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[lucky]

As travelers, we've all been in situations which were a little dodgy while we were on the road.

Either a mugging, a dark alley, lost in a new city?

Tell us all about it... what's your dodgiest travel story?

[zzz_Washingtonian3]

We arrived at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai in plenty of time to catch our late night flight to Sanya, the resort city at the southernmost tip of Hainan Island. I am from the U.S. and my traveling companion Merry, is from Shanghai.

The check-in was clumsy and bothersome, as usual. When I checked the readerboard and found that our flight was on time, we proceeded to the waiting area to relax. About a half-hour later I noticed that our flight status had changed to "delayed." This was the beginning of a very eventful night.

I asked Merry to check with the brawny flight representative what the problem was. She told me "don't worry," it is just a little late. For about a half hour I waited nervously, but still no plane. Suddenly, a big argument broke out between a loud, wiry
fellow with hair falling in his eyes and the brawny airline representative. I couldn't understand a word, but the verbal battle was ringing throughout the waiting area.

The wiry guy was really spitting fire, but finally broke off to cool down with his family. He threw his hands in the air and yelled to no one in particular. Merry told me that our plane had not even left Tokyo, meaning we had to wait more than two more hours. Meanwhile, as if to placate the unruly crowd, the airline passed out blankets and lukewarm meal trays.

Faced with a long wait, I tried to get a little shut eye. After a couple of hours, a muffled cheer went up from our crowd of passengers. "What happened,?" I asked. "Our plane has landed, but we are going on strike," Merry answered. "We are not getting on board." I was dumbfounded.

The loadspeaker announced that our plane was now boarding, but no one moved. The second notice was announced, but no one got up. I was getting pretty nervous, but Merry acted like this was a typical passenger revolt.

More negotions. More yelling. Suddently, a loud cheer broke out and all the restive passengers gathered their belongings and moved briskly to the boarding gate. "What's going on," I inquired. "We won the strike," Merry answered joyfully. "So, what does that mean?," I asked. Merry looked at me with a puzzled smile and responded, "it means we get compensation."

As we found our seats and settled in, the big flight representative, looking disheveled and defeated, pulled out a huge wad of 100 yuan bills and counted out three of them for every adult passenger. It wasn't a lot of money, but it sure felt good to win the strike and finally be on our way.