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Kennyboy12

21 Blog Entries
1 Trip
12 Photos

Trips:

Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"

Shorthand link:

http://www.blogabond.com/Kennyboy12




Day 33 - Fin - (7/20/2009)

Seattle, United States

July 17th 2009:
So Josh was finally off restriction on Friday so him and I went off base. He still wasn't allowed to drive so i got to drive while on base, prolly not legally, but it was still fun. We went out to get some food and some other things then went back to his place, i showered josh did some laundry then we headed out to the clubs. we started drinking around 8 and we had to be back on base before 12 but there was a bar on base so after 12 we hung out there till around 1:30am then i went back to the dorm and he was out till 2:30. during these hours we went through 5 bars, I ate horse for the first time (I loved it, it's frickin' amazing but hecka expensive...) smoked some hookah, met a few of joshes friends and a couple new people then passed out. I had a train to catch at 8 am the following morning....
July 18th 2009 (the following morning):
I woke up on time with a massive hang over.... I managed to shower and josh called the taxi for me. at the train station i was feeling like crap but couldn't do anything to fix it... I had a 4 hour train journey ahead of me before getting to the shinjuku station in tokyo. So i ran to the bathroom before my train arrived and punched myself in the stomach until something came out. haha, it helped a lot!
:::long train ride and some connecting trains:::
I arrive at the station where I was meeting Kumiko and Derek. Then i finally meet up with them! we all went to get food, then Kumiko and her friend went back to the friends house for the rest of the day and Derek and I went to find our capsule hotel. we find it and the people working there don't speak any English but luckily Kumiko had written Derek and me a note saying what we wanted haha. after we drop off our bags in our capsule, we head out and do touristy stuff. its late so a lot of stuff was closed or empty. we end up walking all over Tokyo and taking subways left and right till around 2 am. We did the pretty much the same thing the following morning, not really that exciting to write about but it was still hella fun for us.
July 19th 2009 (following morning):
Derek and i wake up early and get breakfast at McDonalds...lol... Then we head out to find some specific places and sights. We traveled all over Tokyo till around 5 when we met back up with Kumiko and her friend. had dinner then said our goodbyes. Derek and Kumiko had to leave and The friend had to go home so now i was alone. I decided to just head to the airport just the way i was and try to find my way home. I make my way back to Tokyo station to grab my bags that i stuffed in a locker then catch the next train to Narita airport. Ok, so it's now around 7:40 at the airport and I'm expecting the worst possible outcome to occur. Me being there another 38 hours or more jut like Dubai because all the flights i had looked at and had my mom call about were really over booked :( I'm at the airport looking at all the flights for the rest of that day, and there was only one more going to north America and that was to Hawaii. I was in Terminal 1 so i rushed to Terminal 2 and tried to make that flight but it had left at 8pm and i was too late to try and make it. I spend some time in terminal 2 looking at flights from there out and around 10:33pm decide to head back to terminal 1... so I'm waiting for the shuttle bus and none come... then a girl walks up to me and in broken English we figure out that there are no more shuttles tonight and i need to get to terminal 1... she decided to walk me to terminal 1 so i wouldn't get lost. she was really cute too. Too bad she was only at terminal 2 to see her boyfriend. anyways, we talked the whole way to terminal 1 then finally say goodbye. i walk up the stairs to the top floor of the terminal for international flights and as I'm using the touchscreen computer inside to look up flights, all the lights and my computer shut off... the airport closed with me inside...so now I'm like shit shit shit cause i don't have ANY yen on me for a taxi. luckily the doors still worked from the inside so i walked out and walked down the road to the first floor, a good 15 min walk (my bags are really really heavy). i notice lights on still on the first floor so i head to them and walk in the door and the security guard who spoke no English stopped me and i tried asking for an ATM. well all in all we got to the conclusion that the ATM was shut down, but i could stay the night at the airport on a bench in the meeting area. That was cool. got a free nights sleep.. so i got about 6 hours sleep and woke up right when the terminal reopened. i was gonna take a shower but the public showers were over in terminal 2 and i dint' feel like going back over there. so the next 6 hours are of me fighting with ticketing agents and flight crews again trying to use my Air canada ticket from Narita to Vancouver BC on other airlines to other destinations. The same old same old stuff i've been doing the past 33 days. Anyways, I end up renting a cell phone for the day to talk to my mom to help find direct flights to the US, Mexico or Canada. i get a list together and then head out to those airlines. America Airlines would not let my pay the difference, nor would Korean Air but they ALMOST let me. I finally talk to a Delta girl and she looks at my air Canada ticket and says "yea you can use this where you trying to go?" and i said "Anywhere in North America is all I'm asking" then she said " ok well we have two wide open flights to Portland ... and ... Seattle... do any of those two work for you?" OMG i laugh and almost hugged the girl. I was like SEATTLE SEATTLE SEATTLE SEATTLE!!!!
flight departed at 4:15pm.
I landed in Seattle at 8:36am.

