Of course, the post's title is a play on the famous Twelve Trials of Hercules.
Phase One
When: Window shopping for flight tickets.
1) Expensive tickets should equal to less time spent in transit, right? No. Apart from Turkish Airways and MAS, everyone else have to go to transit. And when they say transit, the average is 10 hours, each way.
2) Finding the perfect tickets aka Etihad with the lowest amount of transit (3 hours and 7 hours) for our proposed date. Mid October. But then, disaster struck, every Monday the price increased. From RM2059, it went up to RM2558. What to do, apart from pushing the trip back 2 weeks to get the cheaper price.
Phase Two
When: Buying tickets
3) Choosing the perfect seats. Perfect my foot. All I know is that I'm a frequent bathroom user. But sitting too close is not too appealing. 20 minutes of Google and hmm haw in front of a screen.
4) Done key-in and about to put in card details when I realised that the airline only accept credit card. Card I own with the limit more than total price? Debit card.
5) Daily limit on amount transferred from bank account to Paypal. Very nice lady at call centre tells me that I can top up(no fee) and send amount(fee) and both have different limits. Huzzah.
6) Try to pay. Paypal would not process payment. 9 minutes on the phone with Paypal guy (I swear he sounds European) with 5 being on hold. I listened to Boyzone's No Matter What twice. The guy is a saviour. Huzzah.
Phase Three
When: Booking the accomodation
7)A misunderstanding of prices.
8)As prepayment is 25%, I decided to pay it all first, then friend can pay me back later. I went and withdraw money from my travel fund account, deposit into my debit card account and transfer to my Paypal.
Before finding out since it involves another currency it would not take from my Paypal balance and instead, take straight from my debit card.
9) Tried transferring back money, found out it takes days and a fee. And my name on Paypal should be the same as my bank account. Guess who decided to register on Paypal using a short version of their long name? Me. And to change it, requires me faxing, not emailing certain documents.
10) Withdraw more money the next day, deposit into debit card. Tried making payment via paypal. Message: Your card has been declined by card issuer. Emailed card issuer. Received reply for message sent last week.
Called in, was told my card has been blocked. For god knows why. Had a report send it, told to wait for 15 mins. Finally, payment. Huzzah.
But the good thing is that I finally have made the arrangements needed for this trip.
Tickets. Accomodation. Now, all I need to do is:
1. Check if need vaccination
2. Check if need winter coat in November and if yes, if I can rent/borrow.
3. Research where to go. What to do. (Hamam aka Turkish bathhouse, here I come)
4. Check exchange rate history.
5. Travel insurance.
6. Medical insurance coverage.
7. Consulate or embassy for Malaysia.
8. Make a list of clothes to buy.
9. Save up for shopping money.
I actually enjoy doing all of this.
