Back in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 14

July 26, 2012

After our couple-day stay in Halong City and finally getting to go out on the bay, we took the shuttle bus back to Hanoi with the group of tourists from our tour boat on Wednesday evening and settled back into the same hostel that we stayed in on Sunday night. Thursday morning we got up early, were in a taxi on the way to the airport a bit before 7, and got there a bit before 8 (the airport was a little ways out of town). It didn't take us long at all to get our boarding passes and check Jonathan's large backpacking backpack, so we were able to have a bit of breakfast and then went through security and only had a little time to wait before we boarded the bus that took us to our plane. Our airline was Jetstar Pacific, which serves the southeastern Asian countries and Australia. There were many Vietnamese people on the flight (and only about five other white people aboard). It seemed like most had never flown before. They were all gasping and cheering subdued-ly when we took off. Whenever we had a bit of a bump of turbulence, they'd gasp, too. It was fun to watch their excitement. :)

The flight was just two hours long, and we arrived a little before noon. It was such a breeze compared to all of the other traveling we'd done in the country so far. It was definitely worth the ~$100 each to fly back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) rather than take a 24-hour+ train back down! When we arrived in HCMC, we got a bus to the terminal, and just a few minutes later we collected Jonathan's backpacking backpack from baggage claim, and walked outside to catch a taxi to the hotel we had booked (the one we had wanted to get the first night we were in Vietnam, but couldn't because it was overbooked and we had to stay at the one across the road).

After checking in, we put our luggage in our room and rested for a bit, but soon headed back out to enjoy our last few hours in Vietnam. We spent the afternoon wandering the surrounding streets and looking into local souvenir and tourist shops. (We had only had about an hour or two in HCMC when we first arrived two weeks earlier, so we hadn't seen much of anything then.)

Peppers

Local delicacy - scorpions and snakes in some kind of alcoholic beverage

Souvenirs

More souvenirs

In the mid-afternoon, once our feet were sore and we'd bought all the souvenirs and presents we wanted and could pack along with us, we stopped by the nearby Subway restaurant and got some Western food for supper. By this time we were pretty ready to eat some Western food again, and Subway was the perfect meal! After our early supper, we walked back to our hotel, and used the computers in the lobby to write some last e-mails before leaving the country. Then we headed up to our room to made sure our new purchases were all packed up and ready to go, and that we were all prepared to head to the airport later that night, and then took a nap that turned into a pretty decent sleep.

We had both our phone alarms set so that we'd be sure to wake up in time to catch a taxi to the airport so we'd be there in plenty of time for our flight. All this went according to plan, except for one tiny detail: when we woke up around 11 p.m., I (Ali) was feeling a bit off. I took some charcoal, and we managed to wash up, change into our traveling clothes, get ready to leave, and catch a taxi by 11:30 p.m. On the drive to the airport I felt more and more sick, and between getting into the ticketing line and boarding our plane, I ended up having to use plastic bags twice... Ick! Once on the plane I started to feel better, which was such a relief. Feeling sick while traveling is no fun at all! Especially when you just want to be home and don't want to be detained anywhere.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:55 a.m., but left a little late (as per usual for all four of our China Eastern Airlines flights on this trip to and from Vietnam), although much less late than our other three flights. Our flight to Shanghai took about four hours, and we took advantage of the night and darkness and tried to sleep as well as possible.

When we were finally settled on the plane and it was taxiing, we had some time to think about the past two weeks since we had arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and then quickly taken a train up north to Mui Ne. Time sure did fly by, and we thoroughly loved the opportunity to travel up the Vietnam coast. We so enjoyed seeing a new country and learning more about it and the people who lived there. The scenery was absolutely amazing and the weather was, too, for almost the whole trip. All in all, our two weeks in Vietnam was a perfect end to our stint abroad!

Next up: Layover in Shanghai