After travelling New Zealand for four and a bit months and seeing as much as I could I was ready to go home.
Red = Interests/possible checkout locations.
Green = Everwhere I'd been
Gold = The best bits where I'd been.
But as I was browsing through the flights and flight paths it hit me just how far away home was.
About 30 hours of planes, not including the time spent at each airport. That doesn't even qualify as a "long day" since a day is 24 hours. So basically I had to stop somewhere...
Then I saw Asia on the map and I automatically zoomed in to Vietnam. My main reason for doing so was because of an old "top gear special" episode which had Jeremy, James and Richard touring Vietnam on motorbikes.
I remember wanting to do that and this was my chance so what did I do? Booked a one way trip to Vietnam in just 2 days time!
So after getting up at stupid 0 clock, I headed to catch my first flight out of 3 to Brisbane
Australia.
I'm Pretty sure it was a 7am liftoff. The flight was horrible and uncomfortable. If the turbulence wasn't annoying enough, the two sikh guys behind me really pissed me off.
All they were doing was talking but my god were they loud! You could hear them from the back of the plane where the toilets were. The fact it was a language I didn't understand didn't help. To give you an idea just how loud they were, someone 3 seats back but in the middle isle complained and as I looked back everyone was looking at them with that shut the f@$k up look.
The stewardess came over and basically told them to shut up but in a nice way of course. This helped a great deal.
As I arrived back in Brisbane, I had never done a connecting flight before so this was a new experience. It was pretty easy but felt weird to ditch my bag and basically hope it would be on the right plane.
Since I was back in Australia briefly I thought I'd use my Australian bank card to grab a subway. Afterall, I'd worked there for 6 months. I think I had 20 dollars left which I was thankful for.
The time came to go to the gate. Since it was the longest out of the flights I expected a bigger plane...nope.
It was basically what looked like a private jet but with an ecomomy layout inside. This thing was smaller than the plane I caught from Sydney to Melbourne and that was only a 2 hour flight. This was nearly 8!
To my surprise this flight was alot more comfy and spacious than the last. Everything was better. The food, the seats, the service and the passengers! Everyone was just chilled out either with headphones or talking quietly. A complete contrast and despite the flight being 3 hours longer, it felt like a 5 hour flight.
Singapore
Nearly there! This airport was huge! I couldn't get over the amount of carpet on the floor. Carpets seem rare in airports. It's normally just a grey/white hard floor or tiles.
After placing my bag in the hold for my next flight and praying that I'd see it in Vietnam I had only 40 minutes or so till my next flight. The trouble was they didn't do anouncements. It was a "quiet" airport so it was up to travellers like me to continuesly monitor the boards. Now alot of airports are "quiet" and to be honest, I think the no anouncement system works fine.
I find it amusing how everyone rushes to the plane, only to sit down and wait for take off.
Wait for me suckers :-P
Only a 2 hour flight to Ho Chin Minh. Easy...
Erm...no, no it wasn't.
My seat was at the back of the plane. This meant I got all the engine noise and all the turbulance. I'm not exactly good with travel sickness so this really sucked. To make matters worse, the leg room was tiny! Call me racist or whatever but I felt like a giant on board. There were no other "travellers" everyone was returning home to Vietnam. I was in their world and I hadn't even landed yet.
Ho Chi Minh
I finally arrived and after feeling like I'd been kneeling for 2 hours it was nice to stretch my legs.
Only one thought was racing through my mind. "Please let my bag be there!" As I walked around the corner, there it was on the floor. Someone had already unloaded it for me. Thank god!
It was time to find my hostel. Tjis by itself was a crazy experience and was a quick introduction to what life would be like for the next month.
I'm quite good with scams normally, I'm quite aware of being ripped off too. I'd heard all the stories and mentally prepaired myself for the onslaught of "by this" from the locals.
I stepped outside and straight away they were onto me. "Uber uber" they shouted. "No thanks, I'll take the bus"
"The bus is not running" they said. Yeh right, I thought and made my way diwn to a bus I could see parked. Another man came up to me. "Uber?" He asked. "No thanks, I'm taking the bus".
This happened about 4 times in the space of 100 meters until I got to the bus.
"Sorry bus not running"
Apparently the bus only runs up until a certain time. It was 9pm so I guess it was too late? Taxi it is I guess.
"Uber uber, I do it cheap" He asked me where I was going and did a quick calculation on his phone. "Cheap cheap" he said.
I got in and we started to drive out the airport. "Parking you pay" he said.
"What?" I asked
"You pay parking 50 thousand"
Now I knew the currency was very different but the taxi fare was 150 thousand and he charged another 50 thousand to just get out the car park. This by the way is about £2 not alot at all but the way he kept pressuring me I felt uncomfortable.I had no phone signal, no data. My New Zealand, Australian and UK sims were all useless.
I told him I was getting out and grabbed my bag and headed back to the entrance.
I was stopped by more taxi drivers with thier white shirts tucked in.
I hate being harrassed, if someone's forcing you to do something it's probably either illegal or a some sort of scam.
Two things went through my head.
"If you take me somewhere like an ally and I have to kill you to get away then I'm getting out the country as fast as possible!
I'm exhausted, I need water and I need sleep. I know if I make it to the hostel, their english will be better and I'd be safe.
So I picked one and got in. This guy didn't charge me for the car park but the overall price was higher than the last. He just didn't seem as pushy and allowed me to make my decision.
After he nearly hit a bunch of motorcyclists from driving like a boy racer. He stopped me at the end of an alleyway.
"Here we go I thought" This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. The alley was pitch black with only a few christmas style lights at the end. In my head, I was looking at what I could use in the car to give myself the advantage and positioned myself so he couldn't grab me but I could strangle him or something if I needed to. I know it seems crazy but this is how people go missing on their travels. People get killed in places like this. No cameras, no lights, no wittneses. So in my head I'd already mentally prepared for pretty much anything.
"Please can you show me on the map?" I said calmly watching his hands.
He didn't understand. I got out my phone and showed him a screenshot of the hostel as well as a screenshot of the hostel on google maps.
He then showed me on his and it checked out. The hostel was somewhere down that alleyway.
I thanked him, grabbed my bag and started to slowly head down the alley. My battery on my phone was running out so I held back from using the torch. The alley split into a T at the bottom. One side went left the other straight on then right. I went straight on and it became more and more of a maze. I started to panic but just kept telling myself, even if I had to sleep in that alley, day light would come and I'd be able to find it. Until then, I'll keep looking.
Then I saw a well lit up posh looking building. It was a hotel! Have you ever seen a main entrance to a hotel from an alleyway before? I hadn't but I was glad to see it.
Inside, I spoke to the receptionist and they helped point me in the right direction. It was down the other alley where it split earlier.
Finally I found it! The shutter was partially down and it was basically open to the alley.
"Shoes off please"
Erm ok, where?
"There" He pointed to a small rack right on the edge of the room within reach of anyone walking past.
"It's ok, I'll carry them" I said.
"No put there" he said
Screw it, I was too tired to argue so checked in and left my shoes by basically an open sliding door.
I checked in then went straight to bed.
"What have I got myself into I thought."
It wouldn't be long until I found out.