26 hours later

Here it is now - the final stage of my sabbatical. We have three and a half weeks of Vietnam round trip ahead of us. The backpacks are packed, all the hotels and almost all the flight, train and bus tickets are booked, so we can go again - with another trip into the wide world 😀

Yesterday (10/24) around 4 pm we started with the Flix-Bus to Berlin Tegel. From there we should take off to Hanoi via Abu Dhabi and Ho Chi Minh City.

But before the journey could start, the day started with a few obstacles.

1. Stefan locks me in at home and also has my key with him 😳 after a few minutes of searching, I find another spare key and can do the last errands 👍

2. Stefan arrives at his car and sees that a window was open all night 🤔 - he is ready for vacation 

3. at the money exchange at the savings bank, Stefan has to leave empty-handed - fire alarm!!!

But 2 hours later we have the corresponding small change 😀

4. Total shock at the check-in in Berlin - the nice stewardess says I can't fly because my name is not correct on the online ticket - the travel agency had actually deposited Mr. Stefan Schulz and Mr. Reetz-Schulz. And so the excitement was great - they didn't want to take me with a wrong name 😒 

The nice lady at the counter said - either you buy a new ticket or you stay here - great!!! 

No one could be reached at the travel agency and so we had 2 hours to get a new ticket. Thought and done - but the new ticket could only be booked to Ho Chi Minh City. 

So a travel plan can change that fast 😀

Thanks to wifi in the airport, we then booked two more tickets to HCMC-Hanoi and decided to spend the first night in HCMC.

After so much excitement, we were really glad that the flight didn't have any further surprises and we landed in HCMC at 6:20 pm after a total travel time of 26 hours.  

The first taxi ride from the airport to the hotel immediately gave us the special traffic experience here in Vietnam - I have never seen so many people on mopeds and they all drive as if in a kind of dance through the streets 😀  Looks dangerous though 😳

A first little excursion through the next alleys left us with the impression that the Vietnamese are also very familiar with us in their country - a really lovely group of people 😀 

We will report more from tomorrow - for now it's time to get some sleep. 

Chuc ngu ngon