Hong Kong

Travelling from Dalat, Vietnam to Hong Kong (via Saigon) was not as simple as it should have been. The first leg was easy: an early-morning flight from Dalat to Ho Chi Minh City (i.e., Saigon). No problem. But the next step was the difficult one. The earliest flight out of Dalat arrived too late to catch the flight from Saigon to Hong Kong on Vietnam Airlines (which, regardless, was extremely expensive at $370 per ticket). And all other direct flights from Saigon to Hong Kong, including Cathay Pacific and United Airlines, were way too expensive. (The cheapest: $465 per ticket. Yikes.)

So, here’s the crazy route we ended up choosing instead: After arriving in Saigon at 10:00 a.m., we had a 10-hour layover before catching an evening flight (in the opposite direction from Hong Kong) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ($90 per ticket). We stayed at an airport hotel in Kuala Lumpur before catching a very early flight to Hong Kong the next morning ($110 per ticket). Far from ideal, but it gave us most of a day to explore Saigon and saved us over $500.

While in Saigon, we weren’t sure exactly what to do with our luggage during our 10-hour layover while we explored the city. But, on our flight there, we met a fellow traveler who recommended a cheap, $15 hotel in downtown Saigon where we could drop off our bags for the day and get in a shower before our flight. (The temperature was over 90 degrees.) This worked out well and gave us plenty of time to check out the city. The streets of Saigon were even crazier than in Hanoi (the streets are an enormous, chaotic sea of motorbikes; we witnessed two motorbike accidents) and the vendors were even more aggressive (they would literally grab your arm and try to pull you into their stall). And, as we found all over Vietnam, the motorbike often doubled as the family mini-van:

Neither of us were particularly thrilled with Saigon (we liked Hanoi much better), although the American War Museum in Saigon is fascinating (and a bit disturbing and depressing). Quite interesting to see Vietnam’s perspective on the Vietnam War, which they call the “American War."

But, yes, we did finally make it to Hong Kong, although we had less than 48 hours there. We found it to be a terrific city, with a very Manhattan-like vibe. Hong Kong has a unique mix of past and present, modern and traditional, luxury and simple. Very cool. (And, day or night, the skyline is flat-out incredible…)

Hong Kong has a unique array of transportation options. During our short stay there, we took ferries, buses, subway, and trams. But perhaps the most interesting form of transportation we took was the series of outdoor, covered escalators and moving walkways (the longest such system in the world, in fact, at over 800 meters long) that 45,000 Hong Kong residents use to get to work each day. The escalators run downhill during the morning rush hour. And then uphill in the late afternoon and evening to get them up the hill after work. (Wow, I need these in Seattle to get me up Madison Avenue each morning…)

Hong Kong was our last stop in Southeast Asia. From there, we fly overnight to Amsterdam to begin our stretch through Europe. (You can find all of our Hong Kong and Saigon photos here.)