Vietnam/Hong Kong 2019

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18/03/19

Packed up, picked up and left Karen's place on Monday morning at 6.20am for the airport. Checked through to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon from now on) and on the plane to Auckland. Then a Dreamliner to Singapore.

We had booked a Sky Couch as Lyn said she would have felt sorry for me if she had gone Premium Economy as usual, with me in the cheap seats. That meant three seats for the two of us with the seats folding into a "bed" which took up all the normal seat and legroom space. I say "bed" because once we came to use it Lyn's shrieks filled the cabin as she tried to manouvre herself into the TINY space and still leave room for me to lie next to her. We ended up topping and tailing but that was not comfortable at all so after an hour or so we got our heads at the same end, feet towards the aisle and lay in a "spoon" position facing the seat in front. There was just enough room for that but no room for any mile high club stuff and in fact cramp and numbness to the limbs, sore spots where we were impacting seat bits etc meant that we lasted about 2 hours like that. We both did doze a little so it wasn't a complete waste of time. The instructional material on the inflight entertainment system didn't correspond with reality as the loving couple shown in the video semed to be sharing a king sized bed. No way! Was it worth it? The extra seat space was great and I think we could probably have a better go at it next time around on the way home from Hong Kong........maybe.

And speaking of inflight entertainment - Lyn pointed out to me two young women in front of us (they were French) who, every half hour or so, would embrace passionately and wrap each other's tongues around the other and snog away for a couple of minutes before coming up for air and continuing to watch their movie. Occasionally they would lose themselves to the ecstasy or whatever and fall into each other's laps as a variation.They kept it up the whole way pretty much, not that I was fixated on them. Lyn wanted to know why I wasn't like that with her.

Our flight from Auckland to Singapore was delayed 25 minutes which meant we were really stretched for time to make the connection to Saigon on Singapore Airlines. Fortunately there were another 15 on the flight in the same boat so we didn't think they were going to go without us. We raced from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 and, I have to say it felt good to be exercising after 10 hours in the air, and we made it with 20 minutes to spare.

Into the north east, across the South China Sea, over a smidgeon of Cambodia and into the increasing smog of Saigon for a touch down on time. Having a hotel car to meet one after leaving home 18 hours before is a very good thing to do and not expensive compared to a taxi. Straight to the Amena Hotel where we have an enormous room - we were upgraded. Hit the sack.

19/03/19

A day for Lyn to get her stuff together and be really prepared for the morrow. She spent a few hours in the room working and then we had time to do a little walking before the temperature got really into the stay-inside range. The underground seems to be still a long way from completion. One local said to me, "Eight years" but I don't know how in the know she was. It's certainly ripping up a swathe of the city streets in it's slow progress.

In the evening we met up with one of my colleagues from Vinh Long last year and had dinner with her. The language school I had a short career with a year ago has closed so she's back in Saigon looking for work. We had drinks on the rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel first. Recommended.

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Photos

Sky Couch
Not quite the instructional vid.

Caravelle rooftop bar
Tam (from Vinh Long), Maria (Wgtn Girls Coll), Lyn, cocktails.

Comments

[Johnc1]

Plane Flight
Ha ha ha,! Great story Rob

[Dianne Cooper]

Any curiosity that I might have about the sky couch for us is now completely satisfied. If you two can’t do it there is zero hope that Peter and I might fit! Love your travel blog keep it up!
I managed to get my 8 videos up on YouTube yesterday, under End of Life Choice Bill, and while re-watching to make sure All was well, discovered I had mis-spelled a Word in one of the title clips. @#!! Means I have to delete it (it was enough of a learn curve to get it up!), and go back to iMovie to replace that clip, then put it up again, without changing its name. See you in the Spring!