The End.

permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 20 from Seattle, United States
from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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Day 27 - Day 26 Update & Day 27 - (7/14/2009)

Misawa, Japan

Made it to Misawa!
So lets finish off day 26,
-7.13.2009-
I got on the flight to Narita with no one sitting next to me and about an hour forty later I was in Japan!
Ok, so for those of you who might have seen the news (or maybe not) apparently my flight to Japan made the news. haha. I don't think I have ever had a more wicked landing experience ever in my life. So we like hit turbulence seconds before touching down, and I mean like a few feet off the ground I was out of my seat turbulence, but I guess that was our back tires touching down before our front, but I'm not sure. And then we are on the runway and I realize the pilots have turned the plane and we're now skidding on the runway at a few hundred miles an hour and still bouncing around. haha it was weird, people were like screaming and panicking, and the flight attendant sitting in front of me facing me was just smiling away and rolling her eyes at the passengers and we're both laughing.
Now that was a landing.

Ok, after the roller coaster landing I get through customs and the older lady met me out in baggage claim. She has a name by the way... haha, it's Noriko. So Noriko knew the type of rail pass I was trying to get so she showed me where the rail booth was and began speaking Japanese to the person working there to figure out if I can get that pass. The lady working turned to me and said that JR passes had to be acquired from your home country, outside of Japan... I told her no, that I know some do but I checked their website and this pass had to be bought in Japan because you had to show a plane ticket leaving Japan. Well I went to the bathroom real quick and experienced the most high tech toilet it was crazy. When I came back Noriko had looked up train passes to Misawa and their prices and they were, like I already knew, really expensive one way... well Noriko said there is an official JR office one floor down, so she took me there and talked to them for me and they were all like, "Oh yea, the four flexible day pass, no problem, it's this much and will you be using it today?" haha super easy, so I told them I was going to Misawa and they made all my train reservations, and gave me my tickets and told me what to do and then I was off! Noriko was going just to Tokyo so, which was my first stop and train change, so we got seats together here, this whole times she's helping me figure all this out. 70 min later we arrive in Tokyo, before she leaves she helps me find my next train and how to use my passes. Then I go through and say goodbye and now I'm on my own. haha. So this is my first time on the bullet train.
I'll be on this train for about 3 hours, from Tokyo all the way to Hachinohe where I then have 15 min to figure out where the next train is, the one to Misawa. Everything goes smoothly, the scenery was amazing.
and the train to Misawa was delayed like 30 min. I finally arrive in Misawa around 7:10pm and hurry to the taxis. omg, these taxis were AMAZING! The drivers have like a button that opens and closes the door automatically, so you never have to really work, and their meters works! And when you arrive at your destination.... They print you out a receipt! They don't ask for tips, they don't "get lost" and have to stop and ask others for directions, they don't charge more for being a tourist, they are clean, and they don't really talk to you but are still very nice. It was cool. So it's now like 7:20 and I walk up to the office outside the Misawa Air Force Base and use their phone to call Josh.... No answer... so I call again... Still no answer... So I call his work.... An answer, but it's not him and the person on the phone doesn't know where Josh is.... So now I spend the next hour calling his room and no one is answering. I ask the officer working if there are any hostels around or an internet cafe (which he began laughing when i said internet cafe 'cause he prolly thought I wanted to stay there lol) so I could find a cheap place to stay online. He asked around for me and said the nearest hotel was across the street, for about 5,000 yen. So I went there, got a room which ended up being 6,200 yen but breakfast was included. The room was really cool, small for the price but this is Japan. So I went to my room and got situated, plugged in my phone and fell asleep.
-7.14.2009-
Ok, so this morning I woke up around 6:30am. I went downstairs to have breakfast then went back to my room, packed and checked out. I go BACK to the base, it's now around 7:40am and i try calling josh again. He finaly picks up half asleep and is all oh crap, hey I'll uh be there soon. A little later a guy walks in to the front office and asks if I was Kenny, I said said yes and so he checks me in and I get my visitors pass. we then drive into the base and pick josh up. Josh isn't allowed to really leave the base due to a little thing that happened haha. Anyways, I'm finally at Joshes place. Josh has to go to work at noon, so he goes to take a nap, and I decide to crash as well on the couch. Even though I slept for a solid 9 hours the previous night, I still slept hard for another four and a half hours, this trip has worked me over.
Josh comes back around um, 4-ish with food and after two hours he heads back to work. So I've just been chillin' around relaxin' and watching movies on TV and talking to Kumiko on facebook about meeting in Tokyo. Tomorrow I don't know whats up, I think I'm going to go see Joshes work, or walk around Misawa. I'll find out tomorrow. It sucks though 'cause Josh can't leave the base, and he also has to work from noon to midnight. But his probation ends the day I planned on leaving for Tokyo. So I will now be leaving for Tokyo Saturday morning so we can go do something Friday night.
Well, I've uploaded some pictures from Thailand and India on facebook. I will get some from Egypt up, then upload a few from all three up on here.
byee.

permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 14 from Misawa, Japan
from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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Day 26 - Cake walk - (7/13/2009)

Seoul, South Korea

So it's now July 13, and I am now in Seoul, South Korea!
So, July 12, which is still going on for everyone back home, I woke up at 7:30am and my hotel had a taxi waiting for me. I got to the airport around 8:30am and waited outside of the first line of security before the ticket counters. When the security opened and I got there, they asked for a passport so I pulled out my little black notebook first because it was in the way and the frickin security guy at the metal detector grabbed it while it was still in my hand thinking it was my passport. Ok so by now I'm like hell no this already happened once coming into Egypt I really don't want to go through this again so I tighten my gripas he's trying to rip it from my hands and rip it from his hands saying "NO!" and I slowly pull out my passport and hand it to him like a civilized person. Now the part that made me laugh was at the Korean air ticketing counter where I check in was the same man who was at the gate for my flight from Cairo to Luxor and who got my cellphone back from the cargo of the plane. Haha so I approach the desk and he asked if I've lost my phone again, I said nope but I did lose my glasses. He laughed and asked if I enjoyed Egypt and of course I did so I says yes because everything I lose you guys find a way of getting it back to me. Good times. During this I meet this older lady who is also using a staff ticket. She works for Air Canada and lives in Tokyo so we were doing the same route an so we got out seats together. Oh yea we got our seats right away which was awesome! 5 hours later we land in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and deboard for about an hour. We all reboard and a few others and 6 hours later we all land here in Seoul, South Korea!
That lady and I went straight to the transfer desk for Korean Air and GOT SEATS RIGHT AWAY! Then we found me a Starbucks and a place to buy a spoon. Now I'm waiting at the gate and the lady is out shopping. Let's just hope the Japanese rail system is as easy as all this has been :)
Byee!

permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 13 from Seoul, South Korea
from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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Day 22, 23 & 24 - RETURN OF MY GLASSES - 7/9-11/2009

