Leaving Vietnam
You might remember me writing that we were leaving Hanoi on the 28th January to get ourselves down to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Well, we found out we weren't really.
We found out that we were leaving on the 27th - but realised it only on the 27th. Just gotten back from a stroll and late lunch and had a good ole time, when I checked the ticket and we had 30 minutes to get our butts to the airport. Wow! Man, we were jumping all over the place, packing up, getting a cab, checking in and God knows what.
Flew Air Asia where you have a baggage allowance of 15kg each. In our hurry, we had no time to do anything to our luggage so when we got there, we were 8kg over. They wouldn't let us on!!! The lady suggested that either we pay or we stuff everything into our hand luggage in which case it would be free. Are you kidding? What's the difference whether I carry it in my hand or in a backpack, it's still the same weight and the plane will have to carry it!
Anyway, even my best Vietnamese persuasion skills fell on deaf ears, so we began pulling things out at the counter and trying to stuff it all into our day sacks. Right. Most of the things ended up being tied to the outside of the bags as they wouldn't fit in, so we looked a right state.
Managed to get through immigration, after the guys there had to give Phil's a very thorough examination. Why? Never found out. Then on to the hand luggage scanner. So, my bag goes through - no probs. Phil's bag goes through - wait a minute. So they scan it again. Then again. Then they unpack it. Scan it again. Unpack some more - found lots of things like my underwear, sleeping mat, tops and locks - scan it again. Still no good. Finally they found the offending article.
Oh yeah! It was our Leatherman - for those of you who are not familiar with a Leatherman - it's only a multitool with a big sharp 3 inch knife on it amongst other things. Needless to say, we weren't allowed to take it on the flight. I really didn't want to dump it. So they said we can go all the way back to the check in counter and get it put in the belly of the plane with the rest of the luggage. So Phil went back and got a guy to stick it in with his stuff - so lucky! Finally he got back and then we went to duty free to get rid of our Dong (Viet currency). Bought a giant bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and big bag of Peanut M&M's. We did make the flight - just about.
Got to KL centre at about 2 am and then went on a massive round trip trying to find somewhere to stay. Ended up in this abysmal hole - no way was I using the toilet! Going somewher else tomorrow for sure. Can't believe we made it.
We found out that we were leaving on the 27th - but realised it only on the 27th. Just gotten back from a stroll and late lunch and had a good ole time, when I checked the ticket and we had 30 minutes to get our butts to the airport. Wow! Man, we were jumping all over the place, packing up, getting a cab, checking in and God knows what.
Flew Air Asia where you have a baggage allowance of 15kg each. In our hurry, we had no time to do anything to our luggage so when we got there, we were 8kg over. They wouldn't let us on!!! The lady suggested that either we pay or we stuff everything into our hand luggage in which case it would be free. Are you kidding? What's the difference whether I carry it in my hand or in a backpack, it's still the same weight and the plane will have to carry it!
Anyway, even my best Vietnamese persuasion skills fell on deaf ears, so we began pulling things out at the counter and trying to stuff it all into our day sacks. Right. Most of the things ended up being tied to the outside of the bags as they wouldn't fit in, so we looked a right state.
Managed to get through immigration, after the guys there had to give Phil's a very thorough examination. Why? Never found out. Then on to the hand luggage scanner. So, my bag goes through - no probs. Phil's bag goes through - wait a minute. So they scan it again. Then again. Then they unpack it. Scan it again. Unpack some more - found lots of things like my underwear, sleeping mat, tops and locks - scan it again. Still no good. Finally they found the offending article.
Oh yeah! It was our Leatherman - for those of you who are not familiar with a Leatherman - it's only a multitool with a big sharp 3 inch knife on it amongst other things. Needless to say, we weren't allowed to take it on the flight. I really didn't want to dump it. So they said we can go all the way back to the check in counter and get it put in the belly of the plane with the rest of the luggage. So Phil went back and got a guy to stick it in with his stuff - so lucky! Finally he got back and then we went to duty free to get rid of our Dong (Viet currency). Bought a giant bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and big bag of Peanut M&M's. We did make the flight - just about.
Got to KL centre at about 2 am and then went on a massive round trip trying to find somewhere to stay. Ended up in this abysmal hole - no way was I using the toilet! Going somewher else tomorrow for sure. Can't believe we made it.
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 12:20 AM
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