Okay. Don’t keep me in suspense.
I worked in Central Plaza (the 57th floor - the people below looked like ants!).
D’oh! :smack:
Still, you could have climbed up on the roof for a look.
I did sneak up to the top floor once. It’s a glass pyramid with a church inside it - and a putting green, which seemed a little unwise.
The other worrying thing was the day there was an unscheduled fire alarm, and I ignored my boss who told me to continue working, but found that the elevators weren’t running - so I went to the fire exit, walked all the way down to the first floor to find all the fire exits locked - and had to walk up 42 stories to get back out again.
I think it is a rule that all fire exits in Asia and the Middle East must be kept locked at all times and preferably welded shut. That is a surprise in HK tho.
When I went to Chinatown in NYC, my first thought was how like Hong Kong it was, with my second being “except that there are fire escapes in Chinatown”.
Seems to be. We stayed at a four- or five-star hotel 14 years ago in Pattaya, one of my few visits there. Nicer than we would normally pay for, but it was free, as the wife was there for a work-related meeting, and I was just tagging along. A year or two later, it had a huge fire, broadcast live on CNN, and almost 100 died largely because of locked fire exits. We had stayed on a pretty high floor ourselves that one trip. Ever since then, I’ve always looked at the fire exits when checking into a place.
But back to Ale. Hope he’s okay. I’m guessing he did not pick up a Re-entry Permit on his way out, assuming his trip was not doubling as a visa run.
You assume correct, it was a depressing four hours at the KL airport immigration office until the Uruguayan chancellor rescued me, they where just 5 minutes away from putting me back in a plane to BKK and then to Macau… I’ll explain later.
I have to reorganize my movie collection when I get home and move The Terminal from Comedy/Romance to the Horror section.
I’m taking a plane home today at 10 PM.
Oh no! What a disaster!
Oh no! Always pick up a Re-entry Permit before you leave the country. They cost 1000 baht for a single re-entry or 4000 baht for unlimited multiple re-entries. Then when you return, you pick up on your old visa again; otherwise, your visa is cancelled the moment you leave the country.
Although I’m guessing you know this by now. 
At one point, Immigration set up a counter at the old Don Muang Airport for foreigners leaving who did not have time to stop by Immigration, but I never trusted that. I figured it would be just my luck that I’d go there only to find the counter unstaffed for some reason. So I imagine there’s probably one at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport, although I’ve never seen one there. But that place is so huge, it could be anywhere.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but life is always an adventure out here.
If I know for sure I’m leaving the country sometime within the year (I do an annual renewable visa), then I just get a Re-entry Permit anyway and kep it in the passport. They’re good for the entire duration of your visa.
Holy mother of crap, I was this close of being deported to my home country. :eek:
AirAsia is going to get an angry letter of complaint, that´s for sure, they nearly ruined my life, the bastards.
When I got to Kuala Lumpur I was detained at the immigration office because A) I should had been sent to Macau, the last place outside Thailand I was (airline screwup), and B) the airline had put DEPORTED on some internal file after they told me that I wouldn´t have any problem, yes don´t worry, go to KL thai embassy, no you don´t need a visa to enter the country, no problem! Fuckers…
And it got worse, after 4 hours in the immigration office (and two days without sleeping or a shower, and a full day without eating, drinking or using the toilet) they tell me that I´ll be sent back to Bangkok so to be resent to Macao and fix the visa there… That´s what they told me, back in Thailand the airline called my girlfriend and told her that on arrival to BKK I would be deported to my homecountry; this I only learned when I got home last night.
I was 5 minutes away from boarding the plane back to BKK and (I hoped) finally sorting things out when an immigration officer calls me aside and tells me that the Uruguayan consul in Malaysia was coming to the airport to pick me up! I had sent an e-mail to the embassy just before leaving BKK. Think of it, 5 minutes later and my life as I know it would be over.
The consul came and went straight to talk with the immigration office boss, the guy was completely dogged about not letting me out, it took more than half an hour to get a release. Then I had only half an hour to race to the Thai embassy before it closed (the KL airport is frigging far from the city) and leave my passport to get a new Non-Immigrant visa. We made it again in the nick of time.
