The call to prayer is echoing through the Dubai airport, and I have chosen to pray for the surprisingly large numbers of clueless travelers wandering the planet. I’m no fool - I know that I travel much more than the average person and have the benefit of years of learning experiences. Only recently, however, have I come to realize that there are some people out there that are truly incapable of figuring out the most basic elements of travel.
On my way from Amman to Doha, I was boarding my Qatar Airways flight when three very small, very pushy Indonesian ladies were trying to force their way past me onto the plane. One particularly scrawny one kept trying to squeeze past me pushing my backpack from side to side in the process. I was severely annoyed and purposely blocked her every move. Once on board, it turned out we were all sitting together in the same row…joy. I’m not sure how exactly the girls made it from Indonesia to Jordan, but it appeared as though they had never been on a plane before in their lives. They repeatedly tried to fasten their seatbelts backwards and could not figure out why it wasn’t working. Once I showed them how the seatbelts worked, we started for takeoff. One tiny bump while climbing to cruising altitude, and the girls covered their faces in fear. When the flight attendants came around with food and beverages, the girls pushed the seats in front of them repeatedly expecting the tray to drop down - I showed them how the trays work as well. After the meal, the gentleman in front of the girl in the window seat decided to recline his seat. It came back suddenly, and the girl screamed and put her hands in a defensive position. When one of them wanted to get up to use the restroom, I had to once again demonstrate how to unbuckle the seat belts because just trying to stand up wasn’t working. When we landed, I let the girls get in front of me so that they could push and annoy someone else.
Finally, I understand why they demonstrate how to fasten and unfasten seatbelts in the airplane safety announcements. I was amazed by this random case of total unawareness, but it appears not to be an isolated case. Flying this morning from Doha to Dubai, an Indian fellow seated next to me had already successfully fastened his seatbelt (upside down), but he decided he wanted out. He started rubbing and pulling on the belt buckle. His efforts gradually became more and more frantic as he feared that he had strapped himself to the seat for life. I tapped him on the shoulder and showed him how to release the buckle. He repeated my actions and breathed a sigh of relief… then he put the belt back on, upside down again.
I was also amazed by the way some of the Arab passengers would outright ignore the requests of the flight attendants to do things like sit down, fasten their seatbelts, make sure their children were safely seated, move their purses, open their window shades, etc, etc… It’s amazing how little some people care. It was somewhat amusing to look around the plane at the number of passengers using airsick bags to pack away parts of their meals for later.
I’ll have to admit that I’ve also become a bit of a germophobe thanks to the media and the outbreak of H1N1. I have become painfully aware of every cough, sneeze and sniffle on the plane. A passenger a few rows back on one of my flights vomited during landing, and the flight attendant came by to ask all of the questions I was wondering. Is he just airsick? Has he been sick before flying? Does he have a fever? Unfortunately, he and his friends didn’t speak a word of English, so I guess we’ll never know.
Traveling isn’t easy anymore, and for some people it appears to be even more difficult than one might expect. I try to remind myself, though, that as annoying as the ignorant might be, with a little help, they might learn to be a little bit more pleasant.
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