Vietnam

Couple of threads coming out of this trip.

Firstly, sister is part of the bridal party. This translates to compulsory attendance, which meant her family (one 5 month old and one 32 month old) and two grand parents were making the trip out to Nha Trang, Vietnam. The journey requires one overnight flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, followed by a connecting to Cam Ranh International Airport and a 1 hour car ride from Cam Ranh to Nha Trang. What could go wrong? 

Well, let's start with the strong winds which caused the flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur to be canceled. Wednesday 28th August, two grand parents, two parents, two kids, waiting at the gate only to be told that the flight was canceled and that they had to move back through immigration to return home just after midnight on the Thursday morning. After countless hours of waiting on the Malaysia Airlines customer service hotline trying to find the next available flight, they head back to the airport on Thursday, this time to catch a 14:00 flight from Sydney to KL. Success! Or rather, partial success. The interconnecting flight from KL to Cam Ranh is not a daily flight, and due to the Vietnam Visa, entry into Vietnam has to be via Cam Ranh. Deciding against forking out for the express visas and another indirect flight via Ho Chi Minh City, they spend two nights in KL and decide to catch the Saturday direct flight to Cam Ranh. Instead of arriving into Nha Trang on the Thursday afternoon, they finally arrive on the Saturday afternoon. Everybody looks tired upon arrival.

Secondly, my VietJet experience. The thing that VietJet has going for it is the cost of a fare and the flight timings. As far as timing after work, no other airline offers the flexibility (by no other, I mean, Cathay). That's where the accolades really end. Every single VietJet flight I've been on has been delayed, but I can't be mad, because as the old adage goes "You get what you pay for" and with the budget airlines there's always consistent factors of affordability, delays. So I can accept the delays, however this time around as I was flying out I got a message from a friend wanting to catch up. I told him that I was heading out to Ho Chi Minh, so would have to catch up in a week's time. He promptly replied with:

"Be careful with carry on luggage. Lots of pr**ks stealing stuff on board. Cases on CX from/to Vietnam. Stolen watches and cash"

You can probably guess how this thread ends. Heeding this advice, I tuck my red packet (read, wedding gift) into a separate pocket of my carry on with full intention to have the bag under the seat in front of it. However, a 90 minute delayed flight and instead of remembering to put my carry on down in the seat in front of me, I put it overhead. Long story-short. Don't notice anything unusual until the next morning in the hotel and I notice that my wallet is missing some cards (a bank card and a credit card). My heart sinks, I check my luggage, the red packet is still there, but the cash is missing! Thinking back there's two instances where they would have gone through my luggage. 1) we're on the tarmac for an hour, I remember somebody going up into the overhead before take off. 2) I go to the restroom, and the toilets are both taken so i'm waiting out back. In any case, this incident really set the trip off on the wrong step. Not because I was robbed, but because I was warned.

Ok, finally the most important thread. The wedding. It erases all of the above. It was nice seeing everybody. Family. Friends. Wholesome fun. Really, really good. Coming back from this trip, I'm just so full of love.

Vietnam

Sometime, throughout the course of the year my then, (ex) Employer changed the the Annual Leave policy. The new rules stated that come December 31st the maximum number of days that could be rolled over into the new year could not exceed 5 days. All days in excess of this number would be forfeit, without any compensation. This new mandate saw the Q4 period become a pseudo holiday period with employees scheduling leave for the sake of reducing their total leave. This new policy was of course two-fold. To prevent employee burnout but more importantly, reduce the overhead of employee payouts should employment termination ever come into the fray.

I had pencilled in leave immediately after the work Christmas Party and had planned to join some friends in Vietnam for a few days. In hindsight, I wish I had booked a longer trip...

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City early Saturday night. Hong Kong had only this week dropped below the 20 degrees Celsius mark and the warm South-East Asian Saigon climate was unexpected. My friends were asleep, it was 6 pm. They had experienced their first night in Ho Chi Minh, namely Apocalypse Now, a local haunt that catered to expats and local revellers until the early hours. The recount of Rooftop bars, Magnums of Belvedere and foreigner-filled bars corresponded with zeal of their greetings, or lack thereof. That night we indulged in a steaming bowl of Pho (30,000 VND ~1.50 AUD) and headed to Lush, a cigarette fumed club. So it began, the following four days we literally ate and snoozed our way around Vietnam.

A short flight to Da Nang, and we arrived at base camp, the Hyatt Regency (we squeezed them for a free upgrade). Here we stole naps by the pool, in the car, in the hotel, anywhere we could really. We lazed by the pool, participated in daily yoga, sat in the sauna and made the occasional day trip to Hoi An and Hue. We consumed cakes, donuts, all-you-can-eat breakfasts, Hoi An Chicken Rice, Pho, Bun Bo Hue, Cafe Su Da, until our pours oozed fish sauce and mint.

Excellent trip - four days of not having to worry about being an unemployed 30 year old. I wonder if I can work in Vietnam?

Currently reading: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer