Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh (City)

Alarm goes off at 0415 hrs. Quick shower and change. Get rid of last night's bangers & mash and Tiger beers (courtesy of Robin Hood's Happy Hour). Creep downstairs to avoid waking Cav Family. Greet guard at 0500 hrs who is opening apartment iron security gates for the day. Wait on otherwise empty street for passing taxi. Not long. Five minutes. Head off to Suvarnabhumi Airport (just found out that is pronounced "Sue-Wanna-Poom" which I'm sure my scatalogically-inclined friends would agree is a good mnemonic). Queue at check in. Queue at passport control. Queue at bloody simple-minded security. Queue at boarding gate. Finally get on Cheapo Cheapo AirAsia flight to Vietnam (the airline with the crappycrappycrappy web site that tells you all sorts of interesting -- and cheap -- deals then refuses to take your bloody money!). Get greeted by the rep from the hotel at Saigon airport. Ride in hotel car to Elios Hotel. Check in. Hmm, not even 1130 hours. Go have some lunch. Done. We're now in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam. Whoosh!

Not that it was that easy. The logistics of these CavTours-style adventures needs careful planning. For example:
Phase 1: decide on date range for Vietnam component of the Swansong and book flights from Bangkok. Phase 1 completed in England courtesy of AirAsia web site (before it went belly up on me). Arrive on Jan 27th; leave on Feb 7th; 11 nights in all
Phase 2: find somewhere half decent to stay when we arrive. Phase 2 completed in England courtesy of traveller advice on Tripadvisor web site and Agoda's booking service. Booked the first three nights at the Elios Hotel because they were close to some decent travel agents (see Phase 3 below) and other people seemed to like them.
Phase 3: find something to do apart from tour Saigon. Tripadvisor had a couple of consistently recommended travel agents in HCMC but it was difficult to book something in advance on their own web sites. Ditto at the travel agent we used in Bangkok. We decided to print off Google maps of their addresses in HCMC and make it up as we go along when we get there.
Phase 4: after check in and lunch go and find said travel agent, TNK Travel. Tell them we want a mini-package holiday to Phu Quoc island for four nights and flights from Saigon. Bit of a problem, they say, because of Tet (more about Tet later): very busy, not many hotels free. After a bit of haggling we book cheap flights and a hotel for the next four nights.
Phase 5: that's 7 nights taken care of: only four to go. Back to  the Elios check in desk. Can we come back on the 3rd Feb for 4 nights even though it is Tet; pretty please? Apparently, I haven't disgraced myself too much. We can. And at not too great a price rise, too. Great! Phase 5 taken care of.
Phase 6: what to do for the last four days? Back to TNK to see whether we can book some day trips to the Cu Chi tunnels or the Mekong Delta or something. One thing's for sure: I'm not driving over here!

Er . . . and that's basically where I am now at 11 in the morning on our first day in Saigon. Last night we patrolled the streets armed with aforementioned google map printouts and a copy of the Rough Guide to Vietnam. I think I'll save the sights and sounds until the next post.