Operation Lost and Found

Alright, now I can come clean now that things are better...

I lost my debit card, lost it Tuesday night at 4am (I guess Wed morning then). I went from one ATM that denied my card and crossed the street to go to another ATM. I have a "neck safe" around my neck but it's like a wallet. The cord around my neck can't be cut, unless you have big bolt cutters for padlocks and it's slash proof and waterproof. It's not fool proof though. When I grab a card, I take my neck safe out from under my shirt and have my business cards (hotels, bars, stores) and my credit and debit in safe keeping. Somehow, someway my debit card didn't make it back in my wallet and when I crossed the street to the next ATM my card was somehow missing.

I went home ASAP and looked up my banking information online for what number to reach TD Bank at. I got the number and went to call downstairs at the front desk of where I'm staying. I start dialing and after hearing a Vietnamese lady talk, an Aussie lady said the number I called doesn't exist. Run back upstairs, use my google kung fu and get another number. Run back down and call it and I get the same message. I looked up how to make a call from Vietnam and to Canada it has to be 00-then whatever number you need. Do that and nothing. I woke up the lady that unlocks the door and tends to some of the business here and tried to explain but she didn't understand. Alright, no debit but I have my visa. I also have 215,000VND/$12 Cdn on me so I'm not dead yet. Yesterday I spent the day in my room. If anyone has seen the movie Apocolypse Now at the beginning scene is Martin Sheen in a hotel room waiting for orders. The Door's "The End" comes on and he's laying on his bed watching the ceiling fan and going through a range of emotions. I didn't have a ceiling fan but I have two wall mounted fans and I did the same. I do have "The End" on my computer but at the time didn't think to play it as I was freaking out and worried I have to go home and tragically cut short my dream vacation.

Last night it was 8pm and getting hungry, I spent the whole day waiting for a reply from my bank (forgot to mention I emailed them about losing my card). No reply and I'm getting hungry. I go out to an ATM and use my Visa as most ATMs accept Visa. I went to three ATMs and they all denied me or said my card was cancelled. I'm fucked!

I went to KFC as a combo is only $3cdn and it's fatty so it'll last me a bit longer. First time I went I had the Big Crunch Chicken Sandwich combo. The Zigger is the spicy version of the Big Crunch, to competite with Wendy's Spicy Chicken which now I miss :(
This was the worst chicken burger I've had. it was over cooked and instead of white chicken breast I got brown chicken neck, feet and misc scraps of shit so my last meal fucking sucked. Since I can't make outgoing calls and it was 9am Ontario Time I emailed my sister Heather as she works in an office and uses a computer. She emailed me back and called my parents and I got them to wire some money to me which was really hard to do since I felt retarded about the situation and I'm the last person to ask for help in something, for some reason I can't do it. I got an email from my dad with the info I need to take to Western Union and I still have to wait for the transfer. I also emailed Visa asking what the hell is up with my card. Today I got a reply (still no reply from my bank) giving a list of ATMs that accept Visa and Plus cards. I went to KFC to start my day and got the Big Crunch and it was perfect, only the Zinger is fucked up and hit the three most likely ATM's to work, Visa and Plus card ATMs. Two didn't exist anymore and one I did track down but it said that my card was cancelled by the bank. Fuck.

I just got back from the Canadian Consulate here in Ho Chi Minh City. The Canadian Embassy has to be in Hanoi as it's the country's capital, but since so many people travel to Ho Chi Minh City they have a satalight office which is the Consulate. It's not big, just a little office, you get checked out by a security guard and metal detector, prove you're Canadian by showing your passport and wait until the one girl behind glass talks to you. It's kinda weird but I guess it makes sense. She's behind bullet proof glass and there's little slots to speak through around the bottom. To give or recieve something there's a little sliding door on the desk so that when her side is open mine is closed and I can't grab her and the other way around. Seemed weird but if I was some sleeper agent and just activated I wouldn't be able to do much damage, which is good. Sadly they couldn't really help me but I can use them as an address to ship my new bank debit card to and I also mentioned I can't figure out how to use the phone here haha. She told me to go to the International Post Office (kitty-corner from the Consulate and beside Notre Dame) and they will help me out.

