Vietnam and Hongkong with CX First and a taxi
Mar 17, 2015, 12:26 am
#18
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: SIN
Posts: 849
I regard Aesop as one of the finest in the industry, alongside Le Labo and Molton Brown. Basically what i expect within a good amenity kit is the substance, not the material used to enclose the contents. On that note, i can't remember how many bulgari kits i have discarded, only pocketing the lotions within it for personal use in EK J
Mar 17, 2015, 2:36 am
#20
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I take that quite offensively. I regard Aesop as one of the finest in the industry, alongside Le Labo and Molton Brown. Basically what i expect within a good amenity kit is the substance, not the material used to enclose the contents.
On that note, i can't remember how many bulgari kits i have discarded, only pocketing the lotions within it for personal use in EK J
I regard Aesop as one of the finest in the industry, alongside Le Labo and Molton Brown. Basically what i expect within a good amenity kit is the substance, not the material used to enclose the contents. On that note, i can't remember how many bulgari kits i have discarded, only pocketing the lotions within it for personal use in EK J
Mar 17, 2015, 3:37 pm
#21
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Already tired the agent led us to our car and driver. It was a Toyota van in good condition. OK, not my „usual“ S-Class but very clean and big enough.
Picture I took later
Our driver was friendly but didn´t speak a word English, which was really sad because we saw so many interesting things on our way and we would have loved to talk with him about them.
We left the airport and the traffic was fascinating. We’ve never before seen so many Vespas and we definitely didn’t have a clue what you could transport on a Vespa.
Unfortunally I didn´t take enough pictures but highlights were big pieces of furniture and a whole big pig. Also Vespas are often the only vehicle for an entire family, so four people (parents + toddler + old child) on a Vespa together was a common sight.
Traffic was really bad. At that point I still thought: It will be better once we arrive on the highway. After 2 hours of stop and go traffic I finally understood that the hole-riddled dirt rode we were on was the highway, or at least the quickest road to our destination. It was quite an offroad experience. Almost the entire ride, I couldn’t stop thinking about the warning of our foreign office not to drive at night as Vietnam has one of the highest rates of road casualties..... While our driver drove relatively civilized, most of the other drivers didn’t. It often happened that cars heading the other direction used our lane. Nobody seemed to stay on their side of the road. A real survival adventure.
I wish I had taken more photos, but it was dark during most of our ride and after our long journey, I was too exhausted to do much more than hope for a safe arrival.
After a while I had to use a restroom. What an experience. Unfortunately I forgot to take any picture of the different restrooms we had the „pleasure“ to visit on our tour; shock probably stopped me from documenting the state of the restrooms. To be honest I´m not sure it’s a bad thing that I don’t have photos to remind me of the dirty holes in the ground that were used as toilets at some rest stops. Even worse than the sight was the stench; good thing that there’s no way to capture that on camera! I’ll spare you the details but you really shouldn’t use restrooms on the side of the road if it´s not really necessary. The highlight was a bigger facility later at night. One floor. Left side for women, right side for men. So far so good. Unfortunally the doors all had a very big windows without any cover. So a paradise for voyeurs and exhibitionists! I was glad I was the only one who was present, as I´m none of the above.
On our way we stopped at a big resting place where our driver had some food.
They had relatively clean restrooms and we bought some chips as snacks.
Around 11 and a half hours later at 2 am we were still on the road when I first heard a loud noise. A few seconds later we stopped and we saw this:
A dream come true! We let out a big sigh in relief when we found out that our driver had a spare tire and after 15 minutes full of fear because many big trucks and other vehicles passed us with hardly any space to spare, we could continue our journey.
Finally we arrived in Nha Trang but our driver had no clue where the wharf of our hotel was. So I called the hotel and they described the way to him in Vietnamese. We were lucky that he had his own mobile (saved us quite a bit of money, I guess as 1 minute was 2,99 € for us), because he stayed on the phone with the hotel staff for most of our drive through Nha Trang so they could guide him. After many more phone calls we finally saw a sign: Six Senses Resort! I’ve never been happier to see a hotel-sign! At 3:30 am and after nearly 40 hours of traveling we had made it!
