightly and peeped outside.

"Are you looking for someone?" She asked meekly.

"Ehh sorry I thought this is my room," I said to her.

"This is [insert room number]," she said.

I suddenly realised that I was standing in front of the right door but on the wrong floor. 😂😂

I apologised profusely and hurried back to the lift.

I was honestly scared of what I might find (or not see) in my room.. but I thought she must have been more scared.

Imagine someone swiping the room card of your door multiple times trying to break in, and you are alone in your room, probably trembling and wondering if it was a ghost or terrorist. 😂

#weeirdtravels – 2

This happened even earlier back, in those days where we did back to back research in different markets.

We'd usually transit to the next country during the weekend.

So we were in Hong Kong and due to fly to Japan on Saturday morning.

My colleague and I agreed to meet at the lobby in the morning, about 3 hours before flight departure time. The plan was to take a cab to Central to take the airport express train.

I checked out, and waited at the lobby.

5 minutes passed and there was no sign of my colleague.

I decided to wait because he wasn't the most punctual person.

Another 5 minutes passed and there was still no sign of him.

So I texted him.

No response.

Oookay.

I thought, oh maybe he's in a call having a meeting.

(It was only later that I realised he couldn't have been on a call. Because it was Saturday. 😂)

Another 5 minutes passed.

Still no news.

I walked to the reception, gave my colleague's full name and asked them to call his room.

They did, and reported back to me that no one picked up the phone.

I started feeling a little worried.

"Can you please try again?" I asked after another 5 minutes.

So they did, and reported that there was no dial tone.

Oookay shit just hit the fan.

I called him on his mobile. No answer. Called again. And again. And again.

No. Answer.

"I'm sorry but do you mind going to knock on his door? We have a flight to catch," I said to the staff at the reception.

They said ok, they'll send someone up.

A few "5 minutes" passed again. This time I was running late already.

"Did you get him?" I asked again.

"We knocked but no one opened the door," the staff informed me.

"Can you break open his door or something? We are really late," I said.

Hearing the panic in my voice, they sprang into action.

After a long wait (how many more 5 minutes, seriously?) they got back to me, "We tried to open the door, but your colleague has double latched from the inside. So we need to send someone up to try to unlatch the door from the outside."

By this time I was worried about my colleague and anxious about missing the flight.

"Look, please continue trying to get him. I'm going to rush to the airport now but please call me once you get him," I gave them my instructions and phone number.

I rushed off in a cab to Central, sticking to the plan to take airport express because I didn't think I would make it in a cab with all the traffic.

My phone rang. It was the hotel calling. And then I got a message from my colleague, followed immediately by a call.

I forgot what he said, but my response was, "Oh my god you are alive!!" 😂😂

I got to the airport just as they were about to close the check-in for my flight.

"Miss, you have to RUN to the gate as fast as you can," the airline service officer said to me. "RUN."

I've never ran so fast in my life.

I was sweating like crazy as I got myself seated.

Two minutes later, my colleague got into the plane, casually holding onto a cup of coffee and STROLLED to his seat.

I thought to myself, "How could he stroll in like this? How??"

He shared his side of the story when we caught up later on.

Basically he overslept and somehow managed to slap the phone off the hook.

And then he woke up in shock with three men standing at each side of the bed, staring at him. 😂😂😂

They were wondering what to do with him. Good thing he woke up on his own. According to him they were equally shocked to see him wake up.

They explained to him that they were tasked (by me) to wake him up and that he should rush to the airport immediately.

He packed up quickly, got into a cab and asked the driver to drive him to the airport at "super sonic speed".

He not only made it to the airport on time and even managed to grab coffee while walking to the gate. He said no one suggested to him to run. 😂

I guess the customer service officer probably looked at my legs and thought I needed to run to have a chance. 😂

That was one of the craziest rush I had and we told the story to other colleagues, including his boss.

"You are too nice! I'd have just left without him," she joked.

Haha what an adventure.

My thought process was as crazy as the journey from the hotel to the boarding gate.

I even wondered how someone who didn't seem to have any suicide tendency would do something like this to himself. 😂

And how could anyone sleep so soundly?

Are my legs that short?

😂😂😂

Ah, those good old days. 😁