14/05/2010 2:09:59 PM
bfoster
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arinex's Matthew Annells and Ros McLeod took off to Algeria just before the Icelandic volcano shut down European airports to bid on behalf of Australia for the international Liquefied Natural Gas conference for 2016. The pair realised they would be pushing to get to the event and the presentation on time when they were awaiting their Paris flight from Hong Kong. What followed was an incredible journey that Matthew recorded by writing of their trip on his i-phone. He kindly allowed mice.net to present it via our micespace blog. We implore you to have a read of this amazing journey (unedited) and ask you to ponder how far you might go to secure a piece of business. Perhaps you even have a story of your own that you may like to share with our readers. Enjoy Matthew's below...
Algeria and back for dinner
By Matthew Annells, general manager, Melbourne - arinex
Ok, so getting to Algeria was never going to be easy, but this is bordering on the ridiculous.
I flew out of Melbourne at 2.20pm Thursday on Cathay. First time flying with them and had heard great things so was looking forward to checking them out.
Was difficult saying goodbye to my 2yo son Harry (wife Claude too of course) as I'd only been away from him overnight before and this was going to be a week.
Flight left on time which is always a good sign. Plan was (nb: use of the word 'was' is never a good sign so early in a story like this) to fly to Hong Kong, meet Roslyn McLeod (my boss) there and, following a 2 hour layover, jump on the flight to Paris. From Paris we were ('were', past tense again) flying down to Algeria on a regional French airline. ETA Algeria 4.30pm Friday - 37 hours after departure. Not great but bearable given we’re having an 8 hour stopover in Paris.
Had 3 days planned in Algeria, our presentation to host LNG18 due to take place on the Saturday afternoon, before heading home on Monday, again through Paris and Hong Kong.
Anyway, I've started writing this from the airport Sheraton in Dubai so you know something's gone seriously pear shaped.
Flight up to Hong Kong pretty uneventful. Food good. Seat great although I note not quite as good as Qantas. Watched a couple of good movies, The Blind Side clearly the best of them. Cathay entertainment system great.
Arrived HK on time and met Ros in the Cathay lounge. Very nice there and a good way to spend a couple of hours waiting for the connection to Paris which was due to leave HK at 11.45pm.
I knew something was up when I overheard the lady sitting next to me tell her husband that their flight had been delayed due to a Volcano in Iceland. A little odd I thought, not so much the fact that a volcano eruption had delayed a flight, but that a young Aussie couple with 3 kids (including a 12 month old) were travelling to Reykjavik for their holidays.
I find out they're actually going to Holland and that Amsterdam airport has been closed due to volcanic ash drifting down from Iceland. My geography is ok and I deduce that if there's a problem with Amsterdam airport then perhaps there is also a problem with Paris? Bingo! Mr Annells, you've won yourself a prize.
An announcement is made to all in the lounge, in the airport in fact, that all flights to Europe have been delayed. In particular, our 11.45pm flight to Paris has been postponed to 11.45am the following morning. Some quick arithmetic in my head tells me that puts us in Paris at 6pm Friday, 3 hours after our connecting flight down to Algeria is due to take off. We send a few emails, to the office asking them to look at other options to get to Algeria, to the remaining members of the Aussie delegation enquiring as to where on the planet they may be, and to the LNG steering committee (before whom we are due to make our presentation on Saturday).
At 1am someone tells us the lounge is closing so we make our way to the Regal Airport Hotel, which involves going through immigration, security checks etc etc and about a 2km walk in total. It's 2am by the time I get into bed as there was a long line at check-in and I watched some CNN when I got to the room to see if there were any updates on the news. In short, it's the only story they're covering and it doesn't look good. I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach which has nothing to do with the 1/4 kg of cheese I ate on the flight up from Melbourne.
We are back at the Cathay lounge by 9am - back through immigration, more security etc and another couple of kms with our hand luggage. During the course of the morning we find out:
• Our 11.45am flight to Paris has been delayed a further 24hrs, to 11.45am the next day (Saturday).
