I Picked Up Hitch-Hiker, She Stole My Laptop

The worst of my nightmares – one I could not even comprehend became reality. I went to the Dominican Republic to just enjoy myself without doing anything for a week and became a victim of ugly theft. I rented a car and picked up a hitch-hiker who stole my laptop. This is the lowest form of low – you do someone a favor, you help them out because they are asking for help and they abuse the privilege and use it to steal from you. What a horrible experience. This is what happened:

My first trip to the Dominican Republic was in January of 2009. I had great time and thanks to smart timing, the trip was very inexpensive. That time I also rented a car – I picked it up at the Puerto Plata airport and spent my 7 nights stay along the Dominican Republic’s north coast. I started in Puerto Plata, went through Sosua, Cabarete, Cabrera, Rio San Juan all the way to Samana peninsula where I wanted to go whale watching as that’s where whales come to mate from January till March each year, making for a unique opportunity to see a mother whale with a newly born whale calf. I enjoyed my time in the Dominican Republic so much, I wanted to come back and this time explore other parts of the country, mostly along the south coast as well as the beautiful beaches on the east (Punta Cana and Bavaro).

I was purposefully waiting until January, because it’s a great time to travel to the Caribbean. Prices are sky high in December with Christmas season and New Year being popular times of year when many people travel. Then come January, prices drop right down to a level that’s ridiculous compared to December. So basically, instead of going in December, wait a couple of weeks and go in January. You get the same weather, same everything, but for a fraction of price. Plane tickets that cost $850 + fees and taxes at the end of December drop to the $85 + fees and taxes level at the beginning of January. This is the best time to take trips to popular “sun vacation” spots. I learned that trick in 2009 and wanted to take advantage of it again in 2010.

I have patiently waited until beginning of January and kept keen eye on plane ticket prices to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic since mid December. For some reason, unlike in 2009, the prices retained their December levels for near two weeks in January and then they dropped overnight to 1/10th of their previous level. The moment the return ticket was below $100 + fees and taxes (which happen to be quite high for the Dominican Republic – over $300 making it the most expensive destination as far as airport taxes are involved after London UK from what I have noticed), I have immediately purchased it and proceeded to make a reservation for a car rental with Avis as well.

It was a last minute purchase, I had three days until departure but that was fine with me. I’m ready when I need to be ready. Because on my 2009 trip I took over 3000 pictures (Dominican Republic was truly amazing that year), I have decided to take my laptop with me so I don’t have to compromise with storage space. I also thought I’d use time in the evenings to do some writing as there is not much to do and it gets dark shortly after 6pm (that’s how it goes close to the equator). I travelled across South East Asia with my laptop without problems and those were the countries much poorer than the Dominican republic, so I didn’t see it as a big deal.

Everything seemed to have gone wrong right from the beginning, though. I got to Punta Cana and waited at the conveyor belt for my luggage which never showed up. Frustrated and desperate, I went to file a lost luggage report but first had to wait an hour until they have found the Air Transat representative who somehow disappeared even though their flight have just arrived and should be available for the passengers.

So there I was, back in the Dominican Republic I was looking forward to whole year but things were not turning out the way I had hoped. I picked up my rental car and went on to have an adventure I could not do. I had an itinerary in mind but it was all put to halt because of lost luggage. I was still wearing clothes from Canada where it was cold, so I was in long pants, heavy boots and long sleeve shirt, yet I was in the tropical climate with scorching temperatures. I had no personal hygiene products on me, nothing to brush my teeth with or rub into my armpits to make them more fragrant. It was horrible.

Photo: White Suzuki Grand Vitara Rental Car I Was Driving When I Had My Laptop Stolen
Photo: White Suzuki Grand Vitara Rental Car I Was Driving When I Had My Laptop Stolen

I drove back to the Punta Cana airport the following day with hopes that my luggage would have showed up in the meantime. Air Transat representatives were half helpful, half not. They all seemed to blame everything on me. The lady I spoke to said I should go and do what I had planned without waiting around for my luggage. I told her she had no right to be telling me what I should or should not do as she doesn’t know what I can or cannot do without stuff I had in my missing bag. She proceeded by calling their central to find out that there was no trace of my luggage whatsoever. None. Nobody knows where it is, what happened to it, whether it went on a different plane or whether it’s still in Canada – no trace of it whatsoever. Like it doesn’t exist. And that’s 24 hours after it was lost. Great news.

