Calamity in visa land Pt. 2

We were the first ones to waiting in line to check in for our flight (punctual as always). We arrived 2.5 hour before our international flight, thinking we would have plenty of time to check in, eat a little breakfast and spend the last of our Dong. The ticketing agent then told us we needed proof we were leaving the Thailand on a PLANE. The bus tickets we painstakingly planned and already purchased in conjunction with a domestic flight to Bangkok would not suffice. YIKES!

Running out of time and feeling like to unwilling contestants on The Amazing Race, we agreed to only get our boarding passes to Singapore then get proof of a flight out of Thailand by the time we reached Singapore.With only moments to spare we purchased the quickest snacks we could find with our remaining dong (spending more on peanuts than you do on four Banh Mi sandwiches argh) and ran to the plane.

We flew Tigerair which has an option when you book for "Tiger Connect" it is a fee you can pay so they take your bags from one flight to the next. If you ever fly Tiger air purchase it (you'll see why). Since they refused to give us our boarding passes for the second flight we were told to go out, clear immigration and then get our next boarding passes with proof of a flight out of Thailand. Once in Singapore an airport employee warned us that many times once you leave the secured area, if you have a overnight layover they will not give you a boarding pass until the next day four hours before the flight. So now our bags are down circling the conveyor belt, if we leave the amazingly cush terminal then we risk not being able to get back in until 4 AM and the airport security could ask us to vacate until we had boarding passes. On the other hand, if we stay our bags could go to lost and found, and we miss the tour. Wow!  What a pickle we got ourselves into!

We ultimately, decided the cheapest option for a flight out of Thailand was to hop over to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. It is a visa run of sorts but hey for $128 we get yet another stamp in our passport and have an impromptu visit to Malaysia. Knowing our grave fate of sleeping (hopefully) on a few chairs in the arrival department of the Singapore airport, we did one last Hail Mary and went back to the Tigerair counter. Two new employees working this time, and we asked them just to be sure, if there was anyway we could get our boarding passes now so that we could go on the tour and get back into the terminal. These people were ANGELS. "Of course, one of you already has the Tigerconnect (not sure how this happened), so if the other just pays $40, we will make sure your bags go to Thailand and we can print both of your boarding passes here." What the what?! Never once did they ask to see our tickets out of Thailand, which we just spent several hundred dollars on only moments prior.

We can't help but cringe a little thinking that if we could have just talked to these people originally all the stress and the random trip to Malaysia could have been avoided. On the bright side, which there always is if you look hard enough. We got to go on the free tour (which we highly recommend if you have 5+ hours to kill in the Singapore airport), we had a relatively comfy place to sleep (fo free) and we are goin to Malaysia.

Lessons learned:

1) We assumed a bus ticket would suffice, even the Thai embassy told us so. It seems like we just had bad luck getting a ticketing agent in Saigon that wanted to play by the strictest of rules (in truth, it is the job of the airline to ensure no tourist is staying over 30 days in Thailand, so bring proof, printed if possible).

2) Ask someone, and then ask again and again. We were seconds away from leaving that Holy Ground of the Singapore airport and condemning ourselves to a sleepless night in the arrivals lounge or worse. We are so fortunate, we listened to the tour guide who warned us not to leave unless we were sure to get boarding passes first.

3) Sometimes, paying those extra fees does save you in the long run. For us, the $40 for Tigerconnect was well worth not having to clear immigration and wait till the morning for new boarding passes.

4) Stress kills, it is so hard to remove your emotions from a stressful situation. However, at the end of the day whatever it costs, or the discomfort it may bring you. At least we are traveling the world together and getting to spend this year with all of its trials and tribulations doing something that many can only dream about. We are so fortunate, even in these frustrating times we wouldn't rather be anywhere else. It's important to take a step back and have a little perspective.   

Calamity in visa land

Well, let me start this story by saying I am a bit embarrassed by our actions and I do take full responsibility for my part in it. However, there is a lot of misinformation and "regulations" seem to be up to the person you deal with at times. However, let our folly be your word to the wise.

We landed in Saigon with a great plan. Enjoy a long weekend of taking in the sights and then on Monday pick up a 60 day visa from the Thai Embassy and on Tuesday zip off for a month+ to Phuket and the South of Thailand. On Monday morning after reading many travel reviews saying getting a visa was super easy, we woke up early and planned on being the first ones at the embassy office so that we could get our visa processed and be on our way to enjoy one last day in Vietnam, getting massages, eating Pho and taking in the sights. 

Upon arrival, the lady noted that we had to prove we had tickets out of the country, we asked if bus tickets would be okay and she said yes but they had to have a printed copy as evidence. We had read so many posts about border runs in Phuket we had assumed we could just take care of staying slightly over the 30 days once we were in the country. Especially for a 60 day visa, it is really hard to book a ticket that far in advance when you are trying to live life on the wild side (you know sans itinerary).  After hours of running different scenarios and price checking each option to find the cheapest most effective way to leave the country. We decided to fly from Surat Thani Thailand to Bangkok then take a bus to Cambodia. 

