Looking back at it, it felt like I was in an episode of Amazing Race. The day that I was to leave Vietnam started off pretty well, nothing out of the ordinary. I observed my usual protocol of arriving at the airport three hours before my flight departs. I remember how sad I was on the way to the airport and all I did was stare outside of the taxi’s window and reminisced the incredible month I spent traveling through Thailand and Vietnam. That was the longest period I’d spent traveling and I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the post travel blues. My taxi driver was trying to make small talk but I was pretty absent minded
When the check-in counter opened, I was among the first people in line. I just wanted to get this done and over with and get back home. I handed over my passport to the lady at the check-in counter and she double checked my destination then continued to type away at the computer. She looked up at me and said that I would be having two stops on my flight. The first stop (which would be in Bangkok, Thailand) would require me to collect my checked luggage, then I would proceed to check in again at the airport in Bangkok since I would be transferring to a different airline. Well, this sounded unusual, nothing I have ever dealt with before as far as lay-overs are concerned but I didn’t think too much of it. It sure sounded strange but I knew as long as I was aware of what needed to be done, I’d be fine. After all, I had flown solo a considerable number of times without any hiccups, so what could possibly challenge me, I thought. But boy was I wrong!
After a few more minutes of typing on her computer, she looked up at me and told me that since I will be transiting through Bangkok, I would need to get a transit visa. A TRANSIT VISA?! I paused for a moment then told her that my layover says I will be in Bangkok for only 4 hours, and as per my knowledge, layovers less than 12 hours don’t qualify for a transit visa. Surely how could she not know this? Alaa!
She turned her computer screen to me and pointed at some notes written on my flight tab that said I would need to get a transit visa (This information is not shown to you when you book a flight, it is your responsibility to check the visa laws and regulations of where you are going). I got a little puzzled then decided to take out my phone and google “How long of a layover in Bangkok requires me to get a transit visa?”. The google results came out bold and clear, that I would need to have a 12-hour plus layover for me to apply for a transit visa. I showed her my google results, and tried to be polite about it. In my head I was thinking how ridiculous that I would know this and she wouldn’t.
After checking my phone, she summoned her supervisor and said something in Vietnamese. Uh-oh, If the supervisor was now getting involved, this wasn’t looking good. I’m not the type to cause a scene nor draw attention but it was starting to look like I was, and the people queuing behind me didn’t look too happy. After she was done with her supervisor, she turned to me and echoed the same words “You need a transit visa”. At this point I was getting frustrated, so I decided to reason with her and asked her how I could get the said transit visa (hoping she should would realize that this was all a big mistake). She gave me a website, and on doing a quick scan of the page, it was clearly stated that to apply for a transit visa, you need a 12-hour plus layover. One of the requirements to obtain a transit visa was to have proof of accommodation. Boom! I knew I was right, so I showed her my phone and after looking at it and seeming puzzled, she summoned her supervisor again and showed him the website. Ah darn it, him again! The sight of the supervisor was making me anxious.
Her English wasn’t so good and I could tell she was struggling a bit trying to explain to me what was happening. It felt like since she couldn’t get into a deep and detailed conversation with me, she just resulted to hit me with the “you need a transit visa” line. The fact that I didn’t speak any Vietnamese aside from “Xin Chao” didn’t help my case either. She chatted with her supervisor for a few more minutes and this time instead of hitting me with the “you need a transit visa” line, she hit me with the “call your embassy line” even worse! Now that is one line you never want to hear because in most cases that is the last resort; damn she just gave up on me that easily? Knowing how my country’s embassy operates, I knew I was all alone in this mess. Times like this I wish I was an American citizen, if you catch my drift. This was a losing battle, so I decided to retreat to my seat and try to process what just happened. At this point I was both worked up and panicking. It felt like things started spiraling out of control from nowhere, I was definitely not prepared for this. I had heard of people getting frustrated by airline staff and miss flights but I didn’t imagine this was finally the day it was happening to me.
