Day 7 - Mui Ne to Hanoi via Nha Trang, Vietnam

Day 7 was actually supposed to be Mui Ne to Hanoi. But it didn't quite turn out as planned. We had another five hour drive from Mui Ne to Camn Rah, an airport that is an old converted US air base from the Vietnam war.  We left at 9.30 for our 15.50 flight setting off on a fairly uncomfortable journey mainly due to the terrible state of the road. It was five hours of bobbing and weaving the pot holes and massive puddles, rarely getting above 40-50kph due to the heavy rain that was now back with us.  It was also replete with crazy over taking maneuvers such as over taking a lorry and a car at the same time on a single lane road using the hard shoulder on the other side of the road! 

When we got to the airport at about 13:30 we found out that our VietJet flight had been rescheduled to 20.50 that evening. Not good. Great customer service though. They had emailed me at 12:45 to let me know this was the case. Not helpful at all unless you are staying 30mins from the airport which no one is. 

So we decided to use our spare seven hours to head into Nha Trang which was about half an hour away and somewhere we had actually originally contemplated going on our trip. Lonely Planet suggested a nice bar and restaurant called the Sailing Club (actually the sister hotel of the Mia Resort where we stayed in Mui Ne) so we head there. Taxi driver was very confused by not being asked to drop us off at a hotel having come out the airport with all our cases and then us arranging a pick up at 18:30. 

So we whiled away the afternoon by the beach in a lovely setting, although we made the right choice with Mui Ne as it is much nicer. 

Still raining though. 

The best bit of this was using the time to FaceTime home. We had a great catch up with the parents albeit a little intermittent at times. We also had a quick catch up with my sis and Jacob. Who could resist him when he was waiting by the iPad for our call like this...

Got back to the airport and flight was delayed by 30 mins so got to Hanoi late. 

Then our nightmare travel admin day continued. The address of the hotel is not actually where the hotel is. So after driving around Hanoi for about 45 mins we arrive at another hotel where Google maps says our hotel should be. It isn't. Luckily they have a helpful man at reception who calls our hotel for me only for me to find out they don't have any rooms available for us due to a "water issue" so they have booked us into another hotel. Again, complete lack of communication seems the norm here. 

With directions in hand (the same address as before) we get back in the taxi and head back to the same address as before. Strangely enough no hotel had been built in the past 45 mins. After a bit more searching we manage to track down the rouge hotel around the corner on a different street to what is on the booking and their website. 

Got to the new hotel after a nonchalant apology and checked in. This hotel is not so nice...

Nice dressing table though...

And mini bar...

And to finish it all off we drop into bed to land on what can only be described as concrete. Hardest bed ever but nonetheless glad to be in it. 

Jam packed day ahead of us tomorrow. Looking forward to exploring Hanoi.