Saturday, February 28th
We were up early to get the 7:15am flight to Sydney for an 11:30am flight to Saigon - yes, a lot of margin for error, but when you're traveling with a Virgo, you compromise. Besides, the next flight time might have been tight, and when we got to the desk three hours before departure, the queue was already substantial.
A "novelty" for me was having to use the train to get from the domestic to the international terminal - I never realised the shuttle bus was operated by Qantas and for Qantas, and since we were traveling Air Vietnam it wasn't an option. Neither was the Qantas Club - and not only because of the different airline! I'm no longer a member :-(
The flight left on time, more or less, and was very uneventful. These days and eight hour flight is still manageable, especially when it's not overnight and therefore doesn't involve a lack of sleep as well as jet lag.
When we arrived in Saigon, we got a bit of a shock - rather than present our visa applications at the Immigration desk, we had to join a queue to apply for, and pay for, our visas! This was one of those third world, bureaucratic, make work, systems where all you can do is be patient.
An hour and $70 each later (cash payment only) we got through Immigration and went looking for our luggage.
As expected, it wasn't on any of the carousels, but we were by no means alone. We finally found it in a corner, walked straight through Customs, and (very) fortunately, our guide and driver we still outside waiting for us. They took our luggage, turned up the A/C, and 45 minutes later we were in our hotel.
Tomorrow is another day, and the first day of our Vietnamese "adventure". Having eaten several times on the plane, it now being 11:00pm Australian time (yes, only 7:00pm Vietnamese time), Prue decided it was sleep time - with a Virgo, what else can you do but join them?!
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