Amusement From Above

It's bumpy, it's rough and I feel like I am about to be sick. It's still lightening. It doesn't take long until we are out of the storm. I calm down, some.

It was incredibly hard for me to even breath, let alone eat. I tried to sleep but now that the plane was in the air and we are on our way to Hanoi, a whole new set of worry sets in. Will we get J's passport in time? Is the person we hired to collect us in Hanoi going to be there? Will the hotel we had just made a reservation for, still have a room? Will we be able to leave the next day? All these things are waying on me, heavily.

We land in Hanoi. It's much different than Saigon. Much more rural but still very beautiful. Our driver and translator meet us and take us to downtown Hanoi and we stay at the Nikko Hotel. This hotel is very very nice and yes, they had our room for us. We arrange to meet up at 8am the next morning with the driver and translator, then change for dinner. Oh wait, J has NO Luggage! Rigs took it with her, so he would have less to deal with. He's no close. Ah well, we hear about a nice restaurant to go to, and are told it's just down the road. We begin to walk. It's party time in the streets, we walk through a massive crowd of teens just dancing and messing about on the sidewalk.

The usual stares and comments (in Vietnamese, of course) ensue. It's awkward and some start to follow us. It's incredibly difficult to walk on the sidewalk, as there are motorbikes parked everywhere. Hundreds of them, packed onto these little sidewalks. We have to walk on the street, which is not fun. You have motorbikes weaving in and out of cars, using the sidewalks and such. So now, we are dodging cars, people, motorbikes, parked and mobile. Nice. It's dark and late and it's sort of scary. Lots of people are out and about and yelling things at us. I have enough and tell J we must get a taxi to the restaurant. Across the way, there are hundreds of parked Taxi's and people milling about. We get in one taxi who says he will take us (well, this is what our sign language and such tells us). Drive a foot and tells us NO – we get out, confused, another guy grabs us and tells us that he will take us. Uhh, ok. He drives around in circles for awhile and eventually find the restaurant. At this point, I am not feeling well – feels like I am getting a cold. But I manage to eat some. The food is good but not nearly as good as the Vietnam House. Thankfully, after our meal the Restaurant hails us a taxi to take us back.

Once back at the hotel, we decide to go for a little swim. J doesn't have a suit, so a compromise is made and we still sit in the hottub (which was NOT HOT).

*Sigh* Honestly, this is really hard to re-live. I don't think I've ever really truly been traumatized before, but I really think I am now.

The next morning, Tuesday, thinking about it now is a blur. We meet up with the driver and translator and race over to the British Consulate. They aren't open yet, but we beg to be let in early. They agree and we meet with one of the Agents. She has J fill out all this paperwork and then says we need £112 (around $230) in Vietnamese Dong. We don't have it in Dong, so J rushes out to find an exchange. Meanwhile, I sit and finish the paperwork. He gets back and the Agent leaves to process it. She says that it shouldn't take too long. Meanwhile, we are arranging to catch the 11am flight out of Hanoi to Bangkok. An hour goes by, it now 9am, then 10am and now 11am. We've missed the flight. We ask what's going on, of course their computer system is down and they cannot process the passport!!!!!!! They say Tech support is working on the issue but it will take a few hours. She tells us to come back in 2-3 hours. We leave and the Translator (I cannot remember his name now) takes us around historic Hanoi. Really neither of us can concentrate but it helps pass the time. I am even too stressed out to shop! A sign of how bad things really are!

We had already agreed to take our chances and see if Immigration will let us leave without Visa's. Again, have been told that if we go to Immigration in Hanoi, it will take at least 5 days to get a visa. The agent at the British consulate tells us that she has 'heard' of people being allowed to leave, in the past, after paying a "Fine". She follows this up with that they all just got a memo from the Vietnamese immigration that they were 'cracking down' and no one would be allowed to leave without a Visa.

We go back to the Consulate – passport still isn't ready. We wait. And wait and wait. Finally, it's ready! It's about 2pm, there is a flight at 3:30pm or so, we tell the driver we'll give him a big tip if he can get us to the airport in time. Once again, seriously thought we'd die. Even J was a bit scared. At one point, we over took a big truck by using the left shoulder, upon which was a stalled CAR. We narrowly miss smashing into this car and then slamming into the truck.

FYI – If you tell someone you'll give them a big tip if they get you to the airport in XX time, beware, you may die.

We get to the Airport and race around to find a place to buy tickets. We are issued two tickets on Air Asia to Bangkok, flight is already boarding and we have NO TIME. We get to check-in and again problems, no Visa's. At least we have passports. She issues us Boarding Cards but it looks like she knows we won't be allowed to leave. We race to pay our Airport Tax, which is required in order to process through Immigration.

We get to Immigration and pick the only female Immigration Officer, thinking maybe she will have sympathy for us. NOT A CHANCE. She immediately asks where our Visa's are, we show the Police reports and everything else. She grabs it all and leaves. Crap. We wait. The Head Honcho Immigration Officer – we call him 4 Star – comes over and tells us we cannot leave, it is against the law. 4 Star says that HE cannot break the law by letting us leave. We beg. I cry. We beg more. Meanwhile, the translator is back and we beg him to tell 4 Star exactly what has happened to us and that we just want to leave. Really, how difficult is it to let us leave????

Many things are said, which of course, we do not understand. It's not looking good. I am now really losing it. I am about to pass out from the crying and the impossibility of breathing. I cling to 4 Star, saying over and over "Just let us leave, please we just want to go HOME". He says no, return to Hanoi city and go to Immigration to file for a Visa.

J screams at the Translator to call the British Consulate to see if they can talk to 4 Star and see if that helps. We say that we don't have time nor any money to do this, everything was stolen. He doesn't budge and by this time the flight is gone. We return to the Check-In to see if we can get our money back for the ticket.

