Things I learn while traveling…sometimes the hard way.

Well hello Kota – we meet again.  I kinda want to take back all the nice things I said about you only weeks ago…but alas, I know it’s not your fault.  It’s mine. Completely mine.  It’s your world over here – I’m just trying to get by.  Your game. Your rules. And I’ll play by them.

Leaving here empty-handed last time did not make anyone happy. So I’m back.  And I’m not leaving until I have what I came for. This time I'm taking no chances that I will get my visa in 2 days (or at all) so I came by land. Wasn’t close. Wasn’t fun. But was what had to be done in order to be flexible, and/or move to the country until I have that stupid stamp.

Day 1:

5 am wake up. 5 hour drive with a semi-stranger (the tour desk owner whom I met that morning). Dropped at bus station. 4 hour ride with 14 more strangers (one of which was very large and took up far more than his fair share of the back bench seat next to me). Dropped at the border. Walked across (with literally only 2 other people). Once on the other side, spent far too long convincing the taxi cab drivers that I wasn’t making up a hotel name in Kota just because they’d never heard of it, nor knew where it was located.  45 minute taxi ride to the only skyscraper in Kota Bahru, and my hotel.

Day 1, Evening at hotel:

• You don’t have working WiFi.  Okay.
• Oh your pool is closed for renovations?  Hmm that’s the ONE reason I booked this place because I’d already seen all 4 of your city’s sights last time I was here. But, okay.
• There’s no toilet paper in my room. Okay. Thank god for Five & Below face wipes.
• Oh my toilet is broken. Okay. I’m using it. That’s now your problem.
• 150 extra Ringetts?  You want a deposit for the same amount as I’m paying per night so I don’t break anything.  Okay.

Day 2:

Arrive at “One Miracle Café” at opening time to see if their internet works. The name did not lie.  Sit. Refresh email. Over and Over and Over. Waiting for my HR director, who is in Thailand, to drive from the island to the mainland (2.5 hours with the first ferry leaving at 6 am) in order to get a paper from the labor department proving I’m out of the country.  This paper, he then needs to get to me, in order for me to hand in with my visa application.  Before noon.  And Malaysia is one hour ahead. Makes complete sense. Right.  Someone is proven to be out of the country, yet needs this document in order to return. TITS (This is Thailand, Shit).

So at about 10:45 I receive a text with a scan of the document and word that the same scan was emailed to the Consulate. And I’m off.  Arrive at the Consulate at 11:08.  Relief quickly turns to panic. Last week, “send by email, it’s okay”.  This week, “your document, not mine – you print, not me”. Literally telling me this as her hands rest on the Epson scanner/printer through the service window. WHAT?! Omg.  So you’re telling me I need to find a printer in under an hour. In Kota Bahru. Challenge accepted. Not happily, mind you. But I will be back. Maybe not today, but I’m not leaving this country without what I came for.  So with fury in my veins and determination in my step I sarcastically thanked them grabbed my things--I’m carrying my laptop, a USB drive, and 2 phones – I’ve got this. One way or another.

Walk 10 minutes down the road to a large hotel. Ask them to use one of the two computers sitting in the lobby that are clearly for guest use.  “Cannot. Not work.” Okay. 

Ask them for to print something for me. “Sure, it has to be on a USB drive.” Okay. Do you have WiFi? Lucky for me I have this giant laptop that has Gmail and a USB port. “Yes. Have WiFi.” Okay great! 

Not able to connect. Not able to load webpage. Keep showing them these prompts asking if I can use their computer to log on to my email. “No.” Precious time is wasted.  Please call me a taxi.  “Yes, go sit.” Uhhh you didn’t call anyone, why would I just go sit down in your lobby and hope that a taxi miraculously shows up when I’m clearly the only person in this hotel?! 

