Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 26 - Saturday June 4th 2016 - Halong Bay to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Now we actually ducked out of one of the organised trips off the boat this morning. We had the option to go off the boat to go swimming, kayaking or visit a cave but it meant going for breakfast at some ungodly hour (even though we were actually awake) and with a travel day ahead of us we opted for a more leisurely morning.

It was amazing to hear that Noori had managed to sleep through the whole storm last night, wow he must really knock himself out. We had packed everything pretty much yesterday afternoon so there was not much to do but go for breakfast. Once again it was a full on buffet affair, so much food on this cruise. The boat was quiet as most had got off to do the trip but we were not alone.

Breakfast over we sat out on the terrace for the last time, paid our bar bill and waited to leave the boat saying our goodbyes to Olga and Noori.

Halong has truly been special, very special indeed.

We left the boat by the tender craft with no other paying passengers, just crew members and the rubbish, luggage and laundry off the ship. They knew that our transfer to Hanoi airport was tight for time with our new flight change so we needed to hit the road.

As we waited for our car to arrive at the cruise terminal we past the time on the free wifi and hoped the car would get here soon.

We waited maybe half an hour for the car then there was a little heated conversation with the driver and the cruise staff about how long the drive would take and stopping for lunch (for the driver). We have absolutely no knowledge of what was said but they told us all was fine and we got into the car with complete and utter ignorance about that conversation. The proof will be if we get to the airport on time.

The driver was certainly a lot quicker that the one we had to Halong, we actually even overtook cars and lorries and we did not get that constant noise of people pressing their horns at us although there were a few scary moments when you have overtaking lorries coming towards you and the road is not wide enough!

We were travelling up the same road as before so no difference in scenery, we just wanted to get there, get checked, through security and then we could relax a little (hopefully). The journey took us about two hours and forty-five minutes to get to the airport and to be fair to the driver he really did try to motor where he could and overtook as many lorries as the road would allow. The airport was busy but we sailed through check in and did not get charged anything for our excess weight of luggage (I’m sure this means that it will catch up with us later?). We cleared security without a single beep of the metal detector and that was it, we were airside with plenty of time until out flight, panic over.

One thing that was a little odd about Hanoi airport where the screens that tell you about the flight departures. Now normally these are your bible in an airport, they help you to navigate your way to the gate, help you keep an eye on the time etc. but the screens in Hanoi all displayed the wrong time and every screen that we looked at on arriving airside showed the mornings flights from between 0800 and around 0930. It took us quite a while to find a a screen that actually had up to date information on it. The other big difference was our actual airline ticket. We had a piece of paper resembling a till receipt with a bar code on it, that was it. Of course it all worked fine and was no problem at all but certainly something we were not used to.

We had lunch in a restaurant/café airside both going for the Vietnamese option with varying degrees of success. Trevor had food envy of my spring rolls whilst he tried to feel good about his pork with rice with some kind of cold green sauce that looked really unappetizing (we coped). It was soon time to board the plane and to give credit where it is due, the north Vietnamese form a lovely line. No pushing, no jostling, no hassle and we got on the plane and took our seats in the emergency exit row (we decided that they think us westerners are fat so need the extra room hence why we were allocated these seats) As the flight attendant came round to give us the all too familiar yarn about sitting in an emergency exit row we thought we would know exactly what he was going to say but the words that came out of his mouth took us both completely by surprise. “You are sat in emergency row, please do not open the door!” We both chuckled and hoped that nobody would.

We were in a row of three and sat next to me was the tiniest Vietnamese man ever who tapped his leg the whole flight and it did get quite annoying after a while. He was also obsessed with putting his shoeless and sockless feet into my side of the footwell. I was terribly British and said nothing and turned my iPad on and watch homeland (it’s a TV series with the actor Damian Lewis and I’m hooked already!!!)

It was raining in Ho Chi Minh as we made our decent so much so that the pilot had to circle for the weather to clear but we were soon down on the ground after an uneventful flight (bar the foot tapping) and claiming our luggage and heading for the taxi rank to take us to our hotel The Rex.

As the taxi left the airport we were shocked to find that we already seemed to be in the heart of the city only it was nothing like Hanoi at all. This was sleek and glass and tall and full of flashing LED lights, it was more like Dubai that Hanoi. Although there were a lot of scooters on the road they were all being behaved and keeping to lanes and not driving over pavements harassing the pedestrians and the pavements were not full of parked scooters (I’m sure that I saw Trevor breathe a sigh of relief??).

The taxi took about twenty minutes to get to our hotel though very busy streets traffic wise and as we drove further downtown we became more and more surprised. We had been told the Ho Chi Minh was just like Hanoi but we could see no resemblance at all.

To save all the typing lets call Ho Chi Minh Saigon from now on (it is after all what the locals call it) and it it’s old name and the name we have always associated it with.

So Saigon is more ordered, far more modern, more western in every way, the scooters have their own lane on the roads, traffic stops at traffic lights and everything that we saw on our drive in seemed shiny and new and they were still building.

We got to our hotel and first of all we thought we had been taken to the wrong place as it looked terribly posh and it was proudly displaying its five-star crest. We both looked at each other thinking “did we book five star? We thought the only posh posh hotel we had booked was in Singapore?” We went in and yes this was our hotel and it really does feel like we are right in the centre of things, the streets were really busy and it had a real atmosphere of happiness and, well it just felt good.

Up in our room (check in asked us if we wanted the king size bed or two singles) we tipped the bell boy and dumped the bags and headed up to the fifth floor of the hotel for a snack and a drink in the rooftop bar.

The view from up here was sensational, lots of the skyscrapers had led light displays running up and down them, the pedestrianised area below us was buzzing with kids of all ages riding hover boards and roller skating and skate boarding, everything below us looked so western.

There was a live band playing in the corner belting out American classics like hotel California and such. They were seriously loud (we nearly did not come in as they were so loud) but really good, like a Vietnamese mariachi band, we clapped and cheered as they finished each song. We ordered some food and a drink each (it’s really expensive here) and looked out to the skyline, watched as more and more westerners filled up the seats in the bar/restaurant and eventually ate our food (Trev got serious food envy from my chilli squid with vegetables as for some reason he had ordered a pizza!).

After spending well over a million dong (that’s hotel prices for you) we decided to hit the streets and at least walk the pedestrian area right below our hotel so headed down to the street.