A 2.00 am start to the day is always truly awful but as we had to be at the airport two hours before our 6.00 am Aeroflot flight to Moscow, Suleyman was adamant that he needed to pick us up from our hotel at 3.30 am. Any other person could probably shower and pack to vacate their hotel within an hour but somehow I don't fall into this category. As Alan maintained, even one an a half hours for me to get ready was cutting things a bit fine.

We stumbled sideways with our luggage down the several narrow flights of steep stairs to the reception to check out but the desk was not staffed. After pressing the reception bell many times, we eventually woke up our weary, blinking friend who had helped us with out luggage on day one and thankfully he checked us out without too many hassles - and then kindly insisted on helping us down the many more steps to the front door. Sadly, the door was locked and again we had to knock on another side room door until another sleepy staff member awoke to let us out.

It was of course pitch dark and to our dismay there was no sight of Suleyman. This was not a great start to a day which thankfully at the time we were unaware would become much, much worse. Eventually an agitated Suleyman appeared. There was obviously a mix up as to where we would meet him - but as it happened we ended up having plenty of time as there was virtually no traffic and we arrived at the Heydar Aliyev International airport on the dot of 4.00 am.

Suleyman had been a good guide and we thanked him profusely for his efforts. Like all farewells however, ours was brutally brief. Understandably Suleyman didn't want to pay parking for his car at the airport - and of course like all travellers, we were keen to get going.

Bleary eyed we stared at the Departures screen trying to find our Aeroflot flight to Moscow but to our dismay, it was listed in bold red with a "FLIGHT CANCELLED" sign next to it. To describe the scene as chaotic would be a gross understatement. A number of passengers approached the check in desk but it appeared it was so early that there was no staff around to advise on where the passengers should to head to hopefully reschedule. People were understandably upset - and there was a lot of shouting and angry gestures. Probably, it was fortunate for us that we neither spoke nor understood Russian or Azeri... Eventually we were summoned to a corridor in the office section of the airport where we waited outside a locked door for over an hour before an agitated Aeroflot staff member arrived.

A horrible realisation sank in that for us, it could be a real disaster if we missed our connecting China Eastern Airlines flight from Moscow to Shanghai, as the next flight with the airlines out of Moscow was not for another three days. As mentioned earlier in this blog, obtaining our Russian visas had been difficult and when we finally received them just days before we left Australia, they were granted for only one week - which of course had well and truly expired. The short stay visas had always worried us as we had heard from reliable sources that if you encounter flight delays or cancellations that Russian authorities do not grant temporary visas, nor do they allow passengers to stay in transit for more than 12 hours. We had also heard that it is not uncommon for people in our situation to be detained for a few days until they could fly out. OMG!

The queue of disquieted passengers grew not only in length but also in width. Rude people pushed to the front of the queue while others just made additional queues, forcing us against the corridor walls. We had rarely experienced such obnoxious passenger behaviour at an airport (although maybe our flight from Urumqi, far western China to Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2009 would have come pretty close...) and despite some of the people at the front of the queue trying to stop the queue hoppers, they initially had no hope against their pushing and shoving. At one stage I was knocked to the floor by a huge man forcing his way through with his suitcase. Not to take such bad manners lightly, I told the brutish man in no uncertain terms what I thought of him when others ahead of us finally forced him - presumably by humiliation - to make his way to the back of the corridor. My only problem was that I had abused the wrong man.... Anyway, he had also jumped the queue and so I am convinced that he deserved it - but he did look rather surprised at my venomous attack.

In front of us a sad looking man wearing a crushed mustard shirt and equally crumpled brown corduroy trousers, looked passively at the virtual riot around us. He appeared neither Azeri nor Russian but he had that look of acceptance that comes of years of weary travel. Michael had seen it all. An academic from the US, Michael was returning home after several months of aid work in Azerbaijan. It was very difficult for him too as he had to connect with three separate flights. In his slow laconic manner, he just smiled quietly, shrugged his shoulders and murmured "Weeellll, whaaat caaan you dooo?".

It was 6.30 am and we still had not progressed in the queue. The poor Aeroflot manager was obviously having a dreadful time trying to reschedule the passengers on his own, let alone demand some sort of order. And to make matters worse, the computer system was continually crashing. The queue had become its own vigilante gang, hurling abuse and physically shoving anyone who came near the doorway - even those who were airport officials. We had plenty of time to contemplate the situation, which was in fact becoming quite fascinating. If it hadn't been so concerning for us, by then it could have been even quite amusing.

