Kampua Talk

As I entered the Boeing 737 (through the back door) which would bring me to Kuching from Sibu, a mild smell of durian got into my nose for less than a second. My first thought was that someone must have smuggled durians into the plane. But on second thought, it was a common sense that you must not bring strong smelling food like durian on board of the aircraft, so I reaconed that someone must have eaten a large amount of the king of fruit before the flight and burped a tank in the aircraft.

I saw an empty aisle seat 5th row from the back and sat down. After fastening my seat belt, turning off my phone and plugged in my mp3 player, I watched the people who were coming into the aircraft. When people were filling up the aircraft, a middle aged lady wearing a yellow blouse and carrying a black handbag on her shoulder squeezed through the already narrow aisle filled with people, and made her way to the washroom. I noticed her because she was frowned at for stepped on people’s foot without apologizing.

People watching is more fun than bird watching. Then there were some commotion at the front part of the cabin. I pulled out one side of my earphone to listen. Some cabin crews was making announcements.

“Ada sesiapa yang membawa durian ataupun makanan yang diperbuat daripada durian?”
(”Is there anyone bringing durian or durian product onto the aircraft?”)

We were stretching our necks as far as possible to see what was all that about. Apparently, someone had brought durians (or its products) on board and it had emitted its infamous pungent smell around the front cabin area. All the cabin crews were crowded at that particular area and started opening the luggage compartment. They were sniffing about (like doggy!) trying to detect the location of the fruit when nobody admitted.

Just then the lady in yellow blouse came out of the toilet and was passing me on her way to her seat in front. She had a really strong durian smell on her as she walked by! I was suspicious. When she reached her seat, one of the cabin crews asked her something that I presumed was regarding whether she brought durian on board or something. She shook her head and sat down. But I think that cabin crew was suspicious as well because he said that the smell came from the area that the woman was seated.

Failing to retrieve/get the passenger(s) to surrender the durian, the cabin crews seeked help from the ground crew. A fat lady came in and made an announcement in Mandarin: “You sei dai liu lian ma?” (Anyone bringing durian on board?) she repeated that for a couple of times but no one admitted. The flight could not make its way to Kuching as long as the durian could not be found. 8 minutes had passed.

An old lady stood up and made her way to the washroom. She was wearing a typical old lady shirt and pants in maroon and not carrying any bags. That was all I saw in a brief glance at her as she walked past me. Directing my attention back to the scene in front of the cabin, I was wondering why they did not conduct a spot check on the passengers in front. Another cabin crew walked to the area I was seated and told the other cabin crew that there were no durian smell at the back of the cabin.

Now they were asking passengers row by row. The old lady came out of the washroom and went back to her seat. Why can’t the cabin crew just do the spot check? Oh I said that already?

And then out of sudden, the male cabin crew walked quickly past me to the back of the aircraft. I was not aware of anything until he walked past me again carrying something in his hand that smelt very familiar. DURIAN! He found the durian! He passed the transparent plastic bag to one of the ground crews to be taken off the flight.

Apparently, someone left the packet of durian inside the toilet after being asked to give up the durian. After the durian was taken out of the aircraft, the normal procedure of flight taking off resumed. It was a smooth flight all the way to Kuching with nothing as exciting as the durian incident.

So tell me, who do you think was the culprit who left the durian in the toilet??? No prize for guessing though.