Amusement From Above

Good Morning Vietnam

I realize I never finished my Southeast Asia travelogue. Too many things happening and this weblog took a back – way back seat.

So instead of relaying our drama in Vietnam, I'll just blog about it.

From the beginning (sort of). We left Cambodia, after having an amazing three and a half days there. I was looking forward to the next leg of our journey, Ho Chi Minh City, (aka Saigon) Vietnam. We boarded our flight, on Vietnam Air and flew into Saigon. We were greeted by our translator/guide, "T" and driver. "T" took us to the Renaissance Hotel in Saigon, one of the nicest hotels to stay in. It was right along the river and downtown. We checked in, which was done by giving them our passports to copy and record (this comes into play later). We were then escorted up to our rooms on the 9th floor. This hotel was very beautiful and lots of fun amenities. We were on our own for dinner, so Rigs, J and I + kids walked down the road a bit to the restaurant "T" recommended called The Vietnam House. The food, to say the least was excellent. It was so delicious and just well amazing. After having our fill, we walked back and called it a night. Before which though, we locked up the following into our hotel room safe – 2 passports (1 American and 1 British), both of which contained our Entry/Exit visas for Vietnam, my Debit card, J's credit card, our old school plane tickets (no e-tickets), $900 in American dollars and miscellaneous cards (Health Insurance, Mileage Plus cards, Emergency information and pictures of Pumpkin).

The next day, Friday, we headed out on our private tour of Saigon. Went to see a water puppet show, which is apparently a Vietnamese pastime. Then toured the Vietnam/American war museum - Interesting place and most of the war was referenced by calling it "America's war on Vietnam". Humm… We then went out for lunch, followed by a quick swim at the hotel. Then we toured around the historic Post Office and the Notre Dame church . Back at the hotel that evening, we waited for Andy to fly in and meet us. Once he arrived, some of us headed to the Mandarin Restaurant for dinner. Where, James drank a coke, I had ONE Singapore Sling and Andy had 3 beers. After dinner, Rigs, Andy, J and I went to a local bar for another drink. Where J and I had just ONE drink each. We left Rigs and Andy and walked back to the room and called it a night.

The following morning, Saturday, I went into the closet to access the safe. The safe was not locked but the door was shut. I open it and everything, I repeat everything is gone. I immediately wake J to see if he had somehow 'moved' it all without telling me. Nope. He immediately calls the front desk to come up – I check with everyone else to see if someone was just playing a horrible joke on us – nope. The Hotel Manager and security came up. They asked if they could search the room to see if we had just misplaced it

Yeah, we just happened to misplace all of the following items: 2 passports (1 American and 1 British), both of which contained our Entry/Exit visas for Vietnam, my Debit card, J's credit card, our old school plane tickets (no e-tickets), $900 in American dollars and miscellaneous cards (Health Insurance, Mileage Plus cards, Emergency information and pictures of Pumpkin). Which were not all together but in separate areas of the shelf. If one or two things were missing, sure maybe we misplaced them, but everything?!

After tearing apart our room, they check our door and get a listing of what cards and who entered our room, using one of the key cards. It showed only us and cleaning staff. They asked if we went out the night before and if maybe we dropped it. I clearly explained that no, we did not walk around with ALL of those items and just whoops, dropped it. We immediately cancelled our credit and debit card. Then I called the Emergency number for the American consulate in Saigon. Of course, they wouldn't issue me a temporary passport over the weekend and said that I needed to wait until Monday. I begged and pleaded but no luck. We called the British consulate and received the same information. Unfortunately, they had more to add. The British Consulate in Saigon does not issue actual Passports – only the consulate in Hanoi does. Saigon can only issue a one time exit passport/visa to go directly back to the U.K., where then J would have to wait and request a new British passport. Well that won't work because he doesn't live in the U.K.!! We spent the rest of Saturday, going to the local Vietnamese police station, where they took our 'report'.

What a joke. Seriously, this police station was a hole in the wall, with no signage that this was a Police Station, barely enough electricity to keep a single fan going and just a mess. Through one of the Hotel Translators, we got our police report. We then met with the Head Hotel Manager who asked where all we had gone the night before, so he could go there and see if we had just 'accidentally' left all our items.

Meanwhile, we ask for them to check the CCTV to see if they could figure out who was near our room. Oh but what a surprise, there are no cameras in our area. Conveniently, our door was just across the hall from the Staff service door. The Head Hotel Manager said that they had already questioned all the cleaning staff and room service staff but nothing. Yeah, like someone is going to raise their hand and say "Yes, I took their things".

