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We’re leaving for Vietnam in a few hours and we haven’t been able to find a printer anywhere in Hong Kong. If we want a million billboards printed or a neon sign, no problem, but printing out a few documents from an SD Card on A4 paper, well, that’s impossible. I remembered a conversation with a Jay, a nice guy from Louisiana we met on our first day in Hong Kong. He was freaking out because he couldn’t find a printer. He had asked the front desk if he could use their printer, but it was broken. I asked Rob at the front desk, “Hey, any luck fixing that printer?” He explained that it had been broken for weeks. “Do you know anything about printers?” he asks, not knowing that I hate printers and want to go Office Space on every printer I’ve ever used. I reply, “Yeah, let me take a look” and head to the small closet space where the printer is stored. I turn it off, turn it on, unplug it, plug it in, remove the ink cartridge, insert ink cartridges, restart the computer and nothing is helping. If there was ever a time to fix a printer, it’s now. “What else can I do” is running through my head. “I have to print this Visa application or we’re screwed.” I start taking the printer apart and to my liking there is an old receipt jammed in the paper feed. I remove the receipt and put the printer back together. Opened my pdfs and clicked print. I think it’s going to work. Ahhh, the sound of inkjet had never sounded so sweet.

We greet the young lady at China Southern Airlines, “Hi. Hanoi, Vietnam please”. She replies “Passports, please”. I’m doing the airline check-in shuffle getting passports at of one pocket, itinerary out of another, and our visa paperwork out of another. She says, “You have Visa?” I hand her a 3 page printed copy of our Visa on Arrival form, 4 pages of entry forms, and 4 passport photos. She checks everything 3 times making sure that the names on the forms match the names on our passports. Then, she utters the dreaded “No, no, no”. I’m thinking, “Oh man, here we go…” She says “Do you have your exit ticket?” I reply, “Yep, our Hong Kong departure cards are in our passport.” “No”, she replies, “Do you have your ticket to exit Vietnam?” I explain that we’re on a long journey backpacking around Asia and we haven’t decided when or how we’ll be leaving Vietnam. She’s convinced that we won’t be allowed entry unless we have our exit strategy from Vietnam in order. She make a few calls as she reads instructions off her computer screen, “[Cantonese, Cantonese, Cantonese] … Will be refused entry”. She gets off the phone and asks, “Do you have Visa?” I explain that we’re doing Visa on Arrival and that I’ve provided her with all the paperwork. She’s getting frustrated, “No, do you have Visa? Visa Card!” I don’t know what to say or how else to rephrase so I repeat myself, “We’ve been approved by the Vietnamese Immigration to do Visa on Arrival at customs in Hanoi.” Her frustration is rising and now I’m starting to get worried that’s she’s not going to let us on the plane. She says “Money, money! Do you have money! Visa!” Ingrid solves the riddle and says to me, “Visa the Credit Card”=) We showed her the credit card and smiled. She smiled back and handed us two boarding passes to Hanoi, Vietnam.