Last leg of flights to Vietnam:

Made it back from Kowloon with time to spare, got my carry on bag back from the Left Luggage place, slid through security once again and started looking for the gate to board my 2:15 flight on Vietnam Airlines to Saigon.

Vietnam Airlines is growing, it used to be the last leg into Vietnam was shown on your ticket as aboard Vietnam Airlines but in fact it was in name only. While in fact the original carrier supplied the flight, but on this one I boarded an actual Vietnam Airlines piece of equipment.

I've flown Vietnam Airlines numerous times and they are better than a few years ago but I'm not comfortable flying them, even with free beer. It's nothing specific, but it's how the details are handled by the flight crew, they get things a little botched up. For example on this flight, they did a sloppy job on the pre flight safety presentation, food was OK but the fruit and salad were dried out as if it had sitting out too long. So being the worrier I am, I'm left to wondering what other details were glossed over or missed that I'm not aware of. Another thing is on this flight as with other Vietnam Airways flights I have flown, it seems the the plane was filled with very unfriendly people. OK, I know the airline can't stop booking tickets to the unfriendly folk but their cabin staff should be able to modify this though the cabin attendants seem to be taking directions from the Vietnamese passengers. No matter my feelings we arrived on time at 4:15 pm, and my bags were waiting for me on the carousel. So what do I really have to really grumble about.

Vietnamese immigrations is very efficient now a days, long gone is the need to slip a fiver into your passport for speedy entry. Customs is hassle free also but some Vietnamese are very impatient and will cut in front of you or pull your bag aside and push theirs through. After clearing customs, you walk trough a seemingly deserted terminal until you get to the open terminal exit and on the outside of this opening you see a semicircle of people packed 10 or 20 deep, then a layer of taxi cab drivers and sundry other folk their for who knows what. I always stand looking at this for a moment, catch myself and step into the mass, always smiles as the crowd make way for me and my luggage. As I stepping out into the crowd and as the hot, humid air washed over Gia My and Van materialized and stuffed me into a taxi they had already staked out.