We're here!

I am sitting quietly tapping away in my hotel room while 2 of my children sleep on.  The 6 of us are separated into 2 rooms side by side, each room having 2 king single beds.  I imagine we will continue to travel like this as children under 12 seem to be able to share a bed with a parent for no extra cost.  I have a 9 and a 11 year old so that's mighty handy.

The trip was hell!  There's no beating around the bush there.  After the excitement of take-off had worn off the question "How much longer now Mum?" began.  8 hours of that tends to make one a little weary.  The flight to Guangzhou took about 10 hours. Upon arrival we were herded onto a bus and transferred on some weird sort of circular trip back to the terminal we had just arrived at (I think), we then queued to enter the hallway to enter the international airport (45 mins) then queued to enter the international airport (45 mins).  All very queuey!  By this stage it was about 6.30pm China time and 8.30pm Brisbane time.

Well, we are certainly a freak show.  That was always going to be the case.  As soon as we got off the plane I was asked if we were a school group.  Hmmmm.   In the long snake-like queues I kept passing the same passengers who gave me loving smiles as they looked us over one at a time trying to work out what the story is.

With regards to lengthy travel, my knees are certainly my undoing.  God knows why they ache so much, but the pain was intense after 10 hours in those economy chairs.  I certainly can't put it down to too many squats at the gym.  The walking and queueing seemed to lubricate my joints, and I got a bit of spring in my step as we commenced our 3 hour wait for our connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh.  We had our laptops, we'd be fine...

Seems China has a ban on all the interesting websites.  That's if you can even begin to negotiate the free wifi setup - it's all in Chinese.  We gave up pretty quickly and decided to bond as a family unit.  Something we've always been good at. (sic)*  By this stage Gus' eyelids were swollen; James' underpants were causing him no end of grief and I had to keep yelling at him to keep his hands away from "there"; Drew was barking orders at everyone which didn't go down well; George kept running off to ride the travelators, but he never told me he was going and he always left his bag unattended; and Max, well he wasn't any great trouble.  So we basically fought a lot while people watched us.  We did manage a hugely expensive dinner of dumplings and coca cola, me a wine (photo of the most embarrassingly large wine glass to follow tonight when photos are uploaded).

So we finally board our flight to HCMC.  James and Gus were asleep before take-off.  What distinguished this flight from the previous flight was the amount of coughing going on in the cabin!  Cough, cough. Cough cough.  There was one unhealthy woman, thankfully 2 rows behind us that coughed every 20 seconds, 2 coughs at a time, the entire flight.  The second cough was always really wet.  Once we arrived though, we were basically out through customs in about 10 mins and on the street of HCMC.

We were pounced on very quickly by a friendly looking man who took us to his car, and we began a price negotiation.  I knew it should not cost much more than 100 000 - 150 000 Dong to get the 7km into the city.  That's about $4 - $5.  He started off at $30.  I said way too expensive.  Sad really as the trip from my home to the Brisbane airport was probably about the same distance and I'd paid $55 for that.  Anyway, I said I'd pay him $10, he said $20, I said $15 and he said no.  He claimed he had "lots of people to move, need big car".  So I did what any self respecting, pathetic, easy woman would do in the same situation.  I paid the $20.  4-5 times more than I should have paid.  I am determined to get better at this.

The drive from the airport was certainly memorable.  The place is alive as you get closer to town.  Hundreds of people riding mopeds.  Men sitting on street corners drinking beers and  playing cards. Our taxi driver kept that horn tooting for the entire trip.  He tooted when he changed lanes, he tooted as he approached another vehicle, as he passed another vehicle, as he approached intersections, as he went through the intersection.  Most of the time he just drove half in one lane, half in the other.  No speed limits if no traffic I think, and if he got a clear run, he really went for it.  I felt like I was in an ambulance.  It was very exciting.

So here we are!  I'm going to upload yesterday's photos tonight when I can locate all my cords and attachments etc.  I really should have packed our bags with a list of where I put everything.  I had to unpack 5 of the 6 bags to find the electrical adaptors.  Now there's a good bit of advice for anyone travelling to Vietnam with 5 children.  I can hear the horns getting louder outside and I'm going to wake these kids up and get going!

* The term "sic" seems to be used in newspaper articles in place of the word "NOT".  I have no idea what it really means or if I have used it in the correct context here.