Day 0 and Day1, Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th March

We have safely arrived at our hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam after fairly uneventful flights. We left Adelaide on Tuesday night at 7pm, flying to Melbourne for our international flights to Hanoi. We were booked by QANTAS all the way through from Adelaide to Vietnam and were given boarding passes for all three flights. We flew QANTAS from Adelaide to Melbourne and then switched to Malaysian Airlines for the next two flights. Our first international flight was from Melbourne to KL and was due to leave at 12.30am. We lined up with our boarding passes issued from Adelaide and was then told that we needed new passes for the next two flights (even though nothing was different as in seat numbers, flight numbers etc.). By the time this issue had been sorted and new passes printed, we were some of the last passengers on the plane. It didn’t matter as there was plenty of room. We both managed to get several hours of sleep, and we were well looked after.  We arrived in KL at 6.30am Hanoi time. The next flight was from KL to Hanoi and it took about 3 and ½ hours. The plane was not full and Rob and I had a whole row of 4 seats to ourselves. At Hanoi Airport we were met by our driver who picked us up along with 2 other couples, from Perth and Melbourne. The traffic here is crazy! Bikes everywhere, cars and pedestrians. Everyone seems to know what they are doing and the use of the horn is a must. The parts of the city we saw were busy and dirty with buildings and walls covered in graffiti and lots of rubbish lying around. Old, dirty 4 and 5 storey buildings built up next to each other, line the roads and streets. We dropped the other two couples at one hotel before we were taken to a more “up-market” area to our hotel. We’re not sure why we are in this lovely accommodation rather than where the others are but we are not going to complain! There is a rooftop pool and bar area here so we will probably pay a visit there before finding somewhere for dinner.







Melbourne Airport




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