After calming down, I pulled out my flight itinerary and stared at it for a good ten minutes trying to figure out what I was missing. After blowing my brain cells trying to figure it out, I hit a light bulb moment. By collecting my checked-in luggage at the airport in Bangkok and having to check-in again meant I had to pass through immigration. In normal lay-overs where you are just transiting through an airport, you don’t go through immigration, you rather go through security check. This meant my flight from Vietnam was ending in Thailand and they were not transferring me to another plane. Instead, I was starting a whole new flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Kenya! This is a detail I might have overlooked when booking my flight back home. I initially did a multi-city booking because I was flying from Kenya to Thailand then flying from Vietnam to Kenya at the end of my trip. I did this before with my Malaysia/ Singapore trip and there were no hiccups.
Back to the story. This implied that upon landing in Thailand, I had to go through Thailand immigration with my luggage, then proceed to check in at the airport and pass through immigration again to catch my next flight. To pass through immigration, you need a visa of some sort (I was cursing my weak passport at this point). Like I mentioned, I was in Thailand before coming to Vietnam but I only had a single-entry visa which meant the moment I left Thailand, my visa expired (a multiple entry visa would have solved this)
Now that I knew there was no way I was getting on that plane, it was time to come up with plan B fast! Every minute I spent here meant more money out of my pocket and it didn’t help that my visa in Vietnam was expiring in a day. I had to go over to the Vietnam immigration office at the airport and confirm with them that I still had another 24 hours before my stay becomes illegal in Vietnam. One thing I never want to do is violate any immigration laws because that can taint your reputation on your passport and considering my passport is already a weak, I could suffer for that in future.
At the time, I thought to myself that there are probably no direct flights from Vietnam to Kenya, and any flight I booked would drop me off at another country first and then I would have to catch a whole new flight from there. Now I don’t know if my theory holds any water but at that time I was traumatized and I was trying to make sense of everything. Plus, I was in a rush and had to act fast.
This is one of the disadvantages of booking flights via third party websites. Whilst they will provide you with cheaper flight options by putting you in multiple airlines to try and cut the cost, when things go haywire, you are on your own. Booking directly from an airline's website can be expensive but at least you can rely on help from the airline’s customer service.
Normally airlines will refuse to board you if you don’t meet the visa requirements of your destination, because in the event the immigration turns you back, they will be forced to fly you back to where you came from at their own expense and that will be their loss. This is basically what happened to me.
I decided to act fast and book a flight to a nearby country that I was sure I didn’t need a visa then proceed from there. Luckily, I had been to Malaysia before and I was sure I didn’t need a visa plus I had dealt with their immigration before. Singapore was also an option because it’s visa free for me but the last time I went there, they asked me to fill in some paperwork at the airport prior to going there and paperwork was the last thing I needed right now.
I had used AirAsia before and I knew they flew all over South East Asia. I quickly got on their website and booked the first flight I could get from Vietnam to Malaysia. The earliest flight I got was at 10:35am the next morning. I was hoping to get a flight on that day but at that point I was desperate for anything (for context, it was 6pm when I was checking the flights). I booked that flight and immediately after getting my confirmation, I started looking for flights from Malaysia to Kenya. I got a flight the next day at 9pm, this meant I had roughly six hours between those two flights, which wasn’t a lot considering I had to grab my luggage, go through immigration, check in then go through immigration again before boarding the next flight. I prayed that there were no delays in my flight from Vietnam to Malaysia because that could easily make me miss my flight to Kenya. In my experience with flying with AirAsia, there is not a single time they have ever departed on time. Anyone who has used them can attest to this so I just hoped for the best.
I booked a hotel near the airport to spend the night. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to fall asleep that night because I was so anxious to see how things would go over the next day. When I got to the airport the next morning, my AirAsia flight to Malaysia had been delayed by nearly 2 hours! How typical of them. Initially, I was to depart Da Nang at 11:20am and arrive in Malaysia at 1:10pm but with the new flight schedule, I was to depart Vietnam at 1:15pm and arrive in Malaysia at 5:08pm. Remember my flight from Malaysia to Kenya was to depart at 9pm. Any more delays or misharps could potentially result in me missing my flight. At this point I was just cursing that Airline but I had no option but to wait.