Aeroflot Manager Mikhail was a Miracle Man. How he kept his cool that morning on his own, and under such huge pressure was beyond us. After three hours of waiting and when finally we made it into his room, he went to no end of trouble to reschedule us on a later Aeroflot flight which would hopefully allow us just enough time to connect with our Shanghai flight. We thanked him profusely, before squeezing our way back into the main area of the airport. We returned at 11.00 am to check some details and were amazed that there were still a huge number of people still waiting to be rescheduled. And poor Mikhail was still working on his own.

It made no difference that we were travelling Business Class as we could not check in our luggage for at least another four hours, and could not use any of the lounge facilities. Exhausted, we flopped down in one of the plastic seated cafes. In the distance our American friend Michael waved to us. Apparently he had been successfully re-scheduled and like us, was looked highly relieved.

We now had time to look at the interior of the impressive airport. Completed in 1999, the building was spectacular and beautifully designed, both inside and out. I looked over the floor below and to my surprise, out of literally hundreds of people, I saw only two women wearing head scarfs. Like Baku, people were well dressed in modern European styled clothes, many young people wearing designer jeans and t-shirts. Were we really in a Muslim country, I pondered? Looking at these sophisticated and presumably rather prosperous people, I wondered from where on earth the feral passengers in our Aeroflot queue came...

Alan was hungry but the cafes were not yet open for food. To my horror, he ordered a croissant and some chips from a nearby McDonalds outlet. I am not sure I should even record this event - but I must say it was one of the few times I had seen him eat McDonalds food. I mumbled on some of the chips he nobly offered me. They were no different from the tasteless mealy morsels we tried when Alan's children were little - and that for some unknown reason my father simply adored. One thing I could say about the chain I am so snotty about - the standard was at least consistent across the world; consistently plastic....

The cafes eventually opened and we ordered some coffee. To our surprise it was Julius Meinl coffee, a product of the well known, fine quality coffee and grocery retail business based in Austria. Our friend Thomas Meinl, now the most senior member of the six generation Julius Meinl family, seems to follow us throughout the world. Formerly Vice President of the Supervisory Board of Julius Meinl and now semi-retired,Thomas is still very active in the company's on-line premium coffee business (www.meinl.com).

We had seen advertisements for Julius Meinl outlets in Armenia and now we were enjoying some of their good coffee in Baku. I emailed a photo of our (sadly empty) Julius Meinl coffee cup to Thomas in his home country of Austria and was delighted to receive an immediate return email from him. "Wow, you do seem to end up in the most out of the way places!" he wrote. We had met Thomas some 28 years ago at a conference in Sydney and have kept in touch ever since. We were still concerned about our tight flight connection in Moscow and it was strangely comforting to hear from him.

It was a long day sitting around in the airport so I decided to wander outside to take some photos of the magnificent architecture of the complex. Hmm, not a great idea. I had completely forgotten that I would have to go back through security again which took forever.....

Eventually our Aeroflot flight was announced and we heaved a sigh of relief as our luggage was checked in. We noticed that Mikhail was working at one of the administration desks near the check in, and from the concerned look on his face and his constant phone calls, it was obvious there were still major flight problems.

And there were. Suddenly the check in official pulled all our bags from the conveyor and handed them back to us. There was no explanation or directions from the official - just terse barking and gesticulations to remove our luggage and presumably ourselves. We had no idea what was happening or of course what the official was saying. Understandably the anxious passengers behind us pushed their luggage onto the check in weighing scales as quickly as they could. Our only option was to try to find Mikhail who could at least speak excellent English to find out what was happening. Needless to say, when we finally found him, Mikhail was swamped with other passengers but thankfully by some miracle he did notice us and indicated that we go to the rear of the check in desks while he dealt with the myriads of other passengers. We assumed he would eventually be able to assist us.

Totally helpless, we were highly relieved when he finally turned up. Mikhail explained that our China Eastern Airlines connecting flight from Moscow to Shanghai had also been cancelled and agreed with us that it was far too risky to proceed with our Moscow flight that evening - and that he "would see what he could do for us". After another hour or so, a smiling Mikhail returned to confirm he had booked Aeroflot flights for us to Shanghai via Moscow for the following morning and had booked accommodation at an airport hotel for us that evening. He had even booked a taxi for us to the hotel and personally escorted us to the taxi stand. We could have kissed him...

The hotel was located in what appeared to be an empty industrial area and although seemingly no-one spoke any English and there was no restaurant, Alan managed somehow to order room service and we enjoyed a comfortable night - with the added relief that we would probably not end up in a Russian gulag the following day!

Postscript:

We had no idea that we would be able to transfer our flights from China Eastern Airlines to Aeroflot and assume that it was possible because both airlines belong to the Sky Team Alliance.

On our return to Australia, we wrote a letter to Aeroflot management in appreciation of Mikhail's assistance. We did not receive a response and trust that the management did commend our friend for his incredible performance on what must have been an extraordinarily trying day.