mál

The rest of the travel story

Hey everyone,
The reason for the long delay between the last two blogs are that I was in the Philippines at an amazing conference and that i simply couldn´t spend a minute writing a blog (especially since I arrived 3 days late).
Last time I wrote I was stuck at Gatwick trying to decide if i should go in the morning to Abu Dhabi and be stuck there for a day or if I should wait one more day at Gatwick and take it all in one go. Well, in the morning I simply couldn´t stand it no more and I went to the ticketing desk and said that I wanted to go to Abu Dhabi this day instead of tomorrow. Obviously due to te fact that there is a service company doing their ticketing the person at the desk had no idea what had gone on before and started saying that I really couldn´t just pick a date to leave if my tickets were for tomorrow I had to leave tomorrow, I really didn´t have time nor patience at that time to update her fully so I just told her to call Kevin and ask if Mr. Kristjansson could leave today even though his tickets are published for tomorrow. She looked at me partially stunned, obviously not used to have people that knows who her superior is but she picked up the phone and called, maybe because she was so surprised or possibly because I looked quite grim after 3 days stay at the airport. Well, Kevin obviously told her to issue new tickets for me and everything looked ok, but ofcourse, as we have seen throughout this account lady luck was not yet satisfied and decided to put in another hurtle. For one reason or another she couldn´t issue new ticket on my name, the computer system simply didn´t feel like it... then she tried what we all do when computer systems fail us, she tried pressing the keys harder and harder and to her great surprise that didn´t work either. In the end Kevin came over there, told me to go to check-in and when I was at the desk I was to tell the girl to call him, that I did and he probably told her what to do, at least I got to check in. Then I noticed a notice at the check-in desk saying that if a passanger felt that his right had in anyway been violated he should ask for a printout of the passanger rights at the check-in desk or at the gate. I decided that it would be a nice reading during my flight so I asked the girl about a copy of passengers rights, she looked at me quite puzzled, the passengers rights?? she asked me... but I didn´t do anything and the flight is on time she said surprised, well, my flight is 3 days late I answered. She didn´t have a copy (surprise, surprise) and she had to call Alex, the bitchy girl who told me they had closed the gate 2 days before, she asked to speak to me on the phone, and told me that Ethiad was not responsible for the things I had gone thorugh, "well, if that´s true you won´t mind me reading my rights, I simply need something to read in the flight, so I don´t get bored" she said that, yes it was my right but that she didn´t understand why I would want to read it, Ethiad was not responsible. I still insisted on getting a copy and she told me that it might take 10-15 minutes to get it, clearly hoping that I wouldn´t bother to wait. I said that was great and tat I looked forward meeting her. She hung up without even saying goodbye :)
Well, I got my copy in which she had highlighted the parts where it said under what circumstances Ethiad was not responsible, I thanked her for her personal interet in my case but told her that it was not her job to put highlighted parts into my reading materials. For some reason that really got to her and she started a long speach where she talked about liability and that they did nothing wrong, she got so upset that I started laughing at her, and told her that she didn´t need to worry I was not thinking about suing her, but her company, this stunned her enough so I could get away and on to my flight.
About the flight I can not say anything since I fell asleep before take-off and didn´t wake up untill landing in Abu Dhabi. In Abu Dhabi airport i went to the bank to change money but there was no one in the bank so I walked to the informatin desk to ask why the bank wasn´t open, but the person there insisted that te bank was indeed open and that I should just knock on the glass, when I got back to the bank there were group of 4 Scottish people there (you can always smell them) they looked as confused as I was, international airport and the bank closed. So we stood there knocking on the glass with no success, after around 20 minutes a girl,not a year older than 17 came there looking at us like we were a group of maniacs knocking on the window of her empty booth. Well, after after getting my United Arab Emirates (UAE) money I went outside to scout the situation, after 15 minutes of walking and talking I found out I had three ways of getting into town (city) first one was which all the tourists took, the airport taxi, highly organized, english speaking, fast but expensive, the second choice was city taxis that actually are not allowed there so they would drive past in rows and if somebody flagged them down they would stop and pick you up unless a cop (there were alot of them) would start walking towards them, then they would speed away. The thirth option was individuals tanding outside the airport asking you if you needed a taxi and they would take you in their own cars. I am a very stubborn person so ofcourse I didn´t want to pay the highest price as the tourists so I decided to talk to one of these guys offerering their service on the pavement, I found this guy, quite a good english speaker and told him that I wanted to go to Abu Dhabi and how much it would be. 30 Dirhams (UAE currency) he said, that´s half of the airport taxis fare so I considered my self quite lucky and that I had made a good deal, the guy took my bag and started carrying it away from all the cars. I asked him where he was going and he pointed to the end of the car line, as we reached the end of the carline outside of te airport he continued walking and I became quite nervous and asked him again where we were going, over there he said, pointing towards a dark parking lot, had I not been robbed 4 times I would probably have walked with him, and I would say that there is 80% likelyhood that he had his car parked there and that he was going to drive me to Abu Dhabi but these 20% made me nervous, walking into a dark parking space with some guy, and when he asked me if I was alone, I freaked out, said that, no I had 3 guys coming in an hour nd that I hould wait for them, grabbed my bag from him and half walked half ran back to the airport. There I found one of the local taxis, their ride is 40 Dirhams which is quite god as well, I jumped in and the guy took of quite fast to avoid the cops, but as we drove towards Abu Dhabi I found out that he didn´t understand a single word in English, not Hotel, hostel, central nor anything else I tried, he kept insisting on getting a written address (or that´s what I think he was asking for) but i didn´t have any, and just wanted to get to the centre, so after intense 10 minutes of actionary/pictionary i decided to let it go and just see where he