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Published: November 6th 2014
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After a plane hop from Ottawa to Toronto, we board a 777 for a direct flight to Hong Kong. Interestingly, our route is eastward instead of westward, a great circle passing over Greenland, Siberia and China on the way to Hong Kong. We have opted for
"premium" economy seating, which places us behind a bulkhead with blessed extra leg room. The disadvantage is that one's floor space becomes a passageway for other passengers wanting to move from one corridor to the other.
The flight is long (12 hours) but uneventful. I indulge myself by watching "Guardians of the Galaxy" – silly, harmless fun. I think I've seen that raccoon guy, Rocket, prowling the streets back home after dark.
We arrive at Hong Kong airport for the transfer flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We were in China last year and it amuses my jet-lagged brain that my iPad remembers the airport wifi and connects automatically. Hong Kong is 27°C and humid with overcast skies. There is a bit of a delay for the flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Actually, no one calls it Ho Chi Minh City; it's always Saigon in speech, even on the airplane announcements.
After a 2-hour flight, we arrive in Saigon. The first step is to obtain a landing visa. This involves: presenting to the agent at the desk a passport, a picture and a letter obtained earlier in Canada, filling out a form (which of course asks you for information from the passport that you no longer have in your possession), and submiting the form along with $45 USD per person. After a wait, your passport is returned to you equipped with an attrative visa. Not the most efficient of processes, but it all works out.
Next an interesting little comedy is played out. The final task is to pass through Vietnamese customs. All the other passengers from the plane have by now moved through, so the line of perhaps 12 custom booths, each equipped with an idle agent, are all ready and waiting for us. However, the agents closest to us on the left point us towards the empty queues further down, but when we drag our luggage there, the agents there point us back. This goes on for a while like a Monty Python skit until one agent grudgingly motions us forward. As all 17 of us converge in that line, one by one other agents, shamed by their colleague's industriousness, wave us to their queues.
As we step outside, we are hit by a wall of warmth and humidity. This is the tropics, no doubt about it. We meet our two guides: Kien, who will be travelling with us through the entire trip, and A.J., our local guide for Saigon. A.J. has roses for all the ladies. We board the waiting bus to go to our hotel.
A.J. tells us that we are in the final stages of the rainy season with winter approaching, which means daily high temperatures of only 29º or so, as opposed to highs in the upper 30s and even 40º in the summer.
First impressions of Saigon: It's a bustling city of 10 million people. Buildings are a mishmash of contrasting styles and levels of upkeep. There's still a lot of traffic even though rush hour is just winding down. Every road is a flowing river composed principally of motorbikes, with a few cars and busses carried along like flotsam on the current. The streets range from large thoroughfares to winding back alleys. The bus seems to turn onto a new street every five minutes. This is clearly not a city that follows a grid pattern.
We arrive at our hotel, the Eden Saigon, located in the heart of downtown. It's very nice. Friendly staff welcome us with moist towels and cold drinks. We are now pretty much walking zombies after about 36 hours with next to no sleep. We are very happy to retire to our rooms, which have working air conditioning (hurrah!). After taking showers and organizing our things for the morning, we collapse into a firm but comfortable bed and fall unconscious.
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Gail MacDonald
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Hi Guys. Thoroughly enjoyed first blog and looking forward to all the rest to come. Enjoy the weather - we might get snow this Thursday evening..