Airports, as with everything in India to me right now, are funny places. Having an extra 8 hours in the Lucknow airport yesterday, (flts to/from Delhi were cancelled due to monster fog, everything needs rebooking, takes lots of time, etc), I was able to watch the goings on.
Everyone appears calm and waiting, sitting down. Then a flight/gate is announced and it's a mad dash to the door, as fast as possible!! Out of the big commotion forms a line that winds around the area. People (mostly men) line up as close as physically possible, if not closer. Of course, head of the line is the place to be, and people will stick a leg in line between two other people in hopes of wiggling the rest of their body in. The best part is that they are lining up to get on board a bus where again, everyone is equal! The bus takes you to the plane, there are no jetways. I was able to see this over and over, and it was always funny.
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It was the same thing in China! Must be common in countries with HUGE populations. The part that was funny to me was why would they always rush to be first in line to board a flight where they had assigned seats anyway?
ReplyDeleteMy mom can give you tips on how to be pushy back or at least express (with body gestures) that you want some comfort space around you. She got pretty good at it while in China. Mom, are you reading this?
Hi Carly,
ReplyDeleteEliza led me to your blog. I am going to enjoy following your adventures.
Yes, the same was true in China...everywhere but especially funny at the airports as the seats were assigned. We flew a lot while we were there and would stay out of it as much as possible. Landing was another experience. As soon as the plane touched down you would hear everyone's seat belts click as they planned to rush to be the first off the plane to get on the bus. The flight attendants would tell everyone to stay in their seats but they would be sitting on arm rests, etc. and then be in the aisles pushing to the front which was chaos. We started doing what we referred to as 'body blocking'. We would stand in the aisle and not let anyone pass. People would be pushing so hard that we would be leaning back against them! But, we were bigger than they were! We would let anyone in front of us file out and then take our turn. It was funny. We talked about it at some point with some other American friends and they were doing the same thing!
It was push or be pushed and we learned to push back.
jane