Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

We got back to the hostel about 6pm and went to grab some dinner. We hit up this cool little island/temple/museum thing in the middle of the lake in the middle of the city. It was cool to see some cool sights like old men playing Asian checkers and a brief cameo from “Miss Universe – Vietnam”. She must have been 7 ft tall (with her absolutely colossal platforms on) and with her caked-on make-up and hair in paired buns, she looked more like an alien than any human I have ever seen. Or perhaps like a mildly sexy praying-mantis. I wanted to take a picture but I thought if I got to close she might lay her eggs in my chest. I did take one picture but strangely enough when I got back to the hotel it was nothing but orange light.

Time to make arrangements for our next leg of the journey. Here was our original plan. Our flight was to depart at 6:30 am for Malaysia. This meant we should have arrived at the airport no later than 5:00am. Since it is over an hours drive, that would mean departure from our hostel at just before 4:00am. It was NYE so would you rent a room? Of course not. The plan was to party till about 3:30am and then grab a cab and sleep it off on the plane to Malaysia. At least that was what we planned.

Problem # 1 – Upon randomly checking our email after 2 days at sea we found a message from our travel agent who informed us that he had not in fact booked the ticket (the nightmares with him were unimaginable, the mistakes endless). We and spoken to him 4 days earlier on a hunch he had messed up again and had forgotten to book our flights. Upon confirmation, did he fix the problem that day? The next? No. He waited until the night before to book the flight he had promised to and then told us “That flight is too expensive. Why don’t you fly much later that day, buy the ticket yourself [we had already paid him] and I will give you the difference back”). So we were forced to spend the next 3 hours not partying, but running around to every travel agent we could find to get a ticket. The following is for anyone in Korea who is trying to ‘google’ information on him. ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA IS TERRIBLE. ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA STRANDED US IN VIETNAM. STAY AWAY FROM ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA.

Problem # 2 – Being NYE none of the travel agents could “print” tickets for the flights we wanted on Vietnam airlines. After 3 hours of work and running around we were forced to book online with Air Asia. A flight not leaving until 9:45am.

Problem # 3 – not thinking we needed to book a room that night, thanks to ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA HATES FOREIGNERS, it was too late to find a place to stay. Everywhere was packed and there were no vacant beds.

Fine. We will just be at the airport a bit early and have to take a small nap there… All that was left to do was to pre-book our cab for the ride to the airport. The front desk has been marginally helpful up to this point so we enlisted their help. “We would like a cab for 3:45 am”, we say. Stunned faces followed by laughter.

Problem # 4 – Apparently there are no cabs who are willing to do it. In fact.. with curfew there are no cabs out at all. Our hopes of a NYE exception were quickly squashed by calls to several companies who said that the latest they would go was 12:45pm.

Fine. I was feeling like a tough ass backpacker.. if I needed to spend the night in the airport so be it. How bad could it be? Erin had done it tons of times. It was time to go out. We needed to take our mind off of ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA NEVER APOLOGIZES FOR MISTAKES. Let’s go party!

Our first stop was one of those sidewalk beer stands where fresh kegs greeted our lips for a welcome $0.13. We forgot how late it was. We were going to drink there until about 11:45pm and take the short walk to the stage where we had seen people preparing for NYE celebrations.

As we drank, our host whipped into a sudden panic and started grabbing everything in sight. She was yelling what we finally figured out was “Pollisey” (Police). Within about 15 seconds all tables, chairs, kegs, free glasses were in behind a shut steel garage and the lights were now off. Standing there in awe and confusion were other 3 foreigners, drinks in hand, as a half truck/half tank with flashing cop lights rode by with some guy yelling in Vietnamese from on-board speakers. Clearly curfew had come and gone and anyone around was to be on their way home by now. It was so cool . We felt like it was prohibition days and we just got raided. With a push of a button the place had zero evidence of even existing. It was about 11:40pm and good timing – we headed toward the main square and the stage we had seen earlier.

We got to the stage to see a live performance of some sort and there were about 3000 people – about a third of them travelers. I had to pee so I left Erin for a moment to dip into an alley (and hopefully not get arrested, mugged or worse… solicited by a balloon seller… I hate balloons. As I was enjoying my sweet relief I heard the New Year’s Song. I look at my watch to confirm it was only 11:45pm. By the time I got back to the stage to meet Erin, not 2 minutes later, the lights were off and riot police were telling everyone to go home. And they were. It was like a mass exodus. Apparently the pedestrian curfew of 12 midnight couldn’t even be pushed back for NYE. It was amazing. It seems socialism has the power to change the time space continuum. Here I was thinking it was only 11:45pm but to my surprise it was already 2008 before I could even get my 3 shakes finished. “Is this really over” I said to Erin as we were quickly herded back to our hostel. Everything was closed and dark. The noise was broken only by the occasional police car and its speakers. It was surreal. The worst part was that they sung the Happy New Year song and let off som minor fireworks and everything… as though we weren’t all wearing watches… ‘Just trust us… it’s after midnight’.

45 minutes later our cab showed up. So, at 1:30am on NYE we arrived at Hanoi airport to sleep on the floor. Our cab let us off at a completely abandoned departures gate.

Problem #5 – The airport was closed. We clearly overestimated the size of the airport, as well as the duration of its flight schedule/operating hours. The last flight arrived at about 9:00pm and the first flight out was the 6:30am to Kuala Lumpur, which we were supposed to be on. ZENITH TRAVEL KOREA STRANDED US AT A CLOSED AIRPORT. So all the doors were locked! It is an appropriate time to remind you that it was about 10 degrees (a generous estimate)… not sleeping outdoors weather.

Our kind cab driver offered to let us sleep at his house for the night. Preferring our organs unharvested, we politely declined and sought out a 3rd option. So we thought… Hmm. No rooms in Hanoi. No hotels by the airport. Too cold to sleep outside. Organs too precious for night at drivers house. Hmmm. Only one choice left – break into the airport.

“Break” is such a harsh word. I prefer “Sneak” – much lest connotation of vandalism and criminal activity. We wisely headed down to the arrivals section and again found locked doors. At the far end, around a corner, was an employees entrance.. or exit to be more specific. I secretly kicked my foot behind an exiting employee to stop the closing door, and Erin and I conspicuously, with large packs and awkward movements, snuck our way into the arrivals area and behind a closed cafe. There we laid our bags down and tried to sleep.

Problem # 6 – The airport is patrolled by armed guards. Who knows whether these machine gun toting uniformed men were just refilling vending machines or there to wax the floors? But we agreed not to cause to much noise and trouble. By now it was 2:00am. If we could just sleep, not be discovered, and make it till about 4:30, we guessed the airport would open. 4:30.. that was our goal. For some reason I had always thought the idea of sleeping on a cold airport floor illegally to be a cool and romantic idea. It was not. Apparently the time space continuum thing includes the airport. Those were the longest 2 hours of my life, and I wanted to pee. Little did I know.. this would not be the last time an airport floor would be our overnight bed on this trip…