I wake up at 2:30 check the time and rollover hoping to fall
back to sleep but in that brief moment a thought creeps into my mind: I didn’t
write down the address for my hostel and I’m going to need it for my visa
papers and I don’t have the internet so I don’t know what I am going to do.
Shit! My early morning turns into an even earlier morning as the stress
overcomes my whole body. The smart thing to do would have been to get up and
look at the papers I need to fill out because I would have quickly realized
that I don’t actually need the address but of course I don’t do that until I’m
already on the plane. Instead I just toss and turn worrying that the border
control agent is going to hate me and refuse me entry to the country and I’m
going to be completely screwed. I manage to calm myself down and fall back to
sleep and a few short minutes later my alarm goes off.
I drag my ass out of bed and get ready to head to the
airport. Dom meets me on the bridge connecting the hotel to the airport and
informs me he forgot his visa paperwork in the taxi. Fantastic. We are already showing up a bit later than I
would normally like just because our flight is so ridiculously early but now I
can’t even check-in because I have to wait for Dom to find a way to print off
the pages he needs. He leaves me with his bags and wanders off. He comes back
about 10 minutes later but only has one copy of the entry form and I tell him
he needs two. He doesn’t want to go ask a favour of the same person so he heads
off in the opposite direction for another 10 minutes. It is far to early in the
morning for this. I just want to check-in, go through security and wait for our
boarding call. Finally he gets his ducks in a row and we head through the
baggage scan and onto the self-service check-in. I scan the barcode I have
saved on my phone and print out my ticket when Dom informs me the battery on
his phone is dead and he doesn’t have his barcode. Are you freaking kidding me?
I try to find a free Wi-Fi network but I’m not having any luck. The check-in
line is way longer than the baggage drop line and my stress level starts to
rise again. We are going to miss our flight and for very stupid reasons. Dom
finally remembers that he saved the barcode to his iPad as well and is able to
print off his boarding pass and we get in line to check our bags.
We make it through baggage drop, passport control, and
security fairly quickly and I am able to relax again. I buy myself a strawberry
smoothie that cost about as much as two full meals at my hostel and head to the
gate. I am not a morning person so I don’t feel like chatting but I’m scared
that if I fall asleep I wont wake up in time for the flight so I sit quietly
and read a book until its time to board.
The flight was quick. Just over an hour and a half. It was
pretty close to the same length as the last one but since I wasn’t sitting next
to the couple from hell time went by much more quickly. I slept for a bit, ate
some breakfast, filled out my visa paperwork, listened to some music, and did a
few Sudoku puzzles, and before I knew it we were on the ground.
The visa process wasn’t nearly as horrible as I was
imagining it to be. You got in line and handed in one copy of your arrival form
along with your passport and a passport photo before moving into another line
while you wait for your documents to be processed. When your passport is held
up against the window you move to the front of the line, pay the fee (which was
$20 more than I was told it would be) and you’re on your way.
I make my way through border control, grab my bag, and head
through the nothing to declare door where a man holding a sign with my name
greets me. I booked the hostel I am in solely because the website said if you
book for three days or more they will pick you up from the airport for free.
They emailed me a day or two later saying it wasn’t free it was actually $18. I
wasn’t impressed but after the 4-hour journey to the hostel in Bangkok I just
wanted something quick and easy so I agreed to pay the fee. I’m sure I could
have found my way into the city cheaper but it was still too damn early in the
morning to care.
18 people swarmed me to welcome me to the hostel when I
walked in, okay maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but I think there were at
least 6 people greeting me, two of them carrying my bags for me which is always
nice. I sat down at the check in counter and a few of them chatted me up while
one of the others checked me in and somebody else brought me a glass of water.
I was pretty stoked about the water as my throat was quite dry but I took a sip
and the water was piping hot, not quite the refreshing thirst quencher I was
expecting.
Two of the staff help me carry my things to my room and I
collapse on my bed. I wanted to hit the ground running but I just don’t have it
in me, plus it’s raining outside and I don’t feel like playing tourist in the
rain. I lay in bed for quite some time before finally heading downstairs. I ask
for some information about the Ha Long Bay tours and get talked at way more
than I was anticipating, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if I had
understood even half of what the guy was saying. He was talking about a million
words a minute and has a very thick accent so I was lucky if I could pick one
or two words out of each sentence. I tell him I want time to think about it and
ask if he can recommend somewhere to go for lunch.
