Crap!

Crap, crap, crap!

This trip seems to be turning into the "Bad-luck-hurry-up-and-wait" trip.

The last time I went around the world many years ago it was the "Near-disaster" trip. Back then, I missed several big problems by just weeks or months early or late. In Egypt, I arrived after a major train fire. In southern India, I missed the bubonic plague by only a couple of weeks. In Southeast Asia a kidnapping and killing changed my plans about going into Cambodia, and the volcano erupting put the kibosh on my visiting it in Indonesia. I arrived in Japan about a month after the Kobe earthquake. And there were a couple of smaller scale incidents after I left several places. None of these timings were planned. It was all just coincidence.

So far on this trip I have had to spend extra days in Beijing, had to leave Tibet in a rush because my visa was expiring and could only get a ticket to Xiamen which meant I had to pay for a whole new visa rather than an extension. I got stuck in Louyang because of no ticket out due to the holiday. I stopped in Singapore only to find out that I couldn't get the India visa there.

Now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the visa process is only supposed to take five days, but there was no joy for me today at the visa office. This means I have to spend extra days in Kuala Lumpur (At least until Monday. Please, please let my visa come Monday.), and I have to change the date of my ticket to India for which I have to pay a penalty of 250 Rupees (Sure, it is only six bucks, but it is still a pain.)

Not a very auspicious start to the trip. Yes, it has been a good trip, but these little niggling incidences of bad luck are sure a pain. And they cost money. Yes, I have the money to spend, but I would rather not have to spend it like that.

I sure hope my luck changes for the better, and soon!