Vietnam 2017

Tuesday 22nd August - Annette drives us down to Heathrow, we stay at the Hilton Garden hotel, right at the end of the runway. The planes are coming right overhead, see a few A330 with Trent 700s. Have chicken pizza, best ever and a couple of beers. Holly in bed for 10pm.

Wednesday 23rd - Up from 7am, drive to Terminal 4, have to do three laps to get to the correct place for Heathrow Meet and Greet. Check in and go for a bacon sandwich at the Prince of Wales. Me and Holly watch loads of planes take off, we both say "Nose Up" as they start to take off. Take off at 11am, my first time on a 787, sadly the wrong engines. Holly sleeps for a couple of hours and plays happily for the rest.

Thursday 24th - Touch down in Saigon and walk across to the Domestic terminal. Short flight to Da Nang on a battered old A330. Thomas meets us at the airport. Taxi back to his apartment, quick shower. We check into the Olalani at noon. Have some beer in the room, then in the pools with Holly, she enjoys it. Have a quick look at the beach. Have a coffee suda and a quick snack by the beach. Thomas goes off for the evening. We try to stay awake as long as possible, I manage 9:30pm.

Friday 25th - I wake up, lie there for a long time and when I eventually look at my watch I am devastated when it says 1:33, just lie there. We have breakfast at the hotel. Have an hour in our own pool and then Thomas comes round to pick us up and we go to the Pullman. Sit down by the sea. Holly enjoys the slide. Thomas knows Ted, who is in charge of Food and Beverage. I have a strawberry smoothie and prawn spring rolls. Swim in the waves and then some time in the pool. Taxi back to the Olalani. Quick change and then taxi to the Waterfront. Meet James Seebacher and Evan, Brandon's girlfriend. My Dad happens to call me from the High Peak Trail as we are there. Drinks and then a taxi to Carolina's. We have fantastic Wagyu beef. A couple of texts from Duncan about CPL conversion. Late drinks in the Tropicana bar, Skype J&J.

Saturday 26th - We all sleep well. Heavy rain in the morning, late breakfast. We swim in the pool in the rain, Holly enjoys it. Move onto the main pool and then the beach. Windy and rainy, I buy a rather expensive bucket and spade. Eat in the Tropicana bar at 3pm, chicken wings and chips. We all have a little sleep. Get ready and Thomas comes round in a taxi, heavy rain. Thomas went out late last night. We go to the 4P's, fantastic pizza. Thomas comes back with us and we have a drink in the Tropicana bar again. Me and Holly have a wander round and see some giant snails.

Sunday 27th - I am awake from 7am, get up at 9am. Have a little swim and then get ready for Thomas at 1:45, we get taxi to An Bang. Have a drink in the Soul Kitchen and then on the beach, Holly enjoys the beach and builds sand castles. We have a few bottles of Tiger. Move on to Hoi An. Eat in a Greek restaurant, MIX, loads of meat. Wander around a bit and then meet up with Fred and Natalya. Holly and I go exploring for geckos. Move on to the Dublin Bar, Annette and Holly enjoy the music and do lots of dancing. Taxi back at midnight.

Monday 28th - Alarm at 7am, lie in bed till 8:30am. I am a bit down on power, blue skies, pool is quiet all day. Start in the channel pool and then move on to the Jacuzzi pools. Red flags on the beach, enjoy the lazy day by the pools. We did have a plan to go to the Ba Na hills, but Thomas has to go into work. He comes over at noon and stays with us by the pool. One very loud clap of thunder in the afternoon. I have had a bit too much sun on my shoulders. Go to The Village for a drink by the sea, then on to Olivia Prime. Thomas knows the owner, Scott. Great food. Back home for 8:30, very long lightning storm.

Tuesday 29th - Alarm goes at 7:30am and we have a quick breakfast. Annette gets up to pack. Thomas comes round at 9:30 and we get taxi to Ba Na hills, drive through central Da Nang and out on a three lane highway with no traffic. Take the cable car up to the first station, Jardin D'Amour, have a good explore around, before I realise that there is a lot more. Get the cable car to the main village. Have a free beer and some sausage. Watch a parade by Ukrainian students. Go inside and find a number of theme park rides. All rather strange. We eat at the Waterfront, without Thomas, he goes to a wine event. I have the burger, crispy belly pork to start. Move onto the balcony for another Platinum. Watch the construction of the Azura towers. Walk along and over the Dragon bridge before getting a taxi.

Wednesday 30th - Annette looks into where to stay for the next couple of days, usual breakfast. Very sunny. Move down to the main pool. Have a dreadful garlic pizza Margherita. Yellow flags are out, so we swim in the sea. Thomas comes over at about 3pm. We enjoy lying by the beach with a beer. Look along the beach to the A La Carte. Taxi over to the Cohibar, meet Kilian, the owner and Edwin, one of nine, from San Salvador, a bitcoin enthusiast. We start with a bottle of Rose, and then try the very smooth rum. Head over to Omar's for a rather nice curry.

