July 26, 2024
Day C0: A Turbulent Arrival Like No Other
This wasn't the best start to Armenia to say the least.
The absolutely crazy departure from Dubai then Abu Dhabi ended with a blissful flight, one of the best yet and I thought it was smooth sailing from here on in.
How wrong I was.
As the airplane descended into Yerevan there was extreme turbulence as the pilot basically landed into gale force winds. Everybody clapped on arrival as he had some such a marvelous job. Even so that was the metaphor for what was coming up next.
First things first, passport control. I had been told there were still Russians at Zvartnots Airport manning the immigration desk and that was confirmed to be the case. I even saw some soliders outside the airport with the unmistakable Russian flag patched on. But just my luck at immigration, the senior official who processed me looked remarkably like Putin. He was stern and didn't say much. He carefully flipped through my passport. I knew exactly what he was looking for: evidence of any visit to Azerbaijan. Funny he should even care, it was actually the Russians who threw Armenia under the bus.
He didn't find any evidence, but he sure paused a lot on those Chinese visas. Once he saw Cambodia and Thailand he realized I was just a traveler and stamped me through.
Due to my exhausted state and the usual nightmare that flying with a bike entails, things were about to get crazy. You've got to be vigilant when going through airports, but I was unfortunately at the end of my rope.
My usual style of bike travel with airlines means I'll check the bike bag in then hand carry everything else. But due to the strict hand carry limits with the airline I had to check in an extra pannier. Then I promptly forgot about it, picked up the bike bag only, and walked out of the airport.
Once in the arrivals hall I realized my mistake and did a rough mental inventory of what was in that bag. Nothing of value seems to register. It was a tiny remnant of coins, many books I never read, a speaker, a bunch of bungee cords, two large bottles of alcohol, and a few remnants of electronic cables. If there was something important in that checked bag, then maybe later I would realize it. But for now, I wanted to try and get it back.
I googled, "What happens if you forget to pick up checked luggage then leave the airport?" Much to my surprise this happens a lot. It's not that much different to when the airline loses your luggage.
After asking around I found out there was a lost and found on the side of the airport.
To get there I had to push the luggage trolley outside and then hit those massive gale force winds. They were so strong they blew the cart sideways and all my other stuff fell off including the bike bag and stuff was beginning to scatter. I quickly ran and picked everything up then kept on struggling to reach the shelter of this lost and found area.
Once there they put me through on the phone with someone and they said they had the bag. But there was a huge misunderstanding: they thought I lost it in the arrivals hall and not the baggage claim. So after being bounced around all over the place, I gave up. One person would say someting, then another person said something else. I was getting multiple different stories so it seemed nobody really knew what was happening.
Eventually I asked at information and they didn't know much either. I told them my plan to figure all this out tomorrow and they said, "Yes, do that. Go to hotel first. WAY BETTER idea than trying to leave your stuff here and go back inside the baggage claim now. You can do it with your passport but not with all your stuff through security. So just go to hotel. They'll keep the bag for you"
I googled and it was true, in most cases they'll keep unaccompanied baggage for up to a month.
But this was only the beginning of the chaos. I had pre-booked a hotel online called IT hotel and was about to get a taxi there. What I really should have done was pre-arrange for them to meet me at the airport like they even recommended, that would have saved so much hassle. That or else just get on the bike and ride.
After rejecting all sorts of illegal taxis, I found a metered taxi or so I thought. Little did he know that he had tampered with the meter. The driver typed in IT Hostel because apparently in Armenian culture a hostel is actually a hotel. Moreover his app was incompatible with mine.
I told him "It's IT Hotel, not IT Hostel" but IT Hotel didn't come up on his app.
Then I said, "We'll use my app" but he insisted on using his Yandex app that was not compatible with Google maps. Perhaps it was a Russian version? At any rate I was astonished that we were about to experience a shitstorm over the difference of just one tiny little letter.
I knew exactly what was going to happen before it even did. Not surprisingly, he couldn't find IT Hostel. At that point it was getting so late and I was feeling desperate. I said probably the worst thing possible: "Just find me a hotel, brother with one of your friends you know."
What he ended up doing, without my knowledge, was make a gigantic circuitous route back to the airport where a hotel was. I knew it was going to be a ripoff but still unfamiliar with the currency I didn't know how badly yey.
For now, both those guys would make money off my stupidity tax. The taxi driver wanted 30k drams (about $75) and this was all on his "meter" which I later found out was 10 times the actual price. Highway robbery surely. Then the hotel wanted 50k drams, over $100 and it was a piece of shit room to be honest. You could book the Marriot for that price! The worst part about it is that both them knew that I knew the game, yet I was clearly off my game and being penalized for it. One little thing off my game, one off day, and they took me to the cleaners.
I told the guy at the hotel, "Look brother, it's my first time to Armenia and you must think I'm pretty stupid. But I'm not that stupid. I am showing you right now all these hotels in the map with a range of 10-15k drams, and you want to charge me five times for that? Yes I realize it's late and I don't have much chance, so I'll pay 20k." It was worth a try at least.
The hotel guy said "It's because you didn't reserve that you are being overcharged. If you book in advance you get a better price." I told him I knew all this but it was late and he carried more bargaining power than I did. He said "25k for you brother". He cut his price by half and it was still a major ripoff at over $60 for the a night but I paid the tax anyway.
One good thing from all of us is that I could FINALLY re-assemble the Montague and get ready to start riding bikes to get around. The price would slowly come down. Then all these taxi drivers could go piss off, I had had enough of them.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |