Partway there

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Current Jet Airways livery-the "flying su...

Jet Airways - recommended

Greetings from Mumbai Airport – I’m not even going to try to spell it’s “proper” name. Free wifi aplenty, thankfully. I’ve got an hour before my connecting flight to Bangkok and have to say the first leg on Jet Airways was pretty enjoyable. As per reviews, their in-flight entertainment is a little dated but I still found plenty to watch.

By “dated”, it’s the content that’s slightly past it but the technology and facilities are top-notch and probably the best I’ve used on a plane. There were maybe 2 new films, and the rest were “classics” which were by no means a poor selection. It’s just that I’m such a film nut I’d seen most of them before. Plus, I wasn’t up for watching Goodfellas or Raging Bull in an “edited for in-flight” version with all the bad language dubbed!

As far as I can tell right now, my Bangkok flight is on time so I’ll be landing in Bangkok around 7am. I’ve “booked” a bus via Bell as, for some reason, you can’t just walk up to the counter at Bangkok Airport. You pay when you get there, but have to reserve a place in advance. This seems to be a recent things so could be to do with the current troubles. They charge 200 Baht to get to Pattaya, including a minibus drop-off at your hotel.

However, there’s also the government bus from the next stand which is 140 Baht or thereabouts and they do a drop-off about 250m away from where I’m staying, so I might just catch that one instead depending on when I arrive.

OK, email catchup. Next updates likely from wither Bangkok if I have the time or Pattaya when I get there.

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Upcoming schedule – Bangkok then Hanoi

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Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Good news is that I’ve been granted a leave of absence from university so that I can head off abroad a couple of weeks earlier than otherwise. The bad news is that in waiting for this to come through, all my flight prices went up. Sometimes it’s better to just do stuff and worry later, but ah well!

The fact is I can now step onto a plane from Heathrow on Tuesday 25th of May and (weather, strikes, ash clouds and the like allowing) expect to be in Bangkok very early on Wednesday 26th.

I had originally planned to then transfer onto a flight to Hanoi, but for a couple of reasons this won’t be happening. First up, I was worried that the 4 hours I’d allowed myself to transfer flights might not be enough if there was a delay. I’d then find myself at the airport with a ticket and no plane.

Secondly, eDreams turned out to be dodgy as all hell and I didn’t trust them to get me the ticket anyway (see an earlier post on here).

Instead I’ve just booked an AirAsia flight at the crack of dawn on the Saturday.

So I’m now heading into Bangkok for a couple of nights. I’ll look into staying somewhere different from last time, but still on the shuttle bus route. I have just enough Baht to get me into the city without having to use the fee-charging ATMs at the airport.

I’ll be in Hanoi for almost 2 months, but my return flight is from Bangkok on July 27th.

This is going to be a bit of a busman’s holiday for me. I may take a trip at some point, but on the whole my aim’s to stay put in Hanoi and spread myself between working for the Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel and Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. The former should help fund my stay and the latter work towards my Continued Professional Development as a teacher. As well as being awesome fun!

So if anyone reading this is heading through Hanoi in June/July, please do come and say “hi”. It’s a great city and I’ll be happy to show you around!

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Avoid eDreams for bookings

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eDreams

Don’t. Just don’t use this company.

Just a warning to anyone out there. I’m trying to book a flight from Bangkok to Hanoi at the end of the month. Vietnam Airlines have one leaving at midday which is great as I’m due in around 7:00am from London, via Mumbai.

However, it’s around £130 booked direct. I checked using the excellent SkyScanner site and they found me it for nearer £70 through eDreams. I went through the shonky booking system – which changes the pricing twice. The claims partway through of “all fees” being included is a lie as they first of all add some unnamed fee, then chuck a tenner on at the end. Oh, and a surcharge for using a credit card. My £67 fair ended up being a shade over £80.

And that’s not the worst of it. When I booked it, I got a large page which told me there’d been a problem authorising my credit card. I was to expect an email with instructions. In the meantime my flight was “confirmed” – this despite them not having any payment.

Strange thing – I checked my credit card statement online and that sum seems to be sat as a “Pending Transaction”. This means the sum has been earmarked and is classed as “out of my account”. Which means there’s no issue at all.

Despite this, a day later I got an email from them telling me to fax a copy of my passport, credit card front and other details to an international number. Along with this were warnings about flight price increases, promo fares not allowing refunds and so on.

A quick Google found a stream of bad reviews of eDreams. And I mean bad. People in the same situation who’d had their cards charged and received no tickets. Another chap who faxed the details twice until they eventually said that had them… but that the flight was more expensive now and that he would have to pony up the difference or lose the tickets. And the money he’d already paid.

