Hanoi to Saigon, Tuesday April 5, 2005
Apr. 6th, 2005 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lsandersonThe schedule called for us to get up and go shopping before leaving Hanoi. Thong had said we could sleep as late as we wanted, and then go. I said I’d not sleep. I was wrong. My stomach decided I’d done it wrong and started complaining the night before. I’d been getting twinges when we went to eat, but nothing very serious. It never did get serious, but I did not feel very well the next morning. I loafed in bed and watched TV. I started Ciprofloxacin, which has almost as bad a set of side-effects as what I was suffering (and interacts badly with theophylline, which I take). I slept most of the way on the plane.
I’d left the stash of postcards in Saigon, so we went looking at the Hanoi airport for some. There was a small mini-mart on the second floor of the airport and we went up there. (There was no one at the Vietnam Air ticket counter anyway) We found no postcards, but Tin bought a bunch of stuff – dried fruit, tea for her mother, and some crème filled cakes. After we finally found the gate to get into the airport, Thong wanted to eat. There was a big group of people sitting at the tables writing postcards and talking, which got him rather upset. He wanted a table of four for us. As it turned out, a plane was late that was leaving for Hue, and everyone was trapped at the airport. After a while, Vietnam Airlines started giving them onboard meals, so all of the group waiting for the plane started eating.
We finally found enough seating at a table, and Thong and Thien ate a bowl of ramen. Tin sat by the window and watched the airport. It was not, to me, a very exciting airport. There were few planes taking off and landing, although finally, the plane we would leave came in, unloaded, and then they started loading it for the flight to Saigon.
There was an Aeroflot plane in that I wished I’d taken some shots of. I don’t think we could see the airline marking from where we were because I wasn’t aware it was Aeroflot until we started boarding the plane, and then it was too late. We were on the other side of the aircraft as well, although this time, Thien got a window seat (over the wing – sigh). I sat on the aisle.
Getting on a plane with a bunch of Vietnamese is an experience. Most of them are not experienced flyers. While extremely polite individually, they are a bit pushy in a group. Their idea of a queue does match the British idea of a queue, and their idea of filing into a plane is about as tranquil as the traffic patterns in Saigon. The whole plane, a Boeing 777, boarded at the same time. For two or three people going forward, there is one or two either going backwards against the flow or not moving. They are not in general, a tall people, and I saw several people, shoes off, of course, standing the armrests to access the overhead storage compartments. The stewardess asked Thong to help close several of the overhead storage compartments in the section we were sitting in. The seating where we were was nine across. Three sets of three seats. Thien, Tin, Thong on the aisle, and me across the aisle. The woman who sat beside me was quite short. She asked me to help put her things in the overhead storage. The man, who sat on the other aisle seat of the center, after talking with the woman in the center seat, asked me where I was from.
Vietnam Airlines televises a camera in the nose of the plane. You can see the truck that backs the plane come up when they back out. You can see the runway when they take off and land, and it’s on for a bit before that as well. During the flight, the TVs show flight statistics in various languages and metrics, complete with a giant plane which crawls closer to the destination as you do.
(Rats, I think the DVD burn has gone awry…)
When we got to Saigon, the disembarkment was a smoother thing than the landing, until we got into the gate, where we waited behind some locked doors for something… an international flight? We never found out, but after the whole plane load waited in the gate, the doors were unlocked and we walked down a hallway, down a flight of stairs to the airport, outside on the runway briefly, and then back inside the airport. We exited through the baggage area and grabbed a taxi for the ride back to the house. When we got here, we hid in the bedroom with the air conditioning.
I’d left the stash of postcards in Saigon, so we went looking at the Hanoi airport for some. There was a small mini-mart on the second floor of the airport and we went up there. (There was no one at the Vietnam Air ticket counter anyway) We found no postcards, but Tin bought a bunch of stuff – dried fruit, tea for her mother, and some crème filled cakes. After we finally found the gate to get into the airport, Thong wanted to eat. There was a big group of people sitting at the tables writing postcards and talking, which got him rather upset. He wanted a table of four for us. As it turned out, a plane was late that was leaving for Hue, and everyone was trapped at the airport. After a while, Vietnam Airlines started giving them onboard meals, so all of the group waiting for the plane started eating.
We finally found enough seating at a table, and Thong and Thien ate a bowl of ramen. Tin sat by the window and watched the airport. It was not, to me, a very exciting airport. There were few planes taking off and landing, although finally, the plane we would leave came in, unloaded, and then they started loading it for the flight to Saigon.
There was an Aeroflot plane in that I wished I’d taken some shots of. I don’t think we could see the airline marking from where we were because I wasn’t aware it was Aeroflot until we started boarding the plane, and then it was too late. We were on the other side of the aircraft as well, although this time, Thien got a window seat (over the wing – sigh). I sat on the aisle.
Getting on a plane with a bunch of Vietnamese is an experience. Most of them are not experienced flyers. While extremely polite individually, they are a bit pushy in a group. Their idea of a queue does match the British idea of a queue, and their idea of filing into a plane is about as tranquil as the traffic patterns in Saigon. The whole plane, a Boeing 777, boarded at the same time. For two or three people going forward, there is one or two either going backwards against the flow or not moving. They are not in general, a tall people, and I saw several people, shoes off, of course, standing the armrests to access the overhead storage compartments. The stewardess asked Thong to help close several of the overhead storage compartments in the section we were sitting in. The seating where we were was nine across. Three sets of three seats. Thien, Tin, Thong on the aisle, and me across the aisle. The woman who sat beside me was quite short. She asked me to help put her things in the overhead storage. The man, who sat on the other aisle seat of the center, after talking with the woman in the center seat, asked me where I was from.
Vietnam Airlines televises a camera in the nose of the plane. You can see the truck that backs the plane come up when they back out. You can see the runway when they take off and land, and it’s on for a bit before that as well. During the flight, the TVs show flight statistics in various languages and metrics, complete with a giant plane which crawls closer to the destination as you do.
(Rats, I think the DVD burn has gone awry…)
When we got to Saigon, the disembarkment was a smoother thing than the landing, until we got into the gate, where we waited behind some locked doors for something… an international flight? We never found out, but after the whole plane load waited in the gate, the doors were unlocked and we walked down a hallway, down a flight of stairs to the airport, outside on the runway briefly, and then back inside the airport. We exited through the baggage area and grabbed a taxi for the ride back to the house. When we got here, we hid in the bedroom with the air conditioning.
