Back in the Trap

 Forgive me Father it has been two months since my last post. I always say I'm going to post more often and then I never do. Well like most of life either nothing's happening so there's nothing to write or everything's happening and I don't have time to write it. Maybe that will change one day but for now, I'm going to insert a brief post just to catch everyone up on what's going on.

First off I say everyone and I'm fully aware no one reads this. But that's okay I'm not dissuaded and I kind of like it. I get to say whatever I want and I don't have to worry about anyone reading or judging the post. So today's post is going to be about yet another dire situation I've gotten myself into. no scratch that. it's not another one it's the same one. in January of this year, my stay in Hanoi Vietnam came to an abrupt end when the government canceled its automatic visa extension program. Well, that was frustrating. I had to start every discussion of this with how grateful I am that they allowed me to remain for the two years of covid. it's not as if they had to do that and it was incredibly helpful to me for them to do it. I very much wanted to be able to sign a contract with the school in Hanoi which is an offer I had before they ended the program but it just didn't work out like that.

Anyway since then I have been trying desperately to get back into China to complete the paperwork necessary for that. I have also been simultaneously trying not to get go back to the United States because I know what kind of a trap it is. I mentioned that I had walked back into this trap when I was fairly depressed a few months ago and Scott reassured me being the nice guy that he is that I hadn't walked into a trap and everything is going to be all right or something along those lines and while I appreciate the Good vibes he was sending, the United States is a trap. I mean I can arrive here with a little bit of cash an educated person an American-born citizen with an education and there is nowhere I can think of that I can go into the country and not be homeless in two weeks because if you don't have lots and lots of money you can't get home and you can't get around town and if you don't have a computer and can afford high-speed internet access you can't find a job. I've been here nearly 6 months now and there's nothing. unemployment right here is over 10%, they do not need any educated workers they do not need any uneducated workers because the island is full of people looking for jobs there are only a few types of jobs that are in high demand and that would be in healthcare the only reason they have those is that the Commonwealth here was smart enough to take all of the Medicaid on offer from the federal government which is great but unfortunately they haven't managed the economy to generate any more jobs and quite frankly neither has any of the rest of the country and it's much more expensive to live there. Had I been able to afford to go back to the mainland I would now be looking at you know a thousand plus dollars a month for rent instead of $120 which I can't pay here and I still wouldn't have a job. Anyway, I guess I should get to the point which is I will soon empty the last dollars of my bank account, and if I'm lucky it will be enough to pay rent for December, and then I will not be able to pay rent for January and I don't see any way I can make money before January there is not a realistic chance of getting a job I can no longer do online work because the computer is not functioning well enough. I can't get the thousand or so dollars it will take to get the paperwork to get into China which is what I've been trying to do all year so that's kind of off the table now. Yeah I've stepped into the trap and I didn't want to do it and I knew it was there and the Chinese requirement to be in your home country to apply for a work visa screwed me and back when I found that out I even looked into Vietnam cuz I thought if I can get to Vietnam instead and work somewhere there but the schools were not reopened there and quite frankly I'm not sure that they're even open for visas. They had said much earlier this year that they were reopening for tourists and everybody could come in and then when I went to get a visa to go back into Vietnam which I would have loved to have been able to do they said at the embassy we're not doing that we're not offering any visas. That shit has caused most of the problems this year I was under the impression I would be able to cross borders and it turns out virtually no one was allowing that

Well anyway maybe these short posts are better I just want to wanted to be able to make this note to get out my frustration I also want to leave you with a picture from my Thanksgiving here in Saipan which was very nice and which I am grateful to my friends Charlie and Christine for inviting me

Finally, I want to say that I'm going to try and start posting pictures of things I've done in the past and talk more about travel on this blog. As is often the case it seems like I may only have a few weeks left so I wanted to try and post some nice things from the past. This is close to Christmas so I was going to start with some December things from previous years and maybe just sprinkle in updates as I go through. 

The Search Continues

 When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Unless life crams those lemons down your throat whole. And chokes you to death. Then I guess you're screwed. Life hasn't quite done that to me yet. 

I'm sitting on a beautiful tropical island in the Northern Pacific Ocean, looking out my window at a beautiful, sunny day, with just a few clouds in the distance. I have a great job waiting for me in an exciting, exotic foreign country. And I have lots of free time on my hands! What's not to love about life?

Well, there's an asterisk to most of what's above. The beautiful tropical island is Saipan, which is part of the United States. That seems like it should be a bonus, but for anyone like myself, who has no money to speak of, it only means that I now become the perpetually losing party in America's neverending war on the poor. Mind you, this island has a high level of expertise in handling poverty. Food stamps and Medicaid are de rigueur, so hospitals, pharmacies, and grocery stores have no problem accepting them. And the offices that issue these public benefits are fairly fast and efficient in doing so. And friendly.

Unfortunately, it's all done under the same philosophy of 'helping those poor unfortunates' rather than citizens collecting benefits due, so the language is still filled with penalties for doing it wrong and the feeling is that someone is doing you a favor, even though I and the other citizens are collecting what we're entitled to, what we spent years paying taxes for. As Erica constantly reminds me, it would be far worse on the mainland.

