As we disembarked from the plane in Hanoi, the first thing that hit us was the heat and humidity. It was like a thick blanket. The ramps and hallways were dark and very basic. As we entered the terminal, we were struck with just how different this airport was. It was not well lit and it seemed like you were in a basement. There were many military men standing around and they were definitely watching us. Customs was a little tense as we watched the woman before us fumbling to find her boarding pass stubs for the officer. I immediately dug ours out, but he didn’t ask us for them. We answered his few questions and headed to the baggage claim. We each retrieved a cart and went to wait for the bags to start to arrive. Then we waited and waited! When we had left our local airport nearly 30 hours beforehand, Barry had said that he was guessing we would lose at least 1 bag. As we watched the many bags come through and NONE were ours for a very long time, we were making bets that it might even be 2!
There is NOTHING in that area of the terminal. I even went to the other claim area, just in case we were waiting at the wrong one. No luck with that, but I did get a nice smile and nod from a military man as I was walking around. There was nowhere to get a drink or anything. We each used the restroom and continued to wait. FINALLY, all 3 of our suitcases and the box we were bringing arrived. The box was broken, but still fairly intact and the one suitcase was ripped, but we were ready to head out.
The rule in the airport is that no one is allowed past the double doors, so we had to walk out of the terminal to look for our ride. There were lots of people waiting for those on the flights and it took us a few seconds for it to register that there was a young man holding a piece of paper with our names, agency, and hotel on it. Once I told him that it was us, he quickly called another gentleman to go get the car and he took my baggage cart from me and we headed to the curb. We loaded the car and we were off to the hotel. The drive took about 45 minutes and it was amazing! We kept saying to each other that we couldn’t believe we were actually in Vietnam. The lights as we drove out were very nice and we began to see the famous traffic that we heard so much about over the years. Our drivers were very nice and tried to ask us questions about ourselves, Jacob, and our travels. It was hard at times, especially since the one not driving spoke even less English than the driver.
We enjoyed the drive though and were amazed by our first glimpse of the Old Quarter. Very few people were out on the streets, but as soon as we pulled up to our hotel, a few workers came out to help us in. We were checked into one of the suites and our bags were brought up. I found the business center and sent a quick email and blog post to assure everyone that we had arrived safely. Originally, the plan was to just shower and go to bed, but we had a lot of pent up energy, so we began to unpack. We brought A LOT of stuff!! It looked like a bomb had gone off in the room. We put it all away in the morning. We showered and went to bed.
There is NOTHING in that area of the terminal. I even went to the other claim area, just in case we were waiting at the wrong one. No luck with that, but I did get a nice smile and nod from a military man as I was walking around. There was nowhere to get a drink or anything. We each used the restroom and continued to wait. FINALLY, all 3 of our suitcases and the box we were bringing arrived. The box was broken, but still fairly intact and the one suitcase was ripped, but we were ready to head out.
The rule in the airport is that no one is allowed past the double doors, so we had to walk out of the terminal to look for our ride. There were lots of people waiting for those on the flights and it took us a few seconds for it to register that there was a young man holding a piece of paper with our names, agency, and hotel on it. Once I told him that it was us, he quickly called another gentleman to go get the car and he took my baggage cart from me and we headed to the curb. We loaded the car and we were off to the hotel. The drive took about 45 minutes and it was amazing! We kept saying to each other that we couldn’t believe we were actually in Vietnam. The lights as we drove out were very nice and we began to see the famous traffic that we heard so much about over the years. Our drivers were very nice and tried to ask us questions about ourselves, Jacob, and our travels. It was hard at times, especially since the one not driving spoke even less English than the driver.
We enjoyed the drive though and were amazed by our first glimpse of the Old Quarter. Very few people were out on the streets, but as soon as we pulled up to our hotel, a few workers came out to help us in. We were checked into one of the suites and our bags were brought up. I found the business center and sent a quick email and blog post to assure everyone that we had arrived safely. Originally, the plan was to just shower and go to bed, but we had a lot of pent up energy, so we began to unpack. We brought A LOT of stuff!! It looked like a bomb had gone off in the room. We put it all away in the morning. We showered and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment