Friday the 13th
Bloody hell, what a day. All started fairly normally - slight feeling of not having made as much of Chiang Mai as I should (can't be arsed with trekking, rockclimbing etc: far too much like hard work), mild guilt at not having curry for breakfast, wondering where to go next as my original intention is massively flooded - went to get money out, 'Transaction cancelled', "Bugger, why don't they service these cash machines more regularly? Humph, I'll have to trek down to that one outside the 7-11", 'Transaction cancelled', "Er, that's a bit weird, it worked the other day, maybe it's out of cash", next one 'Transaction cancelled'...
By this point I was starting to sweat a bit, more so when I remembered I only had about 190 Baht left on me (under 3 quid), and after another 2 ATMs failed I knew I was in trouble. For the first time here, everything started to seem expensive - 25 baht a minute for an international call to HSBC would have left me with absolutely nothing after a few minutes, couldn't risk it when I knew I'd need a taxi to get anywhere without dying of heatstroke (lugging my rucksack around in a temperature of about 35 degrees); had no traveller's cheques (madness!!), nothing save my belongings, which at the rates people buy for here wouldn't have got me much. Realised if I was to make the call and still be able to eat, get any water, not sleep rough etc., was going to have to find somewhere they would let me do it for free.
Saw in the guidebook that there was a consulate in Chiang Mai on the other side of the city, risked 20 Baht on a taxi ride. Heart sank practically through my boots when I saw the consulate was shut, deeper when I remembered it was Friday and the place wouldn't be open til Monday (the cheapest room here is 100 Baht a night). Tried the British Council next door, more of a place for teaching English than offering aid, without too much confidence - explained the predicament to the Thai girl behind the desk, she mulled it over and vanished upstairs. Came back some time later with a British guy who turned out to be the consul, as it was a bit of a special case they let me use the phone to call HSBC, found out there was no problem with my account so it must be the card (now i remember storing it with my old SIM card, obviously the 2 chips must have scratched together). Unfortunately without a functioning card you can't get cash from any bank in Thailand apart from your own, and there ain't no HSBC in Chiang Mai...
Realised (it's all so screamingly obvious, god how stupid was I?) just how screwed you are on your own in a foreign country with no access to cash where you can't speak the language (it's a bit more difficult to try and tell someone you need to make a reverse-charged international phone call than it is to order a beer) and any means of transport out costs more than you have... leaves you totally dependent on the kindness of strangers. Fortunately this one was very kind, even offered to lend me money out of his own wallet which in the circumstances (wild-eyed, sweaty smelly backpacker turns up out of nowhere almost on point of begging) wasn't short of Christ-like. Finally got through to the card insurance company (to think I almost jacked it in a few years ago as a waste of 20 quid a year) who agreed to adance me money til my new card arrives. Thank heavens for the consul, thank my lucky stars there even is one in Chiang Mai - think he's the only one outside Bangkok - and thank the lord for Western Union!
Have now gone from considering 30p on a taxi ride as a swingeing-but-necessary outlay to having the equivalent of about 10 grand in my pocket in cash. The post office is closed so I can't change it to traveller's cheques til tomorrow - now I'm becoming impossibly paranoid that I'll lose it. Surely not, even today (the irony of the date didn't strike me until I almost had the cash in my hand - think the WU staff were a bit disturbed by the hysterical laughter).
So it seems I'm going to be spending a bit longer in Chiang Mai than I'd anticipated, maybe up to another 2 weeks - I can't go too far as the card's being sent to the consulate. Ah well, perhaps trekking might not be so bad after all...
By this point I was starting to sweat a bit, more so when I remembered I only had about 190 Baht left on me (under 3 quid), and after another 2 ATMs failed I knew I was in trouble. For the first time here, everything started to seem expensive - 25 baht a minute for an international call to HSBC would have left me with absolutely nothing after a few minutes, couldn't risk it when I knew I'd need a taxi to get anywhere without dying of heatstroke (lugging my rucksack around in a temperature of about 35 degrees); had no traveller's cheques (madness!!), nothing save my belongings, which at the rates people buy for here wouldn't have got me much. Realised if I was to make the call and still be able to eat, get any water, not sleep rough etc., was going to have to find somewhere they would let me do it for free.