• All major European airports have been closed.
• 2 of our fellow delegation members (Belinda and Cheryl) are already in Algeria. The remaining member Grant (our leader) is stuck in London.
• The steering committee chairman has advised that most of the SC members are affected by the problem delaying their arrival to Algeria. Consequently, the presentation meeting has been deferred to Sunday, maybe Monday.
We spend the morning and early afternoon on our laptops and talking with our Sydney office about options. In short, every alternative is given at least some consideration.
We look at flying via Italy or Spain (airports closed). We look at flying down to Johannesburg and then up to Algeria through Syria (this will take 3 flights and about 29 hours flying time and I tell Ros that if it is given any serious consideration as an option I will be killing myself). We look at flying to Dubai, taking a ferry to Egypt and then hitching a ride on a camel across North Africa to Algeria. We dismiss this option fairly quickly.
By 2pm we are resigned to spending another night in Hong Kong and prepare to head into the city when the office rings. They have managed to get us on a 4.30pm flight to Dubai, arriving 9pm Friday night (Dubai time). We are then booked on a 6am flight the following morning on Air Algiers to Oran, Algeria, getting in at 10.50am.
Authors note: we had been advised some weeks ago to avoid Air Algiers at all costs and accordingly had arranged flights (at considerable expense) into and out of Oran from Paris on a regional French airline.
We head off to catch our Dubai flight. The Cathay staff bid us goodbye and promise to transfer our luggage which is still on the respective planes we flew up on from Melbourne and Sydney. "Thank you" I say whilst quietly thinking to myself that my wife’s more likely to see my luggage in Melbourne before I do again. Stop being such a pessimist I then tell myself, our luggage will get there.
Ros and I make it to Dubai without any problems. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for our luggage and we spend an hour or so filling out the necessary forms with the baggage claim people.
Author's note: I mentioned earlier that my geography is pretty good. It occurs to me that maybe I need to reassess that evaluation when I look at the in flight magazine map just before landing in Dubai, and realise that tomorrow morning's Air Algeria flight is going to take closer to 9 hours, as opposed to the 2 hours I'd previously estimated when our new route was booked for us in HK.
Which brings me to the present. I'm sitting in the lobby of the airport Sheraton in Dubai waiting to check in. It's 11.45pm, I've been travelling for 43 hours, my luggage is somewhere over the Pacific on its way home so I'm still wearing the same clothes I left Melbourne in 2 days ago, and I have to be up in 4 hours to catch a 9 hour Air Algiers flight to Oran.
I get my room card and am waiting for the lift when I notice a small gift shop off the lobby. It's not the prospect of buying a few trinkets for family and friends which grabs my attention but the fact I notice a few polo tops hanging in the shop. I've mentioned I'm still wearing the clothes I left home in.
I wander over as the owner (Amir his name turns out to be) is just closing up and I ask him if I can have a quick look. He's only too happy to oblige.
As it turns out, Amir's little gift shop is the Tardis of the fashion world. It looks tiny from the outside (actually it's tiny from the inside as well) but there is nothing he doesn't have and in every size. So 30 minutes and $500 later I bid my new friend goodbye and walk out of there with 2 pairs pants, 2 polo tops, 2 shirts, 2 pairs socks, 4 pairs of undies, a pair of black leather shoes, toiletries and a suitcase in which to carry my new possessions. Amir can't wipe the smile off his face.
If I have any complaints it's that the only Hugo Boss underwear he has are brown. Beggars can't be choosers I decide and besides, a pair of brown undies will probably come in handy on my Air Algerian flight tomorrow.
Finally get up to my room and into bed at 12.15 am. Would have been a bit earlier but it took me ten minutes to work out how to turn off the 95 lights in my hotel room. No wonder Dubai's running out of oil. Alarm set for 4am.
Woke at 3am feeling remarkably fresh. Had arranged to meet Ros downstairs at 4.30am so got up well before to have a long hot shower, shave, etc etc. Basically reboot before continuing on our journey.
