Transcontinental Travel day:
Ohhhhh Travel day. The world race is incredibly adventurous and stretching, but you really learn what you’re made of when you have a transcontinental travel day. This time, I wrote down everything we did from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Harbu Chulule, Ethiopia. Future Racers, get ready!!!! 🙂
7:00 pm- pack and clean rooms
1:30 am- all bags to hotel lobby
1:45 am check for team leaders and all 47 w squad members
2:00 am- settle debts with the hotel and try not to get ripped off
2:10 am- bus for airport transfer cancels on us
2:20 am- hotel returns bus money
2:30 am- stare at cab drivers as they argue in Vietnamese with the hotel owner
2:40 am- put teams in cabs and head to the airport
3:00 am- arrive at airport
3:10 am- blow up sleeping pad
3:12 am- take a power nap
4:45 am- wake up and pack sleeping things
5:00am- check into flight
5:40 am- go through security
6:15 am- arrive at gate
6:17 am- eat all snacks in our daypack to curb hunger
6:40 am- begin boarding flight
6:45 am- wait in the breezeway
7:08am- take off
7:09 am- sleep
11:29 am- wake up
11:30 am- land local time in Singapore
11:45am- try to find guitars that were checked at the gate and not returned
12:20pm-go through customs
12:25 pm- mini squad meeting
12:28 pm- go to terminal 2
12:35pm- another squad meeting at terminal two
12:37 pm- talk to airline to confirm check in time
12:40 pm- check bags into hotel storage
1:00pm- ride subway into Singapore on a 16 hour layover
8:00pm- ride subway back to the airport
8:10 pm- look for Burger King in terminal two
8:12pm – go through all three levels of terminal two
8:17 pm- take airport transit to terminal one
8:18 pm- steal handfuls of candies from information desk as treats for later
8:25 pm- check third floor of terminal one for Burger King
8:26 pm- realize that Burger King is not there
8:30pm- go back to second floor
8:45pm- get in elevator to first floor of terminal one
8:47pm- leave debit cards with brad to order food
8:50pm- ride transit back to terminal one for squad meet up point
8:56pm- eat dinner in five minutes
9:00pm- squad head count
9:08pm- collect money from each person for baggage storage fee
9:15pm- add the money
9:17pm- problem solve why we are short one hundred dollars
9:19pm- recount the money
9:25pm- realize that the receipt is in Singapore dollars and we have USD
9:27pm- recount and still are short
9:32pm- confirm who paid and who hasn’t
9:40pm- pay the baggage fees
9:44pm- go to third floor of terminal two to wait for check in time
10:15 pm- get wifi codes from the airport.
11:30 pm check in at ticketing counter
12:24 am go to gate
1:40 am- find someone in the bathroom and find a passport that was left in a wifi scanner
1:45 am- check on a sick squad mate
1:50 am- squad leaders and logistics check in to flight
1:55am- find seats and sit down
2:15 am-eat “dinner” (Then try to convince your body to eat diner at 2 am???? LOL. )
2:25 am -go to sleep
10:47 am- land in Addis Ababa
11:00 am- line up for customs
11:15 am- get visa for $50 USD
11:45am- pick up baggage
11:50 am- go look for SIM card stand
12:00pm- tell the guy trying to sell us his SIM card for $20 that we don’t want it
12:20pm- send people out of the airport to look for the host
12:45pm- find out that our Costa Rican squad mate can’t enter the country
12:50pm- try to call the USA
12:53 pm- try to call the USA again
1:00pm- start thinking of possible ideas. Consider flying to another African Country or to back to Singapore
1:10pm- try to find wifi
1:25 pm- fail at finding wifi
1:31 pm- try to go back to visa office
1:35pm- ask where I can find wifi
1:44pm- find a tourist office to ask about the situation
1:50pm- go get passport to go back to visa office
1:58pm- bring host in to talk to visa issuing department
2:10 pm- talk to other squad leaders about where to go
2:14pm- volunteer to accompany our squad mate to another country for a few days while her visa processes
2:15pm- give other squad leader my debit card to pull out food money for the first supply run before heading to the village
2:25pm- start packing a daypack to go with her to another country – rip apart big pack in the middle of the airport to get clothes for three days
2:32pm- call from the USA that she will be flying to Kenya while her visa processes and that the married couple (Brad and Cristin) will be accompanying her to Kenya instead of me for safety
2:40pm- redistribute phones and debit cards among squad leaders and logistics leaders to make sure everyone going to Kenya will have enough money
2:42pm- check in with sick squadmate and talk to other squad leader (Carmen) about who accompany her to the hospital
2:44pm- move squad to ministry vans and exit the airport
2:47 pm- have a meeting with the treasures about going to the bank to replenish replenish the USD emergency cash from paying for visas into Ethiopia
2:48 pm- leave airport
3:06pm- arrive at bank
3:10pm -take out 5633 Ethiopian Birr to replenish all four squad leader’s visa cost
3:38pm- fill out currency exchange bank form
3:40pm- make sure we can replenish all the cash in USD since bank will suddenly “not exchange more that $200”
4:23pm- leave bank with USD in hand
4:25 pm- use bathroom under bank (literally under it in this strange cave bathroom)
4:31 pm- leave bank to go to grocery store
4:46pm- check in with teams buying groceries
5:00pm- try to call the people at the airport on a team phone
5:03pm – that team phone won’t work
5:05pm- answer people’s questions
5:10 pm- move people into other vans to make sure everyone will have a seat
5:13pm- try to call the other Squad leaders on team phones but none have minutes
5:50 pm- fill vans and start sending teams to ministry site
5:58 pm- head back to the airport to look for other logistics leaders
6:12 pm- turn van around in rush hour traffic to meet logistics leaders (Taylor and Luke) at the grocery store
6:45pm- pick up Taylor and Luke
7:12pm- pick up Carmen and squad mate front the hospital and head to ministry site
9:45 pm- Arrive at ministry site and SLEEEEPPPPPPPPPP
