Thursday, December 01, 2005
A Not-So-Unwelcome Diversion
I find myself in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand.My original target was India, so how did I end up here?
I am a spoiled American in some ways. In recent years, I've been to Mexico, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, United Arab Emirates, and Thailand.
What else do all those places have in common? Among many other things, they all allow Americans to visit without obtaining a visa in advance. All you need is that handy US passport.
India, however, does require a visa for Americans.
I didn't personally make the arrangements for this trip, and I never stopped to think about the visa question. My assistant, Amy, didn't know it was an issue. I did know (or had known) that a passport alone is not sufficient in many cases, but as I said, it didn't cross my mind to check this time around.
The travel agent made no mention of it.
The airline made no mention of it.
The airline let me on the flight without it, which they're sorta not supposed to do.
But ultimately of course this was my responsibility, and my oversight. I suppose it's a mistake many people might make, and have made. But it won't happen to me again, that's for sure, and I can't imagine many people make such an error more than once.
I flew from LAX to Frankfurt, then to Delhi, then to Bombay.
I'm thinking maybe they were supposed to check for a visa at Delhi too... but they didn't.
So I got all the way to Bombay. After 24 hours of traveling, I was happy thinking I was done with flights and airports for a while. (I did console myself that in years not-so-long past, such a trip might have taken years, and would have been a once-in-a-lifetime journey... for those who survived it at all.)
Then, of course, I was then refused entry by Indian immigration. As an added bonus, I started coming down with a cold on the way to Frankfurt, and by the time I got to Bombay, I was not only totally worn out from 24+ hours of traveling, but also pretty ill... feverish, a bit weak. This was the beginning of the killer viral cough that had been going around the office back in L.A. I guess I was the last to get it, and managed to pick it up right before I left for my world travels.
The immigrations guy said "We have to send you back to your country." I thought I detected a subtle hint of satisfaction at having the opportunity to say no to an American. That was a bit of a drag, but I can understand people in other parts of the world resenting us for any of a number of reasons, and feeling that Americans in general can stand to be reminded of the limits of our prerogatives, power, sovereignty, etc.
I certainly was in no mood or condition to go all the way back to the USA, but I was pretty sure there would be other options.
Although India does not have any visa-on-arrival services, as many countries do, I was able to confirm pretty quickly that I had the option to go to another country and work on getting an Indian visa from there.
Naturally, I was not the first American ever to make this error. The Air India guys said it does happen with some regularity, and the most popular detours for persons in my situation are Dubai and Thailand. I could have guessed that myself, because I knew that both countries were close neighbors to India, and neither requires a visa of Americans. I visited both countries earlier this year, and flew over India when traveling from Dubai to Bangkok.
It was now late morning on Friday in India. If I'd flown to Dubai, the flight would be relatively short, and the time change would've given me an extra hour, so according to the Air India fellows, there was some chance I could've still gotten a visa that day. But if everything didn't go smoothly, there was still a good chance it wouldn't work out on Friday, and I would be stuck in Dubai for the weekend. I don't really know anyone there, there isn't much to do there that interests me if I'm traveling alone, and it can be expensive, like $300 and up per night for a decent hotel room on short notice.
I decided instead to go and visit my friend Dave, who lives in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, and to recover from my cold and my travel fatigue in a familiar environment.
The Air India staffers in Bombay were nicer and more sympathetic than the Immigration guys, which was nice. However, I did have to wait in the airport for several hours... and I didn't realize, when paying my $450 for a round trip to Bangkok, that it wasn't a direct flight. It went back through Delhi, making what could've been a 2 1/2 hour trip into something more like 7 hours. I was tired, sick, exhausted, unhappy, and not doing my best thinking, and I didn't think to ask whether the flight was a direct one. I just assumed that flights between the largest city in India and the largest city in neighboring Thailand would be direct. But I guess Delhi is the hub for Air India.
I was able to take a shower at the Bombay airport in a VIP lounge there. (You make yourself a VIP by paying $12.) I even slept for about 45 minutes, after the friendly staff there promised to wake me up in time for my next flight, which they did.
The flight from Delhi to Bangkok was delayed, which added to the already-long trip, and there was also a time change that made it even later in Bangkok. I arrived there around 2am, super tired, and sicker than ever... fever, headache, generally weak, and starting to cough. There were no more flights to Chiang Mai; The next flight I could get was 9:45am.
I could have left the airport and checked in somewhere, but I really didn't have the will to deal with carting my luggage around, haggling with a cab driver, locating a suitable hotel, not knowing my way around, getting ripped off, etc etc. I decided to just hang around in the airport until the morning.
I had been able to call Amy with an update from Bombay. But I hadn't talked to anyone else from home, and I imagined by now some of would be wondering why they hadn't heard from me. I tried to get internet access in Frankfurt with no success. Tried and failed in Delhi. Tried and failed in Bombay. The first access I could get was in the Bangkok airport. It was flaky, and relatively expensive, but I was grateful for it. After sending out some email updates, I used it mainly to chat with whatever friends I could find online for moral support and distraction from my sick & tired state.
Dave had assured me that I could now get super-inexpensive, high-speed internet access in our hotel, something that wasn't available on my last visit. I do have it now, after a bit of bureaucratic delay, and despite a bit of instability I consider it to be a true luxury. Using my Skype.com service, I can even make international phone calls almost for free. That plus email and instant messaging allows me to keep in pretty good touch with the office and developments back home.
I slept on Saturday afternoon, and then in the evening Dave took me to see "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" -- in English with Thai subtitles. Seeing a movie was the most activity I was prepared to commit to, but even that proved to be a bit much... I slept through parts of the film. It was hard for me to care very much whether Harry Potter won the broom races or got the Wizard Cup or whatever the fuss was all about.
All my life I've heard people say "Everything happens for a reason." I used to think that was superstitious BS, until I arrived at a better understanding of what the reason(s) might be: to give me the opportunity to handle the situation as gracefully as possible, to learn, to put things in perspective, to provide unexpected opportunities, to remind me of my own limitations, to keep things interesting, to put me in a place where I can help someone sometimes...
I have now been in Thailand for about two weeks. The process for getting an Indian visa from the consulate here was a bit bureaucratic and slow, but I got it earlier this week. I could have left here right away upon getting the visa, but after getting settled in here, I have felt no rush about leaving.
Chiang Mai is lovely... the people, the weather, the mountains, seeing my friend Dave, our relatively luxurious hotel (Hillside 4, $20/day), the view from my 8th floor balcony, and just enjoying the culture, the food and the energy of the place. I rented a scooter for transportation ($3.75/day); Driving on the left is an exercise in mindfulness. Our hotel has a nice pool, and I've been swimming laps every day since I got over my cold (which took a week, as it usually does). I have met several of Dave's circle of friends and acquaintances, and made a few friends of my own. We made a motorscooter excursion through the countryside to Chiang Dao, where we did some mountain hiking, explored some of the caves there, and visited a particularly beautiful and peaceful Buddhist monastery. I came back from that trip feeling serene and energized.
So the trip was hard, but it worked out fine. I am lingering here because I'm happy here. But there is still time in my itinarary to spend more than a week in India.
