My life in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Første ferieuge

Fredag var igen store flyttedag. Vi var fire piger der flyttede sammen til Doi Che med vores bagage. Taxachaufføren så lidt opgivende ud da vi kom ned med vores bagage. Han skulle lige tænke om det hele overhovedet kunne være der. Men vi var fast besluttet på at det skulle det.. :-)

Og det gik! :-)

Vi ankom til Doi Che og den ene af ejerne (manden) var jo pallestiv som altid, så det var umuligt at forklare at Ms. Yen skulle have booket et værelse for os til vores bagage. Nete og jeg løb over på HUTECH, på den anden side af gyden, for at se om vi kunne finde en der ville oversætte og i mellemtiden var der kommet en italiensk/amerikansk mand ned fra et af værelserne og brudt ud i flydende vietnamesisk og var begyndt at prøve at hjælpe os med at forklare situationen. Det var virkelig noget af det sjoveste der længe er sket.

Efter at have læsset bagagen op på værelset, tog vi alle ind til centrum. Vi startede ude i backpacker området (mega hyggeligt område), videre til Vincom og tilbage mod backpacker, men med stop ved Ben Thanh markedet.

Vi sluttede aftenen tidligt på den indiske igen. Nete og LM skulle tilbage til Mai Phoung Thao og overnatte, da det ligger næsten lige ved lufthavnen og derfor nemmest for dem når de skulle flyve lidt i 9 næste morgen, og Liv og jeg skulle hjem og pakke til Hanoi / Halong Bay.

Lørdag: Liv og jeg fandt et tax free center hvor vi alligevel endte med at shoppe lidt, selvom vi ikke skulle, da vi kun havde vores håndtasker med som bagage, idet vi ikke ville slæbe for meget med. Vi skulle jo på Cruise så det ville være lidt begrænset i forhold til hvad vi kunne bruge penge på, og så derfor ikke nogen grund til at have håndbagage kuffert med.

Dagen blev også brugt på massage og pedicuren inden afrejse ;-)

Ved ankomst til lufthavnen (to timer før afgang kl. 20), fandt vi ud af at vores fly var blevet aflyst, og de ville ombooke os til et fly kl. 23.55. Men næ nej, det kunne de godt glemme og vi endte med at få plads på et fly kl. 22.00 i stedet, dvs. i stedet for kun at skulle vente 2 timer i lufthavnen måtte vi nu vente 4 timer.. Og der er godt nok ikke meget at få tiden til at gå med i den domestiske lufthavn. 4 laaaaaaange timer før vi kunne komme til Hanoi, og hvor irriterende er det så ikke at høre over højtalerne at de nævner Hanoi hver halve time. Bare med et andet flyselskab :-(

Lufthavnen i Hanoi ligger 30-45 minutter fra centrum, så det var en lang og lidt dyr tur med taxi. Vi var meget trætte da vi endelig ankom til vores hotel omkring 1-2 stykker om natten, og tanken om at vi skulle tidlig op og være klar til at blive hentet kl. 8 gjorde det ikke bedre.

Men det var et fint hotel vi havde fundet til prisen (78kr. for to personer for en nat), lige til at overkomme..

//Translation

First week of vacation

Friday was again the big moving day. We were four girls who moved together to Doi Che with our luggage. The taxi driver looked very lost when we came down to the taxi with our luggage. He needed to think about how he could get it all to fit into the trunk. But we were all very determined that it had to.. :-) and it could! :-)

We arrived at Doi Che and one of the owners (the husband) was drunk as always, so it was impossible to explain that ms Yen had booked a room for us to our luggage.

Nete and I then ran over to HUTECH, just across the alley, to see if we could find someone who could help us translate. Meanwhile a Italian/American man had come down from one of the rooms and started speaking fluent Vietnamese and tried to help us explaining the situation. It was some of the funniest that had happened for long.

After we had carried our luggage up to the room, we all went in to the center of the town. We started our day in the backpacker area (a very nice and cosy area), then to the Vincom center and then back towards the backpacker area, but with stop at the Ben Thanh market.

We ended the night early at the Indian again. Nete and LM had to spend one more night at Mai Phoung Thao, as it is located close to the airport and they had to fly the next day at 9 in the morning, and Liv and I had to go "home" and pack for our trip to Hanoi / Halong bay.

Saturday: Liv and I found a tax free center where we ended up shopping anyway, even though we only had our handbags with us as our luggage as we didn't wanted to bring to much. We were going on a cruise so it would be a bit limited of what we could spend our money on, and therefore we saw no reason to being along our hand suitcases.

The day was spend on massage and pedicure before departure. ;-)

At arrival at the airport (two hours before departure at 8pm) we found out that our flight had been cancelled, and they wanted to rebook us for the flight at 11.55pm instead. No way, that wasn't acceptable and we ended up getting a seat on the flight at 11pm. So instead of waiting only two hours in the airport, we had to wait for four hours..

There isn't much to do in the domestic airport so it was four loooooooooong hours before we could get to Hanoi, and how annoying is it when you hear Hanoi over the speakers every half hour. Just with another airline. :-(

The airport in Hanoi is located 30-45 minutes from the city, so it was a long and a bit expensive way with taxi. We were very tired when we finally arrived at our hotel around 1-2am, and the thought about getting up early and be ready to be picked up at 8am, was to tiring.

But it was a fine hotel we had found to the price (78kr. for two persons, one night), so it was just to overcome..