4pm and time to pop out and get the money out to pay for my accomodation at the Hostel. Grand total was slightly over 5 million dong, and Mike just rounded it down. That sounds like a lot, but at current exchange rates, it’s around £150. This includes accomodation for 40 nights, a passport visa extension, my bus ticket to China Beach, a flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City and more bottled water, Coke and beer than I can even hope to remember.

So, off I wandered to the ATM with my Lloyds card – the backup I’m having to use as the Nationwide one still hasn’t appeared. Maximum withdrawal from any ATM here is 2 million dong per shot, and it costs 20,000d plus Lloyds’ charge of £2. Thieving… *ahem*

Anyway, I used one machine to withdraw my first 2 million, the moved to another machine for the second. The last thing I wanted was someone to spot me withdrawing a fortune. At the second machine, I hit the 200,000d button by accident and paid about £2.66 to withdraw around £6. Arse. I then withdrew another 2 million.

Then I thought, sod it, nobody else was watching so I withdrew the final 2 million. Only the machine said my transaction has been denied by my bank and to naff off. Fine, be like that.

I walked over the road to the TechComBank machine sat by the stairs at the City View Cafe, inserted my card, banged in my PIN, hit the 2 million button and waited.

Only to be told that my transaction time had expired (whatever that means) and that the machine was retaining my card.

Oh.

No.

So there I was, one million short of the money I needed to pay my bill and with no spending money when I left Hanoi even if I could scrape it up. And no means of withdrawing money from anywhere. Screwed.

I headed back to the Hostel and Skype’d LLoyds who informed me that “the card shouldn’t have been withheld” (how comforting) and that my withdrawal was refused as I’d tried to go over my daily limit. I find this surprising as the last I knew, I had a £250-a-day limit on the card and I’d not even tried to withdraw £200.

They put me through to a woman at Visa in the States who sounded like one of those Speak and Spell machines. In fact, I honestly thought I was talking to an electronic switchboard for the first few minutes, such was her unbelievable accent. She told me they could arrange to send me out an emergency card if I gave them an address. Fine, how long will it take?

“I can’t answer that until you provide me with an address.”

“I can’t give you an address until you tell me how long it will take.”

It was now almost 5pm. My bus was due to pick me up at 6:30. I hadn’t packed or eaten. This time tomorrow I would be in a different city. Three days after that and I would be in Ho Chi Minh City and I hadn’t arranged any accomodation.

We went round in circles until I agreed to give her the address I was going to immediately – Hoa’s Place, just outside Da Nang. I was given a case reference number and a phone number “in the UK” to call if I had any queries.

At this point I rang Lou and pretty much just sent waves of panic and anguish down the interwebnet all the way to New Zealand. She suggested seeing if someone could loan me the cash – someone with a UK bank account, into which I could immediately transfer the monies to replace it. Genius.

Fortunately, I found one such kind soul and he withdrew 2 million Dong for me. With his bank details, I transferred an equivalent sum (plus a few bob) into his account. Rent payment sorted.

After a few minutes, I realised it would be best to send the card to HCM City rather than Hoa’s Place, allowing for time taken. I re-rang Visa, realised that the number I’d been given was incorrect, called Lloyds, was told that the number was in the US (and not the UK as I’d been told), redialled, waited ages and got talking to another agent who put me on the line to the person at Lloyds who was dealing with the problem. She said that everything had been OK’d and she was about to send the confirmatoin fax to Visa. All very swift. Then we realised that the Visa dude had vanished from the line. So I had to ring them back. Again.

By now my soul had surrendered to the messages of forced politeness telling me how important my call was to them. It certainly is if they have shares in Skype.

Finally, person number three. They told me that if I had the card sent to HCM it would arrive on Friday via DHL – 3 days before I got there. If I had it send to Da Nang, it would take until Monday – the day after I left. So, HCM it would be. Only I had no accomodation booked in advance. OK – British Consulate.

With some digging I got the address of the Consulate… only Visa also needed a name to deliver to as consulates will often “bounce” packages with no recognised name on them for security reasons. I think I got the name of the Consulate General or similar from the web site – I only hope she works in HCM and not in the main Embassy in Hanoi.

I also emailed the Consulate to notify them of the arrival of the package and that I would be there to collect the card on Monday morning first thing.

All sorted, methinks. Only to then be told that as the card is shipped “pre-activated”, it has no PIN. So I can’t use it to withdraw cash from an ATM. I’ll have to go into a bank. Which means I’ll get charged £2 by Lloyds plus a fee by the bank at this end (which can be as high at 7%!). I also have no idea if a replacement “regular” card is being sent out.

Regardless – 18:25 and I dash upstairs to the barbequeue that I’m missing out on to hand Mike my last million dong, and to wish everyone a sadly rushed farewell. I didn’t even have time to grab a burger as I was being collected at 6:30 and I now had 2 minutes to pack all my things.

I was literally stuffing the last few items into my rucksack when the receptionist came to tell me the bus taxi was waiting. Argh. I was in such a rush I left two milk drinks and a Snickers in the fridge. Dammit.

To be honest, I’m most narked at not getting a chance to say a proper goodbye to everyone with a burger and a beer. That and only having a million dong in my pocket to last me to HCM City as it means I can do pretty much knack all between here and there and I’ll be bricking it that the card makes it as I have no way of getting internet access again until Sunday night.

At least I made it in good time to the bus. Which typically sat for almost an hour after we arrived before departing.

