out and about: Arriving in Vietnam

This is how Greg and I spent the majority of our day. (Greg on our flight from LAX to Taipei).

It's 4:30am here in Hue, Vietnam and I am reluctantly awake. I awoke at 3am hoping against all odds that it would at least be 5am. I laid in bed until 4am before conceding to the fact that I wasn't going to go back to sleep. This is a good time, though, for me to share some of the things I've seen so far. I'll break it up into sections since I like to write in gory detail--especially since I don't have many pictures. That and, well, it's 4:30am... I've got time.

Los Angeles, CA to Taipei, Taiwan

Greg and I arrived at LAX and made it through security to our gate with about two hours to spare. While we waited we watched as about 14 stewardesses (13 of which were female) got on the plane with about three pilots. I had never ridden on a Boeing 747-400 (or any 747 for that matter) and was looking forward to it. Our tickets had us in seats 61B and 61C. I thought to myself, "61?!?! What are we, in the last row?"

We were in the second to last row. It turned out to be one of the best spots, though, because there were no "A" seats in the back so Greg and I had the left row all to ourselves! They served dinner almost immediately but since it was 1am California time (Saturday or 4pm Saturday in Vietnam), we were pretty exhausted and fell asleep skipping dinner. We slept for a lot of the flight, intermittently waking to watch a bit of a movie or listen to some music.

Sometime around 4am (Sunday, Vietnam time--things will get too complicated if I include the Taipei timezone, hah) we were served breakfast. We had the choice between "American" chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, and half a baked potato or the "Chinese" rice breakfast. Greg and I of course went with the Chinese breakfast which was delicious. It was a sort of rice porridge with beef in it accompanied by fresh fruit, a dinner roll, and pickles.

As we descended into Taipei the land emerged from the foggy mists surrounding the island and we could see a lot of industrial facilities strewn about green, tree-filled hills. My east coast friends are probably thinking "what is the significance of the trees here?" Now that I've been living in the desert, densely tree-packed hills are somewhat of a rarity. Rain began to fall on the windows as we transitioned from the airplane to the airport. It is monsoon season here so this was to be expected for the majority of our trip. Like trees, Greg and I have also been missing some rain since we haven't seen it for months.

Taipei, Taiwan to Hanoi, Vietnam

We walked through the halls of the airport passing gardens with prayer rooms including ones with crosses and swastikas (presumably for the Buddhists or Hindus) on them. We arrived at Gate A1 about an hour early and passed the time people watching. I began to get hungry and asked Greg if he thought we were going to get a second breakfast on our next flight since it was only supposed to be about a three-hour flight. Several Lord of the Rings jokes followed.

Fortunately, we did receive a second breakfast around 8am (from here on out, just assume Vietnam time). The stewardess handed me a menu with two pictures and gestured suggesting I should point to one. I pointed to the "Chinese" breakfast once again and received noodles and pork--very tasty.

Upon our arrival in Hanoi we had to get our visas. We walked up to the visa-upon-arrival counter and handed them our paperwork. We had heard that people in Vietnam are often very friendly but the woman behind the counter must have been the sassiest woman in Vietnam. We hand her our papers and she mumbles something to us. "Sorry?" "MONEY!!!" She wanted the $45 fee for the visa. She also took some papers of mine that she wasn't supposed to keep and was sassy about returning those as well. Maybe she was just having a bad day.

We arrived at the border check and Greg was asked to produce a second ID because his passport photo doesn't resemble his current haircut enough. Meanwhile I slammed the back of my head into the counter while rummaging through my bag. All in all, though, we didn't have any hurdles really. We arrived at our gate in Hanoi for the flight to Hue with three or four hours to kill so we settled down in a "fast food cafe".

It was 10am Hanoi time so Greg decided to get his first beer(s). I had some ice cream to cool off. The photo in the menu was an ice cream sundae. I wasn't expecting that per se, but perhaps a scoop in a bowl. She hands me a tiramisu ice cream cone out of a freezer. I suppose I shouldn't have expected much more since the cafe didn't even have a kitchen--just hot water, a fridge, and a freezer.

Hanoi, Vietnam to Hue, Vietnam

We walked around the Hanoi airport some to try to get a little exercise before boarding our final flight. While waiting in line to board the flight we met two English women and a Spaniard in front of us in line. We chatted and, upon arriving in Hue, decided to split a cab to the city center where our hotel was. The total cost of the taxi was $10 ($2 per person) or 200,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND).

It's now 5am here and Greg has just knocked on my door. He says he has been up since 3am too (whew!) so we're going to get showered and get ready for another day. There are quite a few interesting things to write about since we've arrived in Hue but I'll just have to write about them later today or tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Greg carrying his murse around LAX around 12:30am PCT.

We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to carry on all of our luggage so he was hopping to pass off his dry bag as a personal item / purse. It must have worked because we didn't have to check anything on any of our flights!

We arrived at gate A1 in the Taipei airport. Based on the name of it and the odor and style of the terminal, we could only assume that this had to be the oldest terminal in the airport...

"Greg, do you think the airline for our Taipei to Hanoi flight knows about second breakfast?"

Greg's first beers in Vietnam were at 10am in Hanoi.

Waiting for our flight to Hue. Only threeee moreee hoursss...

Greg and I were devastated to find that we couldn't use our RC cars, walkmen, or boomboxes on the airplane. The pamphlet was revised, apparently, last August to include the iPad.