Out to the street, taxi hailed. “Internet Café please.” “Ok”.  We end up in a parking lot full of taxi cabs.  He motions for me to get out. “No”. A group of taxi drivers come over. They tell me the internet café is just “that way” motioning down away from the parking lot in no particular real direction.  So I say “okay, so he takes me there.” Fighting between the drivers ensues, more directions are given in Malay.  Great, obviously no one knows where there’s a public room that has computers in it.

20 minutes to go. We drive. We pull over. He gets out. This happens about 4 times. I sit. Steaming (literally and figuratively) while convincing myself that not making it by noon is not the end of the world, there’s always tomorrow.

Finally, we are on a street that looks somewhat familiar from last time I went to the internet café (thinking they actually meant café with WiFi)—"STOP!"  I see it.  Hand him far too much money. Jump out – sprint up the stairs to this dark, dank, room filled with a million schoolkids playing Grand Theft Auto – find the one open computer and ask if they can print. “Yes.”

Out of the same black Epson scanner/printer that was in the Consulate comes my document. 11:53.

Sprint outside, grab a taxi and arrive at 12:00 on the dot.  The two ladies behind the desk have zero customers and just stare my way but don’t come to the window for 3 minutes; I just know they are going to say I’m late. Just know it. They clearly were under their breaths debating how scared they were of me (and I must have won) because she comes over and says “passport please”. Phew.

While I’ve yet to receive my Visa, I go back at 10:30 am tomorrow to pick up my passport which will hopefully have a brand new page filled, I’m optimistic.  This is one step further than my last visit.

Traveling today makes you realize just how reliant we are on technology, when we should be reliant first and foremost on ourselves and our ability to plan for and navigate the less connected world.  I had every device necessary and at my disposable. In the end, I didn’t use a single one.  Didn’t use a single one the whole 250 mile trip.

Things I’ve been reminded of this trip…

• Always be prepared, this includes:
• Phone numbers
• My “fake” hotel confirmation printout had no phone number listed on it—even more reason for the taxi drivers to think this place did not exist…and even more minutes wasted convincing them to just drive to Kota Bahru and ask a local.
• Money
• Don’t expect an ATM or money exchange anywhere.
• Know the exchange rates.
• I talked a local shop owner into selling me some Ringetts just so I could pay for my taxi. And by knowing the rates I made sure I didn’t lose money. Well, not too much.

• Don’t expect anyone to know where anything is.  Even if it’s their job to know. And in their hometown.  Just don’t.
• It never fails, when asking where something is, far too often the response is: “I don’t know.” ATM? “I don’t know.” Internet Café? “I don’t know.” Thai Consulate? “I don’t know.”  But you’re a taxi driver!  And I have a map!  “I don’t know.”  Get used to it. Don’t get frustrated. And figure it out yourself.
• Maps, town names, landmarks, etc. – know some!  I checked all the large landmarks next to this “fake” hotel when I booked it, so at least I could halfway explain where to start looking for this place, “By the University Hospital…”

• And do not plan to rely on technology for any of the above.  Or anything else for that matter. Yes they have Google, but A) it costs a ton of money for them to use it on their phones, and when they do get something pulled up it’s so slow that it just stalls out. B) there are no WiFi cafes to offer what you’re so used to having at one finger's touch; all the world's information. C) Just be prepared and depend on your own big brain.  This tech-dependency we all have is making us weak when it comes to survival skills.

• Be flexible and patient.
• It’ll leave.  Eventually. It’ll come. Eventually. It’ll work out. Eventually.
• Spend that time waiting to come with your plan B.  Or at least your, “I guess that wouldn’t be the end of the world if…” plan.

• Don’t be afraid to offer an alternate solution when in a stalemate.
• “Let’s just drive to Kota. I’ll ask when we get near the hospital!” 

But more than anything, just smile and roll with the punches.  No need to block or defend them. They’ll still come in one form or another. Just take them and figure out how to get back on your feet.

Again, Kota thank you.  While here, I’ve managed to solve 2 “unsolvable” problems, I’ve made 2 new friends, I’ve also made 1 new enemy, and yet again I have been reminded that it’s not the destination but the journey.