If I pack
everything tonight, I can wake up at 3am, have a quick shower and reach airport
by 4am.
AirAsia has
yet again rescheduled my flight. I was supposed to be on 9.25pm flight on a
Friday and reach my destination before 12am.
Unexpectedly,
around 4ish pm on Friday, I received sms and email informing the reschedule. My
flight is now scheduled for 2 hours later (1130pm), which means I would reach
my destination around 2am. If I took the reschedule flight, there was a good
chance to be stranded at the airport till the break of dawn due to no grab
rides.
The next
best option I took was to take the earliest flight on Saturday, at 620am. There
were many passengers on the same flight who took to complaining at the apps.
Some were
venting, some were pissed and vowed to never taking AA flight again. I just
wondered: How does complaining in an unmoderated chatroom going to solve
anything?.
Rescheduling
has happened before, and IT WILL happen again. No amount of complaining is
going to change that.
For those
who said they were never going to take AA again…..well, if you could have
afforded other airlines, I don’t think you would have booked AA to begin with,
but that’s a totally different entry.
So, Saturday
morning, I woke up at 3am and by 340am, I was ready and booked for a Grab ride
to the airport.
I took the
elevator to ground floor and surprisingly noticed that the Grab driver was not
at the lobby as usual.
He waited
at the entrance instead. That felt a little strange. The security has no issues
to let taxi / grab drivers to wait at the lobby. I didn’t think much of it and
got into the car.
The driver
was an elderly man. He asked me if he could go straight or make a U-turn to the
airport.
I told him
both works and he went to make a U-turn. It seemed that the U-turn took longer
than usual, easily a minute or two. I assumed he is just taking his time to be
careful and because it is so early in the morning there wouldn’t be that many
cars on the road, so no need to rush.
You know
when you have to be somewhere, even when there is time, you want to just reach
the destination quickly and then do whatever you please with the ample time?.
We
exchanged pleasantries and the uncle spoke good English. He was obviously
someone who is well educated. After saying my prayers in the car for a safe
journey, I couldn’t help but noticing the uncle’s hand was quivering.
Yes, it was
quivering, and I came to a realization that this uncle could be suffering from Parkinson’s
Disease.
I felt a little
sorry for the uncle that hes drivering Grab at an elderly age, when he could be
resting at home and obviously I felt sorry for his condition that he may be
suffering from Parkinson’s and yet driving at 4am in the morning.
Almost 15
mins into the ride, he asked me: Is it okay if I drove slowly?. At this point, I
was already feeling uneasy. It was approximately 15 mins past 4am and we are
yet to hit the highway. I was conflicted. I couldn’t ask him to go fast because
that might put me in danger. He was probably driving slowly because his response
time is slower due to Parkinson’s.
I asked
him: How long does it take to reach the airport. He replied another 37mins,
quoting what Waze was showing. I knew there and then that it would take longer
than that because the uncle is driving very slow like 40kmph.
I didn’t know
what to do. Should I ask him to cancel my ride and drop me at petrol station and
take another ride, or should I inform Grab that I feel unsafe in his car?.
I tried to
stay calm. Although I can feel stress building up with passing minutes.
Then I
noticed that the uncle wasn’t driving in the designated lane.
It was a 3
lanes highway. He was driving somewhere in between the second and third (fast) lane.
We were lucky that it was so early in the morning that there were not many cars
and lorries. I knew he was driving that way because the mid point of the
dashboard was at the road markings between the lanes.
I wanted to
say something at the same time didn’t want to pressure him to drive fast.
Then we
came to a toll booth and he asked me: Just need to enter here right? Pay later?
Honestly I had
no idea. I was so stressed and at this point scared for my safety. I don’t know
if I would make it safely to the airport.
To put
matter into context, there were 2 police patrol cars which overtook us. They honked
at us because we were at the middle of the road.
I wonder why
the didn’t pull us over with the suspicion of driving under the influence.
I arrived
at the airport about 10 to 15 minutes later than shown at Waze.
What should
I have done?
-should I have
flagged this uncle because he was not fit to drive and was putting me and
himself in danger? I mean I was just lucky to have made it without an accident.
If I had flagged
him, would I have ruined his livelihood?
So where do
I draw the boundary? Putting me and my safety first or putting and elderly man’s
livelihood over my own safety???
I am so
confused.
I asked him
how long he has been driving grab to which he said since 2017.
I still couldn’t
figure out what was the right thing to do under this circumstance.
WISE
INTERNET PEOPLE, WHAT SHOULD I HAVE DONE?
