The Arrival

After a memorable day in Saigon with my pal Lisa, Alex, and two of Alex's friends, a weary Alex and myself ventured to the airport where I would be seeing my family for the first time in 9 months. Obviously it would be Alex's first meeting with them. We made it to the airport in good time, early in fact, only to find out that their flight was going to be delayed in landing. We managed to pass time in the small video arcade near the arrival gate and in about an hour a stream of people were stepping self consciously into the fashion runway type area that the Saigon Airport arrivals area is. Of course, my guests were near the back of the pack, because the people you're waiting for are always some of the last out. In fact, I'm quite sure that the entire front half of the plane is reserved for solo travelers who intend to meet no one, and who keep no one waiting.

The original plan upon meeting was to find a place to stay the night in the city, but earlier that day I made an executive decision and decided that we'd take a taxi from the airport directly to Vung Tau, about 130 km away. This decision was based on a number of factors, but the two most important were as follows: I was tired and sick of the city, and Alex wanted to get back to VT as well and had missed the last boat that afternoon. So there we were, one big happy group piling into a taxi at about 11:30 pm, and off we went to VT.

The ride home wasn't too exciting as far as rides in Vietnam go, due to the time of night, but everyone got to hear the lovely bleat of the horn on more than one occasion, (the horn being a staple of every road journey in these parts) and I got to display some basic skills in tieng viet, otherwise known as vietnamese, thanks to our non-english speaking driver. We made it home around 2, awoke some noisy dogs on my street, had a couple beers next to the pool and called it a night. The family was bushed from flying as far as possible without starting to go home again, and myself, well I mentioned my memorable day in Saigon, but I didn't mention that it was spent at Dam Sen Water Park, as tiring a place as Saigon has to offer. Ngu Ngon (good night) everyone, see ya in the morning!