Homeward bound

I am writing this waiting for the plane to take off from Da Nang Airport on the first leg of the journey home. By the time I am able to download it into the blog we will probably be home.

We've had an interesting last day, which commenced with significant rain overnight heralding the arrival of the predicted storm.

It didn't deter Jan and I from one last swim in the pool with occasional rain and some rather odd looks from the security guy wearing a large rain jacket. He probably thought we were mad.

So amidst the last mad rushes to various shops to collect orders of jewellery, shoes, bags and clothes we had to navigate the rain which occurs quickly and heavily for short periods of time. Often with bursts of wind, just enough to turn the umbrellas inside out.

The locals suddenly appear in matching plastic pants, hats and ponchos in bright colours. Sandbags on roofs and work on drains seemed to imply that it would be a serious storm. Some of the local stallholders were praying too.

At some point we all managed to congregate at The Brothers cafe for a last iced coffee and a view of the turbulent river.

The last task was to work out whether we needed to post our new purchases home: fortunately we had a 30 kgm baggage allowance. Some people headed for the Post Office or had clothes posted home from A Dong or Yaly. Kerryn's travel scales were a huge hit as we had no idea!

Then more massages and facials and last Vietnamese banana flower salads, and finally we jumped on the bus at 3.30pm to head for the Da Nang Airport

We were hopeful that our flight wouldn't be delayed and when we reached the airport some flights had been cancelled due to bad weather.

Despite some lightning and the world’s slowest check in process (and my luggage weighing a mere 30.5kgms!) we finally boarded the plane and here I am.

At the same time, sad and delighted to be going home.

Your weary traveller correspondent

Dianne