Day 18 and 19 To hell and back. Our 31 hour journey home.

Phew!  It's taken me a while to collect myself after our return journey from Vietnam to our home in Brisbane, Australia.  Our  house has not recovered from our arrival and is still a pigsty.  My bag is not completely unpacked 4 days later and I am in the thick of the school routine - preparations for school in the morning, work during the day, and then dinner, homework and all those lovely housewifely duties that go hand in hand with raising 5 quite unhelpful children.

I have a wine within easy reach (God it's nice to drink wine again) and here I go...

I woke bright and early on Day 18 and grabbed a quick shower before I woke the little'ns.  We had to be in a taxi on the way to the bus stop by 5:30am.  Tip: Never let a travel consultant book your plane tickets. If you book your tickets yourself at least there is one person who has your best interests at heart. What an ungodly hour to begin our trek home!  Our flight out of Vietnam was to leave at 8:30am and I had my trusty Lonely Planet Guide that had advised me it was a 45 minute - 1 hour journey by bus to the airport.  Organisation was crucial.  I was just a teeny bit frightened that we would miss our flights and we would have to apply for citizenship in Vietnam.  We caught a taxi to the bus terminal about a kilometre from our hotel.  The extra bag we had bought to accommodate our booty made it impossible to walk the distance.

Lucky for us the bus driver was an absolute maniac and we arrived at the airport in under 30 minutes.  It was good to have one final taste of traffic in Vietnam.  We tried to eat the bread rolls I had brought for our breakfast while the bus negotiated the traffic, but it was way too early, and the dramatic weaving and lurching of the bus created an atmosphere that was way too intense to focus on eating.  When we arrived at Noi Bai International Airport the queues were already building.  I spent the first half hour looking for any indication that I was even in the International Airport.  I could see no signs for China Southern Airlines.  Silly me, I only had to ask.  As it turned out I was supposed to be lining up under the heading "23" where the international flights for China Southern Airlines were processed.  Twenty minutes later I was at the front of the line.  When I produced our 6 passports for processing, the man behind me gave a great sigh.

While we were waiting in line, we chatted together quite normally, marvelling at some of the weirder things we had seen in the streets the day before.  With every haircut, one is entitled to a free ear clean.  The ear clean is performed with a pair of surgical tweezers.  I guess these guys get training.  We also saw women having their toenails cut and cleaned on the busy sidewalk, 2 women having lice removed from their hair, and one man having a haircut.  I assume his ear clean was to follow.

At least there are no expensive rental overheads for this hairdresser.

It took a while to get our boarding passes, but before we knew it we were waiting at our boarding gate...1.5 hours early and eager to get home.  George decided he wanted a pair of sunglasses (again), and James focused on his need for a coffee.  Drew, a creature of habit, settled back with her computer and headphones to watch yet another episode of Castle.  I began to deal with the boys.

All went according to plan and we arrived in Guangzhou at about 11:00am.  In a desperate effort to pacify George who was whining about his position in the plane, and his lack of view out of the plane window, he was promised a window seat on the China to Brisbane flight.  He was most upset that he had ended up in the isle, and I knew from 3 bitter weeks of experience that it is way better to give in to George than to try to reason with him.  Everyone ends up happier in the short term, and that was what was the most important thing.  Only 10.5 hours until our flight to Brisbane was scheduled to depart!  You may recall that I did enquire about Chinese visa's when I first found out about our ridiculous wait for a connecting flight to Brisbane.  The price for each Visa - nearly $100.  It was a difficult decision, but in the end I decided that boredom was easier to deal with than a $600 look at Guangzhou.

We were the picture of a happy family for the first half hour.  Both computers were fully charged, the travelling sidewalk was a novelty for the first few rides, and George had not yet found anything he wanted to buy.

The cards killed about an hour

George takes up his position.  

Drew in a typical pose.

George blissfully occupied

Sooner or later someone else was going to want a turn on that computer.  I watched the clock tick tock slowly onwards.  God help us all when George was not fully occupied...

One hour later all hell broke loose.  George saw a miniature plane in the toy store that he desperately wanted and needed.  So commenced 3 hours of torture and torment.  By George, directed at me.  George argued why he needed the plane and how much pure joy it would give him if I bought if for him.  I'm embarrassed to say that he wore me down completely and I eventually bought one for him and for Max for the grand total of AUD $20 each.  Blessed relief followed.  He was completely, albeit strangely given his age, entertained for the next 2 hours.

We spent our time at Guangzhou Airport moving from boarding gate to boarding gate in an effort to avoid detection by other passengers as a group of complete freaks.  Our family was fighting a lot by this stage and we were becoming entertainment for the bored.

George soon dropped and broke his plane just as I had predicted to him a few hours earlier.  I lasted an hour before I went and bought him another.  It just wasn't worth listening to him anymore.  He was becoming unmanageable.

We were due to board our flight home at about 9:00pm, so as 9:30pm rocked around we didn't really crack much of a smile when we heard the announcement that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours due to bad weather.  I managed to dab my eyes with the sleeve of my dirty jumper before any tears spilled out over my cheeks.  It's important to maintain a look of "everything's under control folks, no need to worry, I'm cool".

Plane play

James starts the school work he was given 4 weeks ago

Flight delayed for 2 more hours.  What a fantastic opportunity to bond!

The hours become unbearable

George seems to get great enjoyment from his plane.  Max awaits
further instructions from George.

Tempers become frayed

Diagnosis:  ???

James can't take it anymore

We entered the plane about 11:30pm and took our seats.  George assumed his position beside the window and the rest of us just took what was left of our 6 allocated seats.  We buckled up and checked out the vomit bags and the eyepads, the free toothbrushes and the inflight magazine.  I doubl-checked quickly if any of the children felt the need to open their bowels, then we proceeded to prepare ourselves for a night of deep sleep before arriving home.

...and then the announcement!  Another 2 hours delay due to the weather.  Jesus CHRIST!!

We were all asleep before takeoff.

Well, maybe we weren't all asleep.  Thank God someone's happy.

Sleeping Beauty.  I believe dehydration was setting in at this stage.
I had abused my body, yes, but beer had been a great friend to me
during our travels in Vietnam.  I think I may have been dreaming
about sucking on a "coldie" when this photo was taken.

George woke some hours later and berated me for not waking him for takeoff.

The rest of the flight is a blur.  Food trolleys came and went, I read an entire book and a fairly inappropriate Chinese inflight movie was shown.

We arrived in Brisbane after midday on Saturday.  My lovely and very patient mother was there to greet us after waiting 5 hours for us to arrive.  Luckily we skipped through customs without a bag search.  Very lucky actually, as no-one had informed me that bringing in a jewellery box made from buffalo bone was not entirely legal.  A bag and body search however would have topped my blogging off nicely.  A short ride from the airport later...and we were HOME sweet home!

I found Vietnam to be a beautiful, colourful country, completely different from anything I've known, an extraordinarily interesting land, with an amazing cultural history.  Would I do it all again?  If I had the money, I'd travel with my children again, yes.  I'd probably travel somewhere new.  Not because I didn't love Vietnam, but because there are so many other countries, cultures, sights and people to see, and so little time.

I hope I get the opportunity to travel at least once more with my children before they move on with their lives.  As much as I've joked about the difficulties we encountered, I'd have to admit the entire trip was very simple and straightforward.  Nothing at all to be nervous about.  I'd recommend Vietnam as a travel destination to any single person wanting to travel alone with their children.

Ps:  My car is still being repaired and the man at the repair shop informed me that the part they are waiting for should be in Australia in approximately 6 weeks time.  Just like that.  He was quite matter-of-fact about it.  What the??