The more substantial problem with being in the US, even if you only consider that a technicality, is that main problem that, apparently, plagues every part of the country: cars. Or more specifically, the lack of any other form of transportation. This island should be a case study of how insane reliance on the automobile can get. This island has the remnants of at least one town and the potential for several more. There are communities all over this 12-mile-long island, but so far Garapan, where I live, is the only one that even appears to have been walkable at one time. If you've never read my other blog, Battling Burnham, you may not know how I feel about urban development and American-style exurban environments. So I'll give a quick summary: I don't like them. A small, densely developed area can easily be walked, giving access to the most number of people possible. American-style, exurban development restricts access to those who can afford a car. This means anyone too poor, too young, too old, too handicapped, etc. can't get access to anything, from jobs to food.

So walking anywhere is out. Public transportation, like most of the mainland, doesn't exist. As a side note, concrete bus shelters all over the island aren't used for anything except advertising. Also, there's a Commonwealth Transit Authority in Susupe complete with publicly owned buses parked out front. I'm told they plan to start service next year, but only if you call  24 hrs ahead for a pick-up.

Retrospective Wisdom

Is it just a fact of life that we don't appreciate things until they're in the past? I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Saipan, CNMI trying to set up an online storefront for the YouTube channel, and I can't help but think back to my time in Hanoi in 2020. I remember being supremely stressed and worried about the obvious problems of the world back then. I remember wondering if I'd ever be able to get back into China. And if life would ever return to normal. What I don't remember is relaxing and truly enjoying the amazing experience of living in Hanoi. I even remember being envious of a friend who had similarly ended up in HCMC (though he went before the pandemic, so he had established a life there) because it seemed to be the cooler city with more to do and, frankly, more mystique and somehow also more cosmopolitan.

Now I think back to my time in Hanoi and I think of it as one of the most amazing times of my life. To be able to live anywhere in Vietnam was an amazing gift from the universe. To be in Hanoi especially is quite possibly the best place to learn about and experience Vietnamese culture, food, and people. Whatever other problems there were in my personal life (that being employment) and the world at large, I know I missed a lot of what I should have been able to enjoy because I couldn't put aside these other issues and just enjoy the moment.

Back in the USA

 I just took a look at the last time I made a post on this blog and I'm surprised it has been this long. I knew I'd missed a few, but it's laughable how much has changed since last I posted. This, of course, is exactly why not many people write blogs. The stresses of migrating around SE Asia and trying to plohavehrough the paperwork for the Chinese work visa has dominated my thoughts for the past six months and it really hasn't inspired me to turn my attention toward blog writing. At the very least, it has made it too difficult to start writing the blog as a new habit. I'm hoping the little coffee shop I've found around the corner from my new regularlye it easier to come in and blog on a regular basis.

But that's already getting ahead oonyself. I'm going to try to do a quick catch-up for what's been happening over the past six months. For anything before that, you'll have to refer to previous posts.

In January of this year, The Vietnamese government rescinded the policy that allowed foreigners to remain in the country during the COVID crisis. The policy had been quite generous, allowing foreigners who had entered the country after a certain date to remain in the country without renewing their visa for two years. The end of the policy, however, was announced with less than a week's notice, so I was caught off guard even though I knew the policy would be ending at some point. The policy was also ended before schools had reopened, so the school that had offered me a permanent job before the lockdown had not opened, so my only option on such short notice was to leave. At that point, most countries in the region had not reopened their borders. Further, the United States was at the apex of COVID transmission at that point, and airfares were prohibitively expensive.

So the only viable option seemed to be crossing the border into Cambodia, which had reopened for tourism. The details have been documented regularly since January in Untethered Livestreams, the YouTube channel this blog is meant to document. But to sum up quickly, I was able to leave Vietnam and spend two months in Cambodia (the maximum amount of time a tourist is allowed to remain in Cambodia). After that, I got a flight to Singapore and quickly made my way to Malaysia (Singapore is a bit too pricy for my budget). I spent the past few months in Malaysia working through the various paperwork requirements for a Chinese work visa. Eventually, I was ready to apply for the visa, but discovered that the Chinese Embassy and the consulates in Malaysia were still closed because of COVID-19, but the Embassy in Singapore was not. So I spent a few days in Singapore trying to apply for the visa only to discover that the general policy of Chinese Embassies and consulates is that a person may only apply for this type of visa in their home country.

The final countdown

 Well, I didn't think I'd have much to write about this post, but as it turns out, I just got my invitation letter from China. Just to recap: all the paperwork that I've been trying to get done over the past three and a half months has been so that we could submit the paperwork for the invitation letter. ('we' meaning, the school). We just received the letter from the government and they sent the letter to me. Now we can book the flights, at least one week from now, though it will probably be longer considering how expensive flights are, and once that's done we can submit the request for a work visa at the consulate here in Penang.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the funds to book said flight, and I've spent the past week, yes week, waiting on a transfer from the school to my American bank account so I can book the flight. As of this writing, I'm still waiting.

