30 Hours of Hell - December 31st, 2005

We have had the most awful 30 hours.

Our experience began yesterday at around 2pm, when we arrived at the Bangkok airport to check in for our flight to Bahrain. We were quite early and had to wait for quite a while for the check-in counter to open. There wasn’t any hassle, we cleared immigration and had a few drinks and a massage while waiting for the plane to arrive. However, it was delayed by several hours, necessitating more drinks to while away the time.

At 7.30pm, we finally boarded the plane and found out it had been delayed in Hong Kong due to faulty flight controls. The late arrival and the time it took for everyone to get on board meant that the flight missed it’s allocated schedule for takeoff. As a result, we spent considerable time sitting on the tarmac in Bangkok, waiting to enter the takeoff queue. By the time we took off, we were nearly three hours late.

The pilot then told us that we were flying into severe headwinds, slowing down the flight even further. He anticipated that we would arrive in Bahrain at around 11pm Bahrain time. Eight hours into the flight, he came onto the intercom and told us that the flight was going to be diverted to Abu Dhabi for operational reasons. However, we were carrying too much fuel to be able to land at the time, so we had to enter a holding pattern above Abu Dhabi until the plane had burnt enough fuel to land safely. We finally landed at 12.30pm Abu Dhabi time and were transferred to a terminal to be processed by security. Everyone’s hand luggage was rescanned and everyone given a pat-down. This took several hours and we then boarded a new plane for the flight to Bahrain.

Ten minutes later, the pilot came onto the intercom and told us we would be delayed again as the emergency lighting in the new plane was not working. Another hour passed and we finally took off. We landed in Bahrain at 3.00am, six and a half hours late.

Then began the process of getting a hotel room. As our flight to Damascus leaves at 11am, we had booked a room in the Bahrain Airport Hotel for the night. However, they cancelled our booking - despite knowing that our plane was delayed. We had to join an enormous queue to the Gulf customer service desk to arrange what to do next. Immigration wouldn’t let us pass through to the Transit area until we’d spoken to Gulf, even when we said that we didn’t want a hotel room. Finally, at 4am, we got to the front of the Gulf customer service queue. They offered us a free night in a hotel in central Bahrain and arranged transport there. However, they wouldn’t let us collect our bags to take to the hotel – they actually told us they would cancel our onward flight if we took the bags out of the airport. The reasoning behind this was unclear, but we were too tired to argue and said we’d go and wait for our driver.

We had to exit the arrivals hall and go to the Gulf customer service centre at the entrance of the airport to meet the driver. This is supposed to be manned 24 hours a day. Well, it was around 6.30pm by the time we managed to get the airport duty manager to find the Gulf duty manager to find out what had happened to our driver. After a bit more mucking around, they took us to the hotel so we could shower and have some breakfast before connecting with our flight to Damascus.

Well, the hotel wasn’t much better. When we checked in, they said that we would have breakfast after 8am and our pickup to go back to the airport would be at 9.30am. We had a shower and thought we’d get an hour’s nap before breakfast. That idea lasted about 20 minutes, at which point the phone rang and reception told us we had to eat breakfast at 7am instead. We trotted down to breakfast and were back in the room by 7.30 to get that elusive nap (by this point, we have been awake for 29 hours).

Just as we were drifting off to sleep, the telephone rang again. Reception said to come and meet our driver to go back to the airport. We said no, pickup was for 9.30am. They said no, it was now. Then someone came and started banging on the door – this continued until we left the room. We were back at the airport by 9am, with no sleep.

As we write this, it is 1.10pm and we are finally on our way to Syria. This plane was also delayed, meaning we had to sit in the airport for three hours. We’re not sure if our luggage is on this plane, they couldn’t find it at the airport this morning but kept insisting that it would meet us in Damascus (despite only being checked as far as Bahrain). Neither of us have slept since we got up at in Bangkok on 6am on Friday – that was 36 hours ago. I'm trying to believe Fletch's advise that sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine. I think I'll just try the sleep :)

Fletch’s tips for new travellers

If you are considering taking the milk run across the Middle-East on Gulf airlines, do this little test first to see whether you will enjoy it.

Firstly, get someone to beat you over the head and shoulders with a stick.

Then, once you’ve developed a headache, get a group of rowdy men to have a loud argument in a language you don’t understand.

Then complete an exam on a topic you have no knowledge of, in Swahili, with the prize being that you see the only possessions you currently have, returned to you at some point.

Oh, and make sure you do all this wearing yesterdays socks and underpants.

If you enjoy the experience, then you should be pretty safe transiting through Bahrain on Gulf!