Like most of our travel days, not many pictures. In the opening picture, we see Annie and Clare waiting to board the plane to Melbourne in Ho Chi Minh City (once called Saigon) International Airport.

Ahh, the end. We had to get to the airport by about 10:00am, so a reasonably early start with a quick breakfast at the local corner cafe (the same as the first morning in Paris). I was dissapointed in that I never got to try a Macron in Paris. There was a Pattiserie next door to the cafe and I was going to grab some this morning, but it didn't open until after we were gone. Damn!

We caught the taxi to the airport and it was a crappy drive. Never seen so much traffic before as we never went out of the inner city until now. But the outer suburbs are packed and there are no decent sized roads in or out of Paris.

Our arrival at the airport was easy as we had the Concierge service booked again to leave Charles de Gaulle airport. I can easily recommend this service to anyone. He took us to the finance area were we reclaimed our taxes and checked into our flight.

Vietnam

We landed in Saigon at about 6:30am, nice and early. The wait in customs was short as we already had our Visa's and carry on luggage only. It was a 14.5 layover before our flight to Melbourne and as such we had prebooked two hotel rooms at the Ibis hotel next to the airport. It was air-conditioned, had a bar and a swimming pool on the roof; great for getting refreshed and relaxed. But first, Clare and I were going to go shopping.

The map of our intended shopping route.

The amount of bike traffic here is mind boggling.

We ended up at the Ben Tanh Market and spent an hour there before heading back to the hotel. I ended up hitting the mattress after a shower, but Clare went to the roof pool with Annie.

We then had a late lunch / early dinner at the hotel before heading back to the Airport and our flight to Melbourne.

We were that impressed with the Concierge service in Paris, we checked if one was available in Melbourne and booked it immediately. It was great too, but unfortunately the baggage doesn't come off the plane as quick as in other cities.

Glad to be home as I need a rest.... Can't wait to go again 😄