What happens when your Vietnamese Visa doesn't arrive in the projected 2-3 business day processing window? If you guessed 'get stuck in the Singapore International Airport'... you would be correct! So how did I spend 24 hours in Singapore?
Warning: This story lacks any adventure. I'm simply telling a somewhat shenanigany story about getting stuck in bureaucratic limbo. If you want a story about sex, passion, and epic fight scenes, I recommend you snap your computer over your knee and find a life.
After a hectic final day in Brisbane, I was ready to leave Australia for the foreseeable future. My morning to do list included a last batch of laundry, packing my suitcase for the first time, and saying final goodbyes. Can you imagine the tears?
My first hint that my travel plans were getting bureaucratically bitch-slapped was at the Brisbane Airport. The check in counter wanted the award email for my Vietnamese visa which hadn't come in yet. So what would you do as a seasoned international traveler? I doubled down and asked if I can delay checking into the connecting flight to Vietnam until I arrived in Singapore!
So I hopped aboard my flight to Singapore, landed, and checked my email and guess what... still no visa award! I tried checking in but the airline said "no". (but they were happy to rebook me for $100 USD after the award did come through!)
So here's what happened in an easily consumable poorly edited format!
So I threw that video on my story and my mate Andy told me about a pool in the airport. After looking searching the miles of airport terminals (they need Google Maps in that place), I sat next to this terrific woman, Sama, who is an all-around-awesome human being. She originally grew up in Iraq and eventually became a BBC correspondent and US citizen.
A few hours later, my visa came in and I ran half a mile to the transfer counter to get on the next flight out!
It was dinner time so we hit the lounge to get some free dinner and drinks!
Sama's flight was that night so she bailed and left me to sleep in the lounge until my early morning flight to Vietnam!