As such, I emailed them on both addresses they included in the initial mail explicitly stating that I was cancelling the order and would not expect any payment to be taken by them. See below:

Regarding your follow-up email, I have no means of faxing to an international number. Also, given my current geographical location I can’t telephone any of the numbers you provided to contact you.

I do notice that the fee has been taken from my credit card which tells me that your email is a lie – there have been no problems with the payment. Having checked online I have found many people with the same issue, and a huge number have not received tickets from you or have been told they must pay an additional fee once they contact you.

As such, take this email to be an official cancellation and expectation of full refund. I have contacted my credit card company and informed them of the dubious nature of this transaction and expectation of the end of this matter.

Half an hour later, I received the following short response:

Dear Customer;

The booking has been cancelled.
If you have more doubts, please contact us the most soon as possible.-

Thank you for trusting in eDreams

I will of course be checking very carefully to see if my card is billed. If so, the lawyers at that company can take it up, or use resources as Kelly White Donofrio LLP to help as well. Their cancellation email is, in my opinion, an acceptance of my terms, to whit a full refund.

I am now booked on an AirAsia flight 2 days later which means 2 days in Bangkok. Not a bad thing, to be fair. I’m sure I can find something new to do. I might even be able to catch a film if the shopping centres are allowed to re-open!

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Where did all the rock clubs go?

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Suicide by Cop, Bradford Zuu

Suicide by Cop, Bradford Zuu

And onto Saturday. The early start did mean one thing – I could catch Linda in Lister Park at 8am as she helped prepare for the first Bradford ParkRun (see www.parkrun.com for more information).

Our brief catchup – I’ve not seen her or her hubby in over 4 years – ended up with me marshalling the run! They were a great group and if I wasn’t such a lazy sod, I’d have joined in. In fairness, I also didn’t have a decent pair of shoes on. I’d have crippled myself. OK, and I’m very unfit.

After some time chatting, I headed into town and met Tracey. Like myself she’s got a CineWorld card and we went to see Shelter as it was the next film starting that we’d not seen.

Despite the weather being nice, yes, I sat in a dark room for 2 hours. I also got a nudge from Tracey about fifteen minutes in as I’d started snoring. The film was OK, I was a little tired!

While walking around town I did notice that the place has changed a lot in recent years. Roads are different, shops have closed and opened. Still, it’s fairly familiar and I can find my way around OK.

I grabbed another chip butty for dinner on the way up to Chunky’s, picked him up and drove him to Kaz’s from where we got a taxi to the Fighting Cock. There we indulged in a bottle of their house fruit wine to start the evening.

This will not end well either... Fighting Cock...

This will not end well either…

Then down to the Black Swan (aka Mucky Duck) for a couple of pints and to help the DJ download some new music. After that, up to the New Empress for more Brown Ale.

Kaz sings in a band who were playing that night in the Zuu bar upstairs, so we wandered up just after they’d started. I also know Alec and Ste who play guitar and drums respectively.

Ian was also there – always a pleasure to see him – and as luck would have it, one of my old work colleagues from the Exchange was there. I’ve not seen her in years and she now lives in Madrid.

Around this point, memory gets hazy… We wandered round to the New Rios which was pretty near empty. I did catch up with Fraggle, another mate from the old days, before we gave up after one drink and walked back round to Zuu.

I have some vague memory of being fed more beer and a couple of shots before Kaz and I got a taxi back to her’s.

After all the booze and so little sleep the night before, rest assured I slumbered well and deep that night!

What’s more amazing is that I took £50 out with me. And still had it in the morning. Some people are just too generous and I owe a lot of drinks. Wish I could remember who to…

That was pretty much it for my trip away. I had a great lie in the next morning and bacon butties for brunch before I clambered into the car and headed back to Glasgow. With good weather and with it being the end of the weekend, there were loads of caravans. Fortunately, the damn things were all going the opposite direction to me so I actually enjoyed my drive home.

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Back in Bradders

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I just made it to King’s Cross in time for my train courtesy of the Tube stopping for fifteen minutes. Still, I did catch it so I can’t complain. The rest of the day was good fun, but fairly little to report.

Chunky picked me up and we went to see Kaz who’d kindly agreed to put me up the next night. Only fair she got to see what she was contending with! We talked for that long that I had to change other arrangements, and instead enjoyed a proper chip butty (I couldn’t find one in London – only those bloody oven chips) for brunch.

Vee was my hostess for the evening and I paid my rent in the form of a stir fry. Bargain! Asda do some good stuff for a very low price, just so you know.

As she had an overtime shift the next morning, we just ate and watched Son of Rambow before crashing. Upside – an early night for me. Downside – a 6:30 wakeup on a Saturday. Argh.

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