Thursday 31st - I wake up with a blocked left ear. We have our last breakfast at the Olalani and pack and check out of room 622 just before noon. Taxi to the A La Carte, check into room 1907, great view North up the coast. Go up to the roof top pool, fantastic all-round view. Holly loves the pool, it has a 0.5m section, she floats in there with her arm bands on. It is almost possible to see the Pearl Sea hotel. We spend a good few hours in the pool, Thomas comes to join us. At 6pm we get a taxi over to Frederik Wissink and Natalya Smolenskaya's place, we take a couple of bottles of CabSav. Great Russian potato salad, king prawns, squid, sausages. End with a couple of select whiskies.

Friday 1st September - First breakfast at the A La Carte, more of a modern city hotel. We head down to the beach just by the hotel, very hot, have a couple of sunbeds. Thomas moves out of his apartment and checks into our hotel. Holly does some good floating in the 0.5m pool and then asks to go in the deep bit, and then floats in there, all by herself. We have cocktails as the rain comes in from the mountains. Walk to a Korean BBQ. Meet up with James, Jenny and Brandon. The meat is cooked in front of us. We have white milk like wine and also try the kimchi. Get back and sit out on the balcony, have three or four Long Island Iced tea. We Skype J&J in a bit of a state.

Saturday 2nd - Hungover. We struggle down to breakfast with Holly. Thomas stays in bed. Back to bed till 1pm, Holly plays patiently on her Peppa Pig game. We head to the pool, Holly starts to swim with her armbands on, pretty much makes the length of the pool. For most of the afternoon we are the only ones in. Still feel a bit shaky in the evening. Duncan texts about some Avianca data. We have Omar's takeaway and a couple of bottles of wine, rather pleasant.

Sunday 3rd - We get up early. Annette does the packing and Thomas lies in bed till the very last minute. We accidentally miss breakfast. We check out at 11am. I walk down to the Grand Tourane hotel to get some cash from the ATM, rather hot. Taxi to the airport. Fly at 2pm, we are on JetStar and Thomas is on VietJet. We land at 15:30 and wait a little for Thomas. Taxi to the Sunland. We go to Scott and Jeremy's, have the hot wings and blue cheese sauce, also French onion soup to start. Have Italian cheese and sausage sandwich. Annette is suffering with a cricked neck and a cold.

Monday 4th - I sleep well, Annette and Holly not so. Thomas stays out. We eat breakfast on the 12th floor, lots of Western travellers. A woman from Singapore offers to pray for Annette's neck and Holly's cough. She also recommends some message oil and Manuka honey. We spend some time in the two pools on the 12th and Ground floors. Holly swims around the pool no problem. She goes down the small slide no problem. Peppa and George get stuck half way down the big slide. Annette has to send Holly down to rescue them. We walk to Bui Vien, very hot. Have a drink and Holly falls asleep. Go to an air-conditioned skybar for a drink, taxi back. We go in both pools to cool down. Thomas had a big night out and then played tennis in the morning. We go out to Cuc Gach Quan, Angelina Jolie and Brad have been there. Mark Jolly, DJ, joins us. We go up a steep wooden ladder and eat right at the top of the building. Fantastic setting. Thomas and Mark order a great range of dishes. Back home surprisingly early.

Tuesday 5th - We go for breakfast at the hotel. Thomas leads us out of the hotel and a short walk to number 230. Thomas knocks on the door and Connie, the nanny, leads us into another world, Kerryn Haig, interior designer has gutted a street house and made an oasis. We have tea and cinnamon cake. The floors have been re-constructed. She tells us about during construction about 200 rats were evicted. Holly plays with the Dolls house. Taxi over to the MadHouse in District Two. Meet Camilla and Jasper, Danish, who run it. Also Rob, from California, one of Thomas good friends. Enjoy a spot of lunch, whilst Holly plays in the kids’ room. Thomas goes for a haircut, and Louis comes to meet him for a chat, they have a few Gin and Tonics. We come back to the hotel and swim in the pools. Later we get a Taxi over to 5B, Ton Duc Thang, i.e. Vespers. Have the fantastic meat platter, and Vesper cocktails to follow. Jack Winch texts me, I Skype him letter. Me and Thomas have a couple on the roof of Sunland.

Wednesday 6th - Just me and Holly go down for breakfast. We swim in the hotel pools as normal. I feel a little nervous about this evening. Spot of lunch at The Racha Room, heavy rain just as we arrive. Back to the hotel to get ready. We head over to Glow sky bar to meet with Louis Nguyen and David Hodgkinson. We are offered some pea pods and I try to eat the first one whole. Great views from the skybar. Dan Kings joins us later. Louis tells me that his dad used to work for Boeing. We move on to Urban Kitchen and have some chicken wings inspired by Louis's wife. David and Thomas get going on a bottle of McClelland. We meet the Hennessey rep for Vietnam. We leave them to it at about 9:30pm. Thomas returns to the hotel at 2am with McD's.

Thursday 7th - We go to breakfast and then the pool. Check out of the room at noon. Head over to Scott's for some fantastic French Onion soup and beer. Our 16:40 flight is a little delayed. Before we check-in the whereabouts of my iPad becomes an issue, after a little while we ask Holly, and she says, "I put it in the case". Thomas flies back up to Da Nang for a few days. I see a very nice red Moon rise as we are coming to KL. We have made a mistake with ordering the aircraft food, and it is terrible. Three hours in KL. Fly on a Malaysian Airways A380 back to Heathrow, a little delayed, leaves at midnight local time.

Friday 8th - Land at 5:50am, easy to pick up the car from Heathrow Meet and Greet.