| Nightmare at the Airport
What am I doing here ? I should be in Korea;
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| I went to wait at the airport last night and the flight flew out with 6 empty seats, but all the circumstances conspired to keep me off it. |
I was at the airport 3 hours early. They told me to wait, I waited, they told me to wait again, I waited for an announcement: nothing. I waited 10m in front of the check in desk. There were heaps of other people waiting so I thought I would be lucky to get on the flight. They weren't asking the check in desk, so I thought they were waiting for an announcement as well.
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| 30 mins before departure I decided I should ask the desk again, as I got up the entire Fijian Rugby side turned up with heaps of luggage. The hall was in turmoil as the press took photos and small boys chased autographs.
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It became apparent that all the people were waiting for the the rugby team not the flight. I couldn't get near the check in desk.
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| Eventually it died down and I got to the desk. But the flight had already been delayed cos of all the rugby players luggage, as soon as they had finished the Air Korea guy had run off. The remaining staff said "sorry we didn't realise you were waiting" they struggled on the radio, but they said now there wasn't enough time to clear passport contro.l They said "it's too late now."
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At the office the Air Korea guy said sorry I saw you waiting I didn't realise no-one had told you there were 6 empty seats, "announcement", sorry there is no PA system. So it was 11.20pm when I headed back to the hotel.
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| If only I had been more pushy, if only the Fijian staff communcated better, if only the airport had a VIP lounge, if only the departure loun had a PA ... I would have been on the flight.
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Next flight is on Thursday If worthwhile happens in the 2 days I'll be happy.
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| Wed - Abaca (Ambada) village
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| Well it had irritated me that I hadn't really finished with Fiji I had been going to leave without seeing Abaca and the National Park; I was thinking I could had missed something really good, missing the flight allowed me to check it out.
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Actually it was disappointing, unlike the village I had experienced on the first day Abaca has a hostel outside; so we didn't get to experience the village culture, and we were alone , no interesting backpackers. Quite unlike my lucky first day. We hiked up to a waterfall.
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| Thu -Upto the mountain top and flew out
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We did a long, but not very interesting walk up to the mountain top.
unphoto imagine :
none of my Fiji photos came out
this one would have showed the view down to Navilawa village
In the other direction it was too misty to see the sea
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We made it down by 3pm to catch our carrier back to Lautoka.
The National park was nothing special I should have been more pushy at the airport on Tuesday and got to experience Korea 2 days earlier.
Took the local bus to the airport for 50p and flew out at 10pm
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