Tour Of Duty ... Part Six - Back On Track
My flight to Saigon wasn't with Vietnam Airlines for a change, it was with an airline called JetStar Pacific, and after this one trip I can guarantee I won't ever be flying with them again! You know all those warnings about switching off your phones, laptops, iPods etc? All bollocks! The two drunken men next to me spent the entire flight on the phone, using the wi-fi (or 3G) on their iPad to google me and to translate what we were saying to each other and not a word was said by the stewardesses! Nor did we all crash and die because someone wanted to tell his mate he was ON A PLANE! They really were that loud and that indiscreet too! Still they were both camp as buggery and we had a right laugh.
Once I landed my driver was waiting to take me back to the hotel with no windows, but very reasonable rates and to my extreme joy I was given a fabulous room! It even had a window! Not facing the outside world I grant you, it overlooked reception, but it was a window all the same. My stuff that had been left at the travel company was delivered to my room and within an hour I had unpacked most of it and filled a huge bag with laundry. The hotel charges by the kilo - most unusual for a hotel - and so a ton of washing was gonna cost me pennies.
I went out for some Pho and was back in my room and fast asleep by midnight. The next day I spent wandering around the more upmarket area of Ho Chi Minh City, and to my joy I managed to buy a new pair of Birkenstocks. The pair I'd brought out with me were pretty knackered to start with and had only gotten worse. I wore the new ones and binned the old there and then. I had a really lovely day - and night - wandering about, getting pedicures, eating fab food and just loving this part of Vietnam. I rounded the evening off with a visit to the Water Puppet show. This sounded like a really touristy thing to do and that's why I hadn't done it up until now, but I figured it was worth a punt and boy was it ever! It really brought out my inner child, a fabulous hour.
The next morning I was up bright and early to pack and head off again. This time back to Nha Trang. It was one of the places I'd really liked on the tour and I decided after the horrors of Sapa that I needed a few day's beach time. I'd found a pretty good beachfront hotel on Agoda and booked a flight with Vietnam Airlines to get me there.
Once I'd checked in and unpacked I went off exploring and found a supermarket. It was a massive one selling all kinds of western stuff too. I stocked up on water and green tea, and in the toiletries section I did something worthy of the old impulsive me. I bought a hair dye. It wasn't a brand I was used to, though it did say Wella on the box so I figured I'd be ok.
I went blonde again as soon as I returned from India but out here I just wasn't feeling it at all. I've probably spent more of my life with blonde hair than my natural brown, but it's just not me at this point in my life, so I opened the box of 'Warm Sensual Brown' when I got back to the hotel and chucked it on before I had too much time to think about what I was doing.
As I waited for it to develop it did hit me that in the past when I've gone darker, there's usually a few days when the dye on the scalp comes off on the pillowcase. I learned that the hard way, having to chuck out several good ones in the past at home. I didn't wanna piss the hotel off so I pulled out all the dark coloured t-shirts I had and used them as pillow cases! I can be a right clever bugger sometimes.
Finally the time came to rinse it off and dry it, as I did, I knew I'd done the right thing. It sounds mad but I felt that the me in the mirror was more like the me inside.
The next few days were spent doing very little. I sunbathed, went for walks on the beach, ate Pho, and did a bit of writing. The perfect wind down.
One thing I stupidly did was ask someone at the hotel to enquire about changing my flight back to Saigon for an earlier one so that I'd have plenty of time to make my connecting flight to Bangkok. She asked but when they said they wanted a ton of money to change it I said to leave it as it was. You can imagine then, just how distressed I was to find that she'd gone ahead and changed the damn thing anyway (or someone had). When I went to check for my early afternoon flight, I was told there was no reservation. Sure enough I should've been on the 9am one!
Somewhere an angel must be watching out for me, or else my Ganesha tattoo really does have my back because when I booked this ticket there were no economy seats left and I had to get a business class one - it wasn't a huge amount more - but because of that the airline let me on the flight I was originally booked on and they apologised for the mistake. The hotel - The Michelia in Nha Trang - well they have yet to acknowledge either the numerous emails or phone calls I made. Another place to avoid folks!
