Five flavours: Day 1 Perth – Hue

Soundtrack: VietJet boarding music

Frequent readers (all 3 of you) can skip this paragraph. It was the same old story, even though I was packed and ready, and it was a mid-morning flight that didn’t need a 3am alarm, I still slept badly and woke up far too early. I’m beginning to think that even if I booked an afternoon or evening departure my body alarm would still kick me up hours before my phone has the chance to say, “Smile! You’re travelling!”

We’re flying VietJet this time, even though I basically swore never to fly with them again after the last time (https://www.slowlyandloudly.com/2024/01/08/viet-nam-the-fourth-day-12-hoi-an-transit/) the fare price we got was an offer we couldn’t refuse. I’d been checking the departure times for our flight over the last few weeks, and it was averaging around 20 minutes late, so figured we might be fine. VietJet might surprise us afterall.

Got to the airport. We were briefly traumatised to see some new flavours of Twisties for sale, pickle, and churros. I like Twisties, I like pickles, I like churros. I like my Twisties cheese flavoured, and while I could kind of imagine with the right level of tanginess the pickle flavour might work, I’d rather just have pickles. As for churros, well let’s just say that dipping any flavour of Twistie into hot chocolate is a million kinds of wrong. And I could be wrong, as these managed to get produced, but at $6 or $8 a bag I’m not willing to find out.

Checked in fine, got through all the checks and had time to browse the duty free whisky available. Some nice choices, and was impressed the sales person was doing her bit for the local industry by suggesting some Australian distilleries. I never buy df whisky at the start of a trip, as I don’t want to carry bottles around for weeks, but I did note some potential purchases for the way back. There was a decent Lark done in rum casks that I had a taste of (who doesn’t like a whisky breakfast), and some new Jura expressions that could be interesting.

Breakfast proper were some rice paper rolls and ca phe sua da at an airport eatery, they were okay, enough to get me excited for the forthcoming real deal. I did manage to get a copy of Melissa auf der Maur’s autobiography at the airport this time, so that will be part of the trip reading.

We boarded on time. Two out of three flights out were heading to Bali, but there were still enough folks going to Ho Chi Minh City that we had a full flight. So I’m sorry to say that you need to please disregard all the posts here about how wonderful Viet Nam is, how friendly and cheap and full of amazing history, great food, and culture. Viet Nam is awful, hot, just bad, please go to Bali instead so I can enjoy an empty seat next to me on the plane.

The flight left a little late due to delays in getting all the luggage on board (again, too many people going to Viet Nam) but we made up a bit of time on the smooth and uneventful flight. First book was Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, in keeping with the reading classics while travelling (though unlike Greene’s The Quiet American on the last Viet Nam trip, and Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls for Spain, The Big Sleep has no geographical connection at all). While the red dirt of the north west, and the blue of the Indian Ocean, played out 10 km below the plane, I was in 1930s Los Angeles, amidst the wheeling and dealing, killing and drinking. For better or worse, I don’t have much snarky to say about the book: it’s a product of its time, the characters are pretty two dimensional, but at least they are quirky two dimensional, the language is a tad unsubtle in places (when viewed 80+ years later), and the twists, while not completely unpredictable, are at least interesting. It’s a book that launched a thousand cliches, that at least didn’t have a completely misogynistic protagonist.

It’s a short read, so I had plenty of time to look out the window, see some magnificent clouds, and be amazed at the moment the Mekong delta comes into view. I also seemed to get the hang of the neck pillow, though it still is a little unfriendly to earbuds that protrude.

