I forgot to mention earlier the reason why Brenda and Carolyn were given the title of ‘Princess’. This was due to the fact that in Hanoi and on the Halong Bay junk, their room was noticeably larger due to it being a twin room. Then in Hoi An, when their room faced a school where the most irritating mechanical sort of ‘music’ was played from about 6am till 9pm, they enquired about changing rooms, then when a similar room for the same price didn’t really suit them either, they enquired about paying a bit extra for an upgrade. They were moved to another wing and given a junior suite. Basically a larger room with a sofa and a magnificent bathroom, where visitors weren’t allowed to use the toilet if it was for more than a ‘number 1’. We have decided that in future, we are booking twin rooms. Keep the princess tag in mind for later.
Our transfer to Danang airport was arranged for 11am so all we had to do this morning was have breakfast and pack. We see 'Hoi An lady' at breakfast with her family, it's her birthday today. They are leaving today as well, and looks like we will be in Siem Reap at the same time. Any thoughts of finding the well for the Cao Lau water were washed away with the rain, which hasn’t stopped since it began last night. If anything it got heavier. We saw a radar image on the news this morning and the rain cell heading for Central Vietnam was bordering on red. On the way to the foyer to check out, we saw the smallest frog we’ve ever seen hopping across the path – it would have been lucky to be the size of your pinky fingernail – just hopping along, minding his own business. So cute!
So the pick-up arrived on time and we were loaded and on our way. 5 minutes into the trip, cue Bob: “are we there yet?” This is becoming a continual question for Bob. The minute he sits in any sort of vehicle, that’s the question. It’s getting to be quite funny. You can nearly set your watch by it. Anyway, for some reason we had a driver and a guide. We figured they must have had a backload from the airport. He was a very safe driver and we thought he did a great job in the crazy traffic. Driving through Danang, he did battle for right of way with a truck bigger than him, which usually isn’t the done thing. The bigger the vehicle, the more right of way they have. Anyway, we all caught our collective breath till we won and continued down the road. The guide said something which we couldn’t really figure out and as we mulled it over, we realised he had called the driver Schumacher, as in Michael Schumacher!! I don’t think that’s the right spelling, I’ll have to ask Carolyn again, she knows. Anyway, we all thought that was so funny! These guys don’t know much English but what they do know is bloody hilarious!
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, the check-in counter hadn’t even opened. Great! We can get through security and sit down and enjoy a relaxing cuppa and maybe a bit of lunch, except, at Danang airport there’s stuff all to eat. We find a shitty cup of coffee and a beautiful baguette filled with shitty ‘ham’ that didn’t look like ham, some tomato and cucumber. It’s now late at night and no-one has been sick, so it must have been ok.
I think that this was the first check-in process that flowed smoothly. In Sydney, Brenda had her visa headache, and flying out of Hanoi, Bob and Anke had problems finding their passports and ticket.
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| shitty airport lunch |
As sometimes happens, the ride from the terminal out to the plane had it's annoyances. The weather was still threatening and it was lightly sprinkling rain as the bus stopped and we were all meant to get out. What is it with the Asian culture and getting wet?? They really hate even a few drops of rain - bit like redheads going out in the sun! These girls were squealing and trying to get their umbrellas up, even before we were off the bus! It took all my strength not to give them a shove!! Unkind thought probably, but come on, it was just a few drops of rain!
After a short flight with only a little turbulence and a bottle of water, we land in Saigon. If only getting out of the airport was as easy as it was to get in at Danang. They are very consciencious about people having the right bag and they check your luggage ticket stuck to your boarding pass against the tag on your bag. We all get through no problem, except for Brenda. She can’t find her boarding pass and therefore has no luggage ticket. She can’t exit until she finds it which she eventually does….. her Princess title is slipping……… The nice man holding up the sign with our names on it goes to get the van and off we go into Saigon city and the Duxton Hotel. It’s s’possed to be 27 degrees with a clear sky, but it’s actually 23 degrees and threatening rain. No-one minds because it’s much cooler and we’ve seen what real rain looks like in this country, so we’re not scared!
After a short flight with only a little turbulence and a bottle of water, we land in Saigon. If only getting out of the airport was as easy as it was to get in at Danang. They are very consciencious about people having the right bag and they check your luggage ticket stuck to your boarding pass against the tag on your bag. We all get through no problem, except for Brenda. She can’t find her boarding pass and therefore has no luggage ticket. She can’t exit until she finds it which she eventually does….. her Princess title is slipping……… The nice man holding up the sign with our names on it goes to get the van and off we go into Saigon city and the Duxton Hotel. It’s s’possed to be 27 degrees with a clear sky, but it’s actually 23 degrees and threatening rain. No-one minds because it’s much cooler and we’ve seen what real rain looks like in this country, so we’re not scared!
