21st February 2023
I actually didn’t think I’d write again until the day we actually travel but I wanted to give a little bit of an update on where we are with our preparations because we’re all in totally different places.
I’ve got all of my stuff laid out on the floor in my office and from the looks of it I’m just missing a couple of pairs of boxers and need to figure out which t-shirts to take. Oh, and new swimming shorts! I purchased some new ones online and they’re a weird style that’s totally open at the front and then needs to be laced up, so to stop anything falling out these shorts have no give in them… So I think at the waist they’re probably a good 2 inches too small for my gut. I’m blaming incorrect sizing from the country of manufacture!
Nothing to do with the size of my gut at all!
Anyway that’s where I am – I’ve even got 2 sets of sweets ready. One for me on the plane (and a few packs of mints for the jungle walk cause there’s a long wait between meals when we’re walking) and some snacks for us to share with the Vietnamese team when we settle in for the evening. They’re sharing a nice traditional dinner with us so we thought we’d bring some British sweets and biscuits. I’ve got a pack of hob nobs, some shortbread, wine gums and surprisingly the thing that has divided people the most…
Black jacks!
I knew right away that I had to bring some black jacks but had no idea that they’re the marmite of the sweet world.
Back to the state of packing and we’ll move on to Luke, who kind of threw most of his stuff on the ground in his house last night and then didn’t look at it again. He’s pretty sure he has most of what he needs but is heading out to get his plane snacks later. Because let’s be honest, I’m not sharing.
We’ve been chatting this morning though about what’s happening during the trip to make sure that everyone has everything they will need. There’s a lot of debate around the subject of quantity of clothes. I am very much in the too lazy to wash clothes whilst abroad camp, whilst Luke is sitting on the fence of I’ll bring some washing stuff and wash clothes in the shower… We’ll see how many clothes he actually takes in the end – and in fact I think I need to weigh my bag once I have it packed, because even the bag itself is pretty damn heavy and one of the internal flights we have a 17Kg weight limit rather than the 23Kg for the international flights.
Scott on the other hand is sitting firmly in the crazy camp!
We got a message from him back on Saturday… I say we, I thought he put it in our Vietnam group but actually sent it to me, so he was probably wondering why I made a joke to the room, not realising the only one in the room was the butt of the joke. Anyway, he sent me that message saying all his stuff fits lovely jubbly. So not only is he packed an entire week in advance, but also he has used packing cubes for all of the different types of clothing and is bringing no less than 6 pairs of shorts! I’m bringing 2, and I’m only bringing the second pair because they’re light and I might as well have them for lounging around in the evening… I’m not going out in them, they’re pretty short shorts.
I think the only thing he’s missing is Vaseline and everyone seems very concerned with the fact that I’m not bringing any!
I hate Vaseline… there’s something about the smell that I just can’t stand. They all forget that I have been to Vietnam before and when I was there I hiked through the forest for a good few hours (it wasn’t as long as this one, but I think in total it was still at least 4 hours return from the camp to crocodile lake), and I didn’t need any Vaseline! Now I will admit that I did indeed need it when I did the Thames Path challenge a few years ago. That came up on me very suddenly but was just after the 50km mark (so maybe around 10 hours of walking later) and I ended up doubled over a fence applying Vaseline to areas you shouldn’t be applying Vaseline to in the middle of Old Windsor… Come to think of it, that was pretty traumatising but I’m pretty sure for 5 hours I’ll be fine, although I’m carrying a lot more timber now.
I’ll just use some of Scott’s, he’ll probably have a couple of industrial sized tubs with him!
I really need to stop writing these posts as a trail of thought – Who knew I’d be writing a quick post about packing bags for Vietnam and finishing with Vaseline applications in Windsor.
Long story short – we’ve nearly packed all our stuff now and both myself and Luke still need to buy a couple of bits whilst Scott has been ready for days, with yet more days still to go before we leave.
