Vietnam - Day 1/2

May 19/20, 2017 - let's go!

Our Vietnam adventure begins.

We flew from Frankfurt Airport to Abu Dhabi, and then to Ho Chi Minh, the largest and former capital of Vietnam.

Mirko's greatest passion is definitely not flying! He realized this when we were approaching Abu Dhabi and he started getting a headache.

But after a 15-hour flight, he finally made it, and we landed in Ho Chi Minh.

At the passport control, my heart skipped a beat when the officer asked for my visa and return ticket, which I didn't have. But when I explained that our stay was below the visa requirement, he nodded and stamped my passport - luckily!

Then our Ho Chi Minh adventure began!

The traffic in this city is insane! Over 8 million scooter riders, no recognizable traffic rules, and constant honking made me hold my breath in the taxi.

Finally, the taxi stopped. We arrived! But our hotel was nowhere to be seen! The taxi driver pointed to a small alley and said it was behind there, about 100 meters away. Well, we trusted him and walked towards the supposed hotel with our luggage. And behold, we could trust the Vietnamese - our hotel was in sight. However, when we arrived at the booked hotel, the woman at the reception - with her terrible English - told us that our room was no longer available and the hotel was fully booked. Great - now what? Before we could even think about it, a Vietnamese man took our suitcases and offered to take us to another hotel where we were rebooked. We navigated through crowds of people, scooter riders, cars, and buses, trying to keep up with the man!

When we arrived at the hotel, they told us that the room category we had booked was no longer available, but they had upgraded us to a suite for free - what a shame! The room was fine and had everything we needed, except for soundproofing and a functioning air conditioner. There was live music across the street from our hotel, a busy street next door, and it was 30 degrees Celsius with nearly 90% humidity - but we were so tired from our journey that we just collapsed into bed after a quick meal! // L