Day 2 Saigon

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And so it begins!

We arrived last night after a very full days travel. Great flight times with Air Asia, we left at 11am so a great start time. We pre checked in online the day before which was a great decision, it means that you can get to the airport an hour later, so two hours rather than three and skips a massive que at the airport. It's also useful for booking in your seat allocations early as with Air Asia you need to pay extra to sit together. I didn't worry about doing that as we can all cope sitting apart and it saved lots of extra $$. As it turned out, we all were seated together in any case, so a good decision. We arrived at the airport at about 8.30 and really didn't wait around much, boarding by 10 so all pretty quick.



Air Asia were pretty good, this is our third flight with them and they have been fine. The ground staff in Adelaide are all really good, it's all quite well organised. Same as last time, the on board service is pretty hopeless, but we knew that would be the case and were well prepared this time. When you are paying around $250 a head for a flight to Kl then HCMC you don't really whinge about the service!!



We knew from our Langkawi trip that getting something to eat and drink is difficult so we pre booked meals and bought bottled water I. The international part of the airport, so after we went through customs. I also took along snacks this time so we were well organised. our pre ordered meals were delivered ok and were quite nice, even the boys enjoyed the malaysian selections of chicken and rice and stays etc. too bad if you wanted an alcoholic drinks as the first offering was around 5 hours into the flight! They obviously haven't worked out how to make more money from Australian travllers yet!

we have a couple of hours stopover in Kl which was a good dinner spot. We arrived at the bigger terminal this time so much more choice around. We ended up with a local version of takeaway called chicken rice and had a feast for around $5 per head. Harry opted for Hungry Jacks!!

Paul and I had a quick look at duty free, we ended up with a litre bottle of baileys for about $26 which was much cheaper than Adelaide duty free. Worth the wait.

On arrival in HCMC we had to line up for a Visa on Arrival. I had forms pre approved through our Hanoi Travel Agency which was called Vietnamstay. We had to pay $45 US per person for an arrival visa. Pretty steep for kids! At the time we thought it was going to take forever, but we ended up waiting only about 30 mins so that was pretty good. At least the customs lines were clear by then and our luggage was last on the belt. We had a driver to pick us up which we were grateful for by that time. With a 3 and a half hour time difference, a 7.50 arrival in Ho Chi Min City made for one very tired family. It was an amazing drive into the hotel which fortunately didn't take long. We were so pleased to see our lovely hotel Renaissance Saigon, it was a sight for sore eyes.



With fresh memories from our Langkawi hotel in December, I was so glad to see a lovely hotel waiting for us. Hopefully no bats in the hallway this time. Sorry, Harry, I know you loved having the bats!



They even had the three single beds in the boys rooms, so there was no fighting about who had to share a double bed! one less issue to fight about!

Paul went straight up to inspect the gym and rooftop pool and bar. He was a very happy man! A good night sleep ready for us to explore in the morning! Kids are over the moon with excitement. I am relieved that we actually had the booking at the hotel and someone was there to collect us!

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