By Friday nighttime I was back in Bangkok, but it was a different place to the one I'd left four weeks earlier...
Once I landed my driver was waiting to take me back to the hotel with no windows, but very reasonable rates and to my extreme joy I was given a fabulous room! It even had a window! Not facing the outside world I grant you, it overlooked reception, but it was a window all the same. My stuff that had been left at the travel company was delivered to my room and within an hour I had unpacked most of it and filled a huge bag with laundry. The hotel charges by the kilo - most unusual for a hotel - and so a ton of washing was gonna cost me pennies.
I went out for some Pho and was back in my room and fast asleep by midnight. The next day I spent wandering around the more upmarket area of Ho Chi Minh City, and to my joy I managed to buy a new pair of Birkenstocks. The pair I'd brought out with me were pretty knackered to start with and had only gotten worse. I wore the new ones and binned the old there and then. I had a really lovely day - and night - wandering about, getting pedicures, eating fab food and just loving this part of Vietnam. I rounded the evening off with a visit to the Water Puppet show. This sounded like a really touristy thing to do and that's why I hadn't done it up until now, but I figured it was worth a punt and boy was it ever! It really brought out my inner child, a fabulous hour.
The next morning I was up bright and early to pack and head off again. This time back to Nha Trang. It was one of the places I'd really liked on the tour and I decided after the horrors of Sapa that I needed a few day's beach time. I'd found a pretty good beachfront hotel on Agoda and booked a flight with Vietnam Airlines to get me there.
Once I'd checked in and unpacked I went off exploring and found a supermarket. It was a massive one selling all kinds of western stuff too. I stocked up on water and green tea, and in the toiletries section I did something worthy of the old impulsive me. I bought a hair dye. It wasn't a brand I was used to, though it did say Wella on the box so I figured I'd be ok.
I went blonde again as soon as I returned from India but out here I just wasn't feeling it at all. I've probably spent more of my life with blonde hair than my natural brown, but it's just not me at this point in my life, so I opened the box of 'Warm Sensual Brown' when I got back to the hotel and chucked it on before I had too much time to think about what I was doing.
As I waited for it to develop it did hit me that in the past when I've gone darker, there's usually a few days when the dye on the scalp comes off on the pillowcase. I learned that the hard way, having to chuck out several good ones in the past at home. I didn't wanna piss the hotel off so I pulled out all the dark coloured t-shirts I had and used them as pillow cases! I can be a right clever bugger sometimes.
Finally the time came to rinse it off and dry it, as I did, I knew I'd done the right thing. It sounds mad but I felt that the me in the mirror was more like the me inside.
The next few days were spent doing very little. I sunbathed, went for walks on the beach, ate Pho, and did a bit of writing. The perfect wind down.
One thing I stupidly did was ask someone at the hotel to enquire about changing my flight back to Saigon for an earlier one so that I'd have plenty of time to make my connecting flight to Bangkok. She asked but when they said they wanted a ton of money to change it I said to leave it as it was. You can imagine then, just how distressed I was to find that she'd gone ahead and changed the damn thing anyway (or someone had). When I went to check for my early afternoon flight, I was told there was no reservation. Sure enough I should've been on the 9am one!
Somewhere an angel must be watching out for me, or else my Ganesha tattoo really does have my back because when I booked this ticket there were no economy seats left and I had to get a business class one - it wasn't a huge amount more - but because of that the airline let me on the flight I was originally booked on and they apologised for the mistake. The hotel - The Michelia in Nha Trang - well they have yet to acknowledge either the numerous emails or phone calls I made. Another place to avoid folks!
By Friday nighttime I was back in Bangkok, but it was a different place to the one I'd left four weeks earlier...
Labels: Travel
posted by JoJo Smith at Sunday, November 27, 2011
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