Air India
Sympathy flows eternal whenever one mentions an ordeal suffered at the hands of Air India and their route of chaos and corruption. Our "event" happened when we were just leaving Thailand, after having stayed way too long in Bangkok due to visa problems. We managed to secure the last 3 seats on the Air India flight leaving the next day for Bombay, so we pulled out our visa cards and bought the tickets. We then returned to Sui Nam Du Puis and packed our backpacks, ate one final meal at Wongs, slept the last night at the hotel, drank a final bottle of that thai red bull which is 14 times stronger than the european version......and left in a taxi, into the sky of smog that constitutes Bangkok roads. We arrived at the airport, after having sworn repeatedly out of the window in sheer relief at having left bangkok, checked in, and dealt with all the normal proceedures. Arriving in the departure gate on time, we had a final (well we thought so) smoke and sat down to watch TV in the gate. The election in America was on, showing the absolute chaos the country had been thrown into over the miscalculations...we sat and laughed.....and laughed. Then finally a distinctly Indian voice came over the intercom, throwing us all into panic with his simple message, " the flight to Bombay will be delayed by ten hours", and that was it. We were all left to our disbelief......standing around asking each other if we heard the guy correctly. A couple of minutes passed before he came on once again and said, " actually sorry for this announcement, the delay will be 2 hours". So we all just sat down and breathed a sigh of relief...two hours in asia was nothing. However, a second later he once again returned to the mic and said, " sorry for getting the hopes up... the delay will actually be 10 hours. Hotels will be provided for all passengers, and we will escort you to the hotels, you will then be picked up at 3 a.m. to be shuttled back to the airport and onto the flight". We all bit the bullet and followed the men to the outside of the airport, after a 2 hour delay to sort out everyones passports and wait for the buses to arrive. We then drove back into the wonderful bangkok that had previously seen our middle fingers extended towards it, and would you believe it the hotel we stayed in was three roads from our old one !! typical.
Anyway, there was further confusion at the desk. since one man had been left with 300 keys and one sheet of paper with names he had to cross off after that respective person had obtained their key. I was sick and tired of waiting so I played it Indian style and pushed my way through, securing myself a double room for the night, or half-night.
We then enjoyed a fantastic buffet, and met with other travellers who had missed connecting flights to canada and america, atleast we were only going to Goa and had no specific bus or train to catch !
I then retired to my room, had a great shower and fell asleep.
Panic !! I woke up at 8, having been promised by the front desk that they would call every room at 2 to wake us up for the 3 o'clock shuttle to the airport ! I called jan and sarah immediately to find out they too were still in the hotel. I called the front desk twice and recieved no answer the first time, the second the woman informed me that she knew nothing of an "air india" flight that was cancelled and said the only information she had been given was that there were some buses that were scheduled to come to the hotel at 2 to pick up some passengers, this being 2 p.m. ofcourse. ! So, we first had breakfast, then a marvellous buffet at 12, then were ordered to leave our rooms and wait for the buses....this meant more cigarettes and plenty of laughs with the other passengers.
We finally made it back to the same airport, with our departure set at 3pm, almost 24 hours after our original departure of 6pm the day before !! But, we got treated well......................
Anyway, to cut a long story short.. the plane finally took off at 7 that night, one hour after it should have left the day before.. we finally escaped thailand, or should i say bangkok.......we were finally on our way back to sweet india !!!
the only hiccup left to happen was a 3 hour delay in Delhi where a passenger originally booked to Bombay decided suddenly to exit in Delhi. So, the crew had to find his suitcase in the cargo hold and question him at length as to why he left so abruptly. We finally took off once again, and landed in bombay exactly 28 hours after we should have......what a sweet comedy.....travel can be.
ben sand
november 00
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