Good Morning, Vietnam!

Hi all!

New month which means new update, right? So here goes.

Whenever someone asks how I'm doing, I always reply with the same honest answer:
I'm tired.

I'm tired when I sleep.
I'm tired when I wake up.
I'm tired no matter what I'm doing.

The lack of sleep over the passed few months is slowly coming back to haunt me.
I honestly feel like I could sleep for a week and would still be tired.
Staying up too late, getting up too early, making myself socialise with the crew on layovers, or with my friends when I'm back in Dubai, I'm not gonna lie, this is exhausting.

Am I getting old??

Maybe.
Probably.

I'm not really fussed about getting old, I just want to NOT be tired.
KANALLAH.

At the same time, I have had the BEST crew on my most recent flights (fingers X it continues), and they have made the layover trips all that much more fun.

Since I've last posted about my travels, here's an update on the places I've traveled to:

• Bombay (aka Mumbai), India (turnaround).
• Kuwait (turnaround).
• Cairo, Egypt (turnaround).
• Copenhagen, Denmark. 
• Chennai, India (turnaround).
• Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. 
• Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh), Vietnam.
• Malé-Colombo-Malé. This one is a bit more interesting. It's kind of like a turn-around and a layover in one. Meaning, we drop off people in Malé, The Maldives, pick new people up, and carry on to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Even though the flight is shorter than others, it is EXHAUSTING doing two flights in one day.
• I then had 5 days off (honestly this must be a lie) and had Malé-Colombo-Malé again.
• Vienna, Austria

A turnaround flight is one where the actual flying time is deemed too short to necessarily have to allow you to stay over in the country to which you are flying to, which is why they send you back straight away with new passengers.
Personally, I think the turnaround flights are way more exhausting than layover flights, because not only are you are doing two flights in one day, but there is so much more that goes on.

Let me try and put this in simple terms.

Hypothetically speaking, let's say I have a flight that departs at 8am.
We'd have to be at the 'office' 2 hours before STD (Standard Time of Departure) for the flight, meaning I'd have to be at work by 6am.
Therefore I'd have to be up at 4am in order to to get dolled up and to catch transport there.

We'd then go and do a seemingly short flight of 4 hours, arriving at the location at around 2pm Dubai time.
Once at the destination we'd stay onboard after disembarking the passengers, and wait for cleaners and catering to do their thing on the aircraft. This roughly takes about one and a half hours. Then around 4pm Dubai time, we'd board new passengers and head back for another 4 hour flight,  so we'd be back in Dubai around 8pm.
By the time I get home it's around 10pm at night already.
That's essentially an 18 hour day (if my maths is correct. I could be calculating wrong though.
4am to 10pm = 18 hours, right? Whatevs).

And then I have to get up and do the whole thing again the next day.
So yeah, I'm TIRED.
February held the most turnarounds for me, and I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't easy.

At the same time though, as exhausting as my job can be, I have to say there are just some really incredible perks of it.
Working a flight to and from a foreign country; and finding the energy to sightsee whilst running on 6 hours of sleep in the span of 2 or 3 days is no easy task, but I'm not one to let sleep get in the way of taking advantage of a fleeting opportunity.

As much as I loved Dar-Es-Salaam and enjoyed walking around Copenhagen, I'm skipping them and going straight to telling you about Saigon.

We arrived to Vietnam fairly late in the evening, but still decided to go out for drinks to get to know one another.
I've quickly learned that one shouldn't skip this part, no matter how tired you may be.
Years from now when you're looking back on photos of these trips, you want to be able to recall the people you spent the moments with, and what better way to do so than to get to know them a bit? Because chances are you will probably never see them again.

1000 Vietnamese Dong is worth about 50 cents in South Africa.

How to get everyone to stay off their cellphones. First to touch theirs pays everyone's bill.

At the same time though, you have to learn to manage how long you stay awake the night before a big trip. We had already pre-booked and paid for our tour of the war memorial site, the Cu Chin Tunnels, that we had to be up at 6am for, so I made sure to turn in early enough to at least get 2 hours of sleep (LOL. What was I even thinking).

The next day we met up, had our standard buffet breakfast, and left sharply at 8am with our local tour guide, Richard, whom we honestly had a tough time understanding what the heck he was saying.

Vietnam is densely populated with motorcyclists. I saw everything on a motorcycle from grannies, to kids being picked up from school, to people transporting metal pipes. Or chickens.

They LOVE karaoke. Look at that multi-storied building dedicated solely to people hiring out a room to practice their karaoke skills! 

ROADTRIP IN 'NAM, SON.
Also, free wifi on the bus. HOLLA.