would drive me. He stopped in front of this huge hotel, and I just got out since this seemed to be fairly central, judgung by the ammount of lights, traffic and people (I might still have been in the suburbs, who knows). At the hotel I asked a very nice english speaking guy where I could get a hostel, he didn´t know but pointed me to a cheaper hotel, they were full so I just walked around Abu Dhabi for hours admiring this amazing city. In the end I sat down in an internet café and checket hostels.com (very good website, when in need of hostels around the world), but this time it failed me, apparently there are no hostels in Abu Dhabi, the only hostels in UAE are based in Dubai. So as i sat tere contemplating on what to do, I started to chat to the manager of this internet place, he was this really friendly guy and we spent a long time teaching each other words in Icelandic and arabic and getting facts about the countries, then he denied taking any money for my time and called me a taxi to get back to the airport (it was the only solution). So once more I would spend my night at an airport, the airport in Abu Dhabi is a bit special, yes, it is open 24 hours a day, but nothing is happening there during the night, still they have the same ammount of peple working day and night, so as I sat down there starting to read and listen to music i had around 20 people just staring at me for the whole night, it was quite disturbing but at the same time fun (since I like attention). Mid day the following day I got to check in and finally get into the real airport where the shops and bars are, after walking a quick round I settled down at the only bar there (that´s not surprising for an Icelander) and at that bar I met two great people, Caroline and Michelle. Caroline is 21 year old English girl that for the last three years has been traveling around the world, at each place working as bartender and stuff to get money to go to her nexxt destination, now she was going to Nepal, she had so many great stories and I loved listening to her. Michelle (I think it was Michelle, but I am horrible with names) was around 45 years old, working in Kabul training lawyers and judges in the fight against organized drug dealers, sounds like a fairytale but it´s true. before that she had been working in kosovo, she was the real deal, she had even had a rocket shot at her, amazing woman. So my night was spent in a really cool conversations with this amazing people. So I flew to Manila and again I slept the whole way (you get tired of this airport living), in Manila I went throught the slowest immigration process ever, there were around 15 lines there, but they just didn´t move at all. When I finally got through I started looking for some AIESEC people but no one was there, so I bought my self a phone card and called one of the OC girl (organizing commitee). She told me that they had all left Manila, and that I would have to get my self over to the island of the onference my self, that was fine so i took a taxi to the other terminal where i was told I could buy tickets, but there I got two bad news, first of all, there was no flight in that day (they had been earlier) to Bohol (where I needed to go) and that the morning flight was booked so I had to book a afternoon flight. The second bad news was that the flight on the 29th was fully booked so I had to book it a day earlier, the 28th. With those tickets in my pocket I found my self a Taxi and told him to go to Malate pension house. He nodded and drove off, but as I tried to speak to him, I came to realize that he understood no english so I just waited to see where he was going to drive me, he stopped in front of a church. I just took my stuff and walked out, not bothereing to try to explain to him where I actually wanted to go. I started to ask local people and after around 20 minutes I was in the lobby of this pension house (hotel/hostel). I got my room and the first thing I noticed was a large ammount of ants crawling everywhere, to top I noticed a cockroach sprinting accross the room under my bed, nothing like a cockroach to make you feel good in a room. So I took a weird shower in cold ater which barely ran out of the tubes and then went for a walk around Manila, what an amazing city it is, so full of life and people, I absolutely loved it, I travele around in these long type of jeeps where 16-20 people could sit in the back and people just jumped on and of on every intersection. In the night I checket out the nightlife which was quite fun, Philippines girls are verybeautifull and being white there makes you very attractive but I decided to go home quite early since I had not slept in a bed for such a long time and I slept for a good 10 hours. The next day I took a flight to Bohol, in that airport i met this Philippino fisherman which had travelled all around the world, he told me so man cool stories of things he had experienced, quite a reamarkable life he had had. In Bohol i thought someone would pick me up, since I had sent an e-mail the day before telling them when I was to arrive, but when got there, there was no AIESEC people there. I looked for a payphone and when I finally found one he didn´t work, o after asking an amployee for confirmatin I found out this was an aiport without phone and internet, but hey, who needs that when you can send a letter?
I fought my way through a group of taxi drivers which were on the verge of panic attack over the white boy with no transportation. I ran (they were litteraly chasing me) over to this Japanese restaurant. I got to call from there, a waitress let me use her cell phone, but just to top it nobody answered. I started negotiating with a taxi driver over him driving me to a internet place and then to the conference place when I saw a van clearly marked AIESEC driving into the parking lot, I was so glad and walked over to him, he on the other hand had no idea who Kristjansson was or that he was to pick up some delegate, he was here to pick up some OC girls from the ticket office, so finally I got lucky in my unluckyness. When the girls came out of the ticket office we went to the conference site and what a site!!! big congrats for the OC for organizing and booking this place, it was so amazing, this rsort with many small houses facing the sea, an absolute paradise. The conference was great and I met so many great people and learned so many cool stuff that I can´t wait implementing in Indonesia, being part of AP will rock... or like we say... AP hot to go, H-O-T-T-O-G-O a úúú hot to go, a úúú hot to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can´t wait getting to Indonesia and working with the people there and with this awsome AP people, so full of vision and passion. Any way, the trip back was cool, have been talking to 6-7 people at the airports, spent 4 hours with an Indian girl here in Standsted, a really nice girl that I will without doubt keep in touch with. I came here at 10:30 and my flight is at 21:00 so that´s a very brief wait on my standards. Looking forward to getting home, finishing my work there and then... Indonesia in the end of May!!!

posted by Tomas @ Thursday, March 30, 2006