We land at Vietnam

After an adventurous travel experience to the Airport we finally board the flight to Vietnam. The travel to Vietnam is via Kolkata.

The trip was with a bunch of 15 friends from Flipkart. A bunch of Gen-Z kids were the primary travellers. There were a few of us from the 80s, sprinkled on the group to add to some flavour.

The stop at Kolkata was long but time flew by in a lot of bakar. We barely noticed the poor state of the international waiting lounges. A thought crossed my head. If the international waiting lounge in a metropolitan city of India is this bad, it definitely reflects the clear fact that India has a lot to improve. BJP supporters please don’t take offence.

We finally land at Ho Chi Min in the middle of both India’s and Vietnam’s night at 2am. The immigration process was so slow, almost like the immigration officer took a small nap after stamping on each person’s Visa.

The airport was deserted. Obviously, what can we expect at 2am in the morning. When we think of Vietnam we think Hanoi. But in this trip, we are going to be visiting off beat places. The next leg of the travel was to a place called Da Lat.

To travel to Da Lat we have to take a bus. A sleeper bus was booked but the bus leaves only at 730 am and we need to kill another 4 hours at the airport.

Bored of sitting at the sad looking airport we took a cab to go to the bus stand expecting some action there at least. On the way we noticed that the Vietnamese people are in general smaller than Indians. They have a smaller structure overall. Also the trees in the country are weirdly too tall.

We reached the bus stand and one thing was very clear. Vietnam is a morning country. There was traffic on the route and a lot of people on the roads at 6am in the morning. The bus stand was bustling with people and shops.

We were hungry and when we went to have something for breakfast, the fact that we were in a South East Asian country hit us. Meat meat meat everywhere. It also reminded me about what I had read somewhere recently. The term Vegetarian is something very local to India. No country in the world understands our definition of vegetarian. Vegetables with dairy but not egg or meat or fish. More so, they don’t even have the term in their dictionary. Some countries consider chicken vegetarian, some fish and for some, if the dish has some veggies, it’s vegetarian.

Google translate came in handy. The pure vegetarians had to settle to nothing but some tropical fruits like guava and watermelons. The eggetarians had boiled eggs along with the fruits. The non vegetarians feasted.

The bus doors opened finally at 730am. It was so much worth the wait. It is one of the best sleeper buses I have seen in my entire life. So comfortable with wide sleeper beds, cozy soft pillows and blankets and cooling AC to beat the tropical heat. It had window blinds and curtains that when closed, make the entire cabin dark as the night even in broad daylight.

It was a LOOONG 8 hour journey to Dalat. Again the travel was worth it as we checked into the Terracota Resort overlooking the Tuyem lake. The resort is as nothing short of beauty and comfort. The rooms were huge with a view of the lake. We walked down to see the sunset by the lake and decided to rest for a while.

The journey so far has exceeded expectations. Hope the trip continues be that way.