Humble Pie

Artistic response to Trans-pacific flight

Well in short there is a lot of humble pie out here and I inadvertently ordered up a pretty big slice that has made me feel somewhat ill. But more on that in a minute.

It has been 8 years since I flew across the Pacific which is evidently long enough to push the horror of 14 hrs in a tube completely out of my mind. Sadly it all came rushing back in about 30 minutes. If you have flown across the Pacific before, or the Atlantic for that matter, I won't belabor the experience. If you haven't I am loath to color your future experience with my opinion so sufficed to say it was a long trip.

Life in the tube

Anyway all laborious/tedious stories aside we had a good flight. Saw some of Siberia and China from the plane and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) around 10 pm a day later than when we departed Phoenix. It was at this moment that the servers came out with the humble pie.

Siberia from 30,000 ft

I sauntered up to immigration in Vietnam only to be greeted with an incredulous airport functionary asking where my visa paperwork was. Blithely I responded I was prepared to purchase a visa on the spot which increased the functionary's bewilderment. "Sir, you can't enter Vietnam without a visa," he informed me. "That's alright," I replied, "I'll just get one here. Where is the paperwork?" Enter Humble Pie stage right. "Sir, visa paperwork is to be completed before arrival," replied the immigration guard, "you will have to return to your port of origin and process it there. It should only take two days or so." Move heart to soles of sandals.

Arriving Ho Chi Minh City

As Mike and I were disinclined to get back on an airplane without handcuffs and a swat team we asked if here was another way. Like most things, even in Vietnam, time, distance, rules and what-not can be mitigated by cold hard cash so we were informed we could pay extra, stay in a state sponsored four star hotel for the evening and get our visas the next day. After a brief discussion, we looked into each other's hollow eyes and saw that there was no way in hell we were getting back on an airplane back to the states, we decided to pay the money, (ashes, it tastes like ashes) made the arrangements and got a free ride to a nice hotel, had some Tiger beer and drifted off to sleep.

In place at the State sponsored First Hotel


Tomorrow - cheaper accomodations, passport photos to enter Cambodia (no flies on us now), and some Saigon flavor.

abstract

Well friends here we are again . . .

On the road again. It has been a rewarding year so far and we can only hope it continues in the same vein. I spent the winter in Arkansas refreshing my love of the job and the people and moved back to Arizona for the summer season. 2010 fire season was pretty mild and the crew worked about the average amount. But now it is time for some time off.

Currently I am flying over the western States on my way to Saigon via San Francisco and Hong Kong for the month of December. Onboard with me is Mike of Baja Mexico fame. We were going to be joined by Bob, another travel faithful, but alas life imposed itself ungraciously on Bob’s health and he was held up from joining us. Bob I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing you on my return as well as planning next year’s trip.

Our tentative plan is to head west from Saigon through Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.