So I’m in the Dominican Republic, sweating in the same heavy clothes from Canada, stinking, dirty, desperate and devastated over this bull$hit but the worse was yet to come. I could not take a grasp of it. I had just returned from Asia from a flight which took 3 transfers and more than 24 hours to complete, including a stop over in Seoul, South Korea, yet my luggage got to me at my terminal destination. And here I took a direct flight – no transfers, one single flight from point A to point B and they managed to lose my luggage to a point that they have no trace of it whatsoever.

Since this was not the first time my luggage was lost during my travels by plane (I also had it lost on my return flight from Cuba to Canada in December of 2008), I already knew that one should never check in valuables. Hence I had the bag with my camera equipment and my laptop with me. I was still in the same clothes from Canada, but had my camera and my laptop so even though excessively stressed out, my expensive possessions were still under my control.

Unfortunately, since there was no trace of my bag and no knowing when it would show up, I had no choice but to proceed with my trip in whatever state I was or spend it waiting around for an unknown length of time. I was distraught, stressed out, desperate, stinky and dirty, but what could I do? So I went back to my rented car, started it up and headed out to try to make the best of my time in the Dominican Republic despite this misfortune.

In this weak state of mind, as I was driving through San Pedro de Macoris, on the south coast of the Dominican Republic, headed towards nation’s capital Santo Domingo, I noticed a hitch-hiker on the side of the road desperately trying to stop a car to get a lift. It was at the beginning of the highway leading to Santo Domingo and it was already about 7.30 or 8 pm meaning it was dark so I stopped to pick this young woman up and give her the lift.

Photo: Artistic Structure at the Traffic Circle in San Pedro de Macoris Where I Picked Up the Hitch-Hiker Who Stole My Laptop
Photo: Artistic Structure at the Traffic Circle in San Pedro de Macoris Where I Picked Up the Hitch-Hiker Who Stole My Laptop

I was heading the same way anyway and had room in my car so giving a hitch-hiker a lift was no big deal. But most of all, back in a day when I was in the university and spent 6 consecutive summers travelling through Europe, I used hitch-hiking as my primary means of transportation. When you hitch-hike, sometimes you are stuck for a long time and sometimes you don’t even catch a ride so you have to stay the night and try again the following day. However once you catch a lift it’s fun times. You are always very appreciative of people who help you out with the lift so now that I was in a position of having a ride and saw a hitch-hiker in need of help, I did not hesitate to return the favor and stopped to pick her up.

There was a major issue with communication as she didn’t speak any English and I speak no Spanish. So we spent most of our time listening to awful Dominican Latino music on the radio (every station plays the same awful music, but CDs I brought with me to listen to on the road were in the bag that was lost by flight carrier). As a person who picked up a hitch-hiker, I had the foremost interest that she feels comfortable and enjoys her ride, so when she threw her bag on the rear seat, I didn’t make much of it, thinking that she just wants to have enough room for herself during the upcoming 45 minute long ride. It was the rear seat where I had my laptop rested.

During the ride, the hitch-hiker went to her bag a couple of time – to pick up her lipstick to do the things that girls do, so I didn’t make a big deal out of it again. Then as we approached Santo Domingo, she asked me to drop her off at first turn off from the highway so I obliged and wished her the best of luck. I have impulsively reached in the back seat to make sure my laptop was all right, not because I suspected a theft, but because I thought it may have slid during the course of driving so I wanted to make sure it was safe. I could not feel it anywhere on the seats so I figured it must have slipped and fallen under the seat. I tried to reach under the seat on which I was sitting, but could not feel anything either. I thought it was because I can’t reach very well from a position behind the wheel so I moved the vehicle up to the gas station on the corner, parked the car and walked out to get on the rear seat to take care of my laptop which surely must have slid in some hard to reach spot.

My heart was pumping like crazy as I was sneaking at every possible spot in the car where a laptop could have slipped but it was nowhere to be seen. I turned the car upside down while other cars were coming and going as they filled their gas tanks up and as security guards stared at me because of my frantic behavior yet there was no laptop. I slowly started to realize the unthinkable – I was robbed. I had my laptop stolen by that hitch-hiker. It was the most horrible feeling ever. Within seconds I realized what terrible loss this theft puts me through. I had many things stolen from me through the course of my life and my travels, but this laptop was hands down the most expensive piece and as if the price was not the only loss, the laptop had everything of value to me on it, including all of the pictures from my travels so far, meaning that I would not be able to continue with updates for my blog because I have no reminder of my adventures anymore. What an awful experience. How could someone do it? How could someone you offer help to abuse it to steal from you? What kind of world do we live in?