Cairo, Egypt

Ok, so what have I been up to these past few days...?
I can't really recall what exactly happened on which days but here is a synopsis of the three.
Ronny, Vall and I hired a driver to take us to the west bank in Luxor to see the temples. We went to four and during this time met the funniest guy ever. He wanted to show us a mummy but apparently it was a secret and behind the fence so he was all hush hush. we followed him not expecting to tip him anything but lone behold there was a body behind this wall. Anyways, we continued to follow chef as he called himself and with his broken, very broken, English, he told us the history of the temple. Apparently there was a man named Ramon who "cut" everything. You had to have been there to know how funny this was. It was soo funny that after he was finished with his little tour we decided to tip him. Then he wanted a pen for one of his kids (this is when we noticed everyone wanting a pen from us...) we three walked around luxor in search for a pool and we found one on the roof of a hotel. it only cost us 25 pounds each but it was worth it. after the pool and a stella, we went out to eat at The Taste of India. wait, the Taste of India was the very first night we were there and the West Bank tour and the pool was the second day, the evening of the second day July 9th, we decided to hit up an Irish pub... This place was ridiculous, hecka funny, but still retarded. So the only beers they had were the three Egyptian beers, Stella, Sakara, another type of Stella, and a Luxor something beer. They had Guinness on tap, but no Guinness... So that on top of an all Egyptian crew, and DJ who was was always off beat did not make for a good time. after a couple beers we left and went to another place which had a stronger beer. when finished we walked back to our hotel where i played soccer out front in the street with some random kids. the next morning , July 10th, we went out to explore the East Bank of luxor, the side we were staying on. We walked around and saw the Luxor Temple and then looked for tour guides that could give the best deal on a cruise to Aswan for Ronny and Vall. Before all that actually I tried to get a train ticket that evening back to Cairo because i called my hotel back there and they said THEY HAD MY GLASSES!!! So yea, i had to get back ASAP. I still can't believe my glasses traveled 200 miles back to me! at the train station all tickets were sold and i would have to wait till the morning of the next day to purchase the 10pm train tickets to cairo... no good, so i went back to my hotel and they easily got me my bus tickets and a driver to get me to the bus station. I Left Ronny and Val in Luxor at 6:00pm and by 7:00pm I was on a bus back to Cairo. 12 HOURS later I arrive in Cairo and hurry back to the hotel where my glasses were waiting for me :) they didn't have any vacant rooms so i hung out in the reception area for 5 hours, until someone check out which was around 11:30, and I got my room. So its July 11th, and I'm just relaxing and waiting for my flight tomorrow.
Egypt has so much to offer and i've missed out on so much i really do need to come back.

The four questions I'm going to miss the most are...

  • Taxi?

  • chariot?

  • felucca?

  • pen?


    • The Phrases I'm going to miss are...
  • Nice/Lovely Tatoo (said to Val every two seconds)

  • Very cheap price just 5 pounds!

  • "Where you from?" [America] "OH, OBAMA!" [yeaaa...] "TAXI?" [no] "Why not!? Very good price!" [like free?? NO] "OBAMA!"

  • Walk like an Egyptian!


    • Well looking back I really enjoyed Egypt, not necessarily the random kid who ran up, hugged my waste and then kissed my belly, or the waiters trying to charged us for more than we ordered, or the high prices given to tourists, or the lack of ability Egyptians have for standing in a line... But I'm going to miss all the taxi, chariot and felucca drivers I messed with, playing soccer with the kids, all the friendly people, how the average Egyptian smiles like 20 times more than the average Indian, and how somehow, anything i lose ends up back in my possession!
    It's now 9:20pm my last night in Egypt and I'm going to bed.
    Tomorrow is my birthday :) and if everything goes smoothly..God I hope everything goes smoothly, I'll be spending it in Egypt, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and Japan.

    Byee


    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 11 from Cairo, Egypt
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Day 21

    Luxor, Egypt

    So today Ronny, Val and I LEAVE CAIRO.
    We arrived in Luxor around 7:00pm and so far it's been waay better than Cairo.
    Not much really happened today but I did lose my iPhone at the airport....
    When i went through seccurity I put my wallet and stuff (like my iPhone) in the mesh pocket of my bag but after security i grabbed everything but my phone.... then i CHECKED that bag cause i could only have one carry one... so now im at the gate freaking out and tell the ticket agent about my situation and he kinda blows me off but i didn't lay off untill he started to do something. He took my name, made some calls, then walked off. After about 30 min of waiting at the gate and freaking out he finally comes back from with my phone in his hand. omg i was so relieved...
    oh, also this morning i got a message from the front desk of my hotel saying they found my glasses! so i asked if they could bring it back to the hotel whenever sometime before July 14 and email me when it gets there so i hope they pull through. omg i can't beliefe im forgetting stuff left and right bah.
    I'm leaving out a lot of details about today because this computer is hella slow and not keeping up with my typing and its just wasting my time and im getting really annoyed with this crappy machine so im going to end this blog here.
    byee

