Feb 3 – The Loooong Saturday

 

We got up and met Hil at 6:30 AM for breakfast at the hotel buffet, and I had my last fried noodles.  At 7:30 we said goodbye to David and packed into the car he had arranged for our transport to Ho Chi Minh City Airport.  Our flight isn’t until 12:45 PM, but the traffic to the airport and the airport itself are supposed to be a horror and we were warned to be very early.  Well, the drive was very pleasant and quick.

  Bob got a chance to see old Saigon as we drove through parks full of flowers and trees, wide boulevards, and charming older neighborhoods.

Katy's final breakfast noodles

Lovely hotel lobby

More dragons for Tet

We arrived in 30 minutes, way before EVA Air desks opened, but this airport, unlike LAX, has cafes and sitting areas outside check-in, so we sat and waited a while before getting our boarding passes. Once the counters  opened, we were quickly checked in and proceeded to passport control and security with a long, weaving line.   Fortunately, Hilary noticed Bob’s name on an electronic sign for random check of luggage, so we trudged back to the EVA desk, Bob was asked if he had packed any batteries, he opened his suitcase, found them, was told they were OK, and back to the passport control.  Through this time, and onto, and through, security.

 Now we had many hours to wait, plus a one-hour flight delay.   Shopped, snacked, and finally on our EVA flight to Taipei.  We had two window seats, but it clouded in pretty quickly; we got a nice multi-course lunch, and landed.

 Hil bought us coffees, we found our gate and boarded at 6:45 PM.   We had very comfortable Premium Economy seats: slippers, face cream, headphones, etc.  We had cocktails, another large meal and drifted off to intermittent sleep.  All the window shades were pulled tightly closed as the night was very short, flying east, but the flight long, so the staff didn’t want us to see the brilliant sunshine and get rambunctious!  (I had a multi course meal in Royal Laurel class with all sorts of interesting things to eat ending with a bowl with two small scoops of ice cream that were rock hard.  Eventually, they softened enough to eat but by then I was ready to snooze. HH)

A final Hello Kitty from EVA Airlines!

 We were served a nice lunch (I had the savory pork porridge for a last bit of Asian food), and we landed at LAX.  Hil has Global Entry and so went through passport control quickly.  (There was no line at Global Entry.  I stood in front of one of the machines that takes your photo for a few seconds and then waited to be called.  The agent was talking with someone else but said Hilary? and waved me through! HH)  When we emerged, she had organized all our luggage on a cart!  We exited Tom Bradley Terminal into the damp cold.  Hil went off to find her hotel jitney as she is staying the night in LA before flying back to Tucson on Sunday.  We were picked up by the Santa Barbara Airbus and slept most of the way to SB and a taxi home, just as the rain started.

 

We found over 4” in our rain gauge, and more to come.

 

Sunday:  We didn’t wake up until 10 AM!  Rain and wind beating on the east side of the house, water flowing into my bathroom and in Mitsy’s room. I threw down towels and newspapers all over!   We drove down to the Cat House Hotel, and there was Mitsy howling, and now she's ensconced on Bob’s lap, both very happy! 

Bob’s promised turkey dinner!

HH - I stayed at one of the Marriotts by LAX and had a salad for dinner and slept on the softest mattress that I've seen for a while.  I got up about 6:30 AM on Sunday and headed for the airport before 8.  Even on a Sunday the hotel shuttles tend to be pretty full.  I only had to get to the first terminal for Southwest so that was easy but traffic was so heavy that it still took awhile.  It was not raining in LA yet so we were able to take off before the storm hit though the skies were threatening and I could see that it was already raining in Santa Barbara. I was greeted by stacks of blocks which means my wall is finally getting repaired!  Excellent news. For those of you who don't know, in mid-December, my elderly neighbor hopped in her car (I've not seen her drive in 2 1/2 years) and ended up using my driveway instead of the street and ran right into my front wall.  She was apparently having some sort of drug interaction.  Anyway, it caused quite a mess so I'm happy to be getting that put back together finally!

A long, fascinating trip!   Not as bird-y as Bob would want, but Vietnam is a great place to visit, amazingly friendly people, lots of interesting and beautiful things to see!   And being able to see 3 different, rare types of langurs was incredible!

Hasta el proximo viaje!