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Published: February 9th 2008
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Well, what an experience!
After checking out of our hotel, we went and had a delicious lunch and coffee at 'Papa Joe's', which is a cafe that has a terrific view of Hoan Kiem Lake. The meal was the perfect tonic, as we were both feeling a little 'tired' after enjoying one too many bottles of Tiger Beer the night before to celebrate the dawning of a new year.
The Hanoi streets were virtually empty, due to families spending the day together for Tet. Therefore, it was quite ironic that the first time I witnessed a westerner being struck by a motorbike whilst attempting to cross the road was on the quietest day of the year.
We decided to head out to the airport early and spend the last of our Vietnamese currency on the taxi, Interent and food. The festive feel was also evident at the airport, with an armed security guard hollering me over to him to give me a glass of red wine - from a bottle that he was drinking whilst on duty! We budgeted quite well, as we were down to our last Vietnamese Dong just prior to check-in. This is the moment
when things started to go all pear-shaped.
At check-in, our names weren't on the passenger list for the Air Asia flight! We were rather alarmed and were then informed that we were booked on the flight for the next day! Not double-checking the booking details is the daftest thing I have ever not done! We began pleading with the manager, explaining that we had nowhere else to stay and very little money for food. As the flight was not full, couldn't we please make a straight swap? Answer: No.
The realisation that we would have to spend another 24 hours at the airport registered, descending on my spirits with all the weight of one of the jumbo jets we could hear landing on the runway. We had to spend the night at the airport, there was nothing else to do.
We decided we would read our books until we were so tired that we couldn't read any longer, therefore dropping off into a deep sleep. We found some comfy red couches, but our attempts to read and sleep were thwarted by the most horrendously out of tune karaoke I have ever heard. As the airport became emptier, the music (if you could call it that) simply echoed louder. I once liked the song 'Yesterday' by The Beatles; however, I fear that it has been eternally ruined for me by the warbling rhinoceros who belted it out last night! Finally, I got to sleep some time after midnight, only to be woken at 2:30 by a gruff security guard who ordered us to follow him. It seemed that he had none of the festive cheer of my earlier encounter with the wine-swilling guard. Upon reaching the ground floor, it became evidently clear that his mood was an anomoly amongst the guards, as the rest of them were all raucously drunk and we were their entertainment. They laughed heartliy at us and instructed us to sleep on some hard chairs. This was not ideal, so we went to get a softer chair, near to where the guards were wiping themselves out with grog. As we placed our hands on the chair, we were pushed aside by a guard who then plonked himself in the chair and they all laughed aloud. Being rather unimpressed, the thought crossed our mind that we would rather sleep outside and stormed off to the doors, only to find that they were locked. We found some cold metal chairs to sleep on that were far enough away from the guards to hopefully get some peace. There was very little give in these metal chairs and we ended up finally laughing and seeing our predicament as a funny traveling story to look back on. At 4:30 we were told that we could return to our couches on the fourth floor (obviously our entertainment value had worn off). We finally got a few hours sleep and spent the rest of the day reading and watching planes land and take off - we actually turned this into a little guessing game by competing to see who would be closest in guessing how many seconds it would take for a given plane to become airbourne from a stationary start - yes, we were very bored and games such as this were small mercies that made the time seem to pass a little faster.
Eventually it was check-in time (again) and we boarded the plane 31 hours after our arrival at the airport.
My once romantic notion of travelers spending nights in airports, train stations and bus stations has been given a sharp reality check.
Anyway, we are finally here in Thailand and found some accommodation after two hours of trapsing around Bangkok looking for a room. It seemed everywhere was fully booked, until a guesthouse run by an Australian guy (Soi 1 Guesthouse) had a spare bed and let me sleep in the staff quarters, knocking 50 Baht off the price due to my room not having any air conditioning - what a great bloke! He was a god-send. We were so relieved to finally have a place to rest our head, as it was around 2am by this stage.
It's been a struggle and an adventure, but the Thailand beaches are now almost within our sights.
Bronson
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