Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia

Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia – Travel Days

Travel Days – 14/15/16 January 2015

And I do mean days as in plural. I actually had a hard time finding flights to Hanoi. Most would connect through Hong Kong, Narita or Seoul. I booked the flights two months in advance and the pickings were a bit slim. In the end, I found a connection through Vancouver and Seoul. For some odd reason, I couldn’t fly to Vancouver to spend the night as the cost added $1000 to the flights, so I opted to spend the night in Toronto. No problem. I have my favorite airport hotel to go to – the Alt. I’m on a first name basis with the front desk staff now.

The overnight is also a good idea in winter as anything can delay or cancel flights. As I would find out.

I was dogsitting my sisters dogs while she was on the mainland. She was due to fly back the evening of the 13^th and at the last moment, the flight was diverted to Stephenville (and airport on the west coast of Newfoundland with a runway long enough to accommodate the space shuttle and was an emergency landing strip for it). However, it has no services to accommodate a hundred or so passengers so they ended up returning to Toronto.

Pretty good. Toronto to Toronto in 9 hours.

The reason for the diversion was an icy runway. So, I spent the night watching flight after flight get cancelled. Now, it was likely that the flights in the morning wouldn’t be affected, but with four full Air Canada flights cancelled, that means those planes wouldn’t be in St. John’s to leave the next morning.

Luckily, I had booked the noon flight which mean that plane would leave Toronto the same morning. My only worry was them bumping me for a higher paying customer since I had gotten the flight on points.

Double luckily, I had already checked in, which I’m told lowers the risk of being bumped.

In the end, Air Canada put on a couple of extra flights to accommodate the stranded passengers and I got out on time no problem and the airport had the plows and salters out in full force.

My sister was on one of those extra flights, so we passed at 34,000 feet over western Newfoundland and her dogs only had to spend about 4 hours alone in the house.

<whew>

Yeah. My couch is intact.

I got into Toronto at 2:30 and checked into the Alt. I went to Terminal 3’s Swiss Chalet for dinner and also picked up some Vietnamese Dong at the exchange counter. My bank didn’t have that currency available. Neither source had Cambodian currency, so I’ll have to pick some up there.

I asked the clerk for $200 Canadian in Dong and he looked at the screen, smiled and said “prepare to be a millionaire.”

Yup. I have two and a half million dong.

I think I’ll buy a boat.

Back at the Alt, I took a shower without crushing my toes with my shampoo bottle this time. I watched Under Siege and took a couple of Dristan which put me out. With such a long day tomorrow, I really want all the sleep I can get tonight.

And the day started at 4:40 am Toronto time.

I was up and out in 20 minutes and dropped my bag off at the counter but while it goes straight to Hanoi, I have to source a boarding pass in Seoul. I have 2 ½ hours to do that. Shouldn’t be a problem. The auto machine also scanned my Vietnam visa, so I know that’s good.

It’s different having to take a domestic flight out of Toronto. The domestic terminal has more services and better wifi.

The flight is on the new 787 Dreamliner. This isn’t the double decker. That’s the A380. This is Boeing’s new carbon composite jet. It has larger windows which don’t use shades. They have automatic darkening that you can control. The cool part is that you can see through the window when it’s darkened. The seats are more form fitted but are no more spacious than the regular seats, but the best part is that you have to work to get them to recline. You can’t press the button and go BANG into the forehead of the person behind you. The entertainment system is also miles ahead of the regular one. It’s a touch screen that you don’t have to pound with your fist to work. Much easier to navigate and more offered including games.

If there was a downside, it’s that there is also a control pad on top of the armrest. Yeah, you know where I’m going with this, don’t you? So, depending on where you like to rest your arm, you either kept turning on your light, kept turning down the volume on your movie or kept calling the flight attendant.

For such a gorgeous plane, someone screwed up on that count.

The plane also flew at 40,000 feet which is the highest I’ve ever gone. And we raced the sunrise all across the country so the horizon had a pink glow the whole way. Oh, and in promo pics, you can see the wings look like they sweep upwards quite a bit. Yeah, they really do. When I looked across to the window, all I could see was wing. The end of it was well above my field of vision. Pretty cool.

I watched Gone Girl and munched on tea and trail mix. At least it was tea this time. I was halfway through my ‘tea’ on the flight yesterday when I realized it was actually coffee. I was thinking…this is bitter tea. Nope. Weak coffee. My first clue should have been when the attendant said “here’s your coffee.” LOL

We landed ahead of schedule and everyone stopped to take a pic of the plane as we got off. Nice with the mountains in the background.

There’s no security check or anything. Just show my boarding pass to a guy sitting next to a glass door and off I go.

Vancouver is a very nice airport. A bit of shopping, lots of seats, free wifi, plugs at select seats and some comfy seats around too. The ones facing the view even have a foot rest. I picked up a Bacon-n-egger at A&W and tried to get a tea at Starbucks, but they had no English Breakfast. Yup. I’m in British Columbia and I can’t get English Breakfast tea. They actually had no black tea at all, so I settled for a muffin and my first Coke of the trip.

