Vietnam 2014

With a couple of weeks before the start of my new job,
my wife and I started to scout for a possible short
gateway. After all she keeps on hassling me not
to repeat the mistake I made about the start date
of the last job, not enough gap.
Well, I did have a weekend on that one.

We first thought about going somewhere local.
Hobart and Gold coast kept popping up. Then we thought, given
the cost, its better to go overseas, specially somewhere in
Asia. Thought for how the Aussie destinations are pricing
themselves out. Then came New  York, which has been in our
minds for a while, I could even make a dash to see my
sister in the US. Then we thought about Hong Kong.
Finally, during one shower, Vietnam crossed my mind.
My wife has been there, and she keeps saying she would
want to go back. I had not been there, so the deal was
done. Planning wasn't that hard as we booked flights
with Flight centre and contacted a Vietnam based
travel company called Handspan. It was an excellent
decision, Handspan turned out to be one of the best
travel agencies we have dealt with. In particular, the
agent we were dealing with, Annie, was truly professional
in every sense - punctual, informative, helpful and
good planner. Her efficiency and swift, thoughtful responses
really impressed us. I would recommend Handspan to anyone.

We started out with a flight to Bangkok from Sydney
with Thai airways. Unfortunately, the things did not
start too well. The flight go delayed by about four hours,
causing us to miss our connecting flight from Bangkok
to Hanoi. The reason turned out to be one of the  four
engines on the massive jumbo failed to start. Well I would
rather get delayed than be stuck on a plane with technical
problems, forty thousand feet above, in the sky.
We did manage to fly though. We were provided a nice
accommodation in Bangkok by Thai, which was really nice.
Whole approach from Thai regarding managing the problem
was outstanding. Their staffs were calm, smiling and helpful
to the maximum. I could not think of one thing they could
have done better, it was simply an excellent example of
crisis management.

We managed to catch our flight next morning to Hanoi.
For about 3 days we were based in HaNoi as we travelled
back and forth from there. We would go to Sapa, a beautiful
hilly region with plethora of rice paddy fields to trek;
Ha Long bay in South China sea, a collection of little
rock islands. Once finished with the North we went
down towards Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An in Central Vietnam.
We then flew to Saigon from Da Nang and spent a couple
of days in the most lively place in the country.
My next blogs will cover the places we visited.