Before the Trip

It was the last day in February, on a Wednesday, that I woke up with an urge to go on a bike trip. My previous three-week trip to Morocco a couple of months back was amazing, and now I was keen on a destination even further and a journey somewhat longer. Vietnam had been top of mind, to be honest, mainly due to the food, especially Pho, the beef noodle soup that I am so found of. I´ve this soop in Seattle and know a great place in Vienna, serving it, too – so I figured it must be an interesting country with such a culinary highlight. I am not proud to admit that I knew very little of the country itself, I had heard of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), of course knew a bit about the Vietnam War, but not much more. Still, by Wednesday noon, I had purchased a ticket to Hanoi, leaving just four days later, on March 4. For this, I used my Sky Miles points – from all my travels of my “previous life”, I had accumulated enough miles on Delta Airlines for a business class ticket, to be used on the Sky Team alliance airlines. While a bit decadent, my main motivation for the premium class (next to a comfortable seat for a long flight) was a generous baggage allowance, usually 40 kg, which would include transporting my own bike for free. The trip would take me through Taipei (a flight of 12 hours) via China Airlines and from there to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines (about 3 hours), and roughly six weeks later, back the exact same way. As usual, I kept preparation to a minimum, got some American dollars (thanks Karin for the good exchange rate!), purchased two guide books (the aforementioned Stefan Loose and a Lonely Planet – they supplemented each other well). The major portion of the four days I had spent talking to the various airlines, and this is why: having called China Airlines informing them about me carrying the bike, they claimed that my ticket not only does not allow me to transport the bike, it also has zero kilograms of free checked baggage allowance – all of this on a business class ticket. They requsted me to contact Delta, who issued the ticked, which I did via phone, first in Vienna, then, on multiple occasions, in the United States. I will spare you the details, but if you ever want to have a Kafkaesque experience, make sure to contact Delta and try to explain your issue. You will be met with very nice, understanding folks, who, after long waits, are at best transferring you to another agent. By the way, during this time, there was a huge snow storm in the US with hundreds of cancelled flights, which meant that the wait time for each call was well over an hour, on an occasion, it was close to two hours. I also visited the China Airlines office in Vienna in person, where I met a very nice person responsible for marketing, Mr. Chao, who promised to try to have my bike checked through – although he could not be absolutely sure if it would work.

So with this vague promise, I got my bike boxed on Saturday in a shop near my house. Another “epic fail”: they were unable to retract the seat pole (as it was rusty), so he used a gigantic box, used for electric bikes. I was unable to get this box into my car – and it being the weekend, there were no large taxis available. I did manage to haul a large truck driven by a Turkish guy at a traffic light in front of the shop, he was kind enough to drive me home for Eur 10.

Time flies, it is already Sunday, March 4 – time to get dressed and go to the airport. I had called the taxi company a day earlier, made sure they send a van. As luck would have it, they actually sent a minibus, in which the large box just barely fit – he told me that I´d had no chance whatsoever getting it in a van. So for a few more euros, I was en-route to the airport. I made sure to get the driver´s contact details, in case the airline would not check in my bike – so that he could take it back to a friend´s house in Vienna.

Few more cases of “epic fail”-s at Vienna International Airport – I had real trouble navigating through the crowd and the pillars with the gigantic box and started looking for the check-in counter in the main terminal. I failed to notice that the counter for China Airlines was in the satellite terminal, so again, I had to cut through all the people, try to navigate through to the pillars (I had to take the bike off the cart, push the cart through, then put back the bike back on – this eight (!) times). Finally, the actual check-in at the Business Class counter was a breeze – thanks again, Mr. Chao.

Alas, my troubles were not over. Now I had to return with the bike to the main terminal, as that is where bulky items are checked in. More crowds, more navigating through pillars – it now turned out that the bike box was too large for the x-ray and the box had to be opened. Opening was lesser issue – closing caused the problem, as the counter did not have a tape for this. So I started running through the airport, with the clock ticking, none of the shops sold tapes, even stopped a construction van or two outside the building, without success. Back to the satellite terminal, no tape there either, then I ran all the way to Terminal 3, where, after some bagging and haggling, I managed to secure some tape, run back to Terminal 1 to seal the box and then back to T3 to return the remaining tape. I was quite exhausted when I finally reached the lounge and had a light breakfast.