At 5:58pm, we landed in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia (there were some more delays before we departed from Vietnam). Now this airport is very huge and busy so navigating is a bit hectic. Immediately the plane landed, I was among those people you see scrambling for their luggage and heading out to the door. I didn’t want to find myself stuck at the back of a long immigration queue. Luckily the queue at the immigration went fast and I was in and out fairly quickly. I grabbed my bag from the carousel and now I could breathe a sigh of relief. Little did I know my struggle was not over yet.
Now it was time to find the departure terminal, so I slowly pushed my luggage as I admired the massive Kuala Lumpur airport. It was under renovation and it looked pretty good, deep down I was wishing that this was JKIA. As I was strolling around with my mountain of suitcases on the luggage cart, some guy out of nowhere offered to help me push my cart. Turns out he was from Nigeria. In my experience with traveling in an area where black people are a minority, most of the time when I encounter a fellow black person, we instantly become ‘buddies’. It’s like a human instinct that since we look alike in a place where everyone else looks different, we have to stick together to “protect” ourselves. I thought this was one of those situations so I played it cool. I wouldn't let him touch my luggage though, because I have heard horror stories of people transporting drugs in their luggage without their knowledge. That was not about to be me, not today, not ever.
I wasn’t really in the mood to chit chat, especially after the rough few hours I just had. However, I didn’t want to be openly mean so I just went along, not engaging much in the conversation. Turns out the guy was living in Malaysia and he was here to pick up his friend who was arriving in an hour or so. He was kind enough to offer to take me the departure terminal since he had time to kill.
We get to the departure terminal and he goes to check for my flight on the screen. After a few minutes he comes back and asks to double check my flight information, and lo and behold...I am at the wrong airport! Oh, you have got to be kidding me!!
The time was 6:45pm so I didn’t have much time left. Luckily, he informed me that the airport I was to go to was only a 15-minute drive away. Now I had no idea about any of this, and if it wasn’t for this guy I would have spent a considerable amount of time panicking, googling and asking around before I figured which airport I was to go to. I just couldn’t believe this was happening, a classic case of amazing race where I was racing against time to figure out how I was to move from one destination to another. Now 15 minutes sounds like a short time but if you know Kuala Lumpur, the traffic tends to be so bad during peak hours. I remember on my first time in Kuala Lumpur, I was stuck in traffic for an hour or so trying to get into the city.
So now I had to figure out where the exit to this massive airport was and where to get a taxi. Luckily, I had this guy next to me who so happens to know where exactly to go. How could I be so lucky and unlucky at the same time? You know that time when you are in a state of panic and your brain just freezes and you don’t know what to do... that was me at that point. I was operating on autopilot mode and looking back at it now, I am so grateful I met that guy.
It took us about 30 minutes to get to the taxi stand and order a taxi. You know how stressful it can be trying to get a taxi at a busy airport, especially during peak hours. So my taxi gets here and luckily there was no traffic, so in 15 minutes I arrive at the correct airport. I was so lucky that I didn’t find a long queue at the check-in counter. The last time I was here, I had to queue for an hour, that’s how bad it can get. And considering it was 7:30pm, I didn’t have an hour to spare because boarding was to start in 45 minutes!
So I get to the check-in counter and the person at the counter hits me with the “your flight doesn’t include luggage allowance” so I have to pay for that separately. Because I booked my flight in a hurry, I didn't have time to double-check all the details. So sure, I pull out my debit card to swipe at the POS machine but of course my debit card refuses to make a transaction at the one time I am really desperate, yaay! Now I had to rush and look for an ATM in this massive airport to withdraw cash. How ridiculous, at this point I was convinced I am in a game where with every progress I make, a new level of challenges unlocks. I finally get that sorted out and thankfully immigration didn’t ask me why I just landed and left the country in a short span of time (I was a bit paranoid that they might get suspicious for whatever reason). By 8:08pm I got to my gate and was just in time to board the plane. At this point I just wanted to get home. The thought of getting stranded in a foreign country was beyond terrifying.
This is an experience I will live to remember and it probably makes for a good story but living in that moment was a bit scary. One of the many things I drew from this experience was to always take travel insurance. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to take one, but that would have saved me a great deal when it came to the flights. Better safe than sorry next time!