I hit the post office and taught how to make a call. She told me to dial 001, then the number but it didn't work. The reason why was I was calling a 1-800 number and hitting 0011800 but if there's already a 1, you only need to dial 00-1-800... So I called my bank and being billed 5,000VND a minute. I follow the commands of the robot on the phone telling me to hit this for that, and that for this and talk to a human. Finally get a human and told her what happened, gave her the conculate's address and all that good stuff. Only downside is I was on hold for five minutes. Shipping will be 2 to 7 days so until then I'm in Saigon. I askled about my Visa and she said it should be fine, but since it's not that it could be when i use it in an ATM it's looking for a checing account, but since it's a Visa there's no checking and it rejects me. She did tell me though I could use my Visa card for cash advances at almost any banking office which was good and she gave me a collect call number to use in the future. The bad thing is that this call cost more than the amount of money I had! I walk up to the lady behind the desk and ask how much the call was. It was 81,000VND and i only had 74,000. I asked if she took Visa and they didn't (fucking commercial lies! It's not accepted ANYWHERE IN HERE!!!) haha. This was bad but she told me to try the ATM machines with my Visa. Obviously it didn't work. Luckily I told her this is all I have and asked can I come back when I do have more money? Luckily she knew I was broke and let me go but i had to give her the last of my cash leaving me flat broke. I have plenty of money in my account, just not a way to put it in my hands.

Luckily that part of town has a lot of rich tourists and therefore had a few banks around. I went to AMZ's head office thinking if they can't do a cash advance they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell :) Luckily they did (Thank fucking god haha!) and I got some money. I'm still going to pick up the money transfer from my dad but hold onto it and use it as a reserve just in case something happens. I was dying of thirst and the first item i bought was some super fizzy cherry cola called "The Sting", went back to the consulate and updated them. The consulate will email me when they have my card and I'll be free again. Until then I will do minimal spending, only on food, shelter and a few non-expensive christmas presents as I got another week until I can do anything. I'm also debating if I should hit Cu Chi or the Mekong Delta for a day trip or two as they aren't far from Saigon and gives me some time later to go up north instead of sitting on my butt here waiting for an email from the consulate.

I delayed telling anyone since I had no clue what the fuck was going to happen. Worst case scenario if I couldn't get a card shipped to the consulate I was thinking of coming home as my Visa is next to useless on the go in Saigon, going to a small town up north I'd be screwed and sadly moto drivers here don't take visa. Nobody does. On my way from the consulate I stopped at KFC because they had ice cream for 10,000VND/$.52CDN and it was hot out. I had my Toronto Lynx tshirt sponsered by Tim Hortons on and someone asked me if I was Canadian. I was talking to a couple from Ireland (why are they in Vietnam? haha) and they told me they backpacked across Canada by driving from Toronto to Vancouver. We chit chatted and they just came from up north in Central Vietnam. They were in the area hit by the tsumuni that recently hit. The roads were washed out and water was leaking into their 2nd story hostel room. They were driving and down the road a bus crashed from the storm killing 16 people and they were the first car at the roadblock and had to live in their car for 42 hours until the blockade was lifted. Nice people and they gave me a tip on a good bus company. They rode from Hanoi to Hue which is about 500km for $7Cdn and when they stopped for the night they went to a $5 hostel so it was cheap. Honestly, cheap isn't the way to go because Vietnamese standards ain't Western standards. A $5 hotel could be a soiled matress on concrete and a leaky roof and no electricity so before you hand over any money ALWAYS see the room first and quiz the owner (does it have hot water, free wifi, air conditioning - those are my top 3 needs and it's not cheap but comfortable). It was nice to have an english to english conversation and they headed off.

Right now I'm going to get some food. I'm not fat I know but sadly I'm gaining fat as I'm not burning off everything that I eat and it's getting stored for later. I was hoping all the sweating would help but it doesn't. Everyday Vietnamese people don't have a problem with weight as their diets are water based like soups, pho, fruit like banana's, mangos, and veggies in stir fries and spring rolls, noodles, rice, and other foods not high in calories and fat. On top of that, they eat with chop sticks so it takes longer to eat a meal and it's only bit by bit instead of a heaping spoon to shovel our western food in. I've seen some husky Vietnamese people as they were older and less active. I have seen one obese women though and I would have loved to take a picture to prove I saw an obses asian person but she must do very well for herself and eat richer food or goes to lotteria (local fast food, kinda like burger king) all the damn time. Sadly since I'm picky with food I'm sticking to western stuff, my waist line will pay for it though but I can work it off at home. Now I'm starving and I'll see ya later :)