Ho Chi Min – whilst bustling city by day, its not until night when things really wake up. Following a relatively peaceful bus ride and yet another scam – a fact that seems to have become an inevitability with us on entering a new country – we met our old new friends, Kyle and Peter. Needless to say we were in for a big night that night, and oh boy did they deliver. After a delicious bowl of street noodles, we headed out. As much as I wish I could write what happened that night, I’m afraid as far as my memory goes, I went to bed at 7pm. The GoPro, however, tells otherwise. That’s as much as I’ll say about that though*. Just that it was an awesome night. Amazing amazing amazing fun**.
*A more recent flashback has reminded me that last Friday night there was dancing on table tops, taking too many shots, think someone kissed but I forgot…last Friday night.
**An even more recent flashback reminded me that Hannah and Anna both celebrated a sneaky chunder that night. I’m not sure who’s was worse: Hannah, shortly after, passed out on the toilet. Meanwhile, Anna had to be reminded the next day by her boyfriend who no doubt, had had to deal with the wreckage the night before. Charming girls.
A definite slow start to the next morning, but we were determined not to let the day be completely wasted so headed off to the Cu Chi tunnels in the afternoon. Although absolutely swarmed by tourists, the story behind the tunnel is an impressive one. Scurrying through the cramped, hot tunnels did nothing less than shove in your face the atrocities of war and fighting – the traps, the stories, the facts, all speak for themselves.
That night, it had finally come to the part of the holiday we were dreading: our family being further separated, with Anna and Louis splitting with us until the last night when will return to Bangkok before heading home. After persuading a very reluctant security officer to let them upstairs, following a similar incident the previous night that didn’t turn out in our favour…, we gave them both a big kiss and a cuddle and wished them a safe trip and happy new year. It was all a bit of a shock to realise how fast this holiday had gone, and how fast the new year was approaching!
For any of you who have me on Facebook, I’m sure you may already be aware of some of the…incidents…that took place on my last day in Ho Chi Min, especially regarding the flight that was due to depart at 4pm that afternoon to Hanoi. For those of you who don’t, I’ll cut to the chase: we woke, fed, visited the War Remnants Museum, fed again, packed, and hopped in our cab bound for the airport with plenty of time to spare for the crazy amounts of traffic. While in the taxi, we discussed how smoothly this trip had gone, and what pros we were at travelling. Well, needless to say, karma’s a bitch.
After failing to locate our flight on the board, we approached the desk to ask whether we were too early to check in. HA! Turns out our flight had been rescheduled and had already taken off…four hours prior. The next available flight had been cancelled, and only after Hannah “dealt” with the situation did we find ourselves waiting in the terminal for a 9.30pm flight, which was further delayed to 10.30pm and then further delayed to 10.50pm. All I can say is thank god we had Hannah.
We passed the time in KFC, in the food court of a rather stylish shopping mall we found. We’re used to being stared at, even laughed at, when walking around or trying to cross roads with our huge bags, but nothing compared to walking through that mall. Delirium well and truly hit by the time we got through to the boarding gate in the airport. Evidenced by us doing kart wheels, singing, playing cards, and watching the cleaner repeatedly push the vacuum too far away from the wall so that the plug fell out. The only response we could muster when we heard the flight being further delayed was laughter. Oh, except for Suzie who seemed to be quite emotional, crying after watching about three minutes of One Tree Hill.
Other than that, the plane ride was smooth. Most people slept, but Hannah and I thoroughly enjoyed talking for the whole two hours about…well I’m not really sure what. Some would say it was a mixture of sounds and nonsensical words, commonly referred to as talking “smack”. Not really anything new for us though. Still haven’t recovered from my cough – apparently it is referred to as a “frat” cough because it’s a common occurrence in American frat houses…I’m sure you’ll love to hear this mum!
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Where in the World 