Travel - 2/17-2/19/2012

February 17, 2012

What does it take to get from Arcata, California to Quang Ngai, Vietnam?

A long time.

On Friday, PST, I got a bit of a sleep in, a gift from the pets. Somehow they decided it would be OK to eat an hour after the sun came up instead of an hour before. I needed that.

Finished packing, cleaning, dropped off Ollie the cat at my parents, and give Chuck a tour of the house and the neighborhood. He has generously offered to dog sit. He doesn't know yet how generous an offer he has made, but Pepper will soon put him to the test... ;o)

3pm into the car, off to the airport, bag check and security clearance. Herded onto the flight. Offload at SFO; I got here more than six hours before my next flight, so had to get my bag back and tote it around. I guess I am glad about that; less chance it could disappear and it is packed full of medical gear. I was entertained by the salesperson at the Brookstone store in the international terminal with a wireless helicopter. He sent it over to scout me out, but I guess I didn't look like I needed rescue yet, so it flew away.

9pm met up with the small team and 28 huge cartons of medical supplies, monitors, anesthesia vaporizers, drugs and equipment. We gave our passports and checked in ourselves, our personal bags, and our mountain of stuff.

The flight to Taipei left at midnight, 14 hours duration (crossing the International Dateline). The plane was a 747-400, which had a 3-4-3 seating configuration, with about 300 people in economy - FULL. The aisle was like a one-lane bridge - if someone started walking my way, I had to back up to let him by. There was a team of well-orchestrated infants who handed off the baton throughout the night, guaranteeing rarely-interrupted atonal serenades. Packed in like sardines, the options for sleep positions were within 2 dimensions - up, slouched, or down - nothing sideways. My row was like a Rube Goldberg machine - I slouched, moved my leg and the lady next to me popped her head up from her table, and then the guy on the aisle swung his arms out and smacked the flight attendant. But EVA air flight attendants took care of everyone with grace and poise, a welcomed courtesy.

We landed a bit late in Taipei, so had 20 minutes to run through security and to our connection gate. We were escorted by a nice EVA agent and all made it fine. The plane stayed on the ground for quite a bit longer, presumably to be loaded with our many boxes and bags. Our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was 3 1/2 hours and uneventful. We had to apply for VISAs at the airport, which took some time, then clear customs and get our baggage cleared as well. This can be a painful process with this much equipment, depending upon the level of suspicion of the agents working at the time. Luckily this time went very smoothly.

After an hour wait, we took the bags to the domestic carrier for our next leg. We left our things and went to lunch in town with Hien. It became quite an outing; we also stopped for coffee and then walked back to the domestic terminal. We found a spot with WiFi and everyone dived onto their computers and phones to connect with home. No Facebook though; too much potential trouble for the government. Oh well!

We left HCMC for Da Nang 8 hours after our arrival; about a 1 hour flight. Gathered everyone, bags and boxes together for transport to Quang Ngai; a bus for the group and a truck for the boxes. I was about a 2 1/2 hour ride down the coast from Da Nang, but unfortunately in the dark. We arrived in Quang Ngai Sunday night about 11pm local time, waited for the bus with our bags, and got to bed to rest for clinics and operating room set up Monday. Amazingly, our travel went as planned - no delays, cancellations, misunderstandings, and all our bags and boxes are here.

Internet here is spotty, and slow at night, but I'll do my best to get photos up as they are generated. For today, it's been mostly the inside of transportation vehicles and cloudy skies anyway...

Total time? 42 hours. Good Vietnamese coffee - 30,000 VN Dong. Bed with clean sheets - priceless.