Darcy wrote:I was in Baku. Didn't know shit, just eating it all up. Not much different two decades later...
Quick story as I'm kinda drunk right now... but we were returning from a rig down near the Iranian border, and Iran was contesting the border, as apparently the border shifts depending on if you classify the Caspian as a sea or ocean or lake or some-such. So once in awhile Iran would launch F5s and Azerbaijan would respond with closing their airspace, as they had shit to counter Iran. So we are coming back and Iran launches their F5s and Azerbaijan closes their airspace and tells us we can't land in Baku, we have to return to the rig. The rig has zero fuel so that would fuck us up indefinitely, so the guy I'm flying with says to Baku (Zabrat tower) to arrest us if you have to but we are returning. The Azeri translator onboard is shitting himself, I don't know shit but going with the other guy... tower yelling now we must land back at the rig or we'd be arrested. AIRSPACE closed. We keep motoring in and land in Zabrat. Nothing happens. All I'm thinking is I absolutely love this shit. Twenty years later, still doing it....
Watched the twin towers go down at Adams (expat bar) and things went for shit, but we kept flying. Been threatened with arrest in Benin, Tanzania, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau since. Just went with my buddy's ignore-it-it-will-go-away and its worked so far.
Switching to tea now...