On the way back we see a motorbike accident. A bike hits a car quite slowly and kind of topples over with two passengers on it. I won't go into it here but it looks worse than it should be a large crowd swarms around the accident. And because of the amount of traffic there is suddenly a big crowd with lots of beeping and honking and shouted. We move Remi away from there quickly because it looks like a state of confusion. I can't imagine how an ambulance would even be able to get near.
It's boiling hot so we get back to the hotel, shower and for the first time in 2 weeks I put on long pants. Now I feel like a grown up again.
We take our bags down to the lobby and wait for our driver.
We get to the airport with plenty of time to spare but then it all kind of moves slowly as we try and work out how thier queues work. But we eventually get on the plane to fly domestic to Saigon. We sit next to a Vietnamese girl who is moving to Melbourne to study at Monash. She appears upset at first because she is moving to another country and leaving all her friends. Her English name is Jenny and she laughs when we attempt her real name. She's very friendly and talkative and she gets on well with Melody. She is 17. They even organise a catch up in the city during the holidays. And she's coming over to our house to cook us Vietnamese food. Very confident. I try to imagine Melody moving to another country to study and I can't. Or even imagine going up to Sydney to study and staying with her aunty there and I just can't see it.
Changes planes at Saigon and the queues are slow because they are having internet problems. A recurring theme at airports these holidays. We get through customs and get to our gate to wait. We buy some water from the kiosk. Sit them down then I decide to have a beer. When I go back I'm told that they are no longer serving liquid to people going to Australia. Not even water. I figure it might be because I'd be drink in the waiting area. So I try the little coffee place there. There's people drinking there. But no, they cannot serve me beer or water. They're very apologetic but security as told them no. When we came to gate they were checking bags one last time. I guess they were checking for liquids. Heaven knows why and I can't be bothered googling it.
The trip back home leaves late and arrives early morning. Sleep doesn't really happen for any of us and Remi gets to use a sick bag.
Customs is a breeze as we use the e-passports they have installed now. Strangely they only told us about them because I asked if I could stay with my family in line because I have a British passport. Through in 1 minute. I look over at the long lines at customs and wonder why they don't let everyone know.
There were a lot of Vietnamese on the flight and those long lines mean the baggage carousel stays full for along time. It takes a while for our last bag to come down as the sensor looks for spots. An enterprising guy to my right sorts the bags into a neater order so the bags keep coming. Then it comes. We leave the terminal. It's 6 degrees. Our bodies still carry the last remnants of the Hanoi heat as we head for home.
No comments:
Post a Comment