We get settled into our rooms and make plans to book a Mekong River trip but can’t access the details we need because we have no wi-fi in this hotel and they want an exhorbitant amount to use their broadband. We need to find a café with wi-fi. Brenda wants to look at spectacle frames so off into the mad Saigon afternoon traffic, we know there’s a street full of spectacle shops behind the Ben Thanh markets. Many streets are crossed successfully but Brenda can’t find the frames she wants. We are all getting hungry and we know there are night markets due to be set up in the streets on the sidestreets of the market block. Shame they don’t close the road to motorbikes as well as cars, but you can’t have everything. It was an amazing sight to see all the market holders race into the street at the appointed time to claim their spot and get set up as quickly as possible so they can start trading. Worth going back again tomorrow night to watch.
We wandered around a bit and found a food vendor who had quite a good range of choices. Trevor had mussels and the rest of us ordered banh xeo, the crispy Vietnamese pancake. We had them in Hoi An and they were terrific. I’ve gotta say, these ones tonight weren’t as good. Brenda thought the ‘turned over egg cooked with tamarind' sounded good so she ordered that as well. It came out first and this is where the ‘princess’ title slipped in a major way, and Carolyn is going to take great pleasure in reminding Brenda of what happened next for a very long time. The ‘egg’ came out first and looked quite nasty, truth be told. You could see the white and the yolk, disjointed from each other but pushed together during the cooking process, and a grey squishy looking thing sort of attached to it all. The white and the yolk had all grey veiny things running all over them, and Brenda tentatively put one of the little lumps which didn’t look like egg, into her mouth. It was nice. She passed the plate over to me for closer inspection and I cut through the white and the yolk to confirm that’s what they are. The girls were making ‘icky’ noises, so I called them all big girls and ate a piece of yolk. It was nice. Brenda felt a bit bolder now so she ate the rest of the egg, then started poking the grey squishy thing about trying to decide exactly what it was. Trevor sitting next to her, reckoned it had a beak and was an unborn chicken!! Yuk!! The look on Brenda’s face was priceless!!
The waitress had very limited English but when Carolyn asked her if it was chicken by making chicken movements and chicken noises, the waitress responded with similar movements and noises. Yes!! It was an unhatched baby chicken!! Again, cue the horrified look on Brenda’s face as the rest of us laughed that much we nearly fell off our red plastic chairs!! OMG!! Laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera still for a photo! Bob asks what’s for dessert, can we go to the icecream shop we saw earlier? Only problem with that is, we have to walk past all the other market stalls selling all the usual stuff. Bob buy another 2 watches, one for himself and one for Anke, Brenda gets one too. Carolyn buys a t-shirt and Bob buys one too. Are we ever going to get to the ice-cream shop?? It’ll be time for breakfast soon! We finally get our ice cream, and very nice it was too, head back to the Duxton and agree to meet for breakfast at 8am. Tomorrow’s another day.
We wandered around a bit and found a food vendor who had quite a good range of choices. Trevor had mussels and the rest of us ordered banh xeo, the crispy Vietnamese pancake. We had them in Hoi An and they were terrific. I’ve gotta say, these ones tonight weren’t as good. Brenda thought the ‘turned over egg cooked with tamarind' sounded good so she ordered that as well. It came out first and this is where the ‘princess’ title slipped in a major way, and Carolyn is going to take great pleasure in reminding Brenda of what happened next for a very long time. The ‘egg’ came out first and looked quite nasty, truth be told. You could see the white and the yolk, disjointed from each other but pushed together during the cooking process, and a grey squishy looking thing sort of attached to it all. The white and the yolk had all grey veiny things running all over them, and Brenda tentatively put one of the little lumps which didn’t look like egg, into her mouth. It was nice. She passed the plate over to me for closer inspection and I cut through the white and the yolk to confirm that’s what they are. The girls were making ‘icky’ noises, so I called them all big girls and ate a piece of yolk. It was nice. Brenda felt a bit bolder now so she ate the rest of the egg, then started poking the grey squishy thing about trying to decide exactly what it was. Trevor sitting next to her, reckoned it had a beak and was an unborn chicken!! Yuk!! The look on Brenda’s face was priceless!!
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| "oh no!!" |
The waitress had very limited English but when Carolyn asked her if it was chicken by making chicken movements and chicken noises, the waitress responded with similar movements and noises. Yes!! It was an unhatched baby chicken!! Again, cue the horrified look on Brenda’s face as the rest of us laughed that much we nearly fell off our red plastic chairs!! OMG!! Laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera still for a photo! Bob asks what’s for dessert, can we go to the icecream shop we saw earlier? Only problem with that is, we have to walk past all the other market stalls selling all the usual stuff. Bob buy another 2 watches, one for himself and one for Anke, Brenda gets one too. Carolyn buys a t-shirt and Bob buys one too. Are we ever going to get to the ice-cream shop?? It’ll be time for breakfast soon! We finally get our ice cream, and very nice it was too, head back to the Duxton and agree to meet for breakfast at 8am. Tomorrow’s another day.
P.S. We find a café with free wi-fi internet just down the road at Angel-in-us Cafe.
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