Deliverance ... way overdue: YVR-TPE-SGN

Noon on September 11.

I'm cold. I'm tired. The 5 weeks in Vancouver have reduced me to someone who shies away from people.  WTF?  NEED to go away to get that FIXED !

The bicycle was delivered to Grandma yesterday and today it's time for the last visit before I leave and to drop off my saddle bags filled with the stuff that I'm not taking with me.   Leaving for a trip if you don't have a home where stuff will wait for you until you come back is complicated ;-(

The day is pretty much BLAH until I'm sitting at Denny's for dinner at 7:30 pm and get an e-mail from a dear friend.   She WON a prize at the PNE lottery.  NO, not an oversize teddy bear but THIS:

Oh, the meal at Denny's?

It's supposed to be a Clubhouse Sandwich.  All I know that it's the most appalling Clubhouse Sandwich that I've EVER eaten! Yes, I know that the kitchen is very busy today, but that's no excuse to serve disgusting I-hesitate-to-call-it-food like this to paying customers.  Oh, is that the Supervisor working in the kitchen?  I guess they are understaffed and I don't think Clubhouse Sandwiches are big in Brazil.  Kenny compensates me in a strange way.  Instead of NOT charging me for the Clubhouse, he gives me 8 oz of wine instead of 5 oz as my second glass.  I guess I'll be flying DRUNK, LOL.

Coming back to Chantal winning that car.....  and Karma..... and wishing for things ....
Years ago, I saw an image of Playa de Cofete (similar to the one below) in the Travel section of Der Spiegel.

 I saw the picture and exclaimed "I HAVE to GO there!".  I put in on 'my list'.  There are many places on my list and many I won't see in this lifetime.  BUT......WHAT are the chances that Playa de Cofete happens to be on the Canary Islands, where I will be heading in November due to a generous invitation from Thi Lan?  And WHAT are the chances that the ONE of SEVEN Canary Islands that I will fly to is the SAME one that features this beach?  No, I'm NOT turning into a mystic.  Let's just say: setting one's goals very high can't hurt ;-)

11:00
SOOO TIRED.

Time to say good-bye to Carlos, check-out, and leave my home of the last 6 years for the FINAL time, and wait at the bus stop.  

YES, it is dark, cold, and raining ....

There is a kinda-cute native young man sitting next to me in the pensioner seats  His bike is on the front of the bus and he is still wearing his bicycle helmet.  At first he his hand is trying to write a birthday card but soon his head slouches over, followed by his whole body,and hits the wheel well.  The bus takes a sharp turn and he falls to the floor.  He gets up on his seat again but keeps falling asleep.  It's a good thing he is still wearing that bike helmet, because in 15 second intervals the helmet keeps banging against my shoulder or the wheel well on the other side.

Just what I was hoping for ;-(

Yes, the SkyTrain only runs to the airport every 20 minutes at this hour.....

ZERO line-up at the China Airlines counter at midnight?  Am I too early?  Too late?  Or maybe the plane will be utterly empty?

1 am.  Still almost an hour until boarding.  And most of the airport stores are closed. I'm TIRED & BORED. At least China Airlines has set out its table with free coffee, tea, water, and orange & apple juice again. 

Tres civilized ;-)

The plane is about 2/3 full.  There is an empty seat between me and the woman at the window.  The kid on the triple center seats next to me is the lucky one.  He gets to stretch out on all three seats and sleep properly.
But I have no problem sleeping ;)

The captain GUNNING the engine for take-off at 2:20 wakes me up for about 5 seconds.  I also wake up for dinner one hour later.  All in all, I sleep through about 8 hours of the 11.5 hour flight. 

 With two hours left to Taipei, I catch myself wishing for the flight to be longer.  It's comfortable here, I have do to nothing but nap, and I just started watching The Water Diviner. 

I'm no Russel Crowe fan, but the movie about a father looking for his 3 dead sons 4 years after the slaughter at Gallipoli in WWI is good to watch.  OK, not quite that easy; a few times I have to hold back tears when the movie does its best to remind me that the only thing tragic on this planet is the extent of human stupidity.

5:15 am. By now I know my way around the labyrinth of the Taipei airport. The empty corridors confirm that my plane is one of the earliest to have arrived in this global flight hub. 

I'm in a smoking lounge 7 minutes after leaving the plane.

I'm taking one picture of the Taipei sunrise, but something goes wrong with the second one! 

The smoking lounge is exposed to outside air, temperature, and humidity. 

My camera lens FOGS UP within 30 seconds, LOL.

It's so nice to be back in the tropics ;-)

Next: Americano & some cookies.  The coffee in the plane doesn't deserve the name and it's nice to have a proper desk for the laptop...

Still 2 hours to wait until the 3 hour flight to Saigon takes off..... EXCITING.....I'm already noticing traces of that silly grin on my face here in Taiwan.... it's coming early this time ;-)

Time left to update my blog. When I upload the Water Diviner picture, I realize that I'm back in the hemisphere of FAST INTERNET ;-)

6:50.  Another delayed boarding.  I don't know how often I have taken the ~ 7:30 am flight from Taipei to Saigon, but I DO KNOW that it hasn't been on time a single time so far.  Not to worry though, the plane is already sitting there, I have an aisle seat, and it's a China Airlines plane and NOT a Vietnam Airlines bucket.  Better food and legroom in the brand-new China Airlines planes ;-)

The plane ends up taking off a whole hour late, but I don't really notice because I fell asleep again. 

I try watching Anna and the King (a Jodie Foster remake of The King and I), but it doesn't really capture my attention....

We finally land at Tan Son Nhat at 10:30.
Next is the 45 minute wait for the visa stamp to be glued into the passport.

I actually don't mind tooooo much, because when I hand in my paperwork the immigration line (that's next) is about 45 minutes long, but when I walk to the line with my brand-new visa in my passport, it has shrunk to 5 minutes ;-)

300 USD = 6.9 MILLION Dong.  Wow, that's the official exchange rate and I'm getting it at the first Currency Exchange booth I see ;-)

There is some Oddness when I approach the bus stop. The new 109 bus (20,000 VND) is trying to steal customers from my long established 152 bus (5000 VND).  I stick to my usual bus, of course...... 15,000 VND is 15,000 VND, LOL.

I recognize him from previous bus trips.  It could be mutual cause he asks me where I'm from.

As usual, the drivers and ticket collectors actively try to wave customers to their bus during their own smoke break.

Hitting the tiny mom&pop store (did they change owners?) BEFORE checking into the hotel has become routine. I'm not even surprised at the low prices anymore. This is just life returning to NORMAL.  Only yesterday I paid $16 for ONE pack of cigarettes.

What good is that fancy new bill if you can't even get a pack of smokes for it ?

 TWO packs of cigarettes, one bottle of wine, roasted peanuts, a box of Viet instant coffee ring up at 205,000 VND, less than US$ 10.  That's the way it's supposed to be and will be for the next 7 weeks ;-).

YES, that's BULLSHIT !

Xuan is the receptionist on duty when I finally make it to my hotel at 
13:00.  
Some bullshit about it being 'high season' in March, when MY hotel wants to charge 20% extra per night.  
Strange though that the other hotels don't do the same.....Is it time to change 'My Home' in Saigon in addition to having to find a new 'My Home' in Vancouver?







MORE good TIMING.   It starts pouring 5 minutes after I have settled into my roof-top hotel room.   It's still rainy season here in Saigon and the skies are proving it.






14:30.  I'm back in my element.  Catching up with blog writing.  Sipping cheap wine.  Smoking on my roof-top terrace and ogling all the shirtless Viets taking down the laundry on the neighbouring rooftops ;-).