The next day I got my passport back and after a few eternal hours I was on my way home, although I nearly lost the van to the airport because I fell asleep… I was very tired and I just slipped into it; I woke up 2 minutes before the departure time.
A long way back to the airport, check in, wait for the plane, board and by golly, I´m on my way home!
I landed in BKK at 11PM and with a pounding heart I went to the immigration check point, when they let me through I let go such a sigh of relief that I nearly turned blue. I practically danced and singed my way to the taxi out of the airport.
It was terrific to get back home and see Sand again.
Next time I´ll try to have less exciting holidays…
Geez, Ale, sorry to hear about all of that. But at least now that you’re back safe and sound, it’s a good tale to relate in the future, especially to horror-stricken newbies, eyes growing wider as you go on. You’ll scare the bejesus out of them. 
Man, I really hate AirAsia. For one thing, while it’s a Malaysian airline, the local subsidiary, Thai AirAsia, is owned by Thaksin Shinawatra, the bastard PM they ousted in our military coup the year before last (and who is currently angering Man City fans with his antics with that team, which he also owns). Too, they seem to have more than their fair share of delays and other cock-ups.
But what can you do? They have the best prices and go more places than the other low-cost carriers. If you fly One-Two-Go, you WILL die. Nok Air, which is Thai Airways’ budget airline, is our favorite, we’ve had nothing but good experiences with them, and their prices are only slightly higher than Thai AirAsia’s, but internationally they’re limited. (I’ve heard of one couple who encountered a major screw-up with Nok Air, though, but our experiences have always been positive.) PB Air is good, but they go almost nowhere.
I’m glad that everything worked out. But you have to admit, life is never boring out here.
WTF!!!??? I just reviewed the hotel expenses and I found out why I had less money than I thought, the bloody Best Western Hotel Taipa charged me 3 times as much as their “Nett inclusive of taxes (if any) and service charges (if any), no booking fee” published price.
That´s it time to take this to the pit… after I have finished all the piled up, overdue work I have at the studio.
I’ve generally found the Malaysian Air Asia to be pretty good. Thai Air Asia, on the other hand, are the bunch that have those old 737s that were rumored to be sitting in the Nevada desert for a few years. The paint on the nosecone of most of them peels and rolls backwards up towards the pilot’s window, so they use Sellotape to keep it back on again. It was Thai Air Asia from BKK to Macau that I was on when the port engine failed on takeoff. It was the scariest moment of my life, and afterwards we were treated like utter shit, driven around the airport with no explanation, in a standing-only bus, for two hours, before having to go through the entire immigration process again. If they had tried to put us back on the same plane I was going to have a sit-down protest on the apron. Not surprised to hear that Thaksin is something to do with it. Fuckers.
Yes, I guess it’s specifically Thai AirAsia I hate.
Your story just gets better and better. Be careful what you wish for, as this does indeed sound like a truly memorable vacation.
But how were Hong Kong and Macau anyway?
So, other than that Ale, how was the trip?
Other than that it was very nice indeed!
Macau is one of those places where I like to look for a little corner out of the beaten path and own it, in this case was a small garden called Jardin de Lou Lim Ioc. It´s a little chinese style park hidden in between some old style portuguese period houses and a few rather dilapidated apartment buildings. Very nice and quiet and we lucked out to come in just after some kind of flower exhibition so the small colonial style building in the center of the park was overflowed with large bouquets of all sorts. There where also some ladies on a small court practicing some sort of chinese fan dance and a lake full of koi fish turtles and lotus in bloom. Even the cloudy sky and thin rain that was falling added to the charm. It was really a delightful spot to find.
Unfortunately I didn´t notice that my camera manual settings had an ISO of 800, so the pictures I took all look grainy… but, here are a few of Jardin de Lou Lim Ioc
I´ll post more later, meanwhile, any good hearted mod could fix the typo in the thread title? :o
Actually, Ale, I was kidding you of course - but those pictures are beautiful, and I am glad you at least had a few minutes to enjoy some of the scenery!