I've been spoiled in my previous travels by not having to worry too much about visas. For my trip in Europe last year, I was in the Schengen zone initially, and obtained my free 90 day visa on arrival at the airport. After I left the Schengen zone, I was able to obtain my free visas at the borders. The exception was Turkey, where I was able to fill the forms and pay the fee on-line a week or so before I expected to reach the border. At the border they just looked up my passport information and found my e-Visa.

For this trip, my entry is Thailand. The Thai visa rules seems to be very fluid. It sounds like I could get a visa on arrival valid for only 30 days and not extendable, but that I would need to show a ticket out of the country within 30 days. I contacted the Thai Consulate in Denver, described my trip, and asked what would be best. The person I spoke with suggested that I get a visa before leaving home, a multiple entry tourist visa, and said that I can get it in person in Denver. Okay! I waited about a month to make sure my whole trip would be within the 6 month validity of the visa, scheduled an appointment for the visa, and drove to Denver. The only catch was that the rules had changed, and I was only able to get a single entry visa. When I re-enter Thailand later in my trip, I'll need to get a new visa at the border. At the consulate I was told that it will only be valid for 15 days so there is some chance I'll have to get an extension. In this case, it is allowed and can be done at any immigration office. However a lot of discussion on the CrazyGuy forums suggested that for citizens of the G8 countries (and that includes me!) it will really be valid for 30 days. That would be much easier and I hope it is true! The Consular Officer suggested that I keep a printed copy of my airline itinerary and my bank statement with me to show the various immigration officials.

It looks like I can get the Laos visa, and also the Cambodia visa at the respective borders, or even in Bangkok if I'm ambitious.

The information about the Vietnam visa that I found on-line was confusing and contradictory. I sent an e-mail to the consulate asking if I can get a visa on arrival if I am traveling overland, and how to handle the paperwork, especially as my dates are not fixed. The reply just said that they strongly recommend getting the visa before leaving the USA, had information about fees, and contained a link to the form to be filled out. So I filled out the form, took a guess as to what dates I may enter and leave Vietnam, visited the post office for a money order and mailed my passport and visa application to Washington, D.C., along with the money order and a return envelope with the postage needed for tracking. I received my passport back in the mail very quickly. It looks like my application was processed the day it arrived. But the visa is valid for exactly the dates that I had written on the form. I expected it to be more like the Thai visa, where it is valid for entry in a given date range and the clock for the length of stay starts at entry. But I have the visa, and the dates on it seem like they're reasonable, at least from the comfort of home and before I start deviating from my travel plans en route. I hope it works out and that I won't need to get another visa. It wasn't cheap.

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In the meantime, United Airlines keeps changing my flight schedule. The first change was for the outbound flight. I was booked Colorado Springs to Los Angeles to Seoul to Bangkok. A long trip. The original morning flight from COS was cancelled, and United just booked me on the next flight. The problem was that it was scheduled to arrive in LAX after the flight to Seoul departed. I called United several times to try to straighten it out. When I finally got through to an agent, he didn't seem to be able to fix the problem. I finally asked if there was a flight from Denver to LAX that would make the connection, and he found one. I wasn't happy and asked for a complementary hotel in Denver for the early departure, and as compensation for United's screw-up. He told me that he couldn't do that, but that I should submit a request on-line. So I submitted a request on-line. It took about 2 weeks to get a reply. The reply was that they couldn't do that, but that there were several options for flying out of the Springs! So I called again, and got another agent who couldn't find any flights, and asked to speak with a supervisor. I was put on hold and then disconnected. I called yet again, and immediately asked for a supervisor. I was asked why, and I told my long story. This agent laughed and acknowledged the problem and said "we call that a mis-connection" and quickly found a flight originating in Colorado Springs that worked. Now I'm going through Hong Kong instead of Seoul, but that's okay. I never did get an answer as to whether the flight schedule with the mis-connection was done by a person or a computer.

More recently, my return flight has been changed. Instead of flying back through Chicago, I am now flying back through Denver. I really didn't want to put my bike on the small puddle jumper between Denver and Colorado Springs, but I guess that's what's going to happen. I think I've mentioned that I splurged on my frequent flyer ticket to go Business Class. The flight from Denver to the Springs doesn't have a Business Class, so they put me in Economy. I called and asked about the schedule change, and asked for them to at least give me an Economy Plus seat. The agent I spoke with did that with little fuss.

I used to fly United for work, because United was our preferred airline. I have lots of frequent flier miles. I've been gradually using them up, and am looking forward to flying another airline, even if I have to spend real money!