Photo: The Only Picture of My Stolen Laptop I Have. Taken at Bungalow Village in Sihanoukville, Cambodia
Photo: The Only Picture of My Stolen Laptop I Have. Taken at Bungalow Village in Sihanoukville, Cambodia

This laptop theft is the reason why I’m jumping five months ahead of myself and start writing about the Dominican Republic even though I have not yet finished writing about my adventures in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. When you start living your life to the fullest and every day is an adventure, there are so many things happening every day that I was unable to keep up with written reports. Things were simply happening faster than I was able to keep track of them. As a result, I am five months behind with my journal, however I had pictures of my adventures which served as great reminder of everything that happened so I was able to write about it as though it happened yesterday. Pictures recall memories and serve as valuable reminder of time spent.

Unfortunately, my stolen laptop was the only place which had my pictures. With laptop gone, all of the pictures are gone but that’s not all. Stolen laptop also means that all of my emails and valuable contact information I have made during the course of my travels are gone. There was much more than I am willing to admit on that laptop and now it’s all gone because I was trying to be a Good Samaritan. One of the saddest and most devastating days of my life.

STOLEN LAPTOP SPECS:

Model: Samsung Q320
Color: White
Size: 13.4 Inch Screen
Serial Number: ZBBX93ES700101
Stolen On: Friday, January 15, 2010

Description of Laptop Thief:

Young female, approximately 25 year old. Good looking with average size breasts (not too big, but also not small), slender build without big gut, but booty type buttocks. She is on a taller side, perhaps as tall as me, which is 180 cm or 5’11” – on average taller than most girls, but not excessively tall. It was dark already and as a driver, I did not spend my time staring at the passanger, instead I focused on driving and the road, but I believe that her skin color was darker than average Dominicans have. Most Dominicans are dark or darkish, she was on the darker side. She also has very large lips. Noticeably big, plump lips that some women with very dark skin have. These lips stand out big time and are easily distinguishable. At the time of pick up, she was wearing one of those hair gels that give your hair wet look. She was also wearing dark jeans that only reached half way up her buttocks slightly uncovering top of her ass crack. Given that I picked her up at San Pedro de Macoris, she obviously has some kind of connection to the town – maybe she lives there or works there or has other reasons to go there. I believe she was only going to Santo Domingo for the weekend as she was leaving San Pedro on Friday night.

Plane Ticket from Edmonton, Canada to Siem Reap, Cambodia

The quote I got from Ivy at the Unity Travel was a no brainer. Being able to fly all the way to Siem Reap, Cambodia from Edmonton, Canada for $1,250 return, all fees and taxes in was better than expected. I knew this was it and I had no doubt whatsoever that I was gonna call her up the following day and purchase the ticket. The only decision I still had upon me was whether I should put off my departure until September 10, 2009 to get this attractive price, or move it up to originally intended August 31, 2009 but pay an additional $200 on top of it.

While $1,250 was without doubt an attractive price, if I were to take it, I’d have to house myself in Edmonton for additional 10 days. I have already made arrangements with the on site manager of the apartment building in Edmonton’s Inglewoods where I was staying that I’d leave at the end of this month (August). In order to stay for additional 10 days, I’d have to make new arrangements and pay for extra time spent on the premises. This would cost more than $200 so what I would save on the plane ticket would be spent three fold on accommodation. Furthermore, cost of living in Canada is much higher than in Cambodia so food and all other provisions I’d need during the additional 10 days of my stay in Canada would vastly outgrow the $200 needed to depart before September 10. But most of all, there was my ever growing desire to get on the road as soon as possible.

Needless to say, I’ve purchases the plane ticket departing for Siem Reap from Edmonton on August 31. I was ready to leave and wanted to do it at first available chance. $1,450 was still an amazing price for a ticket from a city like Edmonton to a destination like Siem Reap. Plus unlike all others, Ivy has hinted that this would work as an “open return” plane ticket, which means that once you’re abroad, you’d be able to set the date of your return.

