Every Flight Has A Destination. I've Found Mine.

I remember the first time I took my girl friend, Meng Cheng home and introduced her to my family. Naturally, my parents were curious how we met and I told them we met over the South China Sea. Both my mom and dad gave me this blank clueless stare and wondering what I was talking about.

Hello there, my name is Benjamin Siew Wan Siong. I'm currently 22 this year and an employee of Malaysia Airlines Engineering & Maintenance Division. Being 22 years old and working for an airline, it's a no brainer question on what I do with my free time. I travel!
And when I say travel, boy do I mean it. I always make it an effort to stop finding those excuses and just go wherever I want to go. But there's this one particular flight and I would love to talk about and it doesn't even tire me a bit even if I'm repeating it for the gazillion time!

You see, the funny thing about faith is that it won't happen until you start believing in them. Of the many flights I took before, the seats next to me that I usually get are empty. I've once experienced a packed flight and yet, mysteriously, the right seat of my window seat was empty! This was happening to me without fail until this one day, during February 2008. It was after my birthday that I decided to opt for a trip up to Kuching, Sarawak just right before Chinese New Year holidays. Then It was this flight, to Kuching, that I prayed that someone would sit next to me. Right after that, a sweet looking girl who was in her 20s and had a Nikon D80 DSLR in her hand, sat down next to me. I thought to myself that either I got myself a late birthday present or an early Christmas present.


That's Meng Cheng! Photos taken from the A330 cockpit with the permission from the Captain of course!

Knowing how clumsy sometimes I can be with girl, we didn't speak to each other at first and I was just reading The Star Newspaper that I got when I was boarding. After half hour into the journey, and noticing that the only reading material she had was the in-flight magazine, I offered my Section 2 of The Star Newspaper to her, but she TURNED ME DOWN! I was stunned and said "WHOA! You must be like the 1st person to ever not want to read the entertainment section of the newspaper". And believe it or not, that was how our conversation started. On that flight, while passing over the South China Sea en route to Kuching, we shared a conversation. We got to know each other's name, that we have a mutual friend from her college, she was going to Kuching to be a photographer for a friend's wedding, her hobby, places that she travelled. And that was when the clumsiness in me kicked in and I asked her AGE. Now there's a common rule of thumb that guys should never ask a girl's age or weight, but I did. Part of me wanted run into the lavatory and hide inside there till the end of the flight. But instead of that happening, she told me she just turned 21 a few days ago on the 27th of January. My face stopped smiling and there was this dizziness feeling in me that told me that all these seem so unreal. I immediately took out my IC and showed her my birthday. Soon enough, she too gave me that same look that I was giving her. We shared the same birthday!

Soon after we landed and before we parted ways, we exchanged contacts. And for some reason, the Kuching holiday didn't quite matter to me any more. My mind and soul was thinking about her most of the time. So we kept in touch even after my trip to Kuching and a few days before Valentine's Day, I challenged my manhood and ask her out to be my Valentine's Day date. I gasped and my heart skipped a beat when she said yes but with 1 condition. She told me that the dinner has to be a non-meat menu as she was a VEGETARIAN! I Immediately panicked as the restaurant that I had in mind wasn't going to work and I don't know any romantic vegetarian diner so I started firing out email around to ask for help. It was then one of the blogger Lim Su Ann a.k.a Pinkpau suggested The Apartment in KLCC. I immediately drove down to KLCC and made the necessary reservation. Lucky for me, they had a vegetarian menu and their staff was superbly kind and helpful.


Me and my lovely Meng Cheng at The Apartment KLCC.

Came Valentine's Day, both of us had a wonderful night out and that was when I told her my intention that I wanted to be together with her. She smiled. And after a few months later, we were both officially together.



Our first time celebrating our birthday together.

It's been a year plus now what I and Meng Cheng have been together. The girl that I knew over South China Sea, was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. Thanks to MH, we had one hell of a year together doing the things we love most. Travelling!


Lundu, Sarawak. 2 hours drive away from Kuching City.


Manukan Island, Sabah. First time witnessing a sea that is blue in colour!


Suntec City, Singapore. Mocked-up wedding for an indoor garden exhibition.


Bali Island, Indonesia. Witnessing the cultural dance.


Perth, Australia. Feeding the Kangaroos!

And that being said. I do hope I and Meng Cheng will have many more years of happiness to come. Every flight has a destination. I've found mine. Which lies in the heart of me beloved.