Thursday, 18Jan07
Highlights: hunt for Vietnam embassy, Western Union, Eli loan
Getting ready for my upcoming trip to Vietnam is turning into an adventure. The hotel that I thought I had reserved just e-mailed me. Their rooms are all booked. Try another.
I tried another, and my credit card didn’t work. Ah! What a nightmare.
I have a reservation in for my fourth hotel now. I should hear back in 24-48 hours. How are all the hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi going to be booked on a random Wednesday night? I don’t get it.
My next project was paying for my flight from Hue to Hanoi. For that,,, Western Union. The Vietnamese travel agent wants to be paid with U.S. dollars, so I cashed a check at the Embassy to get dollars. Mandiri bank (with a Western Union desk) doesn’t accept U.S. dollars. Rupiah only. Ok. I had juuuuuust enough cash in my pocket to cover the ticket.
A brief hiccup, the Western Union banker tried telling me Vietnam could only receive local currency. I asked her to look again. On the bottom of the page, in small print, there it was. “Oh yeah! They CAN transfer the money in dollars.” Thanks. Only a few moments of nervous tension there.
With that paid, I was off to find the Vietnam embassy, to make sure my Visa checks out, and there’s nothing else I need before my trip next week. Finding the Vietnam embassy was… well that was a treasure hunt that came up empty today. My ojek driver and I drove around for 2 hours, stopped at 2 police stations to ask directions… nobody knew.
Navigating Jakarta traffic is exhausting. I gave up with honor & made my way back to familiar ground (blok M) to pay for & pick up my ticket to the states next month. Figures! The travel agent had a phone book & looked up the Vietnam embassy address! (both police stations didn’t have this handy little tool). I was mentally done with that effort. Maybe next week. I have the Visa stamp. That should be good enough.
By 5pm Eli came over to pick up the money I said I’d loan her.
I kicked the idea around & gave it a lot of thought. Lydia, Lisa, even Nina was saying “don’t do it.” My gut was saying the same thing. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what was so secretive about why her mom needed the money, so I asked again.
With a shy look, Eli said her mom was having an Arisan. “That’s a party, right?” there’s an Indonesian movie by the same name, basically about a party that families throw sometimes.
I’m learning here, and trying to be helpful.
Nina explained: Arisan is something like housewife gambling. Someone throws a party and invites a group of friends. Let’s say 10 come. Everyone is expected to pay a fee ($5). During the party they pull a name out of a hat to see who gets the $50 jackpot. Then they determine who will throw the next party, with the stipulation that today’s winner can’t win next time.
I guess there are some ways of agreeing to a specific winner up front if someone needs money for something big. Ely mentioned her grandmother is ill, so her mom needs to throw an arisan to get money for medical care.
The extra money from the arisan (or a second one) is supposedly how Eli’s mom plans to pay me back. Uh huh. We’ll see.
The second thing that everyone is worried about is that Ely and her family could disappear (runaway) once they got the loan & can’t pay it back.
I trust Eli more than that,,, and hope that doesn’t happen. I would be sadder for the loss of not having her around. She’s been great so far.
She showed up with Vita (12) and Lufthie (5), and when it came down to it, I told her I’d loan the money. I added a stipulation. In the event her mom can’t come up with the money on the pay plan we worked out, i’ll take half of her paycheck every month until it’s paid. (realistically that would take 10 months), but I was just making a point that I meant what I said. She’s brave enough to ask for the money on her word… that’s good enough for me. We’ll see if she can live up to it. I gave her the $200.
I went back to working on trip reports, which are taking FOREVER to get done! Ahh. I want to be as thorough as possible, and yet get this sucker done. It’s amazing how quickly time can zip by you, and there’s still stuff to get done from months ago. =/
Highlights: hunt for Vietnam embassy, Western Union, Eli loan
Getting ready for my upcoming trip to Vietnam is turning into an adventure. The hotel that I thought I had reserved just e-mailed me. Their rooms are all booked. Try another.
I tried another, and my credit card didn’t work. Ah! What a nightmare.
I have a reservation in for my fourth hotel now. I should hear back in 24-48 hours. How are all the hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi going to be booked on a random Wednesday night? I don’t get it.
My next project was paying for my flight from Hue to Hanoi. For that,,, Western Union. The Vietnamese travel agent wants to be paid with U.S. dollars, so I cashed a check at the Embassy to get dollars. Mandiri bank (with a Western Union desk) doesn’t accept U.S. dollars. Rupiah only. Ok. I had juuuuuust enough cash in my pocket to cover the ticket.
A brief hiccup, the Western Union banker tried telling me Vietnam could only receive local currency. I asked her to look again. On the bottom of the page, in small print, there it was. “Oh yeah! They CAN transfer the money in dollars.” Thanks. Only a few moments of nervous tension there.
With that paid, I was off to find the Vietnam embassy, to make sure my Visa checks out, and there’s nothing else I need before my trip next week. Finding the Vietnam embassy was… well that was a treasure hunt that came up empty today. My ojek driver and I drove around for 2 hours, stopped at 2 police stations to ask directions… nobody knew.
Navigating Jakarta traffic is exhausting. I gave up with honor & made my way back to familiar ground (blok M) to pay for & pick up my ticket to the states next month. Figures! The travel agent had a phone book & looked up the Vietnam embassy address! (both police stations didn’t have this handy little tool). I was mentally done with that effort. Maybe next week. I have the Visa stamp. That should be good enough.
By 5pm Eli came over to pick up the money I said I’d loan her.
I kicked the idea around & gave it a lot of thought. Lydia, Lisa, even Nina was saying “don’t do it.” My gut was saying the same thing. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what was so secretive about why her mom needed the money, so I asked again.
With a shy look, Eli said her mom was having an Arisan. “That’s a party, right?” there’s an Indonesian movie by the same name, basically about a party that families throw sometimes.
I’m learning here, and trying to be helpful.
Nina explained: Arisan is something like housewife gambling. Someone throws a party and invites a group of friends. Let’s say 10 come. Everyone is expected to pay a fee ($5). During the party they pull a name out of a hat to see who gets the $50 jackpot. Then they determine who will throw the next party, with the stipulation that today’s winner can’t win next time.
I guess there are some ways of agreeing to a specific winner up front if someone needs money for something big. Ely mentioned her grandmother is ill, so her mom needs to throw an arisan to get money for medical care.
The extra money from the arisan (or a second one) is supposedly how Eli’s mom plans to pay me back. Uh huh. We’ll see.
The second thing that everyone is worried about is that Ely and her family could disappear (runaway) once they got the loan & can’t pay it back.
I trust Eli more than that,,, and hope that doesn’t happen. I would be sadder for the loss of not having her around. She’s been great so far.
She showed up with Vita (12) and Lufthie (5), and when it came down to it, I told her I’d loan the money. I added a stipulation. In the event her mom can’t come up with the money on the pay plan we worked out, i’ll take half of her paycheck every month until it’s paid. (realistically that would take 10 months), but I was just making a point that I meant what I said. She’s brave enough to ask for the money on her word… that’s good enough for me. We’ll see if she can live up to it. I gave her the $200.
I went back to working on trip reports, which are taking FOREVER to get done! Ahh. I want to be as thorough as possible, and yet get this sucker done. It’s amazing how quickly time can zip by you, and there’s still stuff to get done from months ago. =/
posted by jonathan adventures at 1:23 PM
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