Well, there's lots to say about my trip even before I set off! I already knew that I have really amazing friends but they felt the need to be especially amazing the weekend before, which made leaving a whole lot harder!
On Saturday Andrea (my Spanish flatmate) and myself united to have one big, massive party. Hers to celebrate her birthday and mine to mark my leaving. Sufficient to say that with friends like ours it was a huge success! The theme was 'Superheros' and I was thrilled to see how many people had made an effort to dress up. It only added to te fun. I was Glitter Girl and I soon discovered my arch enemy was also at the party - Bubble Girl. She made it very difficult for me to go to the toilet because I had to defeat her everytime I needed to go. Hard work, but I managed to beat her and did not pee myself once.
The party went into the early hours of the morning and was full of joy and drunkeness. The next day, the day of my departure, was almost the exact opposite. I woke up next to my lovely boyfriend and felt immensely sad. We went for breakfast at his place and afterwards I left to go back to mine to clean, crying every step of the way. I cried even more when I realised I had to clean alone. Fortunately, we did a lot of it before all the guests left and my good friend, Daniel, came back to help. I felt so sad to leave that I continued to cry all the way through cleaning, packing and walking to Murdock's, where we went for our last goodbye drinks.
My lovely friends surprised me by all being there. This made me cry harder. After lunch and drinks, Nici and Flo went to pick up their cars to take some of us to the airport. The others stayed behind, standing in a row, to wave me off. I cried a little bit more. I cried as we drove along as Kitty and Susi sat in the back drinking cider and singing along to the radio. How on earth could I be leaving such awesome people! Well it was too late, so I had to suck it up!
We got to the airport and luckily for me I stopped crying. As you can imagine, my eyes were pretty sore by that point. I looked like a red and white version of a panda bear.
I went through security was just in time to stand in line to board on the plane. When I was on the plane I felt surprisingly calm and didn't feel the need to cry. I think that might have been because I'd spent the previous 8 hours doing that.
Both flights were pretty good because I'm very good at sleeping on planes and the journey went pretty quickly. I arrived at the airport in HCMC and got my visa with no hassle. So far, so good, right?
As I may have mentioned to some of you, I wasn't sure if I'd reserved a room or booked an airport pick-up because my confirmation email hadn't come through. Well no-one was waiting for me so I assumed I hadn't. I walked around in a confused manner for a while before being approached by a man who said 'taxi'. Thinking that would be a very good idea, I agreed. I waited at the taxi rank for him to pull his car around, but instead he took my bag and started walking towards a darker corner of the car park. Ermm...OK, just go with it I foolishly thought. I made sure I agreed on a price first, that's something at least. He demanded the money first. OK, well he probably needs it to pay to get out of the car park, I thought. It wasn't the most relaxed jouney of my life, and I have to say I was very relieved when we arrived in once piece at the hotel.
As I got to the hotel, I realised that he'd well and truly ripped me off by charging me FIVE times the normal amount! Still, I was just happy to be alive.
I was then showed to my room, which it turns out I definitely hadn't booked, and was pleased with it. It's small but comfortable and clean, with a fridge, TV, WIFI, private bathroom and beer in the fridge. What a great fridge :)
I was so tired after my journey and the internet wasn't working so I went straight to bed and slept in until the early hours of the next morning where the next part of my journey continues.
