A Sea Lion Made me Go to Germany:My Trip Outta BsAs!

[citygirl]

Uff - reading that will give me nightmares tonight! Hopefully your luggage turns up in a few days and glad you and your puppy made it safely

 

[BKK to BA]

Update:

Still no luggage and was informed by the Argentine embassy in Bangkok that the closest place I can trade my pesos is Japan...unreal!

 

[citygirl]

Maybe there is someone from Thailand planning a trip to Argentina that wants to buy your pesos?

 

[Liam3494]

Bugger all that - I'm staying here......

All the best and enjoy the spices

 

[mini]

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad you & ChooChoo are back safe & sound. Hope your bags turn up soon.

 

[cruizes]

OMG - you will probably be talking about this one for years to come.

SEE - you should have sold the grill - less luggage to lose (lol)

Take care and I hope ChooChoo is still talking to you after this adventure!

 

[ReemsterCARP]

Im sure some expat in Thailand will go to Argentina this year. Just hold on to them until you've found that somebody. You might lose 20-30% on a yearly base, due to the inflation of the Argentine currency, but that is still preferrable over simply throwing away 500USD in pesos.

 

[BKK to BA]

OMG - you will probably be talking about this one for years to come.

SEE - you should have sold the grill - less luggage to lose (lol)

Take care and I hope ChooChoo is still talking to you after this adventure!

Actually sold everything except for the fan,and was paid in pesos,thus the glut of this useless stuff in my wallet....sigh

 

[ghost]

ok so I get to the airport @ 4:00pm in Buenos Aires w/ all my shit,9 suitcases and my dog ChooChoo ready to board a Malaysia Air flight to to Bangkok via S.Africa and Kuala Lumpur,and this rep comes up to me and says "The dog cannot fly today because we have a sea lion on board" in that abrupt matteroffact manner that Argies have down to a science. Im like WTF...so I wait for like 15 minutes and then another person finallly comes over and explains that the sea lion is being transported in the cargo hold to Bangkok and needs the temp to be below 5c,which apparently would most likely freeze my dog to death.A last minute booking...sorry we didnt call you...blah,blah,blah..

So I wait some more and then another person comes over and says,okay we can let the dog fly,but we cannot promise it will survive the trip.Ok well thats not an option is it?!?
I wait another 20 mins and then he returns and says we have a solution...they were going to put me on a Qatar Air flight,to Qatar and then onto Bangkok.Problem is I have a 25 hour layover in Qatar..im like...uhhh...NO!
So they take me over to the Qatar Air counter and theyre trying to sort it out.Im waiting another 30-40 mins,when another guy comes over and says"Arent you glad we booked you on Lufthansa?!"..."Huh?!?"..."Oh nobody told you...sorry but yes now you are going to Germany on Lufthansa then onto to Bangkok.The layover was 8 hours,which i wasnt happy about but better than a whole day in Qatar,so I agree to the switch.
They now take me and all my stuff over to the Lufthansa counter and after weighing all my luggage and my dog they inform me my luggage fee was 2900.00!!!!
So Malaysia Air,trying to make me happy offers to take 4 of my suitcases on their flight for free,which would arrive into BKK a few hours before I did.So the Malaysia rep takes off w/ 4 of my suitcases,bringing my total on Lufthansa to $1000.00...so I pay that,get my dog thru customs.Its now 8:00pm, 45 mins before the flight and I've yet to clear immigration in BsAs.I get to immigration and they inform me I overstayed(which I did)and needed to pay 300 pesos(about 75.00 usd),so I break out my wallet and the guy is like "NO!" "Over there."pointing to a line of about 40 people deep.
I try to explain all that Ive been thru already,and i will miss my flight,the guy just again says no and points to the line.At this point im losing my patience and tell the guy that my dog is on the plane and I cannot miss the flight no matter what...so he gets on the walkie-talkie and another guy comes over.I offer to pay the fee then and there,but instead the guy rolls his eyes,mutters something in Spanish to his buddy and then the immigration officer stamps me w/ an audible grunt,waves me thru w/o taking any $.."Next time you pay attention to the 90 day limit,okay?!" he says.

By this time the flight is already boarding for Frankfurt,and I have zero time to do anything,including exchanging my Argentine currency.Which I learned later was a bad,bad thing..

13 hours later I arrive into Frankfurt Germany where I try in vain to see ChooChoo,or even inquire about how she is doing.Im exhausted,mentally and physically drained and needed to passout...finally I find a row of empty seats in the terminal and crash for like 5 hours.After I finally wokeup and stumble around the Frankfurt airport looking for a currency counter to get my Argie $ changed.Much to my chagrin Germany wont change Argie $...more drama!

After another hour passes I finally get to the gate for my flight to Bangkok and notify the rep that my dog needs to be put on the plane.She informs me that dogs are the last of the cargo to be loaded and she isnt on board yet...35 mins to takeoff.....Finally as they call my rows to board as im heading into the ramp the rep waves at me and gives me the thumbs up

11 hours later I get into Bangkok and after getting all my luggage from Lufthansa,they bring out ChooChoo...poor thing is scared shitless,but otherwise doing great...happy is me,but that was shortlived!

I head over to collect my luggage from the Malaysia Air flight and 2 suitcases are missing...file a report and then after all that I am informed that nobody in Thailand will exchange Argie pesos either..not in Germany,and not here.So I have like 500usd worth of Argentine pesos that I can do nothing with.

Its been about 3 days and they still cannot locate my suitcases.Even though Malaysia Air lost them,Lufthansa is responsible due to some archaic airplane law....

missing..
all my shoes,a ton of clothes,my medications and grooming stuff,2 cameras,my Ipod dock,PS3 games,BluRay discs,computer speakers.PS3 controller...but most importantly priceless photos of my late dog Cuda...all the other stuff can be replaced but Cuda cannot...

Hoping my stuff finally arrives,and suffering from jetlag,but otherwise doing good,and so is ChooChoo.

95 degrees up here near the border of Laos and indulging in some spicy food and enjoying the sun.

Damn....you did do all this in Spanish. You learned fast.