All About Insanity, Stupidity and Tequilla
Dienstag, Juli 25, 2006
The "Un-intelligent" Side of Austrians
the story took place at work today... somewhere in the morning. a call came through. i picked it up with my best "greeting voice" (as i call it... baca: merdu, serek2 becek... hehehe). the voice on the other end was male, obviously austrian, somewhere in mid 30's, i'd guess. he introduced himself as one of the agents at a travel agency, didn't catch the agency's name, but who cares.
obviously the guy was in some sort of stress, judging from his strenious voice. my first reaction was, of course, of pity. alas, this sympathizing feelings didn't last too long. the following conversation immediately took place (roughly translated from german to english):
travel agent (ta): my austrian client has just arrived in denpasar and the immigration officers there wouldn't issue visa on arrival for her
me: is your client staying longer than 30 days?
ta: no
me: is your client on business trip?
ta: no, it's a 2-week holiday trip to bali
me: then i don't understand why the balinese immigration officers should deny her visa on arrival
ta: because her passport is only valid until today
me: (slightly incredulous) oh, then she cannot enter indonesia
ta: i have spoken to an officer from the austrian embassy in jakarta. is it true that your government doesn't accept entries with emergency passports?
me: errr... (this guy must be out of his blardy mind!)
ta: this is no time for "errr", i need an immediate and correct answer!!
me: (WTF!!!!) yes, it's true
ta: why?
me: what do u mean why? of course we don't accept entry on provisional-status passports. entry to indonesia requires a passport that's more than 6 months valid.
ta: what if the emergency passport is issued for 6 months' validity?
me: no
ta: what do u mean no? u said the passport has to be valid more than 6 months!
me: yes, but for normal passports, not provisional-status passports. in any case, provisional-status passports are only issued if the person loses his/her passport while he/she is already IN the foreign country, and this provisional-status passports can only be used to leave the current foreign country, enabling the passport holder to return to his/her home country
ta: i am about to send my client to bangkok so she can go to the austrian embassy in bangkok and ask for this so called provisional-status passport, thus enabling her to enter indonesia
me: u can do that, provided the thai immigration officers let her enter thailand with a non-valid passport. and even if she gets into thailand and if she gets a provisional-status passport, she still won't be able to enter indonesia with it, i have already informed u why
ta: but this is absurd
me: how do u mean by that, sir? (slightly losing my temper)
ta: bali totally depends on tourism, and u are denying entry for tourists!
me: sir! ur client has no passport, how do u possibly even imagine her to travel? and by the way sir, there are other sources for bali to live on other than tourism (who the fvck does this guy think he is!!!)
ta: have u checked the latest statistics? tourism is the highest source of living in bali! (no, i haven't checked, couldn't be bothered to anyway... but WTF!!!)
me: the highest! but not the only one! (by this time i've dropped any kind of politeness)
ta: but how do u possibly expect to depend on tourism if u are denying entry for tourists? ur tourism will suffer!!!! (the nerves on this little byotch!!!)
me: u are perfectly aware of the reason why ur client cannot enter indonesia. and with all due respect, ur client is only one tourist. we have thousands of tourists pouring into, not only bali, but the whole of indonesia, tourists with valid passports! i'm perfectly sure that ur client won't tear our whole tourism down.
ta: then i will see to it that my travel agency doesn't advertise indonesia anymore!
me: ur agency is one agency in austria, there are millions other agencies in the WHOLE world, sir!
ta: i just can't see why my client can't enter indonesia if she has an emergency passport!
me: i have clearly informed u why, and i have also told u in detail the proper use of emergency passports!
ta: ur country is just the same as the other third world countries!!!
me: excuse me, but indonesia IS a third world country, u can scream at me all u want, it won't change anything. it is the regulations
ta: then the regulations are ridiculuous!
me: (positively shouting into the mouthpiece now) it's the regulations of the republic of indonesia, if u think it is ridiculuous, by all means, make a complaint to the government of indonesia. but if u cannot accept and respect these regulations, then do not go to indonesia or send any clients to indonesia!!!! period!!! no discussions!!
ta: (timidly) thank u, good bye!
that is so typical of austrians! they press u and will keep pressing u until u give in and apologize to them. however, it is not my fault and i'm not about to swallow some mess that's not mine down my throat.
the travel agent was not being nice at all to me, and i was just trying to be polite and answer his questions, although it was perfectly clear to me that this guy's an idiot... expecting someone to wipe his sh1tty little ass for him. he kept pressing me, until i spoke firmly, he started speaking nicely again... well, actually just saying one last sentence nicely and feebly.
u think the residents of an industrial country are intelligent, and u're proven so wrong... i must say some are... but they positively have no common sense nor logic...
-rv
posted by Apink a.k.a. Bubbzy
at 2:03:00 PM |
Samstag, Juli 15, 2006
I Love You... But...
i'm not saying i'm having second thoughts
how could i ever possibly be having second thoughts
but...
there's just this little voice in my head
saying that something's not quite going right
dunno
maybe i'm just going crazy
i love you
-rv
posted by Apink a.k.a. Bubbzy
at 9:30:00 AM |
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