We first stopped over at this factory called Handicapped Handicrafts, a local company that employs the physically disabled to make amazing pieces of art using duck egg shells and mother of pearl seashells.

Step 1: First it starts out with the drawing of the pattern.

Step 2: Application of the shells

Step 3: This then gets washed and sandpapered down to smooth out the shells.

Step 4: Colour is added and lacquer is applied to give it shine.

Step 5: Lastly, it is polished, and out comes the final product.

The whole process of a small piece can take longer than a month to make. Imagine how long the big pieces can take??

Stunning. 

One of my favourites.
I definitely would not have the patience to make these.

I ended up buying this one for $20, or about R220, because it reminded me of my younger sisters, Farhana and Taslimah.

After that we headed off to the Cu Chin Tunnels.

Rice fields!

Vietnamese cemeteries. 

Jackfruit. Eurgh.

Entrance to an underground bunker.

We were given the chance to crawl through one of the smaller tunnels, to try and get a feeling of what they endured during the war. I ATTEMPTED to crawl through one, but this one didn't have any lights and there were bats inside. Uhm. Yeah... No thanks?

Then we went to a bigger, longer tunnel, with an actual guide. 

#TunnelSelfie

Oh, you know, just a bomb crater.

I know Richard was trying to tell us about the war, but yoh. No idea. So instead, I sort of just lagged behind, listening to other tour guides tell their groups what we were seeing, like these traps that they creatively came up with:

This door trap is also known as the 'no-baby' trap. It would be hidden above a door, and if a guy opened the door, the trap would come swinging down and BAM. No more babies.

This was an old American tanker that had to be abandoned because it landed on an active mine. 

It really was a fascinating experience being there because we were literally surrounded by history. Everywhere we walked, we were told things like "See, if this was during the war, you would be dead because you just stepped on a piece of ground that once had an active mine hidden". Gee, thanks.

The tunnels go deep underground. It was a full-on family home, with different levels dedicated to different zones of a "house", like a sleeping level, or an entertainment area. 

The kitchen level was a bit different. Food would be prepared in one area and would then be moved to another area (also underground), known as the 'smoker', where it would be cooked. Because the smoke would rise to the surface through open pores, such as through a termite hill, if a passing-by soldier saw the smoke and suspected people were below ground, they would bomb that part of the tunnel only, leaving the rest of the "house" intact.

We were also told that once the soldiers figured out that a termite hill meant an air pocket for those living underground, they would pour poisonous gas down it, killing everyone in the vicinity.

Hectic stuff.

Shoes made from tire.

We got to try the foods they ate during the war too. This is tapioca (a vegetable kind of like a potato) with a dipping of crushed peanuts and sugar. The tea in the little cup is made from one of the trees that grow there.

"Yo!" is the Vietnamese way of saying 'cheers'.

Then came the hi-light of the trip for me: getting to shoot a gun for the very first time!

I got the chance to shoot an M16 and an M30. You pay for the amount of bullets you buy, and you have to buy a minimum of 10 bullets.

In total, it came to about R380 for 10 bullets.

Fair warning, if you're wearing head/earphones when watching these, you may want to turn down the volume.

I never expected a gunshot to be QUITE as loud as they are in real life. And the kickback that comes with shooting a gun like this, I couldn't lift things the next day because my shoulder was dying!

And last but not least, here's the video of me shooting the M16, managing to successfully hit 2 targets. I was so proud of myself because not many people could even hit one!

I really wanted to take a shell casing from the bullets I fired, but, I doubt airport security would have been be too pleased with me.

After that fun, hot day, we headed back to the hotel.

Once there, we missioned out in search of real food.

As seen on the streets of 'Nam!

That itchy life, yo.

Most of the houses are shaped in this weird, vertical way.

We stopped at this seafood restaurant, where you can literally choose your meal choice before they prepare it.

As someone who used to work in the Aquarium in Cape Town, I was not happy to eat at a place that served turtles.
Or frogs.
Sorry, but no.

Luckily we found a Halaal restaurant right next door to a mosque that served a combo of Vietnamese/ Malaysian food.

Fried bananas, YES.

After that we headed back to the hotel to take a nap and get done for our flight back to Dubai, bumping into some kids who'd just gotten out of school.

One of them asked me where I'm from and I said 'South Africa'. 

He was confused so I asked him if her knew where "Africa" is. He just replied: "Uh, sorry. No understand English!"

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Ho Chi Minh city. Didn't expect to go on a history tour, but I'm so glad I did!

One of the girls brought her polaroid camera with her and took a snap for me.
It's now one of my favourite things ever!
There's just something great and amazing about a photo that you can physically touch and hold in your hands.

Thank you for the experience and the memories, Vietnam!