Asian Travel Adventures - Back from Ho Chi Minh City: Midnight Flights and Bright Lights

    

     One of the crazy schemes of Cebu Pacific to offset their low-cost mantra is flight scheduling in the dead of the night...Really, it'd make Howard Wolowitz's mother to holler, "At this unholy hour?!"  Well, whatever you save in booking your flight you spend for an extra night at the hotel, unless you choose to stay over at the airport waiting for the sun to rise.  Anyway, that was what happened in our Ho Chi Minh flight last Thursday with Cebu Pacific.  I mean, late flight and extra day at the hotel.  We departed from NAIA Terminal 3 at 23:00, and we arrived in Ho Chi Minh at 00:30 (GMT +7), with a one hour difference between Manila and Ho Chi Minh. By the time we exited the Arrival Hall of the Ta Son Nhat International Airport, I was already tired.  However, few of the good things about late night flights include the chance to use less of your treasured vacation leaves at work and to see the pretty dazzling lights of the city from the plane.  Every time the cabin lights are dimmed to give the passengers a better view of the city we're about to reach, I will almost always start to sing to myself Bright Lights by Matchbox Twenty - 

♫  and Maybe, maybe, maybe
You'll find something
That's enough to keep you

But if the bright lights don't receive you
You should turn yourself around
And come on home  ♬

      Whenever I see those bright lights below, I'll feel the anticipation rising in my veins.  What kind of discovery awaits me in my destination?  Will I be dazzled and dazed by the bright lights making me want to stay there a little bit longer?  Or will I be disappointed?  Whatever it may be, I'll always know that I only have to turn around where home is waiting.

    
     In my recently concluded trip to Vietnam (I just arrived back home less than 12 hours ago), I got really, really confused.  If I close my eyes and open them suddenly, what I see in front of me is almost like my own county...When we boarded down the plane and walked through the gate, I was so dumbstruck.  The Ta So Nhat Airport is just like our very own NAIA Terminal 3.  I was sleepy, yes, but not enough to mistake one terminal from the other, but still, the Ho Chi Minh and Manila terminals are so alike!  And even when we got out, the streets look the same here and there.  I was so dumbfounded that I almost called Ho Chi Minh, home.  Because we were on a late flight and when we got into a cab, all I could think about was, "Am I going home now?"  Really, just replace all the signage in Viet to English, then, I'd think that I'm heading home after a late flight.  But I wasn't; we were really in Ho Chi Minh, and not in Manila. Wow!  Imagine that, I went to home from home!

     Honestly, that is not the only thing the Philippines have in common with Vietnam.  The locals there also love to drink beer on the side streets, they also have street vendors selling refreshments, like soda and C2, a brand of iced tea drink from the Philippines, they have sari-sari stores (general merchandise store, the mom and pop type), and yes, they have their own version of Ermita where some foreigners (westerners) stay and party.  Vietnam is really close to home...it is almost home.

     In the coming days, I'll post my experiences in Vietnam, but right now, I'll get back to sleep and recharge some more.

     Till then!