Not a chance. J finds the man who sold us the ticket and he says that it was non-refundable. J tells (or yells) "I just gave you the money, in cash, less than 45mins ago. You give me the $$ and I'll give you these boarding cards back. It's simple, GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK". He says NO, they were non-refundable tickets. By this time, J is completely furious and is now really yelling. Most of Hanoi airport (which isn't all that big) is gathering around watching these two tall westerners going crazy.

I am telling J that we should just leave and try to get to the Immigration Office before it closes for the day. J tells me that we are not leaving till these people who swindled us, give us our $$ back. I really want to leave by this point, as now there is Security around us and more people staring. I am in a heap on the cold floor, crying.

I see 4 Star walking towards us, I race up to him again begging him to let us go. He talks to the Translator – it was agonizing waiting for the Translator to tell us what he said.

From what I can gather, either the Agent from the British Consulate called Hanoi Immigration, who then called the Airport Immigration to say that we were allowed to leave OR 4 Star calls Head Immigration and they give the Ok for us to leave. Either way, he tells us that we will be allowed to leave, IF we pay a $20 fine each and write a letter as to why we have no Visa. We agree! I hug him and thank him. Now, we have to re-book and pay for another flight, but really we are out of money. We talk to 4 Star and tell him that the airline won't refund our $$. We ask for an exchange for the last flight out, at 9pm. The Airline Rep tell us that they need 48hrs advanced notice for exchanges. WTF. Why is no one compassionate enough to work with us HERE!! 4 Star says something to the Airline Rep, who then tells us he will call their Head Office for approval to exchange the ticket. This flight isn't until 9:30pm and it's about 4pm now.

I ask 4 Star if he will still be here at 9pm to let us leave. Can he give us a letter to show that he said we could leave? Anything?! No, he says, just come through Immigration at 7pm, which is the earliest we could check-in. He leaves. I manage to jot down his name though.

The Airline Rep comes back and says that he got the Ok to exchange the ticket. Thank GOD. He says over and over that they are never allowed to do this and that we should be grateful. I pretend to be just overly grateful when all I want to do is smack him, hard.

J and the translator leave to go find food. I sit and watch the Air Asia Check-In, not daring to move, so they won't forget us. The seats are hard metal, it's hot and smelly. Young girls and women are continually picking things out of the trash can next to me. They aren't just taking pop cans or anything recyclable; they are taking discarded food too. Yuck. J brings me the equivalent of pot noodles/Raman noodles. I manage to slurp down some. Again, I've really not eaten in 4 days now – I don't feel well.

We sit. We watch a DVD on the portable DVD Player. This gathers crowds of young boys, who go out side and look into the windows right behind us, to watch the DVD. Boys come right up to us and poke their heads in front of our faces to see what's on this DVD player. The Security guards walk to the windows and look over our shoulders, through the window, watching the DVD.

The second the clock turned 7pm, we raced to the Check-in, first in line. Of course, by now a whole new set of staff is on duty – damn shift change. I don't recognize anyone.

She won't check us in, asks where our Visa's are. We again explain everything and say that her Boss re-issued us tickets and that Immigration said we could leave. About 10 mins go by and I still don't see anyone that would have remembered us from earlier. Finally, I see the Airline Rep and grab him and drag him over. He tells the girl to go ahead and check us in. She does. We get to Immigration and again, shift change. I don't recognize a single Officer and we cannot find 4 Star.

We go up to the processing window – hand our paperwork over.

WHERE IS YOUR VISA?!

Oh my god, I begin to cry again. This cannot be happening to us. He takes all our paperwork and passports, disappears. Meanwhile, a bunch of Officers have gathered around us – I pull out the piece of paper with 4 Star's name on it and say, this Officer said we could leave. They all tell me, there is no one here by that name. I couldn't believe it. I knew they were lying to me. About 20 mins pass …. The Officer comes back and says that we need to go back to Hanoi Immigration and wait for a Visa. Words cannot explain how I felt when hearing this.

It was so difficult that … I don't even know...

God must have been looking down at us, because I see 4 Star get off the Elevator. I start yelling, "There he is! There he is!" He's his mobile, I walk towards him, saying, "They won't let us leave". He just nods to the other Officer and walks away.

The Officer then brings over another 4 Star #2. We explain it all again, he says to pay him $20 each for the fine and provide copies of our stolen passports. Uhh… I did make copies of our passports but guess what, they were stolen too!!!! We tell him that have no copies of our passports but have copies of our original Visa request forms, etc. He says ok and asks again for the money.

We gladly hand over $40, he takes it and our passports and leaves. We wait. He returns. I am praying he's given us a Visa. He has. BEST $40 EVER SPENT! $40 for our release and freedom!!!!!!! (ok, a bit dramatic)

Holy jesus.

Now, they try to process us, with this hand written temporary Visa. It crashes the computer. We go to another processing window. It crashes the computer. Finally, we are both processed. Walking across that big black immigration line was like heaven. It felt so damn good. Thankfully, no problems getting through security.

We get to the gate and meet a nice British woman who was traveling around SE Asia. Meanwhile, James leaves to find more food. He tells me later that he is stopped by one of the Immigration Officers demanding copies of our stolen passports. J says that he just pretends that he doesn't understand him and walks away. Thankfully, the Officer did not pursue it further.

At the gate, I see Immigration Officers gathering around. I think "Crap, they are going to stop us and not let us board". Thankfully, they just stand there and watch us get on the plane.

Air Asia is a cattle plane - no assigned seats and just shove everyone on. We get on and I pray again.
We arrive in Bangkok. Safe.

Immigration - piece of cake. We're free.

(A follow up and aftermath to come)