Buh-bye Bahrain, Hello Hanoi

My trip from Bahrain to Hanoi took a total of 132 hours. What started off as an offloading due to overbooking from out of Hong Kong proceeded to kick me off nine more times for reasons ranging from more overbooking due to snowballed passengers to typhoons to the industry-favourite "technical reasons," which liberates carriers from further elaboration regardless of what the real problem is.

I was honestly quite happy to spend some extra time in Hong Kong, though I had to earn every minute of it, no thanks to Prapiroon.

Wendy of Personnel Dept: Hi Max, welcome back from Bahrain. I learned you've been offloaded on your connecting flight and are stuck in Hong Kong until the backlog clears.

Max: Hi Wendy, [I know that if you're calling me at 7 in the evening as I'm taking my bus ride home, it's not going to just be about saying 'hello,' but] it's great to hear from you. How's everything?

Wendy: Fine, fine. Listen, I need volunteers to go to the airport at 7am tomorrow. We've cancelled most of our flights because of the typhoon, and additional manpower will be needed to assist the stranded passengers. I've already called most of the other MTs. Can you help?

[Hmmm...this one's a toughie:

Option A: Sleep in till noon, wake up and head to my brother's PS2 before brushing my teeth to shoot up Islamic extremists even after a year of cultural immersion in the Middle East, eat instant ramen, enjoy a 30-minute massage on my dad's chair, and head out for drinks with friends if I don't feel like going back to bed.

Option B: Face for twelve hours straight 12,000 stranded passengers I took no part in upsetting. 500 understanding, and the rest angry, unforgiving, and want to tear me apart.

Why did I have to be offloaded? Why couldn't I just be sipping on cheap champagne on my excuse-of-a-business-class seat on my way to Hanoi? How did Wendy find my Bahrain cell phone number so quickly?!]

Max: I'd be more than happy to help. 7am is it? I'll be there.

Don't you just love it when you're asked questions you're only allowed to give one answer to?

The next day, on the floor, I was stopped by three passengers seeking help for every one step I took. I don't think I had ever been that overwhelmed in my life. Getting stuffed into a lab equipment closet by five caucasian bullies during my KGV days comes pretty close though. I'd rather not go into too much detail. To do so would only suggest that I had it worse off than the others - an insult to everyone else who worked just as tirelessly over that time. Chilled out with a very busy Elaine at her new cubicle in CX City after a day of pandemonium. The two bags of Calbee chips I brought with me never tasted better.

Comments

[Brian]

nice

i spent the night taking care of trauma patients. i was lucky enough to wear gloves with a guy who was vomiting and get that vomit to go into my glove instead of outside of it.

[Peter]

Oh well, you'll have a chance to hang out and drink with friends the next time you're back in HK.... think of ALL the people you helped on that day =P

[Brian]

how are things over in viet now?