One of the secrets of happy travelling is making a virtue out of necessity and the final leg of our European sojourn was a blend of sheer indulgence and pure pragmatism.
We had flown to Europe on Vietnam Airlines, partly because their Premium Economy and Business Class fares are good value (right now they are less than $4000 return for Business, depending on which days you fly, compared to anything between $8,000 and $12,000 on Qantas).
The trade-off is the amount of time you have to spend in the airports in Vietnam – six hours on the way out and between 13 and 16 hours on the way back.
Now, bearing in mind that your ticket gets you into the lounge, and you are arriving mid-afternoon, the six hours in the terminal on the way there isn’t too onerous – especially if you still have work to do.
But coming back, you arrive very early in the morning after the longest leg of the flight, and leave late at night, so that’s a different story entirely.
Early check-in
So we arranged an early check-in and late check-out, plus one overnight, (which cost the equivalent of two nights) in one of my favourite hotels in Saigon, the Silverland Ben Thanh.
That meant two whole days in Saigon. Apart from anything else, it was nice to get some heat in our bones after the rigours of the European winter and to just have a break from what was a working holiday.
As I said, it was two days of indulgence. We had breakfast in the Silverland – something I rarely do in hotels but theirs is spectacular – showered, snoozed and then went to the huge Uniqlo store en route from the hotel to the city centre.
For lunch we went to Banh Mi 74, an old food truck now with its own air-conditioned indoor restaurant, tucked away in a courtyard next to The Refinery restaurant, a former opium factory much favoured by tour groups.
At some point we had a massage at the KL Spa which is in the alley next to the Myst Dong Khoi, another of my favourite hotels.
Walking street – a zoo
That first night we went to Vua Cha Ca at 42-46 Trần Hưng Đạo, to enjoy our favourite fish and vegetable stew from Hanoi, cooked on the table, in what turns out to be a chain of these restaurants. Still really good, though.
Then we took a detour to the Bui Vien Walking Street so that Sue could see what a zoo it is.
Another diversion before heading back to the hotel saw us drop in on Adelaide’s Jay Moir at his very hip “hidden” cocktail bar A Summer Experiment, which is rated number 20 out of 267 cocktail bars in Saigon, according to Tripadvisor.
Day two started with a late breakfast – again in the hotel because it is so good as well as convenient – then some light shopping at Saigon Jane, a funky tee-shirt shop where we bought our granddaughter Vienna a Gibli top.
Lunch was at Shamballa, a vegetarian restaurant near the old Hotel de Ville which promotes itself as a refuge in the city. It was certainly a welcome retreat from the heat and humidity.
No rush
After that we had more massages at the KL Spa , the previous day’s treatments having been so good – and great value. That’s one of the benefits of the late check-out – there’s no rush to get back to the hotel before 11 am; luxury when you still have the whole day ahead of you.
Coffee at Le Comptoir which promotes itself as a European bistro and sits at the entrance to the laneway.
Back to the room in a Grab – the Asian equivalent of Uber – to finish packing and have a light snack before leaving in plenty of time for the 9.30 flight back to Sydney.
Three and a half weeks on the road had taken us to Berlin, Paris, London, Glasgow and Limoges. It had been a blast
