Never Ending flight

While there are many more stories from Thailand, I am now home and back at work! I did want to recount a little bit of my trip home though.

I was brought to the airport by the driver that had been taking me around all week. When we got there we met up with Oak and Ekky. They were there to see me off. It wasn't just them though. They came accompanied by Captain Mike of the Thailand security police. He was sent by "the General" who is a friend of Oak's father. He met us, and then made a few calls on his cell phone, disappeared for about 10 minutes, and then came back with an official from Thai Airways and two immigration officials. Captain Mike then takes us to the Royal Silk First Class check in area and I avoided all the lines and craziness of the usual check in area. The check in lounge was separate and calm and nice! Then we moved to immigration and I went through the diplomatic line, again, no waiting. Oak, Ekky, and the two drivers, were also able to go through the secure area to hang out with me for a while. After some brief shopping for a book, Captain Mike worked his magic and got me into the Royal Silk lounge and I was able to wait for the flight in comfort with snacks and food and computer use! It was actually quite civilized.

Of course, I got to the plane and was thrust back to coach class (where I truly belong, of course). We boarded the plane for our 17 hour journey back home. Of course, someone checked their luggage but then didn't get on the plane so it took about an hour to serach for this guy's bags. We take off and it is a relatively boring flight. I ate all three of the hot meals, had a couple beers and a glass of wine, went to the bathroom three times, watched 4 movies (or was it five?), and slept a bit. I watched the clock and was pretty excited when it was reaching 7:00am (NYC time).

The pilot informs us at 7:00 that we are going to have to circle due to "traffic". It will be another 30 minutes. 35 minutes later he tells us that we will be diverted to Newark because of bad weather. We change course and land at Newark at about 8:00am. As we landed I saw the fire trucks racing down the runway, when I realized that they were coming towards our plane. We landed, stopped moving, the firetrucks zoomed around us and then left. I figured we must be low on fuel after being in the air for that long. We taxied for a while to a gate. The flight attendents tell us that we will need to wait to hear from the ground staff about connecting flights. Then they tell us that we need to sit back down. Then they tell us we are not going to be able get off the plane right away. I guess Custom's in Newark wouldn't accept us. Then they tell us that we are not going to deplane at Newark, we are going to need to stay on the plane and then fly back to JFK "when the weather improves."

The woman behind me is now hysterical. Crying, yelling, sobbing. "I have to get off this plane." "Some stupid business man is getting rich becuase they won't let us off this plane." "I don't think I can take it anymore." "I want to be anywhere but here, I can't take it." "DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" etc etc.

I decided I would ask the flight attendent:

"So, why can't we get off the plane?"
"US Customs wont' allow you to deplane."
"Why?"
"It has something to do with the bags being tagged to JFK."
"How long until we go to JFK?"
"It could be up to five hours!"
"Five hours? Can I just get a Coke then?"
"Sure!"

I felt bad for the flight attendents, you could tell they were ready for us to be off the plane as well.

So I pulled out my phone, sent some texts, made some calls, watched another movie, entertained myself. About two and a half hours later they tell us that we are leaving for JFK (a 13 minute flight) because "some planes have been able to land successfully." First they needed to refuel. (Why the didnt' refuel in the first 2.5 hours, I am not sure.) Off we went and arrived at JFK at about 11:00 or so. It was about a 23 hour flight.

Wow. That is a long time to be on a plane.