i thought it was a bit of a bad omen when i arrived at the airport in bangkok thursday afternoon and not only did i not see my flight on the departure board, but there wasn't a soul to be seen at the air india check-in counter. after numerous inquiries i tracked down the air india ticket office in a back corridor of the airport. it turns out there was indeed a flight, but scheduled for 8:30pm, not 5:05pm as i'd expected. (my original flight had actually been for monday. but i had had a slight flaw in what i had thought were very cleverly arranged plans to scuba dive in the south for a few days while waiting for the processing of my indian visa and then get back to bangkok just in time to pick up my visa and fly onward. monday turned out to be a thai holiday, thus no visa, and thus no flying. over the phone i was told the next available flight i could take was thursday departing at the same time. not entirely correct information, but at least pretty close, and i was happy to be a few hours early than a few hours late :)

anyways, no worries, time to hang out for a while. when the flight finally does show up on the departure board the estimated departure time is midnight. uggg, that'll put me arriving in calcutta around 2am, but at least i'm enjoying myself playing cards with some friends i've made. (thai rummy is a great game) okay, flight departs reasonable "on-time" (midnight that is). very empty flight actually. less than 1/4 full. in fact there is nobody else on my entire row. nice to be able to stretch out comfortably though and i'm quickly sound asleep.

30 min or so into the flight i'm woken up by a rather panicy flight attendant. the oxygen masks have been dropped down and i'd apparently slept through to initial announcement that there is a problem with the cabin pressure and to please use the masks. i'm a bit puzzled as i couldn't even tell if the oxygen masks were working or not, but there didn't really seem to be much of an issue breathing so i wasn't too bothered. (everybody else i talked to later insisted that they weren't working at all) i was actually more preoccupied trying to figure out how to connect the audio headsets so i could listen to the movie. (they were the old acoustic tube type setup, probably a good indication of the age of the aircraft)

the capitan came on the announcement system again and was apologetic that due to %quotconditions out side of their control%quot we'll have to return to bangkok, but %quotthings like this happen from time to time" and not to worry. he also assured us not to be alarmed by the burning smell as it's just because the oxygen devices are very hot.

we arrive back in bangkok and are told to wait in the aircraft. no indication if we'll be redeparting on the same plane or changing plans. several people are desperate to get off the airplane so they can smoke a cigarette, but are told to they have to remain on the craft for %quotsecurity reasons%quot. anyways, as i said, it was a pretty empty flight so i was able to stretch out and snooze comfortable enough. around 5am we're told to de-plane, and after a bit longer are herded off to busses and to a nearby hotel. nobody seemed to be able to provide any information of when we might be able to get on another flight.

but at least the hotel was a very nice one. (air conditioned, hot water, toilet paper, etc. quite a contrast to the $5 places i'd been staying at) i came back down late morning. still nobody able to provide any information, but was given a voucher for the lunch buffet. the food was exquisite! it took 4 heaping platefuls to sample everything and it was all delicious! almost worth staying another day in bangkok for. :o)

finally there was a representative from air india at the hotel. she said that they're still trying to sort everything out, but there is another flight to calcutta in the afternoon so not to worry. at one point there was a list of people originally destined for bombay who were going to get on a bus back to the airport for a flight to delhi, but that mysteriously was canceled. then i heard a rumor that there was room for only 10 people on the calcutta flight. i asked the air india representative if i was on the calcutta list. she told me 'yes' -- but, hey!, she doesn't even know my name yet! (but i admit i certainly wouldn't want her job as she's being inundated with a horde of irate passengers) pressing her further, i find that actually i'm not on the list and she can't tell when there might be another flight or even when she might know when there might be another flight. i told her that i really don't care which city i fly into, but i'd really like to find some kind of flight to india today. all she would tell me thought was that i should check back in to the hotel for another day and wait.

that seemed rather worthless and i wasn't particularly inclined to spend another day at the hotel. (despite the delicious food) especially considering i only had 4.5 baht left in my pocket ($0.10). i decided i'd have better luck at the airport and i mooched a taxi ride with a couple other fellows who'd given up on the situation there and were desperate to get to bombay. at the airport, the air india counter was very helpful and they put me at the top of the standby list for the afternoon calcutta flight even though i explained to them i wasn't on the official list from the lady at the hotel. (i'd actually arrived well before the others) as things turned out i ended up with a very nice window business class seat. the second flight was uneventful and i got another tasty meal out of it. most miraculously though, despite being told at one point that our luggage was locked away in a special container and probably wouldn't show up in calcutta until the following day, there it was, first off the conveyer belt as soon as i cleared immigration! =:o)