Picture I took later
Our driver was friendly but didn´t speak a word English, which was really sad because we saw so many interesting things on our way and we would have loved to talk with him about them.
We left the airport and the traffic was fascinating. We’ve never before seen so many Vespas and we definitely didn’t have a clue what you could transport on a Vespa.
Unfortunally I didn´t take enough pictures but highlights were big pieces of furniture and a whole big pig. Also Vespas are often the only vehicle for an entire family, so four people (parents + toddler + old child) on a Vespa together was a common sight.
Traffic was really bad. At that point I still thought: It will be better once we arrive on the highway. After 2 hours of stop and go traffic I finally understood that the hole-riddled dirt rode we were on was the highway, or at least the quickest road to our destination. It was quite an offroad experience. Almost the entire ride, I couldn’t stop thinking about the warning of our foreign office not to drive at night as Vietnam has one of the highest rates of road casualties..... While our driver drove relatively civilized, most of the other drivers didn’t. It often happened that cars heading the other direction used our lane. Nobody seemed to stay on their side of the road. A real survival adventure.
I wish I had taken more photos, but it was dark during most of our ride and after our long journey, I was too exhausted to do much more than hope for a safe arrival.
After a while I had to use a restroom. What an experience. Unfortunately I forgot to take any picture of the different restrooms we had the „pleasure“ to visit on our tour; shock probably stopped me from documenting the state of the restrooms. To be honest I´m not sure it’s a bad thing that I don’t have photos to remind me of the dirty holes in the ground that were used as toilets at some rest stops. Even worse than the sight was the stench; good thing that there’s no way to capture that on camera! I’ll spare you the details but you really shouldn’t use restrooms on the side of the road if it´s not really necessary. The highlight was a bigger facility later at night. One floor. Left side for women, right side for men. So far so good. Unfortunally the doors all had a very big windows without any cover. So a paradise for voyeurs and exhibitionists! I was glad I was the only one who was present, as I´m none of the above.
On our way we stopped at a big resting place where our driver had some food.
They had relatively clean restrooms and we bought some chips as snacks.
Around 11 and a half hours later at 2 am we were still on the road when I first heard a loud noise. A few seconds later we stopped and we saw this:
A dream come true! We let out a big sigh in relief when we found out that our driver had a spare tire and after 15 minutes full of fear because many big trucks and other vehicles passed us with hardly any space to spare, we could continue our journey.
Finally we arrived in Nha Trang but our driver had no clue where the wharf of our hotel was. So I called the hotel and they described the way to him in Vietnamese. We were lucky that he had his own mobile (saved us quite a bit of money, I guess as 1 minute was 2,99 € for us), because he stayed on the phone with the hotel staff for most of our drive through Nha Trang so they could guide him. After many more phone calls we finally saw a sign: Six Senses Resort! I’ve never been happier to see a hotel-sign! At 3:30 am and after nearly 40 hours of traveling we had made it!
Mar 18, 2015, 1:30 am
#24
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Thanks! Not sure if I woud call it fun. Definitively not when we did it, today yes
Mar 18, 2015, 2:01 am
#25
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Mar 18, 2015, 3:12 am
#26
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Mar 18, 2015, 8:08 pm
#27
Moderator, Amtrak & Spirit Airlines
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: EWR :rolleyes:
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I don't want to hijack his thread but I have a few good photos of some very strange items being transported on the back of motorbikes. The last time I was there I asked a local what the strangest thing she has seen moved on a motorbike was, and she didn't understand the question since to her there is nothing strange about furniture being delivered on a motorbike.
Mar 19, 2015, 3:41 am
#28
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Germany
Programs: Some
Posts: 11,522
I don't want to hijack his thread but I have a few good photos of some very strange items being transported on the back of motorbikes. The last time I was there I asked a local what the strangest thing she has seen moved on a motorbike was, and she didn't understand the question since to her there is nothing strange about furniture being delivered on a motorbike.
