Sofitel Alhamra Hotel, Jeddah, Monday, 1999-03-15 12:00 local (Z+3)
I've been out a month now. It seems longer than that, a lot longer, and I still have five days to go, six if you count the eleven hour time zone change between here and home. At the moment those of us not leaving by operating a flight out will deadhead on a ferry flight scheduled to leave at 01:00 local on the 20th. It will refuel in Paris and then proceed to JFK, arriving there in the early afternoon, thus allowing for jumpseating home for a Eugene or Portland arrival late that night. I won't be holding my breath. Getting home sometime on the 21st is a more realistic expectation.
An example of the problems that can happen getting out of this place, a small crisis in fact, is in progress right now. The Calcutta flying is complete, and the airplane assigned to that is trying to get out. The crew left the hotel yesterday at 13:00 for a 15:00 departure. As of 10:00 this morning, they had not been able to depart, and the crew was being held in detention at the airport. The problem was the flight's call sign. We operate the Hajj flights under an Air India call sign, but since it was to be a Tower Air ferry flight, our dispatch apparently made the incredibly stupid mistake of filing it with a Tower Air call sign. Tower Air is publicly known as a Jewish company operating daily between JFK and Tel Aviv. Thus, Tower Air flights are not permitted within Saudia Arabia's airspace. Remember, to the Saudi mind, appearances are more important than reality, and appearances must be maintained. If the appearance facade is broken, somebody has to be punished, and that flight's crew is bearing the brunt of the punishment at the moment. Some under-the-table money will probably also have to be passed.
There's no real danger to the crew. Their part of the punishment is sitting in the terminal until what should have been done originally is done. However, the Saudi authorities will take their own sweet time allowing the problem to be resolved. What should have been done was to file the flight as an Air India trip or a Trust Air trip. Trust Air is a pseudo company, a paperwork-only entity, set up to allow Tower Air to transit Muslim countries. Everybody knows it's a pseudonym for Tower Air, but it meets the appearances requirement. Yesterday here in the hotel I jokingly complained to the flight's captain, Joe Rudder, that I really should be getting out before him since I am senior to him. By now he's probably wishing it was me instead of him. Hopefully, they'll get out sometime today, but they'll be operating without having had good rest for at least 24 hours, so I am now quite happy that the trip was assigned to him rather than me. Also, Tower dispatch will probably not make the same mistake when the rest of us leave. As one pilot put it, it's nice to have had a sacrificial lamb go first. We will all be sure to profusely thank Joe when we next see him, and I will include the fact that I appreciate a young guy having taken the heat so an old guy like me didn't have to. He is, as I remember, about four months younger than I.
I'm scheduled for a 03:00 local wakeup tomorrow morning for a Mumbai (used to be Bombay) flight. I'm hoping that when I return to Jeddah the following day, I will have completed my last trip for this inbound phase of the Hajj.
For those who may see me during my few days at home—I'll have to leave home to come back here on the 29th—I should warn you that my appearance has changed. You see, I needed a haircut. Now communicating with a barber who knows little or no English can be a problem. What I was trying to tell him was that I wanted it short but not so short that it wold not lay down. “Short,” he understood; the rest was apparently meaningless. I sat down in the chair and, as usual, closed my eyes. Several minutes later I opened them to check on his progress—he was taking a very long time. My reaction was, “Oh, my...but don't panic, it will grow back.” Actually, I think I like it this way, and it's very low maintenance. Maybe I'll make this my regular hair style. Hell, it's falling out anyway.
I had a meeting this morning with the hotel manager relative to getting Internet access through the hotel's PBX (private branch exchange) system. The Internet local access numbers begin with a 3. Heretofore all Jeddah numbers have begun with a 6. In the hotel's system, dialing a 3 after dialing 9 to get an outside line is interpreted as misdialing. He's looking into getting it changed. Currently, the cheapest way to logon is to use AT&T to call the U.S. That costs me about $1.50 per minute, and that's what it costs when I call C.J. Sitting around the pool a couple of days ago, one of our pilot's observed that he expected his telelphone bill for this portion of the Hajj to be about $1000. Like I, he gets lonely, and he has young children at home who have to talk to Daddy whenever he calls. I don't expect my bill to be as high as his, but it will certainly exceed $500.
Yesterday, for the second time during this Hajj, I had to move quickly to avoid being struck by a car driven by a thobe-clad driver. This is beginning to piss me off. I really feel that when I am on the sidewalk, I should have the right of way. I uncomplainingly give them the right of way when I am crossing a street or walking in the street because there is no sidewalk. But, damn it, when we pedestrians are on the sidewalk, we are entitled to the right of way.
Thanks to Morley Young, who, having read of my troubles with the Delhi belly, offerred sage advice on which hand to use for what and not to be dyslexic while figuring it out. And thanks to Sandlins for a reminder as to which part of the human anatomy truly controls our bodies.
Well, time for my daily sunning by the pool. Some parts of this job are reasonable.
Terry