Hassles, Problems, Fun, and a Rush

Hassles, Problems, Fun, and a Rush

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006--HCMC (Saigon) to Bangkok

While I was at the Internet cafe in the morning, I did a little more research on my Around-the-World VII ticket which I will buy in Bangkok. I had already planned the itinerary, but I wasn't sure how long I should spend in Taiwan and in Indonesia. I decided on 3 weeks in Taiwan and 6 weeks in Indonesia after reading online guidebooks. Hope I am not staying too long in the former and too short a time in the latter. Will see next year.

I took a motorcycle to the airport. It is so much cheaper than going by taxi. My hotel wanted to arrange a motorcycle for $4 or a taxi for $6. I went around the corner on the street and got a motorcycle for a little less than $2. It was a fast, easy ride. I got there 15 minutes before they opened the counters for check-in. I ate a pastry that consisted of rather sweet tasting dough and had a savory chicken filling. It was good.

After checking in, I went on upstairs to the gate area. After a while, I thought I heard them calling my name on the speaking. If so, they were saying Mr. Drum Randell. Anyway, I went to Gate 5 as requested and, sure enough, it was for me. They tried to tell me that my ticket wasn't valid. That is because the date the coupon was printed was in early September last year, and this was more than one year after that. As usual, I found myself having to explain to the airlines their rules on around-the-world tickets. ATW tickets are good for one year and one day (to get it back to the same date) from the DATE OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT. Since my first flight was January 5, 2006, my ticket is good until Jan. 5 of next year. They accepted that, but then I had to prove to them that my first flight was on Jan. 5. That flight was from London to Oporto with a continuing flight to Lisbon. Well, I had flown into London on my old ticket and had not gone through immigration there, since they were bringing my ticket to the gate making me an in-transit passenger. There was no stamp in my passport for London. But, fortunately, they stamped it in Oporto in Portugal. Since the first flight was London to Oporto and the date on the Oporto was Jan. 3, they accepted it and led me back through customs and immigration to the gate area. Whew!! That was a hassle, though.

It really isn't a long flight from Saigon to Bangkok. We barely finished eating when we were landing. We arrived at the "old" airport. I say that, because Sept. 27 is the last day it will be in operation. On Sept. 28, the "new" airport will open. I know my way around this airport well, so I quickly made it through customs and exited. I checked on the express buses, but as has been the case for the past three years, the bus that would go by my hotel was not operating. I knew, however, that the local bus 29 would go to my hotel, so I walked out to the street to catch it. Unfortunately, I got a 29 bus that would terminate at Victory Monument Circle which is quite a ways from my hotel. I was trying to decide what to do--try walking the distance from there or maybe transfer to the metro or the overhead trains. For some reason, I didn't even think about the possibility of getting off at the circle and catching the next 29 bus that would be going onward. As I was thinking about all of this, the bus stopped. I recognized the stop as one where the metro connected that would take me to the corner near my hotel. In the rush to grab my suitcase, I left my small backpack setting on the seat beside where I was. I didn't miss it because I had my shoulder bag I normally wear around my neck. It wasn't until I was in the station to buy my metro ticket that I noticed I was missing my backpack. That was a big problem.

I knew there was nothing I could do but take the metro to the hotel and check in. I did that, then I went to the nearest police station to seek help. I could tell nothing was going to happen, and I left the building dejected. But then the man called me back. I produced my bus ticket. From it, he could tell the company and called them. They told him to have me call them back at 6 p.m. to see if the bag had been returned. A man at the desk in the hotel called at 6. Then he called 15 minutes later. Then he had to call again about 30 minutes later. At that point, they said the bus wouldn't be back into the station until about 8 p.m. I went to the room and came back down at 8:30 and the man called again. They had found my bag! What a relief. Of course, I still didn't know if everything would be in it. Anyway, I could pick it up at their station. I said I would wait until morning to go there. It had been a frustrating 6 hours from when the bag was lost until I learned that I would get it back.

The bag contained: my sandals, my camera memory cards (including the 260 photos I had taken so far on the trip), my camera battery charger, my electrical plug adaptors, my travel literature (including the plans for the itinerary and the guidebook pages I would need in India), the itinerary plans (including the specific flights and dates) for my ATW VII ticket, the book I had just started reading, etc. All except the photos could be replaced, but what a problem. I went to bed without eating and didn't sleep well because of sinus drainage due to allergies.

