Today I’d like to recount the miracles that happened when I was flying to Brazil. Because of all the travel restrictions at that time, the only way for me to remain sane was to do things one step at a time without planning or much researching.
I started leaving Langkawi (Malaysia), where I lived for a year, at 4:30am. I decided to walk to the airport, which would take 3 hours, because I needed the tranquility at night. But after walking for 1 hour, in a dark street with no lights, a stranger on a motorbike, of whom somehow I wasn’t scared, offered me a ride. I just trusted this to be a good thing and accepted it, and so my trip to the Langkawi airport was expedited! Fortunately I had no problems flying from Langkawi (Malaysia) to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA; also Malaysia), which was needed to go to Brazil. This flight took 1 hour.
After arriving at KLIA, my next stop was Doha, Qatar. I booked the next 8:00pm flight to Qatar without booking the layover flight because that’s how seriously I took the “one step at a time” thing. Cost RM3588 or $810… I didn’t even do much research on what documents they would require upon landing and intended to find out at check in. I just had my passport and had faith, and counted on God instead of on my own efforts. Then at 4:20pm they wouldn’t let me check in because I didn’t have a layover flight. So I had to get a refund (which would take 28 business days) and rebook the flight with layover, which cost RM4,588 / $1,036… great.
So I booked the flight correctly this time, found out I needed to fill up the Brazil Immigration form online, so I did that and attempted to check in again, then found out I needed to have a PCR test. I took the rapid PCR test first, which cost RM470 / $106.17 but I just spent it without hesitation because of faith and because it’s 6:30pm and they needed an hour or two to get the result ready. The swab went into the shallow part of my throat and nose and wasn’t painful! Arrived at the check in at 7:30pm, which is 30 minutes too late as the counter closed at 7:00pm, and I wanted to try to run and catch the plane at 8:00pm, but they were being realistic and declined.
Immediately I called the airline call centre to reschedule to the next closest flight, expecting to pay RM1000 / $225 willingly, but they just did it for free, to my surprise.
The PCR test results only arrived by 9:00pm, so I wouldn’t have made it on the 8:00pm flight anyway, so I was lucky I didn’t have to run for nothing and potentially break my belongings. Anyway, the next flight was at 2:45am. I had an inspiration to only go to the check in at 12:45am, even though they said I should check early at 10:30pm. Having the extra time to talk to a close friend and also pray increased my faith, which was important.
Then at 12:45am I queued and went through the check in without any problems. After boarding the plane and reaching my seats (4 seats side-by-side in the center column), the couple next to me moved to adjacent seats, leaving 4 seats for 2 of us! My row-mate didn’t bother taking the extra seats, so I took 3 seats and it became a business class experience for me even though I took economy class. I had three seats to sleep on and multiple blankets and 3 places to put my things, including my laptop!
This was why the 12:45am timing was important. If I were a minute earlier or later, I would have missed these 3 seats to rest my body lying down. This flight from Malaysia to Doha was at night and took 8 hours. Then I landed in Qatar (which was really cold and I never experienced the cold desert morning weather before).
And then, on the layover flight to Brazil, which would take 14 hours 35 minutes, guess what… the SAME THING happened to me again—my seat (on my ticket) had 2 seats next to it that no one else took, even though it was a crowded flight. So on BOTH flights there were 3 seats all for me to sleep on… and this time it’s window seats—Window seats at an 8:20am flight.
Then I realized that having to reschedule my flight to a later was a really good thing, because the 2nd flight that I boarded had daylight for its entirety! If I made it for the 8:00pm flight instead of the 2:45am flight, BOTH the flights would have been in darkness.
So, I had the chance to see the Middle East, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, and Brazil in broad daylight (videos in gallery) with 3 seats to myself at a window seat for the 14-hour flight, despite only paying economy class. (picture in gallery) I had just wanted to get to Brazil as simply as possible, so I didn’t expect all these blessings on the flight.
And then everything went well at the immigration despite me being unprepared. So again I’d like to thank God for…
(1) being able to make it despite the travel restrictions, despite not doing much research
(2) for the courage despite having limited funds
(3) for the flights including food (I actually was going to fast the whole trip)
(4) for having 3 seats for me to lie on on BOTH flights (totaling 21.5 hours) despite being crowded
(5) for the entirety of the transatlantic layover flight (14 hours) being in broad daylight, so I can see the beauty of the earth
(6) for the 3 seats on this 2nd flight to be window seats (instead of in the center column)
(7) for the intercontinental flights to all happen on Saturday, which is supposed to be the sabbath day. Due to catching up with the time zone, this was the longest and one of the best Saturdays I’ve had, as I experienced so many miracles. My faith increased even further due to the miracles. So instead of 24 hours, I had 37 hours on Saturday the 19th of March, due to the change of time zones. I really had a good rest despite the rushed travels.
However, when I got out of the airport in Brazil, chaos ensued as barely anyone spoke English, most of my savings were gone, and my devices were dying due to not having a travel adapter, and nowhere to buy it from on a Saturday night; and no money changer and no SIM card/chip to get good internet for my phone. Stranded in the dangerous center of Sao Paulo with high crime rates and without much clue on what to do, strangers already started eyeing me and asking for money. And no one wanted to help me because they were cautious about helping strangers and I couldn’t speak Portuguese… but that’s a story for another day…
Luke 11:9 – So I say to you, ‘Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.’
Mark 4:35 – “Let us go over to the other side.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Mark 11:22-24 – “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.