MEL - SGN

Hello holidays!! Term 1 is finally over and Andy and I are on our way to Vietnam for 2 weeks. We both had really busy ends of term and are very glad for the break from work. At our morning tea briefing our Head Teacher thanked us all for our hard work and getting through such a busy term. He does this at the end of every term... I don't think I've ever worked at a school and thought and the end of term "well, that was an easy one!" Do schools like that exist? I don't think so. I woke up with a sore throat this morning, which used to happen to me ALL THE TIME at the start of school holidays... I would be so exhausted from the term that I would enivatably spend the first few days of the holidays sick! Thankfully that doesn't happen to me as often here in Oz, as I have a much better work-life balance than I did in London. I've been drinking lots of water today since getting up and it feels much better, so hopefully it was just a temporary thing. 

Anyway, after some last minute packing yesterday after school (I don't think I've ever actually packed my bags earlier than a day before a flight, and very few of my clothes fit at the moment, so it didn't take me long) we were up at 4:45am for our flight this morning. I am pretty impressed at how light we've managed to pack, this is all we have between the two of us (plus 2 small carry on backpacks):

We drove and parked at the airport, and got through security and immigration pretty quickly, especially seeing as it's the start of school holidays. We had a tasty (but overpriced) breakfast at Bar Pulpo by Movida and then boarded our Malaysian Airlines flight to Ho Chi Minh City via Kuala Lumpur. 

Andy absolutely hates flying Malaysian, even though they are the same as any other major airline to me. Flying economy on a long haul flight is just never going to be a fun experience! Obviously they have had a disastrous year, but it means they are waaaaaay cheaper than any other airline by far. These flights were about $300 cheaper (each) than the other option, which was Vietnam Airlines. I would much rather have that extra money to spend while we are on our holiday than spend it on a flight that may or may not be more comfortable, but would get us to the same place anyway!

The first part of our flight has been fine, and we are now in Kuala Lumpur Airport waiting for our connecting flight. We've sat down at Starbucks to have a snack, coffee, and most importantly use their wifi. (KL airport supposedly has free wifi but I've never been able to get it to work).

I had it in my head that I hated this airport, but I think that was because the first time we were here was when we went to London last year. Our flights from Melbourne were delayed - their system was down and they had to hand-write everyone's boarding passes - and then it was a nightmare getting our connecting boarding passes when we got here. It was very stressful and disorganised and so my first impressions were not good. But now that we're more relaxed this time around I actually think it's not bad! There seem to be lots of shops, including Lonely Planet shop that is good for killing a bit of time while daydreaming about your next trip, it's modern and there is a jungle walk in the centre which is kind of cool. The "jungle" is actually outside so it's nice to get a bit of fresh air while hanging out in the airport. Only the air is about 34 degrees and humid so we only lasted a few minutes before wanting to go back into the air-conditioning!

Our next flight is only an hour and a half long and then we will have arrived! Really looking forward to this, our last child-free holiday for a long time!