A sling through Singapore... and a few other places.

[feezable]

I am currently sitting in Siem Reap reading your TR. Flood waters have receded with daily downpours limited to 30min. The Angkor experience has exceded all my expectations, we finish tomorrow, our 4th day of temples, with Banteay Srei. Thanks for the great TR.

 

[sjd]

I am currently sitting in Siem Reap reading your TR. Flood waters have receded with daily downpours limited to 30min. The Angkor experience has exceeded all my expectations, we finish tomorrow, our 4th day of temples, with Banteay Srei. Thanks for the great TR.

Banteay Srei is one of the most beautiful temples but does get crowded. My favourites were Preah Khan and Banteay Samre, far fewer visitors. We had Banteay Samre to ourselves, which after rush hour at Angkor Wat, was magical.

 

[sjd]

Now where did I leave this trip report? Oh, that's right in Da Nang in October 2013.

We arrived on a national holiday and down town Da Nang was just about empty. Strange for a Vietnamese city. We found a taxi driver and negotiated a rate to drive us to our hotel in Hoi-an. It was the Vinh-Hung Emerald Resort on An-hoi. A view out over the river and a shortly walk to the historical center of Hoi-an.

Photo of the pool, note the vegetation.

Had a very relaxing day and a half and then...

 

[sjd]

Something has blown away all those leaves!


That something was Typhoon Nari. Blew over every tree in the town, although most were propped up again the next day as if nothing had happened. A high tide combined with flood waters coming down river saw us moved from the ground floor to the 1st floor of the hotel, but the flood was lower than anticipated. Much to the relief of locals, I'm sure. Many of the locals we spoke to had the roof of the houses blown off but they were in good spirits and wanted to get things back to business as usual. We were there another 3 days after the typhoon and by day 2 you wouldn't have known a Cat 1 storm has visited. That said, Da Nang, which copped the brunt of it, was still looking worse for wear 5 days later when we headed back there to catch our flight out.

 

[sjd]

Despite floods, gale force winds and category one typhoons the food in Hoi An was delicious.

Local speciality Cao Lau eaten in the street (and much better than the version we had at the hotel restaurant the night we were stuck there due to the typhoon).

This meal was fantastic, wrapped I rice paper and lettuce and dunked in a chili satay sauce. At a street restaurant down a lane way called the Bale Well. Tricky to find but worth it.

Chocolate and Passionfruit cake at Cargo Club (part of the Morning Glory empire).

And Pho at the old market.

 

[sjd]

We missed out on a couple of things we had planned to do, a food tour and a photography tour, due to the typhoon, but that meant Hoi-An was a good rest stop. I'd go back, just to eat at the Bale Well again.

Arranged an airport transfer with the hotel for our flight from DAD to SGN. The plan was a late afternoon arrival, dinner in Saigon and then an early morning departure to Singapore. That was the plan, but then I had made the only real mistake of the entire trip. I had booked a flight with VietJet.

 

[sjd]

The one thing that I can say for Viet Jet is that they do have a plane and it does fly. When it flies, who can say.

Between booking the flight several months earlier and they day of travel I received 7 notifications of rescheduling and one change of flight number. What was booked as a 18:00 departure, suddenly became a 20:25 departure and a flight number change and a 18:40 flight. That I am grateful for, because on the day of travel I received a notification that the 18:40 flight was now rescheduled to 21:30.
I know, LCC, you get what you pay for, but sitting at Da Nang airport 21:30 came and went, as did 22:30, as did 23:30. This was the point when I began to wonder if this airline actually owned any planes. In the time we sat at Da Nang Airport they were supposed to have had 3 scheduled flights depart. Finally a little after 23:30 their B737 (or was it an A320, so tired at that point I cannot remember) arrived and they did manage to turn it around reasonably quickly. I think it was close to 2 am when we arrived at our hotel in Saigon, only to set the alarm for 5:00 to get up for our flight to Singapore.

So why didn't I just book Vietnam Airlines for that leg? Because it was 5 or 6 times the price, from memory. They were really cheap flights. So why didn't I book Jetstar? Because their Vietnamese flights seem to only open up for booking a few months out. Weird.

So what was VietJet like onboard? Very LCC only more so. Much more so. On the plus side they were well stocked with VietJet merchandise, so if you wanted that themed t-shirt, mug holder or Vietnamese Traffic mask, they are your go to airline. Personally I will never go to anywhere with them again. I have never been so relieved to be off a plane.

And the explanation for the delays and schedule changes... No I didn't think so.

The next day it felt great to be on an on time professional airline. Tiger. That's right, it felt good to be on Tiger. That's how bad the VietJet experience was.

Also, good Pho at Da Nang airport. Helped pass the time.

 

[sjd]

So almost no sleep and a mercifully uneventful Tiger flight to Singapore and it was time for a redemption hotel room at the Intercontinental.


Singapore was a strange destination after Vietnam. Felt too clean and controlled. Had a very pleasant couple of days, taking things slowly but still eating well. Had given up on the food photography at this point, apart from one last Kaya toast.


Enjoyed the Qantas Singapore lounge very much on departure in QF 52 to BNE and was asleep comfortably on the B744 in 5J before they had even started the meal service. This was my first Skybed and I had ever slept so well on a flight before. QF staff were great, let me know when a toilet was free to get changed before breakfast. CSM came to greet me at breakfast saying he'd tried too after take off but that was asleep already. 5J was a brilliant seat. At breakfast I looked around at the rest of the cabin and it looked so much more crowded that the space I had. No seat photos, but they are not hard to find around here.

 

[TomVexille]

Love Vietnamese food. Your photos bring back some good memories.