Up this morning at 6 a.m. and in the taxi to the airport
picked us up just before 8 a.m. The journey to Heathrow was the usual and we
arrived at T4 just before 9 a.m. Checking in with Vietnam Airlines was a breeze
as was security (except I forgot to take my coins out of my pocket). The notice
board in the lounge said that the gate would be announced at 10 a.m. had
changed to 10:30. This was duly called so we ambled towards it. To cut a story
short, the plane took off an hour late.
The plane was an almost spanking new Dreamliner. We all
commented on how quiet and comfortable it was. After lunch we all tried to get
some sleep as we recognised that Vietnam was +7 hours and that we would be
landing just as we’d normally go to bed. Plus the in flight entertainment was a
bit limited unless you wanted to watch a VietCong film on how the war was won,
or a boy meets girl, girl meets tractor type of communist propaganda. 11 hours
later we reached Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
Armed with our copies of the visa request letter, passports,
photographs and dollars we arrived at the visa counter. The whole process was
really just a mechanism to extract $50 dollars per person. This was because we
would be re-entering Vietnam within 30 days, otherwise they’ve just dropped the
visa requirements for the UK. Immigration was a similar exercise and we were
through and looking for our bags within 15 mins.
Outside we were met by Mr Dung. The local pronunciation is
more like we would say Jung. It also turned out to be his first name. He told
us stuff about Vietnam and HCMC, but to be quite honest we were very tired and
not taking too much in. The journey into the city and towards the hotel was in
heavy traffic with motorbikes milling around us. I don’t think any traffic laws
were being adhered to, least none that I could see. The range of things being
carried by bikes was impressive. More on that later in the blog.
As we were so early in the day our rooms weren’t ready. So
we asked when one would be and told about 11:00. The front staff suggested we
go up to the rooftop swimming pool as we could get a shower there. This we did.
It’s a bit surreal swimming while looking around looking down on a city that’s
waking up. At 11:00 I went down and picked up our keys. Apparently our guide
had thought that we were three friends travelling together and that Tamsin and
Kim were in one room and I on my own!!!
After another shower and a change of clothes we headed out
to look at the local market. I had been warned by my friend Ben who’s currently
living here about the traffic and crossing the roads, but that doesn’t prepare
you for actually having to cross the roads. It’s a game of confidence and
brinkmanship, similar to driving in Morocco in many ways. We followed the
locals until we started to get the hang of it. We went into a bank to change
dollars into Vietnamese Dongs (VD’s, if you will), and told we’d get a better
rate in the market. We looked around the market and could only find ATM’s, so
we must have misunderstood. Getting out over £34 instantly makes you a VD
millionaire as it’s 32434.73 to the pound. Kim bought a Vietnamese
pointy hat.
We headed back to the hotel as we were all feeling the
effects of jet lead or whatever you call the opposite of jet lag and decided to
rest a bit until 6pm and then go out for dinner. I chose a restaurant that was
a) closeby and b) rated by TripAdvisor (TA) called Cyclo Resto. For the
princely sum of $6 or the VD equivalent, we had 5 delightful courses plus
whatever we paid for drinks before heading back for an early night as we had to
be up to meet Dung at 8am the next morning.
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