This blog was supposed to be a way to document the difficulties of starting a Youtube channel and, specifically, my challenges in getting out of Vietnam and into China during the time of COVID. Currently, the difficulty is entirely in the US banking system. the week that it has taken has seemed unnecessarily long and it has reminded me to mention, at least at some point after we arrive in China, to talk about how much faster and more efficient the Chinese banking system is. Money, even cash, is available in your account instantly when you deposit it to your account. And, of course, most everyone uses one of the payment apps instead of cash or card anyway. It's unbelievably quick and easy when compared with the American system.

And that's actually where my mind is currently. What all will I be able to show on the channel and what will we discuss after we arrive. For four months now we've talked about China as if it's the promised land for the show, but we haven't talked a lot about what we'll actually do once there. I hope to do a few episodes on the approach, especially if the flight involves as many connections and layovers as it appeared it would when we were looking for flights last week. I would also like to do a few shows from quarantine. Those would be an opportunity to discuss what has happened and what our plans are for the future. But I'm most concerned about the period between my actual arrival in Yueyang and the first point at which we are able to get out of that town and do an actual travel episode.

There are, of course, a few sights to see and places to go in Yueyang. But even the biggest cities in China only warrant a few days and we'll be in Yueyang a month or more before we can do a proper travel episode. I can imagine an episode where we show my apartment and the school I'll be working at. That's one episode. We could show some of the surrounding areas and/or a popular mall. That's a couple more at best. It seems we may have a lot of episodes to fill up and not a lot to fill them with, but there are also a few interesting sites in the city, so maybe we can milk those as well.

As long as we can get past that first month or so though, I certainly hope we can begin to show China. Nearby cities at first, train in on the first day. Maybe an evening episode, then the following morning, and a train back in the evening, assuming I can get two days off next to each other. And longer trips away on holidays.

The plan is to use the next year to build a sort of 'back catalog' of episodes for people to watch once we get to a point where I can confidently promote the show. Which will likely be towards the end of this year. One big advantage of doing this while working a regular job in China is that we can learn how to properly put the show together and do episodes using a consistent format and without terribly much in the way of exotic equipment while we learn what our 'standard' episode is. After we see some degree of success, we will be able to work on new and interesting variations, but that baseline needs to be established first, I think.

Anyway, the next few weeks will be the most pivotal since this madness started in January, so I'll do my best to post weekly and keep in interested parties informed on what's going on and where I'm at.

Try, try again

 Okay, so the blogger app foiled my last attempt to make a post, but I feel confident that I can manage it this time. I'm doing it from the browser this time, so we'll see if this is any better. 

As I recall, I was at a pretty low point the last time I made a post. I did make it out of Cambodia, though not without extra expenditure. The PCR test not being within two days of departure caused exactly the problem I expected. However, the airline offered an unexpected solution: they suggested I go sound the corner and get a rapid test, which cost $30. While I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't offer that option before I paid $130 for the PCR test, I was still grateful that it worked out. I was able to avoid the visa overstay fee in Cambodia, which was the goal. 

I'm sure a lot of people would think that I'm overly concerned with this overstay issue, but I assume those are people with substantial funds at their disposal. I ran out of savings nearly two years ago. I've been coasting on fumes ever since. I've earned just barely enough to survive since I got locked out of China, and less than that since the major lockdown in Vietnam began. Furthermore, violating the law in a foreign country is generally a bad idea, even if you assume the penalty will be minor. For example, I was told that the fee for a visa overstay in Cambodia was just one dollar per day. Upon further research, I discovered that it's ten dollars per day, plus on day 30, it jumps to prison. This brings me to the main point: once you've overstayed your visa, you have to correct that before you can get a work visa. you need that to get a job to pay the overstay fee. See the problem? Best not to overstay in the first place. 

Since my previous post, I have been in Malaysia. It has gone mostly terrible since I've been here.  If you want those details you'll have to tune into the channel, but it should suffice to say that Malaysia, being an oil rich country, is very auto dependant, with all the problems that come along with that. 

Yesterday, however, was the worst here yet. Despite having booked days ahead, I was turned away from the hotel I was supposed to check in to on Labor Day holiday. No explanation except that they were full. I wasn't worried and quickly booked another. But after taking the better part of the day to get there, I ran into the same problem. Subsequently, every hotel I called or checked online said a similar thing. So I spent last night at a bus stop in town.

Both of these things require separate posts to discuss:

1. Gradually living through fears that have driven me since I involuntarily left home at 20 years old, and 

2. Why does they hotel industry get away with this shit?

Both of those will need to be saved for a future post since I'm at the new hotel now and really need to eat. 

A single fact

 I miss a lot of posts and here's the reason:

I just spent an hour writing a post for today and the app lost it. Just fucking lost it. Besides the aggravation of trying to type on a good damned phone while on the train, the shitty Google software can't even auto save. Something computers have been doing for over twenty years. I can only post from a computer. And only add photos from the phone. 

So nevermind. I'm going to stop feeling like this is me. I always feel like I haven't kept up with posting regularly because of this, but this shit happens a lot! Their stupid app isn't worth a shit so I'm not fucking with it anymore. I will post when possible from my computer. 

Just wanted to let you know.