You know you’re going to have an interesting start to a journey when a snarky elderly women just happens to be firmly planted in your airplane seat, having already claimed your baggage locker space.
“Excuse me ma’am. Ma’am? I think you’re in our seats, you’re in row 17”
“Argh, I just got comfortable” she scoffed, trying to downplay it jokingly.
We laughed it off and shuffled her plastic carry on bags aside to make room for our much larger black backpacks.
But the joke was on us, she ended up with no passengers either side of her and proceeded to sprawl her scaly skin across all 3 middle seats for the majority of the flight. Some people just luck out, I guess.
Meanwhile, our flight consisted of looking for a lost earring and being poked and prodded by a youngling from the seat behind us - like a couple of typical chumps.
At one point, mid-way through the flight, the older lady reached for the overhead luggage and pulled out a black bag, with a Caribee logo on the strap. It looked eerily familiar.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously
“...It is mine”, she said with half an air of confidence.
She unzipped a minor front pocket and pulled out some wet wipes. Nope!
“That wasn’t what you were looking for, was it?”, I thought.
I figure I would hold my tongue and give her the benefit of the doubt in hopes that she had a shred of self-awareness.
How exactly does someone not know what bag they brought through an international airport and customs and on to the plane itself?
I pondered this for far longer than was necessary.
Next, she reaches for the even bigger, heavier black bag filled with camera gear.
"That black one is definitely mine!”, I said smirking.
At this point she knew I was on to her, but to her credit she played it off like a pro and found whatever dignity she had deep within her plastic bag.
After a few more restless hours, we sadly parted ways and transferred onto a much smaller, yet comfortable, airplane for our final leg to Ho Chi Minh.
At long last we disembarked into Vietnam after 14 hours and purchased some insanely cheap SIM cards with unlimited data (220,000 VND, a little under $13 AUD) and moved through immigration with absolute ease.
The first thing I noticed, aside from the mild mugginess, was how thick the air was - pollution from the millions of motorbikes could be felt with each and every breathe.
While we wait for the hotel transfer and our friendly chauffeur Wim (most likely Nguyen), a few shoeless locals point and laugh at my stretched earlobes, to which I flaunt them with a jiggle followed by a thumbs up and a smile.
After unloading our bags, we hit the humid streets in search of a nearby vegan restaurant. It is clear that very few rules apply to vehicles and pedestrians and every one does they’re best to make simple straight movements, making it easy to navigate in a sea of honking motorbikes.
The first restaurant we went to was a Sen Quan Chay, an unassuming little joint up a thin set of wooden stairs which led to a small (and to our luck, empty) room with floor seating.
📍 71 Nguyễn Thái Học, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh
The lovely hostess greeted us with a huge smile, positioned the fans directly to us and took our order. Of course it had to be Pho.
For around $12 in total, we each had a huge comforting bowl of pho, fresh rice paper rolls with satay dipping sauce and a deliciously chilling orange juice. I was instantly in love with the country.
I thanked her for the hospitality and felt obliged to tip her for such a welcoming first experience.
After deciding to get purposefully lost for a little bit, we bought a case of water bottles (a tip picked up from Henry Rollins that I heard on a podcast) and were offered a little help from the shop owners 3 year old grand daughter.
After a quick retreat to the hotel and much needed need it was time for another meal.
This time it was the aptly named, and slightly more glamorous, Vegan Kitchen. We ordered a number of delicious fried dishes ranging from mushrooms to vegan prawns and beef and some of the freshest rice paper rolls we have ever tasted - I have never tasted such fresh and juicy vermicelli in my life.
📍 23B Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, Phường 22, Bình Thạnh, Hồ Chí Minh
Day one in Vietnam proved to be a success and a complete eye-opening culture shock. We didn't lose anything, had amazing food and somewhat gracefully managed to navigate through chaotic intersections.
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