Having an option to return would give me great peace of mind. That’s why I was not looking for one way tickets. With return tickets, should there be a need to come back to Canada – whatever the reason, I’d have that return ticket in my pocket so it would be a matter of making arrangements to set up a date with Korean Air. However as Ivy had explained to me, in order for her to book the ticket, I’d need to give her a preferred day of return as it is mandatory to have it booked for some day, but I’d be able to change it should there be the need.

After a little bit of consideration, I have decided to book my return flight for mid January, 2010. As I have learned in January of this year, flights to the islands in the Caribbean are very cheap after at the beginning of a new year ending the period of extremely high priced tickets available for Christmas and New Year holiday seasons. So if I were able to return to Canada in the middle of January, I’d be able to take advantage of inexpensive flights to the tropical zones of Central America, moving me on at my quest to travel around the world.

And that’s precisely what I have booked. I am leaving for Siem Reap, Cambodia on August 31, 2009 from Edmonton and have the return flight booked for January 15, 2010 to take me back to Edmonton, with the possibility to change the date of return flight provided that the new flight of choice still has seats available at the time of rebooking. Sounded great to me. I paid the money, got my conformation email so now my flight was booked and my start up trip set in stone. It has ended the unceasing quest for cheap ticket to an exciting location to start off my round the world travel. I was able to start focusing on other things that still needed attention.

Cheap Flights to Dominican Republic

I was on a look out for cheap flights to the Dominican Republic and was hoping to score a reasonably priced deal, similar to that I scored in January. Unfortunately, planning to travel in August is not the same as going in January. It reminded me of December – it’s near impossible to score a cheap plane ticket in December because many people travel during pre Christmas season and for New Year making it one of the worst month for travel deal hunters, but come January, prices drop instantly and significantly. Take Dominican Republic for instance – I wanted to go on a trip during Christmas/New Year season of 2008 but was discouraged by outrageously priced flights so I wasted 8 consecutive days off sitting at home watching TV. But then when January came and I saw the same ticket that sold out planes for $850 + taxes in December now priced at $48 + taxes, I did not hesitate and went right for it. After all, there’s little difference in weather between the end of December and beginning of January and getting the ticket for less than 1/10th of the price it cost two weeks ago was a no brainer.

It was similar with August, though. I started looking for cheap flights to the Dominican Republic in July for the departure at the end of August. But having previously gone to the country for $48 + taxes, I was finding it hard to pay $600 + taxes for the same ticket. I have quickly realized that many people travel in Summer so prices are jacked up so carriers can milk as much as possible out of Summer eager people. This was making my plans to depart at the end of August difficult. I could not bring myself to pay twelve times more than I had paid seven months ago. It just messes with your brain when you realize that.

Having had vast experience scoring the best priced flight tickets from my previous travels, I knew that booking engines of most travel agents use the same backend. Being a computer developer myself, I could see that 80% of all travel agents in Canada use SoftVoyage as their booking engine so no matter which website of which provider you go to, you will get the same results which are priced in the same, or very similar way. That’s a great thing to know as it will save you heaps of time you would otherwise waste browsing through countless websites, yet getting the same results. The websites that use SoftVoyage travel booking engine include:

  • iTravel2000.com
  • RedTag.ca
  • ExitNow.ca
  • SellOffVacations.com
  • FlightCentre.ca
  • etc.

One travel agency that doesn’t use SoftVoyage is Geo.ca which is worth checking out because results will be different, though from what I have noticed, it’s mostly more expensive. Other than the travel agencies, I also kept a close eye on flight carriers themselves. The following were a must:

  • WestJet.ca
  • AirCanada.com
  • United.ca – great, but not for flights to the Caribbean
  • SunWing.com – amazing for Caribbean destinations, often very cheap, but only works well if you live in Toronto or Montreal. Edmonton didn’t have very good departures and prices

No matter where I went, the prices were nowhere close to anything I would consider decent. August simply proved to be a tough time of year to travel on the cheap. Then there was also an issue of timing – I wanted to depart at the end of the month to use up the money I have already spent on rent and to not have to spend more by overstaying for any part of September. That was also complicating things a bit because flights to the Dominican republic departing in the middle of August or middle of September were cheaper than flights departing at the end of August, beginning of September. My initial research did not encourage me at all. Maybe had I not gone to the Dominican Republic for $48 + taxes before, I would probably find $600 + taxes normal, but after flying cheap, I found it really hard accepting the price that was so much more expensive but would give me exactly the same thing. It was discouraging, but I kept working on it.