Off to Viet-Nam in One Week

It's hard to believe that Tianne and I leave for Viet-Nam next Saturday morning. This is my second trip to Asia. The first was an exchange trip to Japan during the summer between grade 9 and 10, which was... well... just about 17 years ago. Wow. I've been having a lot of those "feeling old" moments lately.

Work has been crazier than usual for the past three months, and I haven't done very much to get myself ready. I have taken care of the most important things at least. The flight is booked. My shots are up-to-date. I have a Visa to enter the country. I forked over some cash for a Lonely Planet guide and a Southeast Asia phrasebook. I even learned about a dozen phrases in Vietnamese at one point, but they are long forgotten.

I also managed to get my hands on two hundred thousand Dong (worth $15CDN), which is not generally carried by Accu-rate. Yes, the Dong is the currency of Viet-Nam. I have been telling Dong jokes for the past two months, and I figure Tianne will be completely sick of the jokes within the first three days. Fortunately, she has her own arsenal of Dong jokes (Dongit!) and it looks like I will be travelling in very good company.

Our flight leaves Ottawa at 8:51am on a Saturday morning and we land in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday at around 9pm thanks to the time difference. It will take us about 24 hours to travel from Ottawa to Chicago, from Chicago to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

We are taking our backpacks and travelling with a plan to plan as we go. I'm guessing that we will find time to do some general trip planning en route. After all -- how else are we going to kill 24 hours? We know the general route we want to take. We'll be starting out in Ho Chi Minh City and then working our way up north along the coast. At some point we will fly from Hanoi back to HCMC -- likely just in time for Ho Chi Minh's birthday on May 19th. May 21st will be the day that never ends. We'll be taking the 24-hour journey in reverse, leaving HCMC at around 6am and arriving in Ottawa about 9:30pm that same day.

We will be in Viet-Nam for a full 21 days. It sounds like a long time, but we'll be covering quite a bit of ground and we've read that transportation can be slow going (especially the train). We plan to hit many of the main sites -- Hoi An, Hanoi, MeKong Delta, Halong Bay, etc. -- while also making sure we have lots of time at the beach.

I'm starting to get really excited about the trip. This is going to be another crazy week at work, so the challenge will be finding time to pack and pick up the last minute things I'm going to decide I need. Fortunately, we're planning to do a lot of shopping while we are there so I'm planning to travel with a half-empty pack. One thing is for sure -- I will be learning an important packing lesson from my Argentina trip. I will be bringing all essential items (contact lenses, some clothes, etc.) in my carry on luggage. There is nothing worse than having to shop for underwear on the first day of your trip and be stuck wearing glasses when you're not use to it!