I would have a day relaxing before my flight to Bangkok and beach time, the bike was packed and ready to go the taxi was arranged, all was sweet. Had a lazy breakfast and then headed out to the movies, G.I Joe was on the cards, it was good but not great but it gave me something to do for a while and it was cool at the movie theater. The day was pretty hot and when I arrived back from the movies I was to find a load of people In my room fixing the aircon, luckily they were not there for that long and I soon had my room to myself and could relax and watch a bit of tv. That was pretty much my day, movies, Tv and some reading.
Flights
I was up and ready to go at 6:30am, we loaded the bike into the back of the car and then headed off to the airport, for a start I was wondering where we were going as we were on back streets and going this way and that, just had to trust the driver knew where we were going, he did not speak English so there was no conversation, just a drive through the waking city of Hanoi. Our to speed would be 70km an hour which with the roads and traffic I was pretty happy about. After 15 minutes of driving through the old city we were out on the main road, which was busy with cars and bikes going every which way, it is really hard to understand the road rules, like in most of Asia give was to anything bigger then you.
After another 15 minutes or so we finally hit what you could call a highway and the road out to the airport, I was watching the traffic and the time , time seemed to be moving faster than the traffic and I was wondering if I would get there on time. With 5km to go the driver pulled off for some gas, I wanted to get to the airport early as I knew there would be things to sort out with my bike, I had a feeling it was not going to be easy. That’s one thing about riding a bike around the country it never is easy when you have to transport them, good while you’re riding but difficult when you’re not.
We arrived 2 hours before the flight was to leave and there was a nice cue at the check in, the line seemed to move at snails pace, in fact I think a snail would have been faster. Luckily to pass the time I found conversation with a Scottish guy who has lived in Thailand for the last 20 years and was in Vietnam on Business, have to say he did not really have much good to say about northern Vietnam, the south he seemed to like. It helped pass the time.
Will I had arrived 2 hours before the flight and it took over an hour to move 20 meters to the head of the cue. I was allowed 15kg with my bag and 15kg for the bike, my bag weighed 8.9km and the bike weighed 22kg but for some reason they would not let me transfer some of the weight of the bike on to my bag and let me pay the difference so I had to pay 7kg of excess luggage, $55US so will get hit with this twice more, the things you have to put up with.
I asked if I could pay by Visa but there machine was not working so had to head off to a ATM to get some money, by the time all this had happened I had 20 minutes to get through emigration and get to the gate, emigration was a problem because I had lost my declaration card, so had to fill out another one which in the end they did not take any way so it was a complete and utter waste of my time, great thanks very much, that finally done I had 10minutes to go before the flight was scheduled to leave. Should I have worried about being late, not really, we ended up loading about 10 minute late anyway.
While I waited for the plane to start loading I sat down beside some guy who had remembered me from riding out of Halong bay, so we had a conversation about my trip and I scored a big bar of chocolate off him and his wife because they did not really like it, which was sweet because I had not had any breakfast so was pretty hungry.
The plane ride was just a plane ride, we were not really in the air that long at all before we were back down to land, the flight from NZ at Aus is way longer. Thai immigration was efficient as always and it was no time at all that I was through and waiting for my bag and bike to come through, the bag was pretty quick but the bike took a bit longer, when it finally did arrive the box looked like it had already had a hard life, hopefully the bike inside will be alright. I left the bike at left luggage which they x-rayed it before I could leave it then headed off to catch the bus to Ko San road, I’m back.
Returning to Ko San is like returning home, you know where everything is that you need and well it does not really change much at all. I chatted with a Scottish girl on the bus and so we ended up hanging out together for the rest of the day chatting as you do about places you have been and things like that. I gave her a few pointers for Vietnam which she was heading to in a month or so. She was another one from the UK who had made it to Aus but not over the ditch, Why do they do that..
No comments:
Post a Comment