Cuba Diaries 2: The Bad Part

Read the previous post first.

Ok so I went to Havana on 28th, which was a Monday, and the first day I could actually have done that. I was not aware that I needed to have an appointment, considering their website says nothing about it. So then I had to wait till almost 1230, till everyone else was done, to finally get to the counter. Now I had thought that I would be done by 11 latest, and then we would be able to tour Havana, come back at 3, get the visa, then go back to Varadero. But when it finally got to 1230, I was kind of losing hope of having too much time of touring Havana. And then received the shock of my life when the lady informed me that I had not brought the itinerary of Varadero-Toronto, only Toronto-India. I could not believe I had been that incredibly stupid! So then I could not remember if I had the Cuba part of the itinerary in my email, so I decided it would be best to tour Havana then and come back another day to apply for visa.

I did not end up going back, because of some misunderstandings with a lady I was supposed to go with. And I tried calling to get an appointment, but the whole call was automated messages with no way to reach operator, there was nothing on website, so I wasn't sure that even if I went on 31st, I would be able to get the visa. And when I was transiting in London, I was given a transit visa on the spot, so I assumed worst case scenario, that would happen.

So happily on 1st, when I go for check in, the stupid Skyservice staff refused to let me go. The immigration were fine with me leaving, since I had a flight on the next day. But the airlines, stupid stupid airlines, wouldn't let me go. And since it was 1st Jan, every embassy was closed. The next 2 days were weekend, so they would still be closed. And I was told the earliest I could get a visa was Monday, 4th Jan. And my flights back to Singapore (Toronto-Zurich-Delhi-Bangkok-Singapore) were starting on 2nd. They were non-refundable since I had gotten the cheapest tickets. So there was nothing I could do.

So I told my sis, panicked her badly, then got to Havana from Varadero, since there would obviously be more flights from there. Now I had very little cash, needed 25 for airport tax which you HAVE to pay before taking any flight from anywhere in Cuba, and my Mastercard, as I would discover later, could not be used to withdraw money. Cuba uses only Visa, Mastercard is not there in ATMs and only banks and some expensive hotels have it. And apparently the Havana airport had no internet till you checked in. So I was at the airport with very little cash, no internet access, no balance in phone, no way to get out of country, no hope. So I spent the night at the airport, with the plan to go and withdraw money from the bank next morning and then see how it went.

As I was to discover, even banks were closed for the weekend, so the taxi driver took me to Hotel Nacional, which had their own bank, where I was told my bank was denied from withdrawing money and I should contact my bank in Singapore since they were denying the operation. They don't even convert all currencies in Cuba, only US, UK, Canada and a few others. So I had Singapore and Indian but had already used up all Canadian. At this point, I had 10 peso. And the cab driver needed 25 to drive me here and 25 more to drive me back to the airport. He barely knew any English, but definitely needed his money. At this point he suggested I sell my phone to him for 50 peso and he would drive me back to the airport. I think this has probably been one of the lowest points of my life. I could obviously not sell my only way of contacting the world, so I was at a loss. But remember, I had saved 25 peso for the airport tax. So at this point I was told that Hotel Nacional had internet, and so obviously there was no point my going back to the airport and no point saving the 25 peso if I didn't even have a flight, so I gave the 25 peso to the driver and said tata-byebye-good-riddance.

And then went into the hotel, lugging my luggage. The internet was 2.50 peso per 15 minute. Ya it's a freaking expensive country, for no good reason, since nothing there works. So I logged into gtalk, told my sis, who at this point was very freaked out having not heard from me for over 12 hours, the whole story. She called the bank, I retried withdrawing many times, did not work. Told a lady there who knew some English my story. She was one of the most helpful people I have ever met. She called a bunch of people, got me free food since I hadn't eaten since the previous day and had no cash. At this point, I asked sis to try to get my phone card, on roaming from Canada, topped up. She asked a couple of friends in Canada to do it, and God bless them, they did. So she could at least call and message me now. Then I tried asking in the hotels around if I could pay by Mastercard. Since DuBiouS Bank maintained that there was nothing wrong with the card and I should be able to withdraw. It was only later that I was told that Debit Cards cannot be used to withdraw cash from banks for some divine reason, only ATM machines.

So as I went around asking, in one of the hotels even bigger than Nacional, called Habana Libre, while I was asking the receptionist if I could pay using Mastercard, she said "if US bank then yes", I said "how about Singapore?", and the Chinese lady next to me was like "Oh you're from Singapore too?" and I was like "OMG YES! Do you by any chance have local currency, I have Singapore one, can I change with you". And she was like, "never mind I can give you money now, then you can pay me back later, just remember that a Singaporean helped you when you needed help" And she gave me 100USD and her card and took my details. Now I could go and convert it and have some cash (80 peso)! God bless her!

I ended up staying at the hotel where I had been using internet as it accepted Mastercard and was cheaper than Habana Libra, relatively (120 a night, 145 for 1st Jan night :O ). So I now had a room, while sis was still searching for flights from Havana to Singapore directly as it made no sense to go to India anymore. She found one by the next day, transiting in Amsterdam, which most probably did not need a visa, but there was no way to confirm as it was still Sunday. So she bought it online (1220 euro, yes, gasp!) and sent me details. I would call the Dutch embassy the next da to ask about visa.

So now at least I had some cash and a flight, just needed visa. And I had 3 days to do it since the flight was for 6th evening. Since of course God wasn't done with the balancing act of the fun with the torture, the travel agency with whom we got the ticket decided that someone had been tampering with the card, so I had to send pics of passport and both sides of Mastercard to them for verification. I took pics with my dying camera, and send to them. Of course, had to black out the code at the back of the card. Oh and I had found that the hotel had wireless cards that I could put on my room so I did not have to pay cash. I ended up using 11 of them over the 4 days I spent there, freaking waste of money. Why can't they have free internet like normal places?

So when I called embassy in the morning, she told me she could confirm only at 1130, and if I could, I should go to the embassy by 1130 just in case, as getting a transit visa could take 2-3 days. I reached at 1115 as I had to get the itinerary printed and stuff, only to be told that the embassy closed at 11, by a guy who spoke no English. At this point I met someone whom I think was an angel. She was standing outside the embassy when I reached. Spoke a little bit of English. I asked her if there was a phone booth somewhere around, she pointed me to it. I realized it needed a calling card and I did not have one. As I was walking back dejected, prepared to reach the hotel and call again, I chanced upon her again. And explained in sign language that I did not have a card. She said she would let me use hers. And she keyed in the number of her card and gave the phone receiver to me. I asked her to wait so I could talk and then check how much balance I'd used and pay her, but she adamant in not letting me pay here at all, just that I would not use too much of her balance. God bless her, whoever she is! Please pay her back in some way for me! I feel bad that the call took quite long, you know how admin people can be, but the embassy female finally confirmed that I did not need a visa. I narrated the whole story of missed flights as well, so she confirmed with the Immigration Officer too.

So finally my troubles had come to an end. Except for the fact that I could barely sleep. And spent soo much money that I am in about 4500SGD debt right now. So no vacations for the next 20 years and then must get a visa for every country 3 months before I visit in the future!