By this point, J and I are beyond stressed. We were still assuming that along with everything else, J's American Green Card was taken too. This was the worst of it all, as this would be incredibly difficult to replace and he may not even be allowed back in, once we did finally manage to get out of Vietnam.

The hotel did say that for compensation, they would comp anything we had charged to the room. We had already booked two separate massages, before all this happened. So, the day of all this, we decided to still go to our 'Couples Massage' and attempt to relax. This was mostly for me, as I was beyond stressed. I went into a whole new level of anxiety, stress, disbelief and just an enormous rock in my stomach. I forced myself to eat some of our 'comped' food… just because I knew if I didn't eat, I'd never make it through what was about to come. During our massage, I startled the Massues by exclaiming "I just remembered, I left your Green Card at Rigs' place in Singapore!!!!". Oh god, what a relief that was. Just one less thing to worry about it.

Once our massage was done, the Head Hotel Manager was there waiting for us. He said that they checked what CCTV video they did have and nothing. He went to the Mandarin Restaurant and got our freaking bill! He points to us that we had ordered THREE BEERS and one cocktail – thus accusing us of getting trashed and losing our things. I was irate. James was irate. We despite it all, calmly explained that while I did have ONE WATERED down cocktail, it was another member of our party that drank the THREE BEERS. We went over everything again, we aren't trying to scam the hotel, we just want our passports back. We said that if they could announce to the staff, that if at least our passports were returned, we'd give a reward. We knew that our $900 in cash was LONG gone. We then asked what was going to be done for us, if our passports were not recovered. We explained that because of THIS HOTEL we had missed our day out in Saigon, which we had already paid for and was not refundable. Not to mention everything else – the wasted day, the money and the time that would be spent trying to sort this out. The Head Hotel Manager said he would check with their Insurance Dept to see what they could or would cover.

We decided to go out to dinner that evening and went back to the Vietnam House. Sadly, due the state I was in, the food didn't taste nearly as good.

After dinner, we had another meeting with Head Hotel Manager and the Senior Security Manager, they basically said that they could comp our charges to the room. We said that was not good enough, as clearly our passports, etc were gone forever. We explained all the costs that would be accrued due to their LACK of safety in THEIR HOTEL. They agreed to arrange a private car to drive us up to the Chu Chi Tunnels for the day. Our guide agreed to go with us. We also said that we wanted all three rooms for the three nights to be comp'ed as well. The Head Hotel Manager did not think this would happen. We said we didn't care – make it happen.

Sunday morning, we were met by a very nice private hotel car and our guide. We took the hour drive to the Chu Chi Tunnels. "T" took us around the tunnels, where I attempted to forget everything that was going on. We crawled through the tunnels that were used during the war – boy were they TINY and HOT. After spending about 3hrs there, we returned to the car and were greeted by the driver with nice cool bottles of water and cold towels. We had a nice drive back to Saigon. We again, met with the Head Manager who said they still would NOT comp all the rooms but would comp all charges made to all three rooms. We said fine but still wanted more – as this was going to potentially cost us thousands. No luck and we said fine, we will take Marriott Renaissance Hotels to court once we returned to the US, as Marriot is American owned. The Head Hotel Manager did not like hearing this, so also arranged to have a private car and translator take us to the Consulates the next morning.

Monday morning, we first rushed off to the American Consulate, where I begged to be let in early before everyone else. Sorry, but I felt that as an American I should be given priority over the non-American's in line. The Security agreed and I rushed in. Had ONE passport type photo with me but the Consulate staff said it was not the right size. URG! We have the driver and translator take us to a place for our passport photos. We rushed in, had our pictures taken and then waited for them to be processed. It was seriously the longest 20 mins of my life. Rushed back to the American Consulate and I wait for my passport to be processed.

Meanwhile, James had gone down the road to the British consulate to get some documentation as to WHO he is, so he could fly to Hanoi. You know, you need SOMETHING to show who you are in order to get on a plane.

He comes back after getting his necessary paperwork and tells me, that he cannot wait for me (we don't know how long it will take for me to get my passport 1 hr or 8hrs). We agree that he should just get on the flight to Hanoi, which is leaving in 1 1/2hrs and I will get my passport an either meet him in Hanoi or just try and leave Vietnam. He is to take the car and translator to the Airport and I would just return to the Hotel.