I’ll say one thing, though. You hear a lot of horror stories about the conditions of buses in Asia, but the one I boarded was fine. Aircon (though it was set to Mr Freeze Ray and I had to turn it off), decent driver who spoke enough English to be helpful, clean, no smoking on board (no signs… just nobody did), fairly comfy though not exactly National Express…

One thing that really “took” me was a late arrival in the form of a youngish female passenger. The only spare seat was next to the co-driver in the front row, and when she got tired, he slept lying down in the walkway so she could have both seats. That’s customer service for you.

 Today I will be leaving a city that has very much become “home” for almost 6 weeks. I have mixed feelings about moving on, in all honesty. Despite the pickpocket (who I still wish incredibly nasty things to happen to), Hanoi has been incredibly good to me and a wonderful experience. I’ve met some great people, made good friends I know I will keep, seen things I never thought I’d see and witnessed a culture that I am completely taken by.

But time moves on. I have places to be and people to see. However, there is no doubt in my mind that I will return to Hanoi someday, perhaps next year.

I am starting this post at the Blue Dragon office off Hong Ha near Long Bien market. I had to come and say goodbye to everyone and it’s going to be a very sad event. The staff here are some of the nicest people it has ever been my pleasure to meet, both the Vietnamese and the foreign volunteers. Many of these people are giving up their time for free to help the most important resource Vietnam has – it’s children.

 How could I not mention the kids? Without exception they’re smart, hard-working, dedicated, loving, friendly, strong, brave… I could run out of superlatives if I allowed myself to go on. They have made me feel as welcome as any person ever has and I am genuinely very sad indeed to be leaving them behind. I hope with all my heart that one day each and every one gets to the point in life where they can have the opportunity to do what I am doing and see other parts of the world. Perhaps they will themselves “give something back” and help someone else, somewhere else. Regardless, there’s not a doubt in my mind that every one of these children will succeed in whatever direction they decide to go.

It has been a privilege to work with these young people. Even the ones who enjoy tugging at my beard or telling me that Zidane is better than Shearer!

Again, I’ll ask anyone who’s not done so to please check out the Blue Dragon website from where you can donate some cash to help this hugely worthwhile cause. Vietnam has a very low cost of living compared to the west, so even a small donation from you could make a huge difference over here.

Begging over 🙂

At the time of typing, my ATM card has yet to appear. Speaking to Skye, she reckons that 3 weeks is realistic for airmail to make it here. This would mean my card arriving next week sometime. I’m part-tempted to leave cancelling the “lost” one for a couple more days. If it turns up before the end of the week, Mike or Max could concievably forward it to the British Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City for me to collect. However, this delay may mean that the replacement card won’t make it to Christchurch before me…

 As it stands, though, I’m going to get stung by Lloyds TSB for at least one cash withdrawal in each of Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. At least in Oz and NZ (possibly Singapore), I should be able to use my credit card for a lot of purchases. It’s Nationwide as well, so no penalty fee for using it abroad. Annoyingly, the hostel I’m currently at don’t take plastic at all (not that many places in Vietnam do, to be honest) so I’m going to have to make three withdrawals to cover my outstanding accomodation bill.

To put this in perspective, that’s £6 in fees as I can only withdraw 2 million dong a shot from an ATM and my current bill is just shy of 5 million dong. £6 is roughly $US11 at the current exchange rate – that’s two nights’ accomodation right there.

I got a nice reply back from the Gecko Lodge in Darwin, where I’ll be staying in about 12 days. I’m arriving at around 3am and normal procedure is “no arrivals until 8am” without prior arrangement unless booking for the previous night (i.e. the one you’re arriving halfway through) as well. I explained my predicament regarding cash and the email back simply read “Iain – crash in the lounge until reception opens”. Superb – my other option was to sleep in the airport and get a later bus down.

Looking at the tours they provide, I’ll have to make another visit anyway. Virtually every one is 3 days or more and involves camping out in various locations in the Northern Territories. Money allowing (come on, house sale, hurry up and complete), I may head up there after Melbourne and go on one of the longer tours. To be honest, there’s not a lot on offer for someone who’s there for 3 nights, although I’ll be happy just to take in the beach and the nearby Charles Darwin National Park. Treat this as a “scouting trip” to see what the place is like.

 Sydney is going to be very much a flying visit. Option 1 was to hoik all my kit into the CBD from the airport at 9am and find a place to stay. The cheapest places are in the Kings Cross area that I’ve been warned about, and some don’t offer (or at least advertise) secure lockers. Add to that, most places don’t allow checkin and storage until midday and I’d be wasting quite a bit of time. My flight out is at 7:50 the next morning, so I’d have to be leaving the hostel at 5am or thereabouts to get to the airport to check in.

Enter option 2: Deposit my major baggage in a locker at Terminal 2. This is likely to cost no more than $AUS15 – the same as the cheapest hostel but a heck of a lot more secure. Bagless (or with a small daypack) I can then make the much easier journey into the CBD and spend my time getting round as much of Sydney as I can before late evening. I’ll then head back to the airport using the still fully-functional (i.e. not night service) public transport, collect my luggage and sleep on a bench. I’m sure it’ll be at least as comfortable as Paddington Station was about 10 years ago!

I have also just booked my visit to the Kakapo Encounter, though this is partly provisional. It involves one long bus ride, two ferries, a hotel and a flight. The flight is the only one I’m certain I have booked. I really hope the rest come back as “OK” or I’m screwed…

I won’t have any interwebnet access until Sunday night without taking a motorbike from Hoa’s Place into Da Nang, so I’m going to leave updates until I get into Ho Chi Minh City. Hopefully, I’ll have plenty of photos of the beautiful beaches and countryside around Marble Mountain.