We left Brisbane at 1/4 to 12 on 23rd December. Arrived at Changi airport, Singapore, at 5 past 5am on the 24th. Quite happy with Singapore Airlines, apart from not having much room. Guess a large person would need to fly First Class. Bit of a wait in Singapore. Fortunately, they have good coffee and free internet - an opportunity for us to email everyone. If you have to wait in any airport, then Changi would be it - an amazing orchid display right in the middle of the airport. Back on the plane around 7am for the final leg to Hanoi. Total flight time about 10 hours. Quite a view from the plane. You could see the Mekong Delta with huge brown ribbons of river, the patchwork of intensive agriculture, and silvery-brown dots of buildings along all the roads and waterways. You can certainly believe that 77% of the population of 80 million live in rural areas.
After coming through customs, we were met by a guide plus a driver (and vehicle) to transfer us to our hotel, The Galaxy. What a good idea that was, to have a hotel booked for the first few nights so that we didn't have to deal with the street life, touts, etc., immediately. Besides, it was about 40 minutes from the airport.
After settling into our rooms, we went for a walk in the old quarter - what an experience that was! To cross the road, we all went together, and if you just begin to walk steadily across the road, the mostly motorbikes (some carrying whole families of 5, or Christmas trees, pigs in cages and so on), just managed to miss you. We booked Water Puppets for tomorrow, had dinner at the Kangaroo Cafe and checked out a few prices on trips to Sapa and Halong Bay.
Peach Schnapps to put us to sleep (nowhere near as nice as butterscotch).
