Next stop is Vietnam

I think the travel industry is afraid of my Sweet Thing. We could not have had a smoother trip here!!! We even had exit row seating on the long haul (13.5 hours) from Toronto to Narita (Tokyo). It was one of the x-generation Boeing 777's with a bulkhead in front of the exit rows about 10 feet away. That was nice and it made the long flight easier. I watched a lot of the iPad movies and the ST did a lot of crosswords, her newest passion since the discovery of KenKen a number of months ago.

She watched Salt and a handful of other movies to pass the time. I imagine during the 13 hours in the air we both slept maybe 2-3 of those which, in my opinion, is the best way to deal with a looming time change so dramatic ... 11 hours in this case. We surfed Narita for about 2 hours after visiting the ANA connection desk in T1 to get seats together ... exit row again, sat for about 90 minutes waiting for the next flight. This time though the equipment was older 777 type and there was a bulkhead about 4 feet in front of us so it was not as luxurious as the YYZ-NRT leg. I kept telling the ST it was 6.5 hours to HCM (Ho Chi Minh) and it turned out to be a long 6.5 hours. It is better to fly to Hong Kong for 16 hours which makes the leg to Vietnam less than 3. As we are walking around Narita, an Asian comes up to me, pats me on the shoulder, and shakes hands. I draw a blank :). It was Paul who owns Laurier Computer, on his way to Hong Kong to see the family. SO not only did we run into someone we know, it was me and not the ST.

We got to HCM on time, if not a bit early, and the embarkation/customs passage was the smoothest we have ever experienced. Not only that, we go to carousel 5 and our bags are already circulating on the belt! There was no customs form to fill in and it wa so smooth. We were out of the airport and in a cab within a mere 15 minutes, we were hotel bound.

For $15 USD we traversed a large trail through HCM and arrived at a very nice Rex hotel. The driver was impatient to get paid and was chewed out. The hotel is nice, and in the ST rating scheme, widely accepted by Zagat and Frommer, it checks in at a high 4 star. The buffet breakfast was nice and the dim sum especially nice fare for breakfast too. Today consists of:

- getting VND from the bank machine (remember there are 19,500 VND to the CAD)
- go to one of our hangouts to see a recommend attraction
- walk
- perhaps hook up with Mr. Minh later and maybe dinner with him?
- check out further touristy trips with the front desk

The room is nice and in the been-renovated wing of the Rex, a hotel steeped in much tradition from the Vietnam war. It is where the press stayed and was the location of many many press conferences and high-level decisions made by the western-world coalition that was defending the south. The bar on the 5th floor is very nice and partially outside. The mercury here is in the mid-20's already and even though it is supposed to rain, it is sunny for now.