ho chi minh city and the flight that nearly wasnt..

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So it was quite the disheartening feeling to arrive at the checkin counter in sydney airport to be told you could not check in because you can not provide a document showing you had booked an exit from vietnam.. especially after much research into the fact that vietnam its self does not require this, only jetstar and its archaic international policies..
so the rush was on to get proof! i had 30mins to find a way to prove i was going to leave the country.. after the initial 'WTF DO I DO!?!' moment and looking for bus tickets to laos etc the idea came up to just buy a refundable plane ticket back home.. and it worked a charm! i got back to the desk about 10mins before checkin closed, got checked in and into the terminal to relax and let the adrenaline rush dull..

after emotion ridden farewells to mum, dad and sister i boarded the plane and took my seat next to a young couple.. on talking to them i found they had the same check-in problem and had to purchase tickets at the terminal as well.. they had even rang the vietnamese consulate to be told they didnt need anything! i wonder how many refundable tickets are purchased and refunded just to suit their out-dated system..

9hours later i arrive in ho chi minh city.. visa on arrival was an easy process, however watching the lady who had turned up (somehow) without a visa was quite painful.. she threw quite the tantrum after being told she was going to be sent back to australia! quite understandable, but honestly.. what did she expect?

the first thing i notice on leaving the airport was how lovely the temperature was.. after leaving sydneys stupid heatwave it was a pleasant 22ish degrees..
after meeting jimmy outside the terminal we went to get a taxi to get a somewhat expected 'welcome back' to asia when asking a taxi driver to use the meter and him saying "no meter - this is vietnam" - clearly bullshit! then yelling out to his friends up the rank not to use meter when we laughed and walked away from him.. eventually we found a taxi who didnt know where we were going but claimed to and then tried to rip us off on "airport tax" and eventually we just hopped out in the middle of the city and 'tet' celebrations slightly out of pocket but in good spirits.. fun and games =p

on arrival i soon found out the full extent of 'tet' which is the new year, 'christmas' and all that stuff rolled into one and it was happening all around me.. even though new years was the night before the city was still in party mode.. EVERYTHING was closed and remained closed for 5 days after with only the backpacker area still operating at close to capacity, roads were deserted and people were out in massive numbers celebrating..

after a few days of exploring the city with little to do as everything was closed i have had enough.. its time to move on..
we went on a day trip to the mekong delta region to the south, 180000dong (around $8) got us a day trip including lunch, bus, boat, and row boat transport.. it was nice to be out of the city!

so iv pretty much had enough of typing this for now, so a few summarising dot points to sum it all up:
awesome food
friendly people (aside from taxis at the airport)
unexpectedly large language barrier, but manageable..
slight food or water poisoning last night saw me a bit sick but much better today!
cheap cost of living
annoying 'foreigner' pricing

after a slight change of plans we are flying to ha-long bay tomorrow to do a one or two night yacht cruise so i assume i will explore the north then spend the rest of the month traveling from north back down to south of vietnam and then cross into cambodia.

fun times!
=)

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Comments

[phill]

lolz
haha 180 thousand dongs. good times. glad to see your adventure is going well. :)

[Brian]

New updates?
Sounds like a good bit of fun already. When is the next update?