...immigration stop at the border
on my birthday, i gave myself a present - trip to vietnam... all just fell into place for this trip... my wife thought this would be good for me (we celebrated my birthday the night before with friends), a dear friend, m - conceded to my invitation of going to vietnam on a short notice and my work contract has not come out.
this trip was supposed to be for the philippines but due to circumstances that favored me staying - the vietnam idea came up...
bags packed - including cameras - one on my belt (a back up point and shoot) and another one inside a carry on camera bag. my friend m procured the day before tickets for us and arrived at the house twenty five minutes before departure time... left the house still at a comfortable time of fifteen minutes.
as we were nearing the bus station, i remembered that i picked up my mother and sister at another bus station when they visited cambodia before. immediately, we informed the tuktuk driver to proceed to another bus station - five minutes before departure. i was already feeling uneasy thinking that we wont be able to make it. we got there on time but the bus was nowhere to be found. it was stationed at the location where we originally was heading. alarm bells started ringing loud. we definitely are not going to make it.
phone calls were made from station to station. and we were informed to intersect with the bus station in route. i feel like we were on a mission - it was an adrenaline rush and the tuktuk driver was pushing his engines to the limits (could do more actually). as we arrived at the designated intersection, we saw the bus turning and i thought, this is it. we definitely will be able to make it. i was wrong. the bus didn't stop. phone calls again - loud harsh voices from our end of the line asking them to stop for we are already tailing them. the bus kept on going. another phone call - this time harsher and louder. again, it didn't work.
heavy traffic ahead - the bus crawled into a very slow pace, my hopes went up again. we got to the side of the bus and the tuktuk driver started banging on the side of the bus for them to open the door, to no avail. up came the bridge - i said to myself, if we don't make it this time, trip is canceled. phone calls again - the bus will stop at the foot of the bridge on the other end. it stopped. we hurriedly got off the tuktuk, carried our bags and settled comfortably at our assigned seats. the trip is on. as i normally would say on these kind of instances - it was a photo finish. vietnam, here we come...
090527
this trip was supposed to be for the philippines but due to circumstances that favored me staying - the vietnam idea came up...
bags packed - including cameras - one on my belt (a back up point and shoot) and another one inside a carry on camera bag. my friend m procured the day before tickets for us and arrived at the house twenty five minutes before departure time... left the house still at a comfortable time of fifteen minutes.
as we were nearing the bus station, i remembered that i picked up my mother and sister at another bus station when they visited cambodia before. immediately, we informed the tuktuk driver to proceed to another bus station - five minutes before departure. i was already feeling uneasy thinking that we wont be able to make it. we got there on time but the bus was nowhere to be found. it was stationed at the location where we originally was heading. alarm bells started ringing loud. we definitely are not going to make it.
phone calls were made from station to station. and we were informed to intersect with the bus station in route. i feel like we were on a mission - it was an adrenaline rush and the tuktuk driver was pushing his engines to the limits (could do more actually). as we arrived at the designated intersection, we saw the bus turning and i thought, this is it. we definitely will be able to make it. i was wrong. the bus didn't stop. phone calls again - loud harsh voices from our end of the line asking them to stop for we are already tailing them. the bus kept on going. another phone call - this time harsher and louder. again, it didn't work.
heavy traffic ahead - the bus crawled into a very slow pace, my hopes went up again. we got to the side of the bus and the tuktuk driver started banging on the side of the bus for them to open the door, to no avail. up came the bridge - i said to myself, if we don't make it this time, trip is canceled. phone calls again - the bus will stop at the foot of the bridge on the other end. it stopped. we hurriedly got off the tuktuk, carried our bags and settled comfortably at our assigned seats. the trip is on. as i normally would say on these kind of instances - it was a photo finish. vietnam, here we come...
090527
No comments:
Post a Comment