Luggage woes

We've been off the radar for the past week because we were out of the country. Had been joining 13 friends from the Nandaka Vihara, including the Chief Abbot, on a ... wait for it ... a pilgrimage to the Indian sub-continent. To be more specific, to Sri Lanka where 70 percent of their population are Buddhists by faith. Sri Lanka is a land where Buddhism had thrived for more than 2,200 years and mark my words, it shall continue to be so for a very long time to come. Buddhism is so deeply entrenched in this country and ingrained in everyone's daily lives that in most parts of the land, there are widespread presence of immaculately kept Buddha shrines, big ones at that, adorning the roadsides. The closest visible comparison with home are the Tnee Kong altars we find in most Chinese households in Penang and elsewhere in Malaysia.

I shall be telling the tales of my Sri Lanka travels in the weeks to come but right now, I want to relate the luggage experiences of my travel companions at the airports in Colombo and Penang. We really don't know why but we were beset with problems at both destinations. 

When we arrived at the Colombo international airport, one of my companions discovered the lock of his luggage bag had dropped off or knocked off. We had been advised before travelling that should we find any damage to our luggage, a report must be made to the airport authorities before leaving the luggage retrieval area. So off he went to make his report. In the meantime, a second travel companion reported that his luggage was missing. After several minutes of tense waiting, a severely damaged luggage was wheeled in. The cover was totally crushed and the whole bag was wrapped up with black plastic. 

On the way back from Sri Lanka, a third companion lost a wheel from her luggage bag, it having dropped off somewhere. Our first travel companion suffered further damage to his luggage on the return journey as a corner was now found cracked. And in the meantime, three travel companions had to contend with missing luggage bags. 

It's curious why our group faced such issues while no other passengers on the flights reported similar damages. Notably, all three damaged luggage bags were of the hard clamshell type. These incidents have reinforced my belief that such luggage should be avoided when flying, as airport handlers seem indifferent to their proper care. Observing the handling process from the aeroplane's cabin window upon our arrival in Penang, it was evident that packages marked as fragile were tossed around carelessly, highlighting the handlers' apparent disregard for handling protocols.