Saigon

---

Well despite my misgivings about travelling with China Southern (and 10 minutes or so at Terminal 4 when I was in the queue for China Eastern......doh!) it was swimmingly smooth, helped no end by it being Chinese New Year, hence empty plane and a whole row to myself! Transferring in Guangzhou is easy peasy, and having read a lot of conflicting info, as well as booking a horrificly-expensive hotel for my overnight on the way back, it would seem that the airline DOES provide overnight accommodation if your stopover is more than 8hrs. The slight proviso is the statement 'IF you are accepted' - so maybe a test is needed. Better make sure I pass then!

And so to the next grey area - visa on arrival. Luckily I had done everything ok, printed off the form from the internet and had $45 ready, unlike the poor american girls who seemed to have no cash and were allowed to go through immigration to find an atm. If you don't have the form you have to queue to get one, queue to hand it back in, then you're called up to pay. It was amusing to see the expressions on peeps waiting - the Vietnamese official did his very best with pronunciation but you could see them wondering 'Is that me????' and then going to the counter to find out it wasn't!

Coming through to the taxi rank is where you have to be a bit smart. There are loads of companies. Luckily my friend Beth had warned me to go for MaiLinh or Vinasun - they have an official who will flag one down for you and they will use the meter. Avoid the ones with sunflowers on them and any other clever variations of the above names. I was on high alert, being hot and v v tired, eyes glued to the meter the whole way, but it was fine and cost D130,000 - £4. And he didn't try to say my hotel had closed, but I did wave my agoda booking at him, which helpfully has addresses in Vietnamese too.

So here I am in my pint-sized room £13 a night at Seventy Hotel in Bui Vien Street. The last report I read on Tripadvisor was of a windowless hot box with insects crawling around. I'm on the 5th floor - lift, wifi ok, aircon works fine but is v noisy, some noise from a local club too so earplugs needed, methinks. No photos as I arrived at just after midnight. tomorrow, if I can work it out.

Bored already, no doubt, dearest friends and family.....

---

Comments

[Tamsin Cassels]

Bored!
Not bored, not bored! Give us more xx

[RachelAPlease]

Thanks, T - it is truly great here - never a dull moment!