Wow what a journey. We arrived at Houston airport with plenty of time to spare. Checked our bags and picked up our boarding passes. I boarded the plane to find I have an extra seat next to me whilst also sitting in the exit isle. Apart from not having a seat that reclines to a full bed, bad food and lack of free toiletries..... It could have almost been mistaken for first class. Things were going good ....... a little too good.
We landed in Tokyo about 30 minutes late. Not a major deal as we have an hour until our connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We join the masses to enter the security check point for connecting flight to Saigon. I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned that the size of the line was going to push our time limit to the max. As we make it to the scanner I check my watch and see we have 15 minutes. That's easy. Whizz through the scanner and head to the gate right? ........WRONG. They want to re scan Cameron's bag, which is no biggie. Then they want to scan it again? After the second time Cameron gets pulled to one side, but with 15 minutes to spare, we don't have the time to hang around going through his dirty underwear just to find a chewing gum wrapper. "Do you have a knife?" the woman asks. "Of course not" Cameron replies in a chuckle. At which point she pulls out a 4 1/2" blade. Nobody was laughing anymore, it all got very serious. We explained that it must have been there since Houston and they hadn't picked it up at security, but the language barrier was proving to be a little bit of a problem. They were speaking in badly broken English, and neither me nor Cameron were about to bust out any Japanese skills.
Long story short, we managed to persuade them not to take us to the airport police and let us on our way. One guard agreed, and the other two wanted the police involve. Lucky for us our “friend” was the boss, so off we went. We sprint to the gate and make the end of the line as they as finishing boarding. Phew.
That was just too stressful after the journey we had just gone through. We arrive in Vietnam, all smiles and even a little cheeky high five to display our relief at making it after being so close to missing the last flight out of Japan. It's 11pm now, it's been a long 27 hours, so let's get through immigration and head to the bar. You can imagine our horror when immigration ask for our visa ...... a visa we have no idea about. Now, we had asked this question in Houston, and were told that you didn't need one for a vacation. That person was wrong. You need one alright, and you needed to get it in the USA 5 days before you fly. Again with a massive language barrier we do our best to explain. I hear "send you back to Tokyo" somewhere in his sentence followed by "it costs" ..... Now he has my attention, because I've come too far to turn around now. I badger him to give me a price. 1 million, 2 million, 300 thousand ...... there are figures being thrown all over the place. He now has a little smug grin, because he realizes what we already knew ...... whatever it takes, we will pay to get in. We agreed a price (of course it has to be in local cash, because I very much doubt this is going in the book) and off I head to the ATM, withdrawal a few million dong, and we are in. Let's get our bags and get to the bar.
We are now late for the baggage claim, so we know our bags will have been taken off and put somewhere off to the side (it's now about 12.30 am). We see Cameron's bag over at lost and found (seeing as we checked in together, I expected to see mine right next to it). We go over to collect our bags when I hear in this little voice say "Mr Grew?" ..... "what now" was the only thing that went through my mind. Well I'm informed my bags are still in Houston, and because there's only one flight a day my bags will be with me in 2 days. I can't even explain how exhausting this journey has been. I had no energy left. I was tired, jet lagged, hungry, broken and just generally beaten up. I took the paper work, along with the 2 million dong she gave me to buy some underwear and a toothbrush ......... and then finally .......... off we went to the bar.
We landed in Tokyo about 30 minutes late. Not a major deal as we have an hour until our connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We join the masses to enter the security check point for connecting flight to Saigon. I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned that the size of the line was going to push our time limit to the max. As we make it to the scanner I check my watch and see we have 15 minutes. That's easy. Whizz through the scanner and head to the gate right? ........WRONG. They want to re scan Cameron's bag, which is no biggie. Then they want to scan it again? After the second time Cameron gets pulled to one side, but with 15 minutes to spare, we don't have the time to hang around going through his dirty underwear just to find a chewing gum wrapper. "Do you have a knife?" the woman asks. "Of course not" Cameron replies in a chuckle. At which point she pulls out a 4 1/2" blade. Nobody was laughing anymore, it all got very serious. We explained that it must have been there since Houston and they hadn't picked it up at security, but the language barrier was proving to be a little bit of a problem. They were speaking in badly broken English, and neither me nor Cameron were about to bust out any Japanese skills.
Long story short, we managed to persuade them not to take us to the airport police and let us on our way. One guard agreed, and the other two wanted the police involve. Lucky for us our “friend” was the boss, so off we went. We sprint to the gate and make the end of the line as they as finishing boarding. Phew.
That was just too stressful after the journey we had just gone through. We arrive in Vietnam, all smiles and even a little cheeky high five to display our relief at making it after being so close to missing the last flight out of Japan. It's 11pm now, it's been a long 27 hours, so let's get through immigration and head to the bar. You can imagine our horror when immigration ask for our visa ...... a visa we have no idea about. Now, we had asked this question in Houston, and were told that you didn't need one for a vacation. That person was wrong. You need one alright, and you needed to get it in the USA 5 days before you fly. Again with a massive language barrier we do our best to explain. I hear "send you back to Tokyo" somewhere in his sentence followed by "it costs" ..... Now he has my attention, because I've come too far to turn around now. I badger him to give me a price. 1 million, 2 million, 300 thousand ...... there are figures being thrown all over the place. He now has a little smug grin, because he realizes what we already knew ...... whatever it takes, we will pay to get in. We agreed a price (of course it has to be in local cash, because I very much doubt this is going in the book) and off I head to the ATM, withdrawal a few million dong, and we are in. Let's get our bags and get to the bar.
We are now late for the baggage claim, so we know our bags will have been taken off and put somewhere off to the side (it's now about 12.30 am). We see Cameron's bag over at lost and found (seeing as we checked in together, I expected to see mine right next to it). We go over to collect our bags when I hear in this little voice say "Mr Grew?" ..... "what now" was the only thing that went through my mind. Well I'm informed my bags are still in Houston, and because there's only one flight a day my bags will be with me in 2 days. I can't even explain how exhausting this journey has been. I had no energy left. I was tired, jet lagged, hungry, broken and just generally beaten up. I took the paper work, along with the 2 million dong she gave me to buy some underwear and a toothbrush ......... and then finally .......... off we went to the bar.
well lets hope all the kinks are in the beginning of the trip! At least you made it in the country! so happy to hear from you this morning - and from the sound of it, things have gotten much better! keep the posts coming! I am sure there are more interesting stories to follow!
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