Arrival to Vietnam was a two step process – first I landed in Hanoi, but had to catch a flight to Ho chi Minh right away. I slept most of the way to Hanoi with no issues – despite a happy/crying/sleeping/tossing things at me/stealing my cutlery/grinning at me 9 month old baby who was in the little bassinet right in front if me (exit row). I knowingly signed up for that because I wanted a window seat and that was the last one left. Thankfully noise canceling headphones plus the ability to sleep on planes (nt gonna say like a baby, haha) meant that I slept for 7-8 hours out of the 11.5 hour flight. So upon landing I was very lucid and figured out all the checkin steps ( and passed immigration with zero words spoken).
A nice girl from “the agency” (the travel agency dad booked, but I like ,y way more – way more ominous!) met me at landing with a sign of my name, a first for me.
A shirt bus (large van/bud which was all mine) ride later I met parents in the hotel. After figuring out that our day is essentially free, we came up with a nice plan. I went to the gym (I swear I’m not crazy, movement sounded REALLY good after all those planes!) and swimming pool, and then we all headed for lunch and shopping in city center. Lunch was simple but good in an eatery that was fast food style but still tasty. Shopping was disappointing – central places are too commercialized (big brands tht are the same), and the market was too cheap (shitty quality tourist tshirts). Around 5pm (after 3 hours of walking!) I started fading so I headed to hotel (taxi ride: $1.50 USD) for a nap.
After reading/falling asleep I woke up at 7, ready for more exploring. This being Christmas eve the city was ready for celebrations, which is crazy – they don’t get 25th off.
Sidebar: everyone in Vietnam are super friendly and smiley. Random people wave at me when I smile out of a taxi window. And generally the atmosphere is really safe and calm, despite huge amounts of poverty and dirt – normal levels for Asia- cant say I had culture shock…
However, the massive amounts of scooters are a mandatory mention. And crazy traffic! Omg the traffic is ridiculous. Like its totally normal to head in exactly opposite direction when you want to make a right turn out of a left hand lane, crossing all the lanes of traffic and ending up facing into cars. Somehow everyone works it out, although there is a LOT of honking it’s considered normal. Crossing the street with this in mind is fun. There is never a full stop. You just dive in and weave around scooters while going forward and making sure to have reasonable eye contact with people who are driving AT you but are swerving around you in last moment because it’s normal. It’s like a roller coaster ride and I think I could do that for fun for st least a day. Not sure how much death risk there really is but feels significant.
Anyway but that’s not fear of being kidnapped or robbed. We went straight into the ridiculously busy city center which became pedestrian for Xmas eve. It was insanely busy, shoulders to shoulder people for at least an hour. I got photos and enjoyed it all immensely. After walking for about an hour we headed back while pricing out spa services (cheap! $25 for an hour Swedish massage). With an early day next day we got some snacks, wine and went home to drink, talk and relax. I manged to stay awake until 12 with my book.