The Waiting Game

Visas are an important part of any trip and luckily we have been able to get most of our visas at border crossings and airports. We have had to get a few in advance, India in San Francisco and Vietnam in Cambodia, and knew we would need to spend a few days in a major town collecting our final 2 ‘advance’ visas, Brazil and China. Brazil is an odd visa, you have to get it within 90 days of your arrival in their country, but you are required to obtain it in your home country. Basically, this means if you are 8 months into an around the world trip, you are going to have some troubles, and that is exactly what happened to us when we arrived back in Singapore.

We were going back and forth on which visa to get in Singapore and which to get in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is said to be the easiest place in the world to get a China visa, so we opted to attempt Brazil in Singapore. We arrived at the Brazil consulate early on a Monday morning, with applications and all supporting documents that they might need. As soon as we opened our mouths we were shot down. We were not permanent residents of Singapore so we could not get a visa there we were told. The consulate worker went as far as to tell us to “thank Bush” for our problem. Clearly that did not go over well with us but we bit our tongues and asked him to reconsider. I even threw in a few tears hoping they would help the situation. Eventually the worker told us he would send a telegram(do people still use these??) to Brazil asking for special permission. At this point we even questioned wanting to go to Brazil, but our around the world ticket had us landing in Sao Paulo and we had no other options for flights. We were told to come back the next day. No updates the following day and it seemed they were just stringing us along. Frustrations mounted at this point and we decided to hit up a local microbrewery to let off some steam. We had only had one drink, bought at a corner market, in the previous three weeks of travel in Malaysia so we figured this was as good of time as any for a cold one. We were happily informed on arrival that Canadian brewer had just released his ‘Oktoberfest’ beer and we had an afternoon fest of our own while discussing our options for moving forward with the visas.

On the third day we headed back to the consulate, hoping to get some answers. By this time we had already spent a total of 6 nights in Singapore and we were becoming impatient. We had planned to head up to Malaysia to a tiny little island off the coast for the week, but the visa was more important, so we had to cancel our reservations. After being given no update and sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, they finally decided to give us visas. Victory! Did we mention the visa few for Americans is $142? Reciprocity fee.

We had four nights remaining before our flight to Hong Kong and we knew we needed a break from Singapore. The easiest option was an hour ferry ride off the coast to the small Indonesian island of Bintan. We had not expected to visit Indonesia on the trip but the opportunity presented itself and we hopped on the ferry with no reservations or real knowledge of the place we were heading. Unaware to us, while on the ferry a large earthquake hit Indonesia. The news was broadcast worldwide and we had no idea anything had happened. We were on the ferry and felt nothing and the island sustained no damage. We had no email connection during our four day stay and unfortunately this lead to a storm of worried emails from friends and family. The island turned out to be relaxing and rather quiet. Our resort was rural and rather simple but had an authentic feel and was run by local townspeople. We stayed in a wood bungalow, perched on stilts over the water and spent the days and nights reading, playing cards, and enjoying some great local beer.

Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. For once we were not questioned at check-in as we had converted our paper tickets to electronic tickets at the American Airlines office in Singapore. Due to high accommodation costs in HK we spend our first night in the YWCA before transferring to one of our nicer hotels of the trip. We had caught a web special for multi-night stays and we were actually upgraded at check-in. Once again, bright and early we found ourselves waiting in a massive line outside the Chinese consulate. We were extremely worried about this visa. We had a flight 5 days later and Chad already had a cancelled Chinese visa in his passport from his trip to Tibet 5 years ago. We waited patiently in line and when we finally made it upstairs handed our application in with no issues. They didn’t even want any of the supporting documents that we had spent a few hours putting together the night before. They told us to come back on Thursday and off we went. No drama or problems, what a difference from Brazil. We now had another 4 days stretching ahead of us while we waited to pick up our passports.

Hong Kong is a pretty amazing city. High-rises control the skyline and fancy malls line the streets. All this working on passports in already expensive cities was starting to take a beating on our wallets, so we spent hours wandering around the city. We found free internet at the local library, browsed some high end malls, rode the historic tram to the peak overlooking the city, hopped the low cost ferry and subway system around town, and put together meals from the local supermarket. On our third night in town we met up with a friend from college, Brian, and his wife Elodie for drinks. The couple had moved to HK on a 2 year commitment with work and were now entering their second year in the city. They really had enjoyed their time in the city, had started a family and were actually looking into extending their stay. They played great hosts to us treating us to a night at a local brewery, inviting us to the historic horse tracks the following evening and allowing us to crash at their apartment our final night in town. Once again, friends on the other side of the world have shown us such great hospitality and we are truly grateful.