Shower was great but I have to skip the shave when I realise there are no towels in my room and it takes me 10 minutes to dry myself with a face washer.
On with my new kit (I note for the first time that my new Guci pants are spelled with one 'c' and begin to wonder if Amir was completely honest with me last night when he told me they came "straight from Milan") and off to the airport.
We make our way to Dubai airport and run into John Hartwell, the Australian govt. representative and last member of our delegation. John flew through Singapore and arrived at Dubai airport around 2am. He's booked on the 6.30am flight with us. A few emails have come in overnight in relation to the delay of our meeting in Oran but nothing conclusive. We decide to push on, after all we've come this far.
The flight to Oran is not so bad. Amazing what a few glasses of Algerian red wine will do for you at 9am in the morning. I strike up a conversation with a few of the Algerian air stewards (all male on our flight). They are great guys and the discussion is mostly cultural - I ask about Algerian history, geography and cuisine. They ask me if Australian women are 'easy'. Without going into too much detail, I think we all come away from the conversation intellectually stimulated. Well stimulated anyway.
We land at Oran airport around 11.30am and I have to say, it's a little exciting to have finally arrived, it's certainly been one hell of a trip. Excitement gradually turns to exhaustion as it takes an hour to get through immigration.
We make our way to the hotel, check in and agree to meet down in the bar at 1pm for a well earned drink.
Authors note: from Elsternwick, Victoria to The Sheraton Hotel, Oran has taken 59 hours. I'm not going to say anymore than that.
Down in the bar and a cold Heineken has never tasted so good. Spirits start to lift, partly I guess due to the sense of achievement in just getting there. They lift further when we bump into Belinda and Cheryl, the further members of our team and our brothers in arms.
Then the bombshell - it's not 100% confirmed but it seems the presentation for LNG18 has been postponed. To July. In London.
Just in case you missed that: TO JULY. IN LONDON. "Can I have another Heineken please".
Once we'd established the girls weren't joking we turned our attention to the only two remaining things of importance, where to go for dinner and how to get home. In relation to the former, Belinda had kindly organised and hosted a beautiful dinner in the hotel's French restaurant. I'm not sure it was worth travelling 47,000 kms for, but it was very nice all the same and the company was great.
Much of Saturday afternoon and the very early hours of Sunday were spent trying to organise a way home. We were convinced we'd be ok if we got to Dubai, plenty of options to get home from there. Problem was getting there. It's one thing that Air Algiers fly Oran - Algiers - Dubai. It's another thing altogether booking a seat on those flights.
In short and all else having failed, Ros and I took a taxi to the airport at 6am Sunday morning in the hope some face to face time with the AA office would get things moving. Fortunately the office (by office I mean counter) was open. On the other hand, waiting your turn in line is not a concept which seems to have found it's way into everyday Algerian life.
I fight my way through the scrum and am fortunate to find myself in front of a nice young man who speaks good English (my Arabic is conversational by this stage but I draw the line when it comes to commercial transactions). He tells me he's glad to see me as I have a request he can actually help with and he's spent the past 3 days explaining to angry Algerians that their European holidays have been cancelled. I tell him that if he gets me on the flight to Algiers and then onto Dubai I'll happily take him with me. It’s Fortunate he doesn't seem to understand my offer, as there are only two seats left on the flight and I don't fancy having the "I've got good news and bad news" conversation with Ros when she asks me if I was able to book 2 seats on the flight.
It takes relatively little time to have our tickets issued and printed and we head back to the hotel to pack with our taxi driver Brahim. Brahim seems to know everyone in Algeria which is handy at the numerous security check points we need to pass through. We are simply waved through with a big smile, which is convenient if not a little worrying. We are back at the hotel and packed by 8.30am.
