20100702 - Elevator Hell

Being trapped in an elevator is never very fun. I got to spend 35 minutes in my building elevator today. i was heading into work, roughly 640am and the elevator came to an amazingly fast stop. i thought that i was on the ground floor, but then the elevator bounced up and down a few times. while a little rattled, i tried to keep my cool (as best as one can in a non-air conditioned elevator in Bangkok). first i tried ringing the alarm bell, which was ignored. then i just kept pushing it. this finally got the attention of the building staff. a voice over the intercom "hello?"

"hello - i am trapped in the elevator"

"hello?"

"help me (chuay duay in thai) i'm trapped in the elevator)"

"okay okay". click.

so, from my experience with thai people, this either meant that she wasn't doing a damn thing, or she was on it. in either case, i wanted a second opinion. i decided to try to use the call button. as soon as i pressed it, it broke into 3 pieces. i could tell that it was never hooked into anything in the first place. as i had my blackberry, i called my office to explain the situation, then they called the building management to reconfirm. 10 minutes later, while the rather incompetent building staff had to locate where exactly i was trapped, i tried calling corina, but the reception was pretty bad. 5 minutes later, i heard knocking on the elevator doors. i knocked back. then more knocking. i reciprocated. fun. like a game. except i'm in a damn elevator shaft!

another ten sweaty minutes go by and finally the doors are pried apart. while the story should end here, it doesn't. i was staring at 3 feet of concrete, with 10 inches below me to the 7th floor and 30+ inches above me to the 8th floor.

all smiles from the two maintenance workers.

no smiles from me.

they didn't come with an elevator jam, so if i crawl out and the elevator moves, i die. realizing that my thai isn't good enough to say "elevator jam" and they are too incompetent to know what that is anyway, i toss my bags up to the 8th floor, and then proceed to put myself into a pretty tight climbing position, toe jamming on one side of the shaft, and lifting with my opposite arm on the other. Probably a V3 bouldering move.

I get out, sweaty, dirty and pissed off. they are all smiles and try to escort me down to the front door so i can go on my merry way, but i decided that i need a shower, a change of clothes and a change of attitude.