Sunday December 23 seemed like a great time to head off on our very first overseas family adventure...maximizing the Christmas break and escaping some of the end of year rush. In reality it was just as much a rush...made slightly busier with organizing Christmas and leaving our house to friends and family.
We left home before 9am and arrived in Hanoi about 17 hours later...a little overwhelmed and absolutely exhausted! The flight from Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh was great...after reading many poor reviews about Vietnam airlines we were expecting the worst...but have no complaints at all (except perhaps for the state of the toilets...but maybe this was just a sign of things to come :)
The boys were entertained the entire flight with their own tv screens and there was plenty of food and drink on offer (Grant and I even enjoyed a Bloody Mary on the way)
The real test came with the transit...queuing up over and over again, waiting, waiting, delayed flight and very tired kids and us!
An extraordinary thing happened not long before we boarded our flight...a family with three boys walked by and Grant recognized them from our trip around Australia over 2 years ago! Pete and Alison and their boys are living in Hoi An and were on their way back after a trip to Cambodia! What a coincidence...not only to be in the same country, but the same city and airport on the same day and at the same time...we couldn't believe it! We are looking forward to catching up with them next week.
It was hot and steamy when we left Ho Chi Minh...so it was funny to arrive in Hanoi just two hours later to see the locals in puffer jackets and scarves!
We finally arrived at our lovely hotel at 11pm (3am our time)...and all collapsed into bed!
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