I go down for a quick breakfast in the hotel before we head to the airport. There are about 40 tables in the restaurant clearly divided into two sections - 3 tables on one side, 37 or thereabouts on the other. I cant work out why until the waiter asks me "Smoking or non-smoking sir?". I think its a little odd that smoking is allowed anywhere in the restaurant, even for Algeria, but simply reply "non-smoking" and head for one of the 20 or so empty tables in the larger section. "Excuse me Sir, but that's the smoking section". I try to think of a witty reply when for some reason the phrase "if you can't beat ‘em join ‘em" pops into my head. So I head over to the newsagent and buy myself a packet of Marlborough lights and a lighter.
Breakfast is good and we run into some of the people we had dinner with last night. It's good to get to say goodbye as we explain we've managed to get flights out this morning, but I’m getting a little tired of everyone looking at me like a relative just died when I tell them we're flying Air Algiers. We bid our farewells and head to the airport, via a quick stop at the LNG expo.
Ok, so I've seen it all now, and the check in/boarding process for our internal Algerian flight (Oran to Algiers - about 1hr) needs special mention. Getting our boarding passes was relatively seamless although we were sent back by immigration to fill out a departure card (interesting requirement on a domestic flight). Through immigration and onto security. My bags went through the machine but I beeped as I walked through the screen. I mention my newly bought packet of Marlboroughs and my lighter (nb: told them didn't show them) and they waved me through. Only 10 minutes in the departure lounge before being called for our flight. This is where it became interesting, perhaps best if I explain the process in bullet form:
• you line up so that they can tear your ticket into two parts along the serrated edge. They then give you both pieces back;
• then you line up to get on the bus and have to show a policeman your boarding pass, both parts;
• during the short trip out the tarmac to the plane, which I note with reserved relief is powered by jets not propellers, someone takes the ticket stub from you, never to be seen again;
• single file off the bus and then another lineup in front of a trestle table and a bunch of police. To describe the security check as ‘cursory’ would be like describing Osama Bin Laden as ‘wanted for questioning’;
• if you pass the security bag check it's then on to the bottom of the boarding stairs to be frisked. If you don't pass you are required to pay a departure tax which amounts to all the money currently on your person……………….just kidding;
• on the plane and it's sit wherever you like. It takes me a while but I finally locate a seat which is not clearly broken and take my place;
• we're taxing to take off now so I’ll switch off my phone - hopefully for only around an hour - and write more later. (nb: I have airplane mode on my iPhone but I'm not taking any chances.....).
Back again. Oran - Algeria flight just the way I like to travel in North Africa - uneventfully. Checked into our Dubai flight and waiting in the Air Algiers lounge. Actually not too bad, nor is the airport. Only other person in here with us is Bruce from Sydney. What else would his name be.
Bruce is a friendly bloke in his early fifties (I'm guessing) and looks like he loves a beer. Unfortunately for him he made the mistake, once his original flight from Madrid to Beijing was cancelled, of choosing to fly via Algiers to Beijing with the same airline we are on. He arrived here yesterday to be told his Beijing flight had been cancelled so he slept last night on the floor, which he’s quick to add was the business class section of the floor given it had been cleaned.
While I'm talking to Bruce the AA staff tell him he can't get on our Dubai flight because he has no onward connection. He can't go to a hotel here because he has no visa. So basically he has to stay at the Algiers airport indefinitely. In addition, we are all told that all flights into/out of Asia have been cancelled or suspended. If that's true our Cathay flight home via HK is no good. First things first though, let's get to Dubai and worry about the next leg from there.
Bruce seems resigned to his fate - spending the rest of his life in transit at Algiers airport - I wonder if Tom Hanks will play him in the movie - when I tell him not to take 'no' for an answer. So he has another crack and, after much detailed discussion (yelling - most of it in Arabic) he has a boarding pass in his hand. Within 2 minutes I have a beer in mine, Bruce having made a quick trip to duty free to celebrate. That disappears quite quickly so I return the shout, we're both Australian after all.
Time to board. Bruce seems more despondent when I tell him there will be no beer on the flight to Dubai than he did when the ground staff told him he had to live out the rest of his days in the Algiers airport, so we buy a few travellers for the trip. A couple of mini bottles of scotch for Ros. After all we need to stick together.
Sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off. An hour late so far. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the liquid I saw leaking from the bottom of the plane as we were boarding. Meanwhile the pilot (who looks a little like a young Lou Diamond Phillips - think La Bamba) has left the cockpit and is sitting in business class talking on his mobile (I hope he remembers to turn it off before take off....). On the positive side he's still wearing his aviator sunglasses so we can't be too far from departure.
Finally we start to taxi to the runway. I buckle up, crack the top off my second Heineken and recline my seat back as far as it will go, which turns out to be past 180 degrees so I'm actually looking at the passenger sitting directly behind me. One of the stewards helps me move it back up and off we go.
Arrived safely in Dubai at 2.20am after a largely uneventful trip, the only real excitement coming when the door to the cockpit flung open on landing so I had a great view up the runway from seat 1A as they slammed on the anchors.
Author's note: I will admit to being nervous and quite reluctant about flying Air Algiers - as I said, we'd been told to avoid it like the plague - and my comments have reflected this. But the fact is we flew with them 3 times for a total combined flight time of 17 hours and they were always very, very friendly. More importantly, they got us where we were going safely. They also had no problem at all opening and serving Bruce and I our stow away Heineken travellers. So thanks guys, we appreciate it.
Stayed at the Sheraton which was very nice, although after checking in at 3am I would have been happy sleeping pretty much anywhere.
Spent Monday having a look around Dubai. Quite an amazing place I have to say. Got to test my bartering skills at one of the local trade markets. I'm telling myself that I drove a really hard bargain for my traditional Arab clothing and 4 pashminas, but the reality is the guy I bought them from is probably still laughing and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Arrived at the airport in good time and was pleased when Cathay confirmed our reservation and issued our tickets. A little disappointed that the seats are not a flatbed but I shouldn't complain, it could be worse, I could still be driving around downtown Oran in Brahim's taxi looking for a way out of Algeria.
Dubai to Hong Kong pretty uneventful. About 7 and half hours, arriving into HK at about 5am. Had a few hours in the Cathay Lounge which is very nice, although if I have noodles, pork buns and dim sum for breakfast one more time I'm going to seriously consider changing my name by deed pole to Yum Cha Annells.
Currently sitting on the plane waiting for my last leg to take off. Maybe watch a movie and then try and get some sleep. Avatar is the only thing I haven't watched so far, so hopefully the stewardess has some 3D glasses for me, if not I'll just rock back and forwards really quickly while watching.
Arrived at Tullamarine at 8.58pm and had cleared immigration and customs (easy when you don’t have any luggage) and was in the car on the way home by 9.10 pm.
Home Sweet Home at 9.42pm and God it's good to be here. Only took 51 hours to get home which is relatively good I guess.
So that's it. To summarize my global adventure:
• From the moment I left my home in Elsternwick, Victoria to the time I returned has been 5 days 10 hours (which, incidentally, is the same amount of time since I last saw my luggage). During that time I've:
o spent 110 hours flying or in transit;
o spent a total of 22 hours in Oran Algeria, my original destination;
o visited 7 countries (3 of them twice);
o caught 7 flights, 3 of them on Algerian Airlines;
o smoked 9 cigarettes;
o went through more security checks than Hannibal Lector on holidays;
o stayed in 4 hotels, the longest stay being 22hours, the shortest 4;
o had 12 out of a total of 16 meals on aeroplanes;
o watched 9 movies, the best of which was The Blind Side;
o checked my pocket to make sure I still had my passport 9,789 times (approximately).
Author's note: I have to say a few thank yous. To Rosa, our travel agent back in Sydney who worked tirelessly from the moment we left, first to find us a way to Algeria and then to get us home. To Claude, for looking after Harry on her own for a week which is no mean feat in itself. And most importantly to Ros, my boss and travelling partner who was great company, who never lost her sense of humour and who made sure we were looked after wherever we went.
edited by bfoster on 14/05/2010
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