I head out of the hostel and turn right at the intersection
just like he told me too but I can’t find the place he recommended anywhere. I
pull out my map and find the street I’m on I seem to be headed in the right
direction so I keep going but consult the map again at the next intersection.
This can be right; I’m now further away from my goal than I was a minute ago. I
turn around and head back in the direction I came from and continue on for a
few blocks. Now I can’t even find the intersection I’m standing at on my map.
I’m flustered, and cold, and wet, and hungry.
I give up on finding the place he suggested and set out on a
mission to find lunch, from pretty much anywhere, provided it has indoor
seating and tables and chairs built for adults. I’m not having much luck. All
the ‘restaurants’ I'm finding are child sized plastic table and chairs sat
underneath a tarp. I saw someone washing their dishes in the street with a
garden hose a few blocks back so I’m not exactly keen to sit down at one of
these joints. Plus I really want to be somewhere warm. I end up finding a place
close to the hostel. I ask for fried rice, pointing at it on the menu and my
waitress informs me it isn’t available. “Okay I will have this instead” I say
pointing at a picture of a ham and cheese sandwich. I wait several minutes and she brings me a
sandwich that looks nothing like the one I pointed at and contains neither ham
nor cheese. I'm not sure what sort of mystery meat was on this bad boy but
judging from the piece of gelatin that fell out of it as I was nearing the end
I fear I might have eaten headcheese. My stomach starts to churn. I’m still
hungry and there is no way I’m having another mystery meat sandwich so I order
a waffle with ice-cream, which was delicious.
I leave the restaurant and start to walk in the direction of
a temple. At least I think/hope I’m walking in the right direction. I make it
across the street and as I’m stepping onto the sidewalk a motorcycle cuts in
front of me nearly running me over. I clearly haven’t had enough sleep because
I am fighting back tears. I can’t handle another near death experience (this
wasn’t my first of the day) so I headed back to the hostel.
I talked to a different member of staff about the tours
available. I really want to go to Sapa as well while I’m here so I have him go
through the options with me. He tells me the tour I like costs something like $70,
which seems reasonable until he says that I also have to pay $60 for the train.
Screw that noise I can buy my own train ticket for $20 and find a hostel for
about $5 there is no way I’m paying for that tour. I hmm and haw over the Ha
Long Bay tour and finally decide to book it. I would regret not going if I had
passed it up, plus I’m going to get to go squid fishing how cool is that?!
Shortly after booking my tour three of the girls from my
room are headed out for the evening and I ask if I can join them. We head down
the street to one of the restaurants with one of the kiddie table under a piece
of tarp and grab a seat. I’m not overly thrilled with the choice of venue and
not just because I feel like a giant but I grin and bare it because I’m happy I
have people to hang out with. One of the girl orders Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) for the whole table.
Normally I wouldn’t be too thrilled about someone ordering for me, especially
someone who doesn’t know me at all but I actually kind of wanted to try pho so
it was ok. A short while later we are all served a plate of something that
isn’t pho but has a lot of noodles whatever it is. I’m prepared to dive in only
there aren’t any forks, only chop sticks. I struggled through the meal but
managed to get most of the food to my mouth and it was actually quite
delicious.
I wanted to check out the night markets and two of the girls
wanted to go for massages so we made our way to where the night market is
normally located only to find it wasn’t open tonight. I was a little bummed out
but nothing seemed to be working to plan today so I shrugged it off. The four
of us walked to the massage place then one of the girls and I took a walk
around the nearby lake before meeting up with them again.
It was only about 8:30 at this point but I had been up for
about a million hours and my bed was calling my name so I decided to pack it
in. I made my way back to the hostel and received two fun pieces of news when I
checked my Facebook. 1) the flight I have book from Phuket to Bali was
cancelled in October but AirAsia decided it would be fun to wait until today to
let me know and 2)the package full of 90% of my belongings that I sent back to
Canada from England is officially lost. I was hoping to go straight to sleep
but now I’m stressed and angry.
Today really has not been my day, these are really just some
of the highlights, I haven’t even gotten into the state of the hostel, or the
creepy men trying to get me on their motorcycles. I’m trying to stay positive
but it isn’t working out very well. Hopefully things will seem better when I
wake up in the morning.
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