Vietnam is pretty much half way round the world from Ottawa - so it doesn't matter which direction you fly in - you won't get there any faster. I left Ottawa on Wednesday night - and finally got to Ho Chi Minh City (S S Saigon) at lunchtime on Saturday.
Since I was doing the holiday with Denise, I decided to fly East from Ottawa and stop off at Heathrow, so that we could meet up there and do the rest of the journey together. I stayed overnight at a hotel in Heathrow in order to have a bit of a rest before we had to catch our early morning flight to Singapore the following day.
The flight from Heathrow to Singapore is 13 hours and I was dreading it. But I ended up with a spare seat next to me, so I had plenty of room, and the service on Singapore Airlines was excellent. Other airlines offer you orange juice or a diet coke, Singapore Airlines offers you a Singapore Sling; it just about made the 13 hours bearable. Then we had to hang out at Changi airport for 3.5 hours before catching our flight on to Ho Chi Minh City.
Our Scenic rep met us at arrivals in HCMC and we had a 20 minute mini bus ride to the Park Hyatt here in the centre of the city. The ride itself was quite an eye-opener. People riding motorbikes everywhere - quite a few of the bikes had 3 people on them, and the kids weren't even wearing helmets. The bikes just weave in and out between cars and squeeze into non-existent spaces. I think most of the bikers must have a death wish. Apparently it's not that unusual to see 5 people riding on one scooter!
The hotel is very posh, and very nice. We are exhausted right now and will probably have a nap, but afterwards we plan to check out the hotel pool and the French/Vietnamese restaurant.
Tomorrow we are booked on a half day coach tour of the city.
Glad you arrived safely!!
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget seeing a guy on a pushbike in Beijing in 1987 with a row of dead chickens hanging from his handlebars by their necks!
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