Armed with the necessary documents we got another Uber back to the embassy. Filled out the documents with ferocity knowing we were nearing the end of the day, only to be informed that we couldn't get the Visa in time before our flight. 5 Ubers later and our last day wasted in Vietnam we discovered a few frustrating truths that could have saved us a lot of time and money if we knew them earlier:

1) Visas take at least two days! We should have gone in on Friday so we could have picked them up on Monday. Plan ahead for unforeseen bumps in the road and take care of business first! Usually, our M.O If you know us, then you know how shocking it is we dropped the ball like this.

2) Ask more questions. People tend to be short with you when there are language barriers but take the time to make sure you fully understand the situation. When we went in that morning to get the Visa, we should have made sure, if we did indeed get the printed proof of tickets out of the country, could we get the visa done in time?

3) Don't trust everything you read. We read so many reviews and blogs, that said it was very easy to get a Visa and that they did not have to show proof of an exit ticket. That pared with the advertisements of border runs we figured it would be easy. When in doubt be over prepared, especially when it comes to something as important as a visa.

4) Laugh at yourself, learn from the mistake and move on. Traveling with a companion it can be easy to get mad at each other of take the frustration of the situation out on each other. However, after spending so much time and money on a completely moot point we left the embassy and just had a good long laugh. 

At the end of this exhausting/stressful day. We remembered a vegetarian restaurant we passed in one of our Uber rides and decided to go look for it and at least take the opportunity to eat in a new part of town. Retracing our steps we were quite proud of ourselves. High fiving each other and reveling in our awesome internal GPS systems. Until... we landed right back at the embassy. We did a huge circle, didn't eat all day (our last day to enjoy the amazing foods of Saigon no less), and it started to rain. Late, tried and slightly depressed, we splurged to get yet another round of Ubers to our favorite Bingsu place (amazing Korean dessert). Two heaping portions of shaved ice, fresh fruit and condensed milk later, the world was looking a little brighter.

Thinking back to all the things we could have done differently could literally make you go crazy. Coulda, woulda, shoulda all you want. However, the only thing to do is to learn from the mistake, share your story with others so you may save them the hassle, treat yo self and move on.      

Oh the places you'll go

We are two girls that often stick to the rules and like have clear defined plans in pretty much everything we do in life (ya we are those girls). However, we have been trying to incorporate a more laidback attitude into our planning. You know, truly embrace our new backpacker lifestyle. Therein lies the conundrum: how to be laid back so that you can enjoy the journey yet not get stuck spending outrageous amounts on tickets or all of the good accommodations being booked. We can't tell you how many times we have found Airbnb's that are perfect for us with a pool, gym, great location, free breakfast for an amazing price that was already booked for the dates we wanted. So we were forced to spend more on a place with fewer amenities. 

In our short 18 days on the road here are some things we learned:

1) Not everyone shares the same opinions as you, so take reviews and travel blogs with a grain of salt. We stayed at several places highly recommended that we hated, while others that got mediocre reviews that we loved. When reading reviews it's helpful to think about the person writing the review, do they match your demographics? Are you the same type of traveler?

2) To avoid getting stuck somewhere we didn't like and give us more autonomy over our itinerary we learned to only look for places that have flexible cancelation policies. We also were able to book the best accommodations in advance so we knew they would be available if we indeed made it to those destinations as planned. Airbnb for example clearly defines whether a place has a easy, moderate or strict cancelation policy. Booking.com also has numerous locations in which you can reserve a room without even using a credit card.        

3) It seems in SE Asia particularly in Vietnam, they are great at photoshop and many of the places we stayed at did not look at all like the photos. We got room catfished many a time. Be sure to check out photos taken by fellow travelers for a more accurate depiction. We love TripAdvisor for this reason, and attempt to photo compare places when possible before booking.

  

4) We have used several sites to book rooms: Kayak.com and Airbnb are our favorites as they often direct you to the best homes/hotels. Agoda.com in particular which is linked to Kayak, has amazing prices. The hotels we have stayed in often also give us a lot of freebies: free breakfast, bikes, cooking classes, which can add up to a larger value if you would pay for those things anyway.

5) It's nice to have the community hostels create. However, like life being like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get in terms of your hostel dorm room mates. Let me tell you, they won't all be your favorite flavor either. We got sick from some inconsiderate dorm mates that were sick as dogs who stayed up coughing and hacking all night right next to our faces. Que cold medicine and missing out on beach days and the savings of staying in a hostel were not worth it.   

Above all else, when in doubt just go for it. Some of our "mistakes" have landed us in the best locations possible that we loved.