Airport ShenanigansNoi Bai International Airport Terminal: 140k VND for a bowl of phở . . . that's extortionate . . . you should be ashamed. . . For reference, expensive "meh" phở in the city is like 70k. Good street phở is like 30k. AirAsia: Cancelled original flight (this was a few weeks before the trip) and automatically rebooked us on the flight the day after we were supposed to leave . . . aka the day we were supposed to start rafting. 2 online support service sessions later, we're rebooked on the correct day but a longer flight going through Bangkok (not direct anymore). But never got the confirmation email . . . cue 3rd session where I was told that the email was sent to . . . well, not my email address . . . turns out is an autogenerated email from the website I booked the tickets through. And no, AirAsia won't change the email address. I can either confirm with the booking website (all in Vietnamese) or just trust that we're rebooked properly. It all worked out in the end. Primary Adventure: Rafting in Pai, Thailand
On the way back, we were stopped at inspection point. Apparently the max number of passengers in the back of a truck is 7 . . . seems like a weird number to me but whatever. The driver had to pay a 1000 baht (~$33 USD) fine (paid under the table because over the table is 5000 baht) then we continued on our way maybe 15 min later. It was during this stop that the catfish (still in a bag under the seat) decided to have its dying thrashes. It scared the shit out of the British girl who didn't know it was under her seat. Nice bit of comic relief while waiting for bribes to occur. We continued the windy roads back to Pai stopping to let guides off in/near their villages and arrived back in town around 7:30pm. Secondary Adventure: Elephants... by now it's January ... So quick version ... Elephant tongues feel super weird and slimy. How do I know? We fed them sticky rice balls and due to their sticky nature, it's best to directly deposit them in the elephant's mouth. Bathing elephants is largely an exercise in futility. As soon as they get out, they went to find a nice dusty place and throw dirt all over themselves again ... it acts as sunscreen so it's actually a good thing. Side AdventuresExplanations in captions.
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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