Transferring at any airport can be challenging, and especially when going from an international flight to a domestic one. In this regard, Tan Son Nhat (Ho Chi Minh airport) is no exception. First there’s the immigration queues, which fortunately were a lot smaller than last April. Viet Nam has introduced a new pre-arrival form, I’m not sure if it makes things faster but doesn’t seem to have made it slower. Viet Nam is still wonderfully old school in its immigration, there are no cameras to look into, no fingerprint scanning, just a row of booths of officers and stamps. VN is one of those countries where this dual citizen becomes British, as no visa is required for UK passports, unlike Australians (I don’t know why this is, whether it’s because the UK wasn’t an invading US-puppet state in the American War, or because the UK, like VN, have fought and won against the French, or maybe some EU leftover thing). So British I am, for now. Then we had to find our luggage, but fortunately we took long enough getting through immigration that our cases were waiting just beside the carousel. VietJet (and Vietnam Airlines) domestic flights leave from a separate terminal, it’s a couple of hundred metres once we got through the throng of eager drivers crowding the exit.

The final transfer step is checking in again. Here there was a weird discussion among the staff when they looked at our reservations. We didn’t think anything of it until we headed upstairs, through security and got to our departure gate. Then it dawned on us, VietJet had switched our Da Nang connecting flight so we were no longer on the 720pm, but one 50 minutes later. With a driver booked at the other end, and the best part of a 2 hour drive from Da Nang to Hue ahead, this wasn’t optimal. We headed back through security after explaining the issue, then to the reservation counter. Here the staff were helpfully unhelpful, telling us there was nothing they could do, but suggested we go to the other counter 20 metres away. Here we had more luck, apparently Viet Jet had decided that even though we’d booked the connecting flights, we wouldn’t have enough time to connect so changed things without properly telling us (it turns out we did get emailed, but while L’s flight details were changed, mine weren’t). As we were at the right terminal, in time to catch our booked flight, they were able to direct us to another counter where we could get new boarding passes and luggage stickers, so we hoped they’d then make sure our cases were correctly directed). Another slight panic as my tracking bracelet/smart watch then told me my phone was out of range, making me wonder where it had gone — fortunately L remembered I’d been showing my electronic ticket to the previous counter.

Our flight to Da Nang was less than half full, so we got our empty middle seat. VietJet must be one of the few airlines that serves a hot meal on flights that are barely an hour, in this case it was the same as out previous flight, the vegetarian fried rice. I don’t remember pre-ordering this for either flight (I know I ordered a meal for the first one but didn’t think it was the rice). As airline vegetarian fried rice goes, it’s okay. They serve it at don’t drop it on your crotch temperature, and there’s rice, corn, little bits of mushroom, and small pieces of something that might be tofu. Plus a little pack of cashews, so folks with nut allergies might want to beware.

The other excitement landing in Da Nang was they’re in the middle of a fireworks festival. Sensibly this is taking place away from the airport, so it was splashes of colour in the distance on approach rather than a wartime flight simulator experience.

Our bags made it onto the right flight, so with these in tow we found our driver and headed north to Hue. As we weaved through the streets of Da Nang, surrounded by beeping scooters generally carrying 3 or 4 people, colourfully lit shops, random SUVs making up their own road rules, I finally felt I could relax, as outside the windows, beyond the airconditioned comfort, we were back in Viet Nam.

As much as any drive in Viet Nam is smooth and easy, Highway 1 between D Nang and Hue is that. Sometimes it’s two lanes each way separated by barriers, sometimes just one lane for each and a thin white line between. For an hour and a half we threaded between brightly lit trucks and buses, scooters, and other cars, through roads sometimes wet, sometimes dry, occasional rain showers, and tunnels. What’s amazing is that the route looks fairly sparse on maps, but the entire stretch was lit, and flanked by houses, businesses, factories, restaurants, and cemeteries. Also lit were the trucks, covered in all manner of bright flashing LEDs, I was waiting to see on with a set of LED bullhorns on top but sadly missed out, but we had oscillating strips, flashing eyes, red danger signs, some amazing illuminations.

We were quite exhausted by the time we got to the hotel, so it was a quick check in, then up to our 10th floor room. I had a quick look out the window at the lights of the city, unpacked my toiletries, then went looking for a small to medium sleep. Tomorrow is just a settle in day, some acclimatising, before a full day tour on Monday.

Today’s flavour is definitely tired, maybe a little salty.