What is it about travelling that draws us to consume so many carbs?

My flight to Seoul left on time and I settled in with a Korean couple going home to visit relatives next to me and a guy who couldn’t get the seat back far enough no matter how many times he jumped in the seat to push it back. Lunch was probably one of the better airplane meals I’ve had, so whoever is doing the catering in Vancouver makes great meals. It was tender chicken chunks and a little ball noodle.

I decided to take a nap and I think I conked out for maybe 30 minutes out of the two hours I had my eyes closed. I spent the rest of the 10 ½ hour flight watching movies. We got a noodle service at the halfway point. We landed in Seoul at 3:30 pm – a full 45 minutes early. Gotta like that.

Since I wasn’t staying in Korea, I didn’t have to fill out any landing or customs cards. I didn’t have a boarding pass and as soon as I got off the flight, there was a representative from Korean Airlines with a list of flights. She directed me to the Transfer Desk B. I had to go to another terminal (where I think everyone had to go) and while they turned one way for baggage, I turned the other for Transfers.

I then found myself in this huge shopping area in the main terminal. And very good signage everywhere. There was also employees in blue jackets everywhere to help us if we got turned around.

Who? Me? Nah.

I found the transfer desk and got my favorite aisle seat then went looking for my fridge magnet for Korea. Despite the fact that it was one of the largest airport malls I’ve been in, it was almost all duty-free perfume, alcohol, jewelry and chocolate.

Oh, so much chocolate!

I resisted and found the one souvenir shop in the whole place. I got my fridge magnets and went in search of my gate. I found it and when I sat down, I noticed a lonely little passport sitting on the seat next to me and no one nearby. Now, believe it or not, this is the second time in one day that I’ve found a missing passport. On the flight to Seoul, I found a Canadian passport on the empty seat across from me as I boarded. I checked the name, called it out and this girl is sitting in the row behind and looks at me as if to say “who the heck are you.” I hold up the passport and her mouth just dropped.

Well, there was no pronouncing the name on the Thai passport I found at the gate, so I gave it to the airline clerk at the desk. He announced the name and a moment later I noticed a guy doing that “oh crap, where’s my passport” dance as he patted all his pockets with that “oh crap, oh crap, oh crap” expression on his face. I caught his attention and pointed to the airline clerk who was coming toward him. It was so obvious he was the one that lost the passport.

So, hold on tight to your passports, ladies and gents.

And if you insist on keeping it in one of those neck pouches, don’t buy the basic department store ones. The strings break far too easily (as it did for two men on my Patagonia tour). If you want a neck pouch, get one with a strap like a shoelace that is well sewn into the pouch.

Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, the gate.

We boarded just a few minutes late and departed a little late as we were waiting for passengers. The A330 had seats and entertainment centres like the Dreamliner. Lovely touch screen and decent selection of movies and stuff. And an exterior camera where you can view down or forward. Unfortunately, it was a night flight, so there was nothing to see.

Korean Air is a very nice airline. It had a nice meal service with a delicious hot soft bun. There was even toothbrushes with paste available in the bathrooms. The flight landed just after ten, about 40 minutes late. I didn’t have to fill out any landing cards and got through passport control very fast. Not that it mattered. I spent the next hour waiting for my bag. It seemed like they offloaded the cargo first as the first 30 minutes was almost all oversized baggage and cardboard boxes. Now, given that I had started in Toronto and flew through two more airports, you’d think there’d be a chance the bag didn’t make it, but it finally popped out.

I had seen a bag with a TT tag pass by earlier, so I figured I wasn’t the only one looking for the transfer. He was there with a TT sign, waving it at me as if I had Trafalgar stamped on my forehead. There were two women and a man with him. Two were solos and one woman who is expecting her friend tomorrow. She is from Canada and the two others are American.

Our transfer is a tour guide, just not our tour guide. He said there were 22 on the tour. Awesome. It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel and he gave us some basic information about Vietnam and Hanoi. He reminded us that Vietnam is still a Communist country but that like China, it’s politically Communist but economically it’s a free market system. When he references the Vietnam War, he calls it the American War and he said not to worry for the two Americans….the Vietnamese are a forgiving people. I can believe it. I experienced this in Japan.

He gave us an idea of what we could do on our free day. Of course, I’m at about 30 hours with 30 minutes sleep so my first thought was ‘what day of the week is it?’ and my second thought was that I know exactly what I’m doing with my free day.

We arrived at the hotel and checked in. While the other three discussed what they might do on the free day, I just smiled and said I’m a happy wanderer (who likely won’t be wandering too far from my bed before noon). I got to my room and after checking the net and brushing my teeth, straight to bed it was for me.

I honestly don’t remember putting my head on the pillow.