So I am back, and the first thing that comes to mind is, gosh I do not wanna leave the house. It is just so different this time. It is just me and my parents, and I am home to a newly remodeled home.
But that wasn’t all. My trip back was not without interesting surprises. HK was fun, and seemed like the last bit of normality my days would have, even though my days are NEVER normal.
Act one – Going –
Check-in was great and easy, very smooth, and then while in the lounge, I overhear two guys talking you know - Guy talk. Well besides this being one of those elaborate stories, I was shocked when he went into extreme detail and pretty embarrassing stuff that he did. All in Arabic. I kept a strait face, and got a call from my dad, and immediately started speaking Arabic to him. And when I hung up… I got asked if I spoke Arabic, I said yes, and the person got angry with me that I listened to the entire conversation and didn’t warn him, or why didn’t I leave?
Hrm, I had to explain that they should know better than to assume anything about anyone, and he is well on his way to his 40s and because he is in a foreign country, doesn’t mean white man next to you does not speak Arabic.
Now what was worse was when the receptionist called him to the front desk for his flight, they looked at me, and his buddy asked my name. So my apologies to Isam Dandashi (No ideas who that may be, the name just appeared in my head) oh well.
Act 2 –Flying–
Act 2/Scene 1:
I never have had this much excitement on one flight before. First the moral of the story is that out of 100 people, 1 is a bad apple. So don’t generalize, but here I am, generalizing simply because of those 100 people you will have an impression on the 1 idiot that causes a scene, or maybe 2.
One of those scenes of rolling your eyes and telling yourself oh god can you just throw him out of the door… Um nope we are thousands of feet up and we just gotta live with him.
First man, was just a plain nuisance. Staring at people, and just being odd. Didnt look like he showered, and so you wonder what he is doing in this class?
So he proceeds to recline his chair as soon as we leave the gate. The stewardess tells him to upright his chair… he does, and she walks by, and he reclines it again, she walks by and tells him again. He does, and she tells him please do not for safety regulation. He says okay. then she asks if he spoke English, he said yes. Just as we prepare for takeoff, I watch him do it again, and the stewardess calls in someone who speaks Arabic, and they tell him to wait 15 minutes after takeoff and he can recline the chair. he said ok, and he actually complied.
15 minutes after takeoff, he turns on his cellphone. And tries to make calls. Now all this on a flight in a western country would be wowzers! This guy would be jumped by a skymarshall etc. But this is a natural accourance I guess, although it was the first time I ever seen it happen. Then again, I would busy talking to someone at the time, so I probably missed out on a lot of this comedy.
When the cabin crew told him to turn it off, I hear him say, what are you going to do? Throw me off? I was like… that’s interesting, wouldn’t it be funny if they did. But then the gentleman behind him finally chipped in and told him, they will not throw him off, they will not kick him off in Riyadh because that is his final destination, they will turn the plane around, and then fine him over 50,000 US dollars, and the landing fee, and any fee suffered from other passengers, and then ban him from the use of this airline ever again.
And he actually behaved, for a bit, until he kept calling for assistance to get some water, and tell the stewardess how pretty she was UGHHHH!
Act 2/Scene 2:
Half way during the flight, There were lots of beeps, and the Cabin crew running around, I come to overhear all the crew say “he is in trouble”. I ignored it, saw the captain walk past the other isle, didn’t think much of it, then walked down to the annoying guy on my side of the cabin, then proceeded to ask if everything was okay with the flight and being very kind to him, but in a way that was kinda saying, “Behave yourself or else”. Then the captain returned to the cockpit. Okay that was interesting,
A commotion started in the back with a couple of Bahrainies, and I finally overhear that one of them thought he would be cute and smoke… in the toilet. His final destination was not Riyadh, and the captain decided to kick him off the plane, not continue to the next destination, and have local authorities deal with him and the fines.
Now many people from this side of the world know what I mean when I say, we can kinda sometimes pull some cheeky moves on people who are not from our own culture… Kind of like the majority of GAIJIN (Foreigner in Japanese) in Japan. And get away with it. But sometimes, you tread on the wrong person, and sometimes you go to far, and sometimes, you just get yourself in trouble, and you still want to blame someone else for the responsibility that was yours all along.
- Be careful what you say in public. You think you are the only one who understands, but you probably are not.
- Know your limits on what rules you want to bend, because if you push it, you will get yourself, or someone you care about in trouble.
- Don’t ever try to break a rule that explicitly says DO not do this! And is plastered all over the place. Because if you get caught… Only you are to blame.
And that is what I learned in my 12 hour journey.