Tra Su (the subject of my last post) closed out my visit to Southeast Asia and it was now time to head to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, as many still call it) and an early morning flight the next day to Hong Kong, then on to Los Angeles, and finally to Tucson. All told, I’d be travelling for some 25 hours.

I hired a car to take me to my hotel near Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. If the traffic in HCMC were anything like the chaotic bedlam of Hanoi, I didn’t want to do any walking or driving! Drop me at the entry doors of the hotel, please! It turns out that was a wise decision—the traffic in Saigon made Hanoi look like tame! There were still about 10 motorcycles for every car, but there were also 10 times more cars, which meant 10 times more motorcycles. These oddly organic, always shifting masses of machinery and men moved down Saigon’s wide boulevards, somehow, somehow never hitting each other. Nothing in my nearly 6 decades of driving would have prepared me to deal with that! I was happy—if in no way relaxed!—to be in the back seat.

It seemed like only a nap later, I was at Tan Son Nhat at 5:00 the next morning. The flight I’d booked was a through flight to Los Angeles, with a 2-hour stop in Hong Kong. It was the same airplane, same seat all the way to LAX, so my plan was to stay on board the plane at Hong Kong. Alas, Hong Kong had other plans. Anyone making a connecting flight there—even if it’s a continuing flight on the same plane—must disembark with everything you’ve carried on, walk half a mile (or so it seemed), go through security again, and then find your way back to the gate, only to reboard the plane you just got off of! The process was pointless. The only benefit was that it took up most of the 2-hour layover, which I suppose beats twiddling one’s thumbs sitting at the gate for that time.

The flight to Los Angeles was pretty uneventful, except for the guy in the seat across the aisle from my seat. An hour or so out of Hong Kong, he got out of his seat, stepped into the aisle, stripped down to his boxers, and changed into his pajamas. Really? A flight attendant soon showed up and had stern words with him, though I’m not sure there was much communication—all that I heard him speak sounded like Russian.

After several hours, somewhere over the Pacific I leaned my head back and dozed for a while. I guess it must have more than a doze, though—when I woke, I noticed there was land out the window, and my across-the-aisle fellow passenger had changed back to street clothes. We were just an hour out from LAX and that meant my Southeast Asia adventure was all but over.

This had been one of my best trips ever, in no small part due to Sail with Seth. Kudos and thanks to Seth for making everything work smoothly and helping me out when I needed it. I had experienced places I thought I never would and got to know people that enriched my life. Travel is like that, it brings surprises, introduces you to new things (if you let it!), and broadens your mind. It can also bring challenges, but overcoming those challenges is rewarding in its own way. In the end, it’s worth the expense and effort, and I love it.

I wonder where I might go next….

Here are some final photos (and a video!):