Well, we thought we had finally escaped the evil clutches of Hanoi last night - checked in, passed customs, hanging out happily waiting for our 6pm flight to Siem Reap (Cambodia, to visit Angkor Wat)...
until our flight was canceled for "technical checks." Not quite sure what that means in terms of aviation engineering, but in terms of our enjoyment it was one big, red FAIL indicator flashing in our faces. We were rerouted on a 6:30am flight the following morning via Ho Chi Minh City (which apparently in Vietnamese they still call Saigon, according to my eavesdropping).
Vietnam Airlines told us they would pay for our dinner, hotel, breakfast and taxis; we naively allowed ourselves to indulge in visions of nice hotel rooms all to ourselves, hot baths, and perhaps even room service and an in-room movie. Instead, VA announced that they would only provide one room for every two people (there are three of us) so one of us would have to share with a stranger. When we (and the stranger, who honestly seemed quite nice) protested that it really wasn't cool to throw absolute strangers into an involuntary room-sharing situation, the airline manager cheekily told us this would be a great time to make friends. Oy. We requested one room with three beds instead.
VA then put us all (3 of us, 10 Koreans, 1 French woman, 2 Russians, and a partridge in a pear tree) in taxi vans back into Hanoi, to a tattered and grimy hotel reminiscent of a Soviet-era summer camp for military youth. The dinner was unspeakably bad, served on dirty table cloths... I ate a cup of rice and a couple of leftover emergency biscuits in my backpack. We weren't sure that anything else was safe to eat, and it definitely wasn't palatable.
We did get a room with three beds... and no space to walk in between them. I did some remodeling so that I could safely escape for my middle-of-the-night peeing activities. We got a 3:25am wake-up call (that we hadn't even ordered!) and headed down for 4am breakfast. At least that was decent, they had actually put effort into this - defrosting some crepes and cream puffs, and with a pho / fried egg cooking station. We headed out for the airport at 4:30, and things went pretty uneventfully from there.
Our flight to HCMC was fine, and that airport quite nice - which is good since we had about 2 hours to kill once we had gotten our luggage, rechecked it and passed through customs! I did have a momentary scare when I tried to go through Passport control - no longer had my arrival/departure form because they had taken it from me last night in Hanoi. I had to circle back, fill a new one out, and wait again in line. Not too bad - but I was having fleeting terror thoughts about getting stuck in Vietnam!
Once checked in, we decided to get a 60 minute foot/head/shoulder massage, which was great. Exactly what we needed to de-stress from our time in the endless, hectic, polluted bustle of Hanoi. Scented eye pillow? Check. Heated shoulder wrap? Check. Relaxation? Finally... check!
Flight to Siem Reap was short and uneventful, and the arrival / visa process a bit slow but smooth. It is beautiful, tropical and welcoming here - as soon as we got off the plane, we were all smiles! Our drive Sopeep (sp?) was super-friendly and there waiting for us as planned, and our hotel is fantastic. We have a two-floor "villa" with two beds downstairs, a little patio area behind just for us, and our living room, bathroom and extra bed upstairs. The check-in guy was very sweet, and gave us the overview of the town and the nearby temple complexes. The vibe here is very laid-back and everyone smiles when they make eye contact. SO very different from our Hanoi experience - which was very interesting, but never relaxing.
We checked in about an hour ago, and I thought I'd do this quick update to catch up while things are fresh in my mind. We are heading out to the temples this afternoon to ride elephants up to the top of the best hill for sunset! Tomorrow we will meet our driver at 5am to catch sunrise over Angkor Wat, and do our full day of temple-touring. It sounds like Siem Reap has some great nightlife, so maybe we will hit the town a bit tonight :-)
It's sad that the flight drama cut our time here even shorter, but we will definitely make the best of it. OK, I'm off to update my previous posting on Hanoi!