Phew, we all finally made it here. By chance we all found each other on the Bangkok-Saigon flight. I had booked a business class ticket because it was the only thing left from the Thai Airways counter that day, and after dozing off and sleeping in the Royal Orchid Lounge for a few hours, took the evening flight to Saigon. I was half asleep when I sat down on my seat and ignored my neighbour, an older well-fed looking businessman reading a book in Hebrew. A few minutes before we take-off, I see the back of two heads on the opposite side of the plane who look strangely familiar. Stretching my head off I recognize no other than Vini and RP!!! And PV was sitting two rows ahead; she gladly switched seats with my Israeli neighbour and we caught up on the adventures that we'd all had already getting to Bangkok - they had been stuck in some ice storm and had to drive an unsafe car between New York and Montreal, and then were ushered very precipitously between planes in Bangkok knowing that their luggage had stayed on the previous plane. All this time she kept her 'smiley face'. So we all landed luggage-less in Saigon two days ago, too tired to be upset and just happy to find a bed to fall into!!!
But Thai Airways is a good airline, as discovered by Al last month when his luggage appeared magically on the dive boat - my backpack appeared magically on my hotel doorstep as I was stepping out yesterday to meet out the gang at their hotel. And theirs made it too. The only mystery is if my dive gear will make it to Khao Lak in a few weeks. We'll find out.
So yesterday we visited Saigon along with some friends from... Puvurnituq that both RP, Vini and I knew and that they had planned to meet here. We saw the Reunification Palace which was a big jump in to the seventies. I enjoyed the French Colonial atmosphere of Old Saigon:
Bureau de Poste de Saigon
And today my mission is to meet up with another couple from home (PY and Chin) who are here for a friends' wedding. Thank God for text messages working well here. The Intrepid group lands today and the race starts tomorrow. We are getting ready. PV has her smiley:
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