Taking off from Australia

Instead of leaving on the 23rd, we left on the Sunday, 24th September, bound for Hong Kong.

Rita drove Elly and I, and Brett took the boys. Elly left her "handbag" in the car, with all the batteries for the camera in it, but no problem with that. We left home at 4.00pm, via Melbourne, arriving in Hong Kong in the early hours of the next morning, and then caught a plane to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam airlines. Most flights are pretty uncomfortable, and these were no different.

We had a tranfer from HCM City, which worked out to be a bit expensive, but at least we didn't have to contend with touts, etc. I'd booked for HCM, Hoi An, plane flights and transfers with Aurora Travel (see http://vietnamstay.com), and apart from the overpriced airport transfers to and from HCM City, they were great. You'll see more of that later.....when we get to the typhoon.