We made it!! We’re in Ho Chi Minh City after a relatively uneventful trip from Ankara.  Our flight from Istanbul was delayed about an hour, which caused to miss our connection in Bangkok.  That meant we got to see more of the Bangkok airport than we wanted, but the airport staff was extremely helpful in getting us re-booked on a flight that was leaving within an hour.   So, after a long trek through the airport, we only had a few minutes to wait before getting on an Air France flight for Ho Chi Minh City.

This is turning to be a truly international experience right down to the number of different airlines we are using.  We flew from Turkey to Bangkok on Turkish Airlines and were supposed to connect to a Lufthansa flight, but instead ended up on Air France.

In Vietnam, we’ll fly Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and then return to Bangkok on Thai Airlines before linking back up with Turkish Air for the return to Turkey.

The airport in Ho Chi Minh City seemed much cleaner and more efficient than we remembered it when we were last there on November 30, 2000 when we left Vietnam with Jessie.  Getting through customs and picking up our luggage was a snap (because of the change in airlines in Bangkok we were a bit concerned the luggage wouldn’t make it). Coming out of the airport terminal, things were much calmer than Nancy and I recalled.

Because of our flight delay, Thao, our Vietnamese facilitator, wasn’t at the airport, but it was no problem finding a van to take us to the hotel.  It was a Saturday evening and the  streets were absolutely alive with humanity — most everyone uses motorbikes for transportation in Vietnam and, of course, Ho Chi Minh City is no exception.  Everything and everybody can be seen on a motorbike.   Most unusual and interesting to us were the families of four and five all riding on a single motorbike.

We arrived at the Riverside Renaisannce Hotel after about an half hour’s drive and immediately linked up with the rest of our group - two other families who had arrived from the US earlier in the day.  Thao was with them and greatly relieved to see that we had no problems getting to the hotel from the airport.  As we were soon to learn, Thao is absolutely fantastic and is constantly working to make sure everything (and I mean everything) goes smoothly while we are in Vietnam.  It is great to have someone like her watching out for us.

After an hour of conversation and getting to know each other, we went to bed with great anticipation of the coming day - August 28 - when we would get to meet Alyssa for the first time.  But for us it was a special day for two reasons since it would also be Jessie’s sixth birthday.

Just got back from a day in NYC and am taking the time to look at all of the photos and catch up on the nitty gritty details on your blog.

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