The Waiting Game

I’m becoming more familiar with some of the world’s least appealing international airports than I’d like. As with Lima and Oahu (surprisingly unappealing considering the destination) before, I find myself with another twelve hour layover in a small airport lacking for significant distractions to occupy the time. This time the airport in question is Hanoi in northern Vietnam. I was here five days ago, leaving the city after exploring it for four days, as I made my way south to the town of Hoi An in the middle of the country.

But, I unwittingly scheduled my stay in Vietnam during the country’s most popular and lengthy holiday- ten days of celebrations - the Tet New Year, or lunar new year, which has seats on all modes of transportation booked solid throughout the celebration. So, my plan to book a train or plane ticket on the fly in Hoi An, in order to continue further south to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), was thwarted by the throngs of Vietnamese taking time out to visit their friends and relatives. I finally managed to score a plane ticket departing two days later than I wanted to leave Hoi An, which now has me flying north to Hanoi in order to head south to HCM City, with a ten hour layover to boot.

The layover gives me ample time, however, to catch up on this blog which is something I’ve obviously failed to do for quite some time now. Since my last update, I’ve visited the sprawling and unexpectedly modern city of Bangkok. From there I headed north to Chiang Mai, in Thailand's hill country for a brief misadventure (to be chronicled shortly) before spending a relaxing week on the tropical island of Ko Samui in southern Thailand. Tanned and relaxed, I ventured into Vietnam, starting in the capital of Hanoi in the north and a side trip on a junk boat plying the waters of karst-ladden Ha Long Bay. From there I moved on to the small town of Hoi An near the country’s central coast and will now wrap up my Vietnam tour with a brief, two-day stay in the country’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City. Once Vietnam is complete at the end of the month, I‘ll kick off March in India, meeting a couple of friends in Mumbai (Bombay) for a three week tour of the subcontinent.