I've been fortunate enough to do most of my travelling in the light and off the top of my head I can only think of my stays in Penang and Bali where I have arrived in complete darkness. I always find that going for a walk and essentially getting to know the place a little is helpful, and I usually do that on the first day when I arrive somewhere but in the dark I'm not so willing to do that.
I'd like to consider myself someone who's pretty good at getting their bearings, and usually with the help of a map I'm able to navigate my way around. It always seems to be fairly daunting in the beginning, but you get there eventually. Helps if the streets are well signposted of course.
Some places have been easier to navigate than others, and some hotels have been more forthcoming with their information about helping me to navigate my way around. Mostly they are quite helpful considering I'm usually paying them great sums of money to stay there, but there have been occasions that I've had to look on Google Maps and then visualise where things are once I've left the hotel.
I've not had too many navigational disasters although I think that is part of the 'fun' of exploring new places. I feel like Asia is a safe enough part of the world that provided you know where you're going, there's always the possibility to ask for directions as the people are always willing to be helpful and that can provide you with great comfort in times of need.
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Having bid my mum a fond farewell yesterday it was time to make my own departure from Vietnam having been there a week. The hotel I stayed in for the night worked out to be pretty nice yesterday, and although my room wasn't very big it was comfortable and ideally located for me to reach the bus station this morning without too many struggles.
I had some breakfast and then went back to bed for a little while before eventually putting the last of my things into my bag and checking out from my hotel. As I was about to leave the woman behind reception asked me if I needed a taxi, and when I said I was getting the bus she laughed - no idea why, maybe she knew something I didn't. I feel like most Vietnamese people think westerners are made of money so they probably find it strange that someone who speaks English would be financially concious enough to want to spend 10,000 Dong on getting to the airport rather than 300,000.
Anyway, I toddled off to the bus stop giving a really hard stare for the last time to motorcyclists on the huge roundabout near the market who were flying towards me with reckless abandon. The bus stop was pretty busy, but I didn't have to wait long for the 152 to arrive however today it was actually already full of people which was a bit of a surprise.
I sat down next to someone and then put my bag on top of my legs as there wasn't any spare seats. It was a little uncomfortable, but no more so than the fact that the bus seemed to be fitted with an alarm which kept going off every time we changed lanes for the next twenty or so minutes.
I'd heard buses in the city which possessed a kind of 'whoop, whoop' sound like a police car, but those ones were just passing me and not deafening me with the sound throughout the duration of my journey. By the time I got to the airport my ears were ringing and I was glad to be in the relative sterile silence of an airport.
Originally I was due to leave Ho Chi Minh City at 1.30pm, but I received an email last week saying that my flight time had been changed.
By the time I got to the airport it had been put back from 2.30pm to 2.55pm, and I'm not sure whether this had to do with the large queue of people waiting to check-in for Vietnam Airline flights before and after mine, but it was a good job that we had some extra time or else I don't think everyone for my flight would have made it.
The route to Laos was a little strange as I was having to go back to Hanoi briefly before travelling from there to Luang Prabang in the northern region of the country. I didn't realise that I was going to have to travel back to the Vietnamese capital before I booked my return flight from there for yesterday, but in the grand scheme of things and extra two hours wasn't going to hurt me - it was all the time waiting around at the airport that might!
We eventually boarded at about 2.55pm and I think the plane ended up taking off at about 3.15pm. I was sat in a 'B' seat, but nobody came to sit in 'A' so I had a lovely view out of the window and some space next to me for the duration of the flight. For the first time since arriving in Manila I actually ended up being on a plane where they served food and drink and having eaten breakfast at about 9am I was great grateful of the sandwich which was brought to me about half way through the journey.
Due to the late take off of my flight the time between my arrival and departure had been condensed into just an hour and once I was at Noi Bai in Hanoi I had to get the bus to the international departure terminal which thankfully turned up pretty quickly.
Finding the right check-in desk the lady behind the counter hurried me on the way to the gate as it was about 6pm at this time and my ticket said the flight was due to board at 6:10pm. Considering it was their fault that I was late I wonder what would have actually happened had I not made it?
Getting to the right place the flight was due to leave at 6.50pm but we eventually boarded onto our tiny jet-propelled plane at about 7pm and probably didn't leave until about fifteen minutes later. Not a good day for the airlines in terms of their timing however I made it safely to Laos which was the most important thing, and then had to organise to get a visa on arrival along with seemingly every one else on the plane.
It cost me $37 ($35 for the visa, $1 processing fee and $1 for no picture) for the little sticker in my passport and after collecting my bag I went and changed some money into the Lao Kip (the currency here so no idea why we had to pay for the visa in $s) and then sorted myself out with a taxi to go to my hotel.
Driving through the dark and quiet streets there were pockets of areas on the way down-town which seemed to have some life, but on the whole it was eerily quiet, especially considering where I'd just come from. It probably only took about ten or fifteen minutes to arrive at my guest-house and after getting here the person at reception gave me a map and explaining that I was hungry he pointed me in the direction of the night market where I could grab something to eat.
I followed his directions for the partially lit roads of the city and eventually came across the area where the night market was which was at the verge of closing by this point. Most people still had their wears out on the floor but several people were packing away for the night and it wasn't as busy as I imagine it probably was earlier that evening.
After walking through the market to the main road I came across a couple of restaurants and I found a reasonably decent one where I got myself a traditional pork yellow curry which was delicious.
Navigating my way back to my room as an interesting task as I clearly didn't follow the reverse of the directions I got on the way here and had to loop around several times before eventually making it back. Walking around in the dark in a foreign country probably isn't the best thing to be doing, especially when you've just arrived, but there were plenty of people out on the streets - people who I probably walked past several times trying to find the way back to where I am staying.
It has been a long day of travelling today, and I don't really feel like I have achieved much though I definitely think I will sleep well tonight after making it here.
I look forward to exploring Laos in the light tomorrow to see if like everywhere else produces completely different things than to what I expect!
Here I Go Again
White Snake (1982)
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