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 8 from Luxor, Egypt
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Days 18, 19 & 20 - Yupp- (7/5-7/2009)

    Cairo, Egypt

    So I went back to re-read what I had written about on my last blog, and all I can say is...wtf..haha. Maybe I did have 4...They were pretty big bottles too. I think one bottle was about two.
    ok on to what I've been up to the past few days.
    this is what's been up.
    -07.05.2009-
    Today everyone slept in since yesterday was quite the day. Val came and woke me up around 11:00am to tell me that Ronny had gotten really sick so they had to pass on going to the oasis. Later that afternoon Ronny was resting so Val and I headed out to get our plane tickets to Luxor. After walking around trying to find a place that accepted credit cards, we found a place that was too cheap to pass up and so we paid with the cash we had left. So now we have three tickets to
    Luxor for the 8th. After getting the tickets Val and I went out to get some dinner which was really good, but the waiter tried charging us for two fish dishes... I only had one.. What is up with Egypt trying to charge us for more then we actually got... ANYWAYS, after that Val needed to get some crackers and pop for Ronny the she and I went to a little outdoor cafe and had some sheesha and chatted. That was pretty much that whole day.
    -07.06.2009-
    This morning I woke up around 6:30am, the hotel brought my breakfast to my room :) and I packed up to head out on my oasis tour. I left my bag and backpack with Ronny and Val and check out so I wouldn't have to pay for a room I wasn't using (don't worry, I grabbed all my plane tickets and valuables before leaving my bags with strangers). then the hotel driver brought me to the bus station and helped me on my way. In Bahariya my guide met me and and also the 4 others in my group. Four Japanese guys, and one Malaysian guy who joined us last minute. So now us 6 are eating a lunch and soon meet up with a couple from Argentina and off we all go in two jeeps to the black desert. This place was wicked awesome, and we all climbed this huuge mountain to take a photo of the land. After the Black Desert we stopped at a few photo op places and then stopped at a sand dune to mess around and take more pictures and yea. Next we went to Crystal Mountain which is exactly what it's name implies... It was like one giant crystal crystals were everywhere! Then we made it to the white desert and yes it was totally white. We stopped here and took more pictures and messed around then about 30 min further into this part of the desert our jeeps stopped and our two drivers and cook set up camp. The camp was badass. They used the two jeeps as walls making a corner, and set up carpets on posts and rope then hung a couple lights from a rope above it, and made fire. They then put down blankets and mats and two tables and began cooking up a delicious meal. All of us just walked around and took pictures and pretty much just chilled and gazed at the out of this world land that was all around us. After dark dinner was ready so we ate egytpian soup, a vegetable salad, rice, a chicken breast, and egyptian bread and another type of soup. About 20 min into dinner little coyotes started to walk up so we tossed some chicken for them and took a lot of pictures. After dinner we all found a place on the sand to sleep. Our guides handed out a thin mattress and a few blankets and so I pretty much fell asleep in the middle of the desert, 200 miles away from Cairo, listening to deathcab for cutie, under the stars, with a full moon, and absolute silence (I didn't use my blanket cause it wasn't the slightest bit cold.)
    -07.07.2009-
    This morning, around 6:30am we all woke up, our cook made breakfast, hard boiled eggs and Egyptian bread with jam and cheese and we raced back to the village to catch our bus back to Cairo which is when i realized i lost my glasses back at the hotel where we all met up.... The Asians and I parted ways with the couple from Argentina, and made it back to Cairo where we were let off at the wrong bus station. At this station the Japanese guys and I parted ways with the Malaysian dude and made our way back to the correct part of Cairo where then we parted our ways and I found my way back to my hotel. Then i had the hotel manager call the oasis hotel and ask for my glasses so hopefully someone will bring it with them when they head back to Cairo... I hope... So now I've been chillin' in my room and ready to leave Cairo for Luxor. Oh I also realized my bank fucked up again and started adding and removing money without any notifications...and so now I have roughly 100 dollars less than i expected... dammit... well I may have to skip Mount Sinai... fuck.
    Ok well my hour is almost up for internet so i gotta go!
    byee.

