Priority

It was a little embarrassing to see a couple of Buddhist monks trying to get ahead of the queue while boarding AirAsia last Sunday.

AirAsia has a system running where passengers may choose to pay extra for the privilege of choosing their seats and for boarding earlier than everybody else.  It is not an unusual system on budget airlines.

These Buddhist monks did not pay for the privilege, but assumed that they would be given priority.  I do not know why.  Maybe they simply did not understand the announcement.  A few other people (ie. not Buddhist monks) had also similarly misunderstood.

Maybe it is the culture in Cambodia, which gives honour and priority to Buddhist monks, Prime Ministers, and other people of privilege and seniority.  Perhaps these monks were Cambodians who had enjoyed this privilege almost all their lives while in Cambodia, and simply did not think to behave differently while in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I wonder if they were denied the privilege because they were in a different country?  I mean, would they have been given this privilege at a Cambodian airport?  Or does the culture of airports excempt them from the privilege they would have enjoyed in other parts of their home country?

Nevertheless, I do appreciate that it can be embarrassing, to have become so used to a particular culture, and be expected to behave differently while being in a different one.