By the time you read this though I’ll be in Vietnam fast asleep at our first hotel in Hanoi as I’ll be writing the account of the travel day whilst on the plane and then sending it over to Leanne to post for me… Now then, do I type it up for her on my phone, which I’m really not going to enjoy, or do I send her photos of handwritten pages to decipher herself? I’m going to sleep on that decision I think!
24th – 25th February 2023
*thankfully Markus didn’t make me translate his handwritten notes*
It’s been a busy morning!
I had some emails to do, things to buy for the park and then also send off the exhibits BIAZA award application for the bug garden. Once we got our COVID tests and boarding passes sorted out though it was all clear sailing through breakfast, all the way until we walked from the office to the park gate (maybe 40 seconds) Scott already started complaining that his bag was hurting his shoulder… can you believe it!
Actually don’t answer that… we can all believe it!
We then ran in to even more problems at the petrol station when the woman next to us parked too close and trapped Scott in the car before then making him forget to buy himself a bottle of water. He’s still refusing to buy any sweets before getting to the airport. He’s saying it’s easier with his bag of he buys it when we arrive… I think he just likes that premium priced candy!
Let’s hope that the drive is all plain sailing.
As it turned out the drive went alright. We hit some traffic on the way up just outside Heathrow but it wasn’t too bad and we arrived only 10 minutes later than I’d put in our itinerary. To be honest the whole process went absolutely fine. We got split up at the check in which caused some confusion as Luke answered I don’t know to the question of what’s your final destination, but then security took only 5 minutes and we soon settled in for a deliciously dry and tasteless chicken burger. Ah airport food… the drier cousin of sloppy airline food!
All in all the day had been pretty uneventful until karma rapidly caught up with me about 2 hours in to the flight when the meals came around.
While I was still in the UK I pre ordered Luke a fruit platter for the second flight. Wouldn’t you know it but as our dinner was served, I waited and waited. By the time I got my food 2 things had happened. Firstly, Scott was already on his ice cream and secondly they’d run out of pork and I was left with eggplant parmigiana. I’m not a fan of vegetarian food at the best of times, but there are few vegetables with a texture that’s more offensive than aubergine. The sauce was delicious don’t get me wrong, but karma really did think that I needed a meal with the consistency of phlegm.
Delicious!
They did say that I’ll get first choice when they come around again later but I’m not holding out hope for a delicious treat to be honest!
For breakfast they came to me first so I was excited to try my chicken and mushroom congee. I don’t like mushroom but it had to be better than omelette right?
Wrong!
I don’t have any idea what congee is after having tried it but do know that it is by far the worst thing I have ever been served for breakfast. It felt like it was approximately 4% rice or cuscus (or something similar), 95% water and 1% terrible flavouring.
At least by that point there were just 2 hours of flight time left.
Hong Kong airport is absolutely gorgeous but not much was open… had a delicious ham and cheese sandwich from the Gordon Ramsey restaurant there which is lucky because my plan backfired on the plane. The lady came and asked Luke as he sat down if he still wanted the fruit platter so after karma already struck on the first flight the prank got ruined anyway and he ended up having the best tasting dinner of all of us!
We made up for it by having some McDonald’s cheese burgers once we arrived in Hanoi though.
Mind you, arrival wasn’t without its issues as we were waiting and waiting for the taxi driver and it turns out the hotel gave him the wrong name. No idea who Robert shark is!
Had a nice walk around the old quarter. Was very busy tonight and am now going to head off to bed. Only had about half an hour of sleep in the last 36 so I am knackered and need some strength for our trip to ha long bay in the morning. Need to get up in 7 hours for that so to maximise my lie-in time I just packed my GoPro etc already.
I always wonder to myself who wears those weird random slippers you get in hotel rooms and was just about to put a message out on our group chat for it when Scott beat me to it and sent a photo of his skinny legs wearing them on his toes.
This really is a gorgeous country with amazing people so I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Oh and I managed to get some new sunglasses earlier which is a huge bonus after mine broke at the airport… but to bring the mood back down again as I write this, I’m pretty sure this bed doesn’t actually have any sort of mattress to speak of.
