Well. I sure can’t say that today wasn’t interesting. So here we go with the story. Due to some confusion on my part which resulted in delays on my end and some delays on FedEx’s part my passport with my year long visa was scheduled to reach me on Tuesday. ONE DAY before my flight left. Talk about cutting it close… except that it did not make it on the flight to arrive Tuesday. So I got to plan the fun adventure of picking it up at the sort facility by the airport on my way to check in for my flight. When I first called about this the lady who spoke to me was great. She was helpful, pleasant, knowledgable, and even a bit cheeky. All the good things you need. However, she couldn’t do anything to help me until the next scan happened on my FedEx envelope. So she told me what to do when I called back. That is where the trouble began. I then called back as instructed I spoke to a gentleman who had, to put it nicely, zero idea what he was doing. Just no clue. So I asked to speak to someone else. The woman who answered, Isabel, sounded like she knew what was going on and was attempting to be helpful and offered to call me even when my passport landed in Hawaii so I knew right when I could go pick it up. HOWEVER, I don’t know what this lady was looking at but when she called me at 4am to tell me my passport didn’t make it on the plane and I should reschedule my flights I was shaking I was so upset. I started to freak out and email my reps in Indonesia to see what my options were. A cooler head eventually prevailed and I decided I needed to call FedEx back and speak to someone different. Again. Which I did. The woman (If you’ve lost count that’s the 3rd person now) she assessed the situation and sent me over to #4 at the customer advocate center. #4, who is also called Victoria, was super helpful. Located my package and told me it did indeed make it on the plane and I would be able to pick it up on the way to the airport. She even set it up so I could pick it up 30 minutes before the facility opened to make sure I wasn’t late for my check in. By this time it was 6:30am. Victoria was great. Worth being woken up at 4am and being told to reschedule my flights? Hell no, but still she was great. I then scooped up my passport, dropped off my rental car (my car, RuPaul, is in storage), and headed to HNL so I could get on my flight to Narita. It was an ok flight. The first flight I’ve been on in a very long time that didn’t have personal TV sets. Throwback. My section was almost empty so I got to spread out a bit which was nice and I was also apparently sitting in the “we are flying to Jakarta” section. So I talked to the guy from Brazil next to me about Indonesia and surfing for a while. Then I watched Psych and Sherlock, had a nap, and studied up on some language skills. I now sit in the fancy Untied Lounge at the Narita airport. Bless you, free one time pass to the lounge. Hello free wifi and food! I know I shouldn’t have gluten… but I already hurt from the stress this morning so I said “eh, I’m already in it” and had a tiny green tea cake. Worth it. I’ll be here for another 3 1/2 hours and then onto Jakarta. I’ll land at 11:30pm, grab my luggage, hop in a cab, and hopefully fall right asleep when I get in my hotel room. I have to be up and ready by 8am for meetings tomorrow. That’ll be interesting. Guess it’s hit the ground running time. But for now? Now it is free sushi time.
Me in the Narita United Lounge. I look sleepy.
Bye!
A Christmas Tree in Asia 