Orchids, Hillary Clinton and Vietnamese Immigation PingPong

The last morning in Singapore we visited the Botanical Garden, a real oasis of clam and green - right in the city. Plus a great place for breakfast, too.



The main attraction was the National Orchid Garden, with hundreds of orchids on display. It was beautiful. And really humid, too. We literally just closed the taxi door on our way back to the hotel when a tropical downpour cooled things down.

After a 3 hour flight we arrived in Hanoi, the capital of the Social Republic of Vietnam (or Vietnam as we shall refer to it from here on). The very first thing we saw as the plane touched down and we were still on the landing strip, slowing down, was the US Airforce 1 (or rather 2) presidential plane ready for take-off. The explanation: The US foreign secretary Hillary Clinton just finished a 2 day visit to Vietnam and was leaving the country as we arrived. In fact, the next plane that used the airport runway after we had cleared it was hers. So how about that for a claim to fame: We made the US foreign secretary wait!!!



Inside the airport terminal we were participating in a game that could at best be described as 'Vietnamese Immigration pingpong'. To get our visa upon arrival sorted we needed to see a total of seven (!) customs people. Anyways, when we finally cleared that hurdle, the only 4 pieces of baggage that were still circling around on the baggage carrousel were ours...



An hours drive from the airport into Hanoi City let to the first impression that Vietnam ain't Singapore. Whereas Singapore was busy and efficient, our first impression of Vietnam was that it seemed busy and chaotic.



But let's see what the next days / weeks bring. After a night here in Hanoi we will leave early tomorrow for Halong Bay. I suspect, it will be a bit tricky with Internet access when we are outside of the big cities, so please bear with us...