Spending Update for Vietnam and the Trip Thus Far: I spent $509.14 over 29 days for an average of $17.57 per day or $528 per month in Vietnam. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $912.88 over 38 days for an average of $24.02 per day and a monthly rate of $721. It's cheaper to be gone from Texas than it is to be there!

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006--Bangkok

I was up early to have breakfast and head to the bus station. The hotel has a wonderful, huge buffet here. I sat at a table with a woman from Vietnam who has been here 5 days as a tourist. We visited as I first ate a plate with some pancit (rice noodles with cabbage and meat), scrambled eggs, creamed potatoes, ham, and hot sauce. Then I ate two pieces of French toast with lots of fried bacon. Finally, I had a fruit plate with watermelon, papaya, and pineapple. Ummm. What a good feast!

It took 3 1/2 hours to go to the edge of town and back to retrieve my bag. When I got there, I was immediately depressed to find that it was opened. The locked tabs had been cut so that someone could rifle through it. So I knew things would be missing. I found the sandals first. Although they are worn and will have to be replaced after this trip, it was nice to know I could wait until I am home to do so. Then I was surprised to find a bag that had my battery charger (minus the electrical cord) in it. I could tell the larger bag it had been in was missing. And so was the plastic container with my camera memory cards (about $150 replacement cost plus the loss of all the photos I had taken so far on the trip). My book I was reading was there. My India travel literature wasn't with the other literature, but then I found the India info in another compartment. Deep down inside, I found the electrical cord for the battery charger. Oh, and 3500 Vietnamese dong (less than 25 cents U.S.) was missing from the Vietnam folder.

I rode back to the hotel happy that I had found what I had but depressed about the camera memory cards and the photos. When I got to the hotel, I started to reorganize to put things where they belonged instead of where they were. When I did that, I felt a small hard object in the small compartment. It was my camera memory cards in their case!! Someone had looked at them and moved them to that compartment without taking them. So all I lost were the small bag (a free make-up kit bag) that had held things that were still in the bag, the Vietnamese currency worth less than 25 cents, and the cut-off tabs from the backpack. How lucky could I be?

In celebration, I ran off to the movies. I always go to see foreign and independent films in Bangkok. There are about 8 theaters showing them near my hotel. Today, I saw Queens, a new Spanish comedy done in the style of Almendovar. It is about the mothers of a group of gay men who are going to be in a group wedding as the first of the gay men to be married since Spain changed its laws to allow marriage between gays. (It must be a VERY NEW film, since that law just changed a few months ago, I think.) Anyway, the film follows the problems between the boys and their new mothers-in-laws and the problems that ends up causing between the boys. It's a fairly good film and was fun to watch. It was nice to have fun after the hassles and problems I had been having.

From the theater, I rushed to the Thai Airlines office to get my new Around-the-World VII air ticket. I arrived at the office just 20 minutes before closing time. But I had everything already so organized that they put my itinerary into their computer within that time frame. They were so impressed and complimented me on being such a good customer. Most airlines people HATE doing these tickets because they take so long to do, but this became a group effort at the end of the day with everyone enjoying it, I think. They asked me to return to their office tomorrow afternoon, because they have to get the ticket priced. So many airports with each having special fees that must be included make it a long process of pricing and printing the ticket correctly. What a rush it was (both literally and in terms of excitement) in getting the itinerary into the computer so fast at the end of the day today, however.

I returned to my hotel to use the toilet, then I went to one of the sidewalk stalls to eat across the street. I had chicken with rice. It was served with a nice sauce of soy sauce, chopped garlic, and chopped peppers. It also came with sliced cucumber and a bowl of broth. I was simple, but it was good. Tomorrow, I need to try to find something special such as green curry.

There are about 8 cyber cafes across the street from my hotel. All are cheap and have good connections (meaning good speed). Unfortunately, they are all very busy and it isn't easy to get to the computers in the evening. But I got one tonight by waiting until after dinner.

Now it is time to go to the room and relax. What a busy two days!