I slept very well. I woke up at 7 a.m. and took a shower. The warm water came out, although I could not use it at night. I think that since I had left the heater on throughout the night, the warm water was ready to come out.
After taking a shower, I packed everything into my backpack and checked out at the reception. At the reception, I told a different guy, whom I had seen the day before, that I had asked for laundry service. He checked by calling a guy whom I assumed was the person I had spoken to. He told me to pay upfront. I asked him for the price. It turned out to be 840 rupees, which was different from the price I had originally been told to pay.
I was a bit angry and refused to pay that amount of money. The reason why I did not want to pay was not only because the price was different, but also because I did not have a lot of cash. I had only around 900 rupees. Since I wanted to use an Uber bike to get to a coffee shop, which would cost me around 50 rupees, I did not want to pay 840 rupees. Although they had a sign saying that they accepted credit cards, they actually did not accept them.
As we were negotiating, he told me to talk to the guy who had told me the price and left. I left the hotel and went to a coffee shop. I paid 50 rupees, so I had 850 rupees left. I was wondering how it was going to work out, considering that I had to get to the airport that night.
After settling down at the coffee shop, I checked if I could use my credit card on Uber, and I found out that it worked. It gave me a lot of relief. Even if I paid the full amount that I had originally been told to pay for the laundry, I could still get to the airport. Of course, I chose a coffee shop where I could use my credit card.
While I was at the coffee shop, I had some bad stomach pain. I thought that I had finally gotten food poisoning on the final day of my stay in India. However, it turned out to be just a regular stomach issue. After I went to the bathroom, the pain was gone.
I stayed at the coffee shop until the early afternoon and came back to the hotel. At the hotel, I saw the guy I had met the day before. I asked if the laundry would be done by 6 p.m. He said, “100%,” which I did not believe. By that time, I had already decided to pay 840 rupees, so I did not ask him about the price again and just waited at the reception.
About 15 minutes before 6 p.m., my laundry arrived. It was time to pay. Before I paid the money, the guy told me, “Your jacket (my judo uniform) is expensive,” which concerned me. As I gave him all the cash I had, he told me that it would cost 1,000 rupees. He explained how the price had been calculated, but since the price had constantly changed and I did not have enough money, I refused to pay that amount.
After we argued for about 10 minutes, he said that it was okay if I just paid the cash I had.
For the last two days, I did not like India. Until then, I had not really had any trouble with paying money. At the end of the day, though, this was all my fault. Regarding the scam I experienced, I should not have followed a stranger who approached me on the street. At this hotel, I should have checked the final price and paid upfront, or I should not have asked for the laundry service in the first place.
Anyway, I was good to go. I tried to find a motorbike through Uber, but I was not successful. I ended up using a regular car, which cost me four times as much as the motorbike. It took me only around 10 minutes to get to the airport.
After checking in, I went through immigration and the security check, which took longer than I expected. I successfully got through everything and went to the lounge that I had booked through Trip.com. Since my membership had been upgraded, I could use the lounge service.
At the lounge, there was a buffet where I could enjoy so many different kinds of food and drinks, which stuffed me. After having dinner at the lounge, I headed to the gate.
Boarding started about 30 minutes before the departure time, although my boarding pass showed that it was going to start one hour before. My seat was on the aisle, which made me glad, since I was still concerned that I might get stomach pain from whatever I had eaten in India.
It was loud for the first couple of hours on the airplane, but it eventually became quiet.
9/29
I arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport in the morning. I came to this airport a couple months ago to transfer from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City. I was able to sleep well on the airplane, which is unusual for me. I had to wait for 18 hours until my flight back to Japan. Taking advantage of this time, I would like to reflect on this trip and write down some of my thoughts.
