Day 24 – My Long Day of Travel

So today was an extremely long day of travelling. It all started after I finished saying goodbye to everyone at the restaurant just outside of the Atyrau airport. I made the extremely long 500 foot walk over to the lone terminal and I was immediately reminded of how awesome business travel is. There was a long line of customers trying to check in and I was able to use the Business Class line which consisted of just one person ahead of me. After that, I passed through the Business Class Security check point in a matter of minutes. A guy could sure get used to this! After that, I had a short wait and I was ready to board my plane. At this point is about 11 pm and I have a 4 hour flight ahead of me. I settled in and tried to get comfortable so I can try and sleep on this red eye flight. Unfortunately even with all of the comforts of Business Class, I can only muster about an hour of broken sleep. This is truly going to be a long day!

I land in the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan at around 4 am. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. At this point, I have a 5 hour lay-over before my next flight. And of course I couldn’t sleep on at this terminal because it has the world’s most uncomfortable chairs. After I entertain myself for 4 and a half hours with a combination of movies, books, and my Sudoku book, I finally board my next flight bound for Bangkok, Thailand. Unfortunately I won’t be staying long in Bangkok (this time) as I have just a short lay-over there of just under two hours. The last leg of my travels for the day takes me from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and I get to travel on Thai Airlines, which I must say are very worthy of all of the praise that they get. Even on just a two hour flight, all of the flight attendants were very attentive, the entertainment options were wonderful, and the cabin was extremely clean.

Success!! I have landed in Vietnam! Now I just need to de-board and see if I can actually get my visa. I’m a little nervous about it at this point because the US Postal Service decided to take way too long in having my visa delivered to me in Kazakhstan. So I had to go through a third party website that made arrangement for me to get my visa on arrival and got me a letter of invitation to enter the country. After quite a bit of chaos, filling out a number of forms, and a lot of waiting, I finally get my passport back with crispy new Vietnam Visa inside! So exciting!

I make it through passport control and customs with no problem, but then I get to baggage claim and…my luggage is nowhere in sight. Great! I went over to the lost luggage section, luckily found someone who spoke enough English, and directed me over to an area where they take luggage that has not been picked up for more than an hour (it took me more than an hour to get my visa). So now I’m ready to go, luggage and visa in hand. I manage to get some money from an ATM and believe it or not, they call their currency Vietnam Dong (I’m not making this up people). After that I find a taxi service and show him the address of my hotel and find out that it will only cost me $10 to get there. So much cheaper than the US!

In the weeks leading up to my departure for Kazakhstan, I learned that June through September is the Monsoon season in Southeast Asia. While it definitely helped to keep a lot of my travel costs down, I must admit I was a little worried that it was going to be raining the entire time I was in Southeast Asia. As I walked out of the Ho Chi Minh Airport, I was greeted by the gentle drizzle of rain in Vietnam. Well this was a good start.

As we leave the airport, I get my first dose of what Vietnam traffic is like. Needless to say, I’m really glad that I’m not allowed to drive in this country!  I quickly learn that the preferred way to travel in the cities of Vietnam is by motor-bike. They are everywhere! They almost move through the city streets like schools of fish, moving in unison to avoid cars, buses, and pedestrians. The incessant beeping of their horns quickly becomes white noise that is just a part of life in the city. My driver speaks very little English, but he tried hard to hold a conversation. It should be an interesting trip if this is how I will be communicating the whole time. It ends up taking about half an hour to get to my hotel, which makes the $10 for the cab all the more impressive.

The hotel staff at the Grand Saigon were great and they spoke wonderful English. Now to get some sleep and hopefully wake up to a rain free morning as I head off to explore the Mekong Delta!