Saw in the guidebook that there was a consulate in Chiang Mai on the other side of the city, risked 20 Baht on a taxi ride. Heart sank practically through my boots when I saw the consulate was shut, deeper when I remembered it was Friday and the place wouldn't be open til Monday (the cheapest room here is 100 Baht a night). Tried the British Council next door, more of a place for teaching English than offering aid, without too much confidence - explained the predicament to the Thai girl behind the desk, she mulled it over and vanished upstairs. Came back some time later with a British guy who turned out to be the consul, as it was a bit of a special case they let me use the phone to call HSBC, found out there was no problem with my account so it must be the card (now i remember storing it with my old SIM card, obviously the 2 chips must have scratched together). Unfortunately without a functioning card you can't get cash from any bank in Thailand apart from your own, and there ain't no HSBC in Chiang Mai...
Realised (it's all so screamingly obvious, god how stupid was I?) just how screwed you are on your own in a foreign country with no access to cash where you can't speak the language (it's a bit more difficult to try and tell someone you need to make a reverse-charged international phone call than it is to order a beer) and any means of transport out costs more than you have... leaves you totally dependent on the kindness of strangers. Fortunately this one was very kind, even offered to lend me money out of his own wallet which in the circumstances (wild-eyed, sweaty smelly backpacker turns up out of nowhere almost on point of begging) wasn't short of Christ-like. Finally got through to the card insurance company (to think I almost jacked it in a few years ago as a waste of 20 quid a year) who agreed to adance me money til my new card arrives. Thank heavens for the consul, thank my lucky stars there even is one in Chiang Mai - think he's the only one outside Bangkok - and thank the lord for Western Union!
Have now gone from considering 30p on a taxi ride as a swingeing-but-necessary outlay to having the equivalent of about 10 grand in my pocket in cash. The post office is closed so I can't change it to traveller's cheques til tomorrow - now I'm becoming impossibly paranoid that I'll lose it. Surely not, even today (the irony of the date didn't strike me until I almost had the cash in my hand - think the WU staff were a bit disturbed by the hysterical laughter).
So it seems I'm going to be spending a bit longer in Chiang Mai than I'd anticipated, maybe up to another 2 weeks - I can't go too far as the card's being sent to the consulate. Ah well, perhaps trekking might not be so bad after all...
posted by Pearson at 12:27 PM
8 Comments:
Oh crikey Adam - glad you got that sorted out - thought the story would end with a nice thai man I lent my card to must have cleaned out my account or something. Least it's sorted. If you find yourself 'in a pickle' again try emailing me or anyone really and i'm sure we can sort something out, money transfers etc not a problem. Don't drink tonight with all that cash on you for the love of god!
Sara
xxx
Stuff it all in your boxers or somewhere else inaccessible to passing humans!
Yeah, keep on the ball!
Sara's right though, most of us sit at our desks all day so dropping us a line would be a quick/cheap way of getting through to us...
Glad you're sorted but I HAVE to ask:
Why no travellers cheques?!!
Thanks guys! You're splendid. Problem with getting in touch though is, again, I'd have to do it for free somehow - when you've got such a tiny amount of cash you need every penny for water, food etc. But hopefully someone would have been nice and let me use their computer or something. Again, it really was lucky I was in a town with a consul - I'd been about to get on a bus to Lampang, about 2 hrs away, would have been well stuffed there. Phew!
In answer to your question, Kate, um...idiocy? One thing's for sure, from now on I'm never going to be without the amount in traveller's cheques required (a) to get to the nearest consulate or Western Union branch, and (b) to get in touch with someone who can wire me cash. I really did ride my luck this time, next time I mightn't be so lucky.
Having said that, couldn't get traveller's cheques today as the banks are closed at the weekend and the currency exchange booths will only do cash, so I've got a mahoosive padlock and stuck most of the cash in the guesthouse lockers (with an emergency fund hidden in my room and a decent amount on me too, I've learned my lesson!)
Blimey, looks like you're going to be an expert on Chiang Mai and it's outlying regions by the time you've got your new card back! ;) Isn't that going to eat into your Cambodia time if you don't get a move on?
I have to say it would've made for more exciting reading if you had actually got stranded, a blog diary of sleeping rough around northern Thailand would've been nice!
Haha yeah sorry about that, was thinking 'this could be great for the blog' actually, then remembered it might be a bit difficult to do a new post if I'd starved to death... To be honest for a couple of hours there I really was getting quite scared, in retrospect I probably wasn't in as much trouble as it seemed, but that's when seen from the safe distance of a couple of days and with money in your pocket - at the time, panic's very difficult to resist!
Bet you wish you'd taken the money off the 'friendly' guys in Phitsanulok now eh mate?
What kinda girl d'ya think I am?! ;o) Yeah did consider the ho option for about a nanosecond... But I bet the rates are crap, and anyway I'm saving myself for love :o)
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