Beaches and Visitors in Thailand

Good old Marriott. After months of staying in budget rooms, we decided an upgrade was in order and the perfect place to do that was an island off Thailand called Ko Samui. We had one free night that we receive every year burning a hole in our account and decided to add another night on with points, so 2 nights free at the Renaissance was in order. We flew south from Bangkok and caught a ferry out to Ko Samui, arriving after dark to a crazy scene. Ko Samui was nuts! Not at all like we pictured a quite Thai island to be. The main town of Chaweng had crowds of people, stores, nightclubs, restaurants, exotic animals, bars, call girls, ladyboys, restaurants, etc. everywhere. We spent the first night at a cheap hotel and while we were there for only 10 short hours we were approached by mutilple people wanting us to feed their monkey or iguanas on the leash at their sides. It was odd. Luckily the Marriott was much removed from the madness on a quite secluded beach and we arrived there the next morning and spent a blissful 48 hours lounging on the beach or in the pool, sipping wine on our porch and enjoying the cleanliness of a comfy bed and room. The staff was nice enough to great us with a bottle of red wine, upgrade our room to an ocean view with a jacuzzi on our private porch and they even added on a daily buffet breakfast. Needless to say, it was heaven and exactly what we needed!

We said a sad goodbye to the wonderful Marriott and headed back to the mainland where we bussed it to the opposite coast to meet up with our very first visitor of the trip, my sister Hilary. Chad and I were thrilled that she was coming and couldn’t wait to see her. Hilary showed up at our guesthouse in the coastal town of Krabi the following day and we immediately threw her into the world of budget travel. As a flight attendant with United, Hilary is used to staying in pretty nice hotels but she had no problem fitting in with our thrifty ways. She also brought a few MUCH needed supplies from the US that we just haven’t been able to find in other parts of the world.

The weather, as always (the monsoon), wasn’t fully cooperating with us, but we decided to go ahead with our plan and head out to the island of Ko Phi Phi for a few days to introduce Hilary to Thai beaches. Ko Phi Phi is truly paradise. The island is tiny and there is only one town, but the beaches are beautiful and the people are friendly. Ko Phi Phi was completely destroyed in the 2004 Tsunami, thousands were killed and the wave washed away most of the buildings. Even today the town is working on rebuilding itself and the emotional scars on the people remain with the physical scars of the landscape. Nearly every shop owner had a story to tell on a sign or the back of a menu and the town was still in the process of reconstructing walkways and buildings.

We spent a full four days/nights oceanside at Long’s Beach in our 3 person beach bungalow. Our days were passed catching up in beach lounge chairs and at night we dined out accompanied by sunsets. On the night of a full moon we even introduced Hilary to the infamous Thai buckets of whiskey. We cherished our time in Ko Phi Phi and to be able to experience it with Hilary is something that we will have for a lifetime.

No trip to Thailand is complete without a stop in Bangkok so we returned there for the 3rd and final time of our trip. We caught an overnight bus (another treat for Hilary) to the back packer haven of Koh San Road. We spent two nights there, stocking up on much needed supplies, drinking cheap Chang beers, touring Buddhist temples and taking in all that Bangkok has to offer. Hilary even got a $3 haircut to match the one I had gotten a few weeks earlier.

Hilary decided to continue the trip with us, and we all hopped on a short 2 hour flight to Singapore. Singapore is expensive! To save some much needed cash we decided to stay in a dorm room of a hostel, for only the second time on the trip. We checked in to a 3 bed dorm and to our great surprise were greeted with one of the wonderful sides of backpacker travel, bedbugs! Fortunately this is the first time we have ever encountered them, but unfortunately they really came out at 1AM and we had to switch rooms after a minor freakout. On our last day with Hilary we decided to head out for a Tiger Brewery Tour and a stop at one of the microbreweries in town. It was a great last day and the next morning we went our separate ways with a sad goodbye. We are so thankful to have been able to share this wonderful experience with Hilary and we look forward to many more in the future!