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 7 from Cairo, Egypt
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Day 17 - Best day ever - (7/4/2009)

    Cairo, Egypt

    So yesterday morning I paid 120 Egyptian pounds which was like 21 U.S. dollars or so for a private driver to a few main areas outside of Cairo. Later that day the manager of my hotel said there will be another couple joining me and asked if that would be ok. I said ya no problem so he cut my price in half so j only paid 60 Egyptian pounds. And so this morning I woke up had a simple but wonderful breakfast and met the other two who would be joining me on this journey. Their names were Ronni and Val. Ok so Ronni looked up what we paid for and found out that people pay quite a few hundred bucks for a tour lime the one we had for only like 10USD. omg I can't even begin to explain how awesome we ha it today. So first of all we had a driver the whole time who would wait for us at each stop. He drove us to saqqara where the very fort pyramid ever built is (the step pyramid), ancient Memphis and finally to the pyramids. So we had to pay the entrance fee but the what we saved in having this driver was just amazing. Now after two stops, an ancient graveyard and the sackara pyramid we were getting hungry so he brought us to a friend of his. (this was prolly planned case later they sold us a camel ride) well we arrived at the frieds houseD saw his horses the we had lunch, for free. After lunch our new host explained the layout of the pyramids and was trying to sell us a guided horse or camel tour. In the end we decided to take the camel tour around the pyramids. It was 190 pounds and the host let us pay him when we got back, he actually had a good vibe about him overall. Now the camel ride tonthe pyramids... This part was sketch cause we enters the whole area in a back way and every security officer that approached us.... Our guide would hand his a little cash and we would be on our way. It was pretty badass cause there was NO ONE else out there. No one at all just Ronny, Val, me and out two kid guide. We got a panoramic shot of the three main pyramids the we rode right up to the base of the pyramids I climbed up several feet and had my picture taken. Actually we all took a lot of pictures. It was incredable.so far we've been riding around fir an hour and a half and now we head down to the sphinx. This is where all the tourist were. We get off our camels and visit the sphinx the head back to the house and to our driver. There was some money issues that was kind of annoying but not worth mentioning cause overall all three of us were so happy we did this. I must say it was quite the deal. After this it was like 4pm and we went back to the hotel. I mentioned I'm thinking of taking the oasis trip with my hot and mentioned what I knew. We three talked about the possible trip and try decided to try and make it also. We decided to have dinner together later that day so we'd talk about it then and see how things will work out. Before dinner our driver took my to Islamic Cairo, just a quick drive through so I could take some pictures. We got back to the hotel and 30 min later around 6:15pm Ronny, Val and I went out to eat. We decided to go on the oasis trip, and together make our way to Luxor to spend a night or two there then we'd part our ways since I was heading to Sinai and theybwere heading more south. After dinner we head to a bar for a couple drinks and sheesha. We each had three beers but the waiter tried to say we each had four... Long story short I got out of my seat and argued wkththe waiter till be dropped the price. We didn't tip. We got back to the hotel and tried to purchase three tickets to luxur but the sight was trippin out. So we'll do that tomorrow. All in all, today I made a couple good friends, got an unheard of deal for touring the outskirts of cairo, climbed a pyramid, paid of the police, rode a camel, took some great pictures of Islamic Cairo, smoked sheesha, drunkenly foughtt a waiter, and now about to go to bed. Tomorrow I sleep in and later Ronny, Val and I head to Coptic Cairo. Egypt is amazing. I love of so much I just wish I could have writtinf about my day a letter better. Hopefully you still get the feeling of how amazing today was. ash I love it.
    K.
    Goodnight :)

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 4 from Cairo, Egypt
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Day 15 - EGYPT - (7/2/2009)

    Cairo, Egypt

    So I FINALLY make it to Cairo... Only 36 hours, three airports and $375 later. Man it has been quite the... um Day? So to recap a little. I woke up at 3:00am ish July 1st, and got to the Dubai international airport around 4:15/4:20 ish. After not making the 6:00am or 3:00pm flights to cairo I start trying to figure out where else I could fly to so to spend as little as possible on a real ticket from there to Cairo. I looked at flying into three different cities in Saudi Arabia, two in Pakistan, one in Sudan/Ethiopia/Jordan/Israel/Omen/Iran/Yeman. I tried all over the place, and the cheapest I found was from Tehran, Iran but that price quickly jumped an extra $100 within 30 min. So now it's around 8:00pm and I've been in the staff ticketing section for 16 hours checking loads and calling my mom and trying to figure out the best route to take which was starting to look like skipping Egypt and just taking the wide open flight to Osaka, Japan at 3:10am July 2. After hours of more planning and failing, i decided to call it all off and just head to Japan right then and end my trip early. So now I'm talking with the ticket agents for Emirates airlines and they say they can't issue me a ticket based off the ticket I had because it was a ticket under Qatar Airways and had the city Doha to Cairo... Anyways thats whole arguement is complicated to explain to people who dont already know about this stuff so lets just say Emirates let me enter their country using the first half of my ticket but now wont let me leave using the second half which is now inflicting me costs of probbably having to pay for another hotel... So now im flippin out on the ladies, and just want to go home but my mom says how about I get myself to Doha so that I can use my ticket without any questions or problems... This is where the 376 dollars comes in. I end up buying a ticket from Dubai to Doha which is only a 40 min flight JUST so I can try to standby out of that country. yay... It was 1:50am July 2nd when i bought that ticket... I've been at the airport for 22 hours. At 5:55am I depart to Doha, Qatar and get a nice 30 min nap in. The sun is out by now. Now in Doha there is a flight to Cairo at 1:oopm. I am now chilling out at the Doha International Airport for another seven and a half hours. Oh by the way, we left Dubai at 5:55am and arrived in Doha at 5:30 am lol. After much standing, napping, walking, and more napping the Qatar transfer guys got me on the flight to CAIRO! They were such a huge help and it was a really good change from the damn Emirates.
    I land in Cair at 4:05pm.
    I need a visa to vist Cairo which I am able to pay for on arrival at the airport but I soon find out I need cash to do so... so security at the passport check hold on to my passport and let me out to access an ATM. On my way back in, I guess you aren't allowed back in the airport once you leave, I get bombarded by security asking me why im walking back in, or at least I think thats what they were saying since it was in arab... So anyways i pull out my notebook, which has all my info and receipts and phone numbers and maps and well stuff I need, to show the men my atm receipt and that i had to get cash to pay for my Egypt visa. THEN THEY SNATCH MY NOTEBOOT OUT OF MY HAND and wouldn't give it back and were like trying to treat it as my passport and walking around talking to the other security men and im like "hey give that back, that's not my passport I need that, the other guy has my passport, i was just getting money to pay for my visa" and im kinda freakin out. they start askin me where my passport is... omg I just told them... anyways i tell them again and say to follow me and i will show them. so the guy still has my notebook and were walking and i finally get my passport back and show him, he gives back my notebook then im off to get my visa and go through the customs check.
    ok past the airport and out in the real world. great now come the flock of tourist helpers and all that fun stuff.
    hmm anyways, after telling people to back off and leave me alone, i sit and figure things out. i catch a taxi and start checking if any hostels have any rooms, all the ones i wanted didn't and all i wanted was one room for one night so i could relax and figure out my next plan in peace. so now im in the Hotel Indiana. Its $55 but I really dont care, its a nice huge room with AC and so tonight i rest, eat and make reservations for a cheaper place for the rest of my time here in egypt. Man still can't believe I made it. If you could have gone through all the shit i went through the past day and half... man.
    ok well im out.
    I plan on being in egypt through the 12th, and then go through all this again on my way to Japan. bah can't wait to get home, kinda.
    byee

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 2 from Cairo, Egypt
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Day 14 - Egypt has been nerfed - update 1: Did I hear Iran??? - update 2: scratch Iran it's now Qatar - (7/1/2009)

    Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    This country will not let me leave!
    I've been at this airport since 4:20 am and it is now 6:00pm. I've looked at all flights to Cairo for today and tomorrow and all flights to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia, Sudan and Bahrain.... All overbooked. Man using zed tickets was a baaad idea haha. Well now I know how it all works for the most part. Well I still have half a zed ticket for the distance between Cairo and Dubai so I'm still looking for a place to fly to. Egypt is a no go at all and would take some sort of miracle for me, or some tragedy to others to get there this summer. So my trip will be cut short quite some time and I'll be turning 21 where ever the hell I can get myself. I have a good chance of making a wide open flight to Osaka tomorrow morning at 3:10am so that will at least get me in Japan. So this means I'll be at the airport till then... Heh. I've been up since 3:00am. Stupid rich country not letting me leave....and I haven't even had a chance to do anythin here like head to the beach or see the sites. I know the airport quite well and the shuttle driver between the terminals haha. Well we'll see where I end up in the next 24 hours. I'm kinda wanting to ape d a day in Syria haha. Nah I'm too scared to even hang out in their airport.
    Well I'll update this throughout the rest of today or this morning or people back home.
    Byee.

    ::Update::
    So a flight to Iran is open enough for the ticket agent to say there's a 100% chance of me getting a seat! So I checked prices from Tehran, Iran to Cairo, Egypt and they are only $370. Looks as though I'll be visiting Iran! ... I hope :).

    :::Final Update (7/02/2009):::
    So emirates airlines are fuckers. omg fuck them. Anyways they suck major balls and pretty much screwed everything up and costed me $375 cause they're fucktards. So yea, well now I'm flying to Doha, Qatar to try and use my zed ticket from there to Cairo. So egypt is hopefully still a go. Oh, btw. STARBUCKS! that's right, as I'm walking down the huuuge center of the Dubai international airport, coming up to my gate, at the very end of the.... Yellow brick road... or whatever... I slowly begin to recognize those giant green letters. Haha. Best part was... They knew how to make my drink. This makes being at the fucking airport for 24 hours a little better. Oh I also got a spoon from here too. (I think only my parents will know what that means). Anyways, it's now 4:00am the next day and my flight departs at 5:55am :( omg I'm going to explode...
    K byee

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on July 1 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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    Day 13 - haha pt 2 - (6/30/2009)

    Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Hmmmm so today I wake up around 9am call the service counter and have then send up my clothes and jacket. I then take a nice long shower and eventually head down to the lobby for breakfast. After a nice slow breakfast I head back to my awesome room and gather my stuff to check out. Turns out the whole bill came out to around 281 dollars that's or the room/laundry/drycleaning/dinner.
    I arrive at the airport at 1 like the man on the phone from Emirates told me to do and as far as I knew everything was taken care of and all I had to do was tell the Emirates ticket agents that I was there. But noooo it wasn't that simple. Ok first of all I had one ticket that I could use for both Qatar and Emirates airlines. I just happened to have the Qatar routing on my tickets which doesn't really mean anything since they are both in the same ZED Zone. Anyways, to cut to the point the Emirates people said I could not use my ticket with them cause it had Qatar on it... After an hour of me yelling at them telling them how it all works and explaining in detail the workings of a staff ticket and that I've done this 5 times the past two weeks and kept having them call people higher and higher in command... They finally let me on the flight... Omg hella retarded... Anyways that was the first issue, I also spent anoter 30 minutes protesting paying the airport tax of $22 because it was included in the ticket I had. Implicitly... anyways... I said fuck it and paid the stupid tax twice.... I'm calling in on this when I return.
    So now I'm in Dubai!
    Big mistake... Well sorta. This place is not the place a backpacker with no reservations should stop at. First off it's a pricey city to begin with, nd secondly, well I have no connections for cheap places to stay and all the hostels online had no open rooms for tonight... So now I'm at a 4 star hotel, the Metropolitan hotel Deira. Haha. $83 gets me a room and transportation to/from the airport. Sigh...
    Well I'm off to bed, gotta leave here at 4:00am. :(
    K byee!

    permalink written by  Kennyboy12 on June 30 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
    from the travel blog: Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"
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