LEAVING PHU QUOC, VIETNAM – 5 OCTOBER 2025

Hello God

There are times when I question the presence of God. I question it most when I feel the absence of God. Like when the most heinous crimes are committed by man against man, when bombs and missiles are rained in the quest for peace, when women and children are starved in the defense of a promised land, when millions are massacred in search of power, when history is distorted to gain control over the minds of unsuspecting people. The list goes on. But, I have never questioned the absence of God in my life. I have always marveled at the magnificence of His presence every day in my life. The ubiquitous presence that makes life interesting and challenging at the same time. I believe that God will never test you beyond your strength and that if He has brought you to it, He will take you through it too. Perhaps, what I am going to illustrate this with may sound trivial, but don't small drops make the mighty Ocean?

The short holiday to Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam could not have been planned for a worse time. Weather reports predicted thunderstorm and heavy rain. Despite this, I went ahead with my flight booking and other arrangements. I landed in Phu Quoc in bright weather, but when I got to the hotel room, it changed and the promised thunderstorm arrived. It was early afternoon, and my legs were itching to walk the 2 km through the city centre to the lighthouse.

I decided to wear the raincoat and brave the showers. As I walked out of the room, I realised that that alone would not do. The hotel reception gave me an umbrella and I ventured out. Within about 10 minutes the rain ceased, and I had no further need of the umbrella, or the raincoat, for the next two days. I completed all the sightseeing and visits in decent weather, albeit humid, on the two full days I was in Phu Quoc.

As I was packing my bags this morning, at about 6.30 am for a 10.30 am departure for the airport, God appeared. It started raining so heavily that the hotel staff requested its patrons to move further away from the open area of the restaurant. It rained and poured so much that it felt as if the thundershowers that were held up for me for two full days, had to be emptied as I had completed my itinerary in Phu Quoc. Such is the overarching presence of God in my life that I only bemoan his absence when it comes to the larger interests of humanity. As far as I am concerned, He has given me more than I ever deserved and I genuflect with gratitude ever so often, acknowledging His presence. Amen

The taxi, as usual, was punctual. I left the hotel after thanking the owners and their staff for the extremely pleasant stay. The taxi driver turned out to be an entertaining person. He was keen to know a lot about India and Hindi. He asked me to teach him how one could say 'Thank You' in Hindi. He was already familiar with Namaste. He picked up 'Dhanyawad' quite easily. So, I added ' Bahut' to it and he was mighty pleased. In about 20 minutes he dropped me off at the airport.

A short while later he rang me up and said that he was coming back to the airport to collect his fare. I told him that he should collect that from the hotel as I had paid it to the lady owner the previous night. Later I got a call from the owner's husband to apologise for the confusion as his wife had not told him about the fare having been collected by her. Woman power!

I was in for a huge disappointment as I reached the check-in counter. I was told that the flight would be at least two hours delayed from its scheduled departure time of 1.10 pm. Such a waste of time. I had to while away the entire morning and a good part of the afternoon outside the airport as there was no seating inside. The flight took off from Phu Quoc almost three hours behind schedule. That left with me with less than two hours for the connecting international flight. I collected the check-in bag and virtually ran to the international terminal. The check-in counters snaked so long that I requested the Vietjet staff to open a few more counters. The pleas finally found a taker and a few more counters got opened. 

Thereafter started the ordeal at the immigration. Pathetic is the word for the experience. The number of counters were fewer than actually required and the time taken was also too much to clear the queue quickly. The next hurdle was the security, where also the queue length was exceptionally long. I went to the section where staff were being cleared. When the security guy saw that my flight was already boarding, he let me pass through. All in all, must say that the Vietjet experience of transit facilitation is extremely poor. Another area where one must beware is the awful food served on the Vietjet flights. It's better to save that money and have food from one of the airport restaurants.