Day 01 - Thursday 31st August 2017

It was an early start to our holiday because our Cathay Pacific flight was due to take off at 7:30am. I'd booked a taxi to take us to the airport at 5am and I'd set my alarm for 3:45am.

This was much earlier than I like to wake up. I wasn't feeling well - perhaps because it was so early and perhaps because of the hassle of trying to get everything ready to go.

The taxi arrived early and we were at the airport well before 5:30am. Because we are flying business class, there was only a short queue at the check-in.

I don't have much success with the fancy automatic electronic scanning system that customs use nowadays. After waiting ages in the queue, it didn't work and we had to line up for a human behind the counter. Mind you the automatic system didn't seem to work for most other people either.

At the business class lounge, I didn't feel well enough to eat breakfast. The flight left about five minutes early and we were up in the air in no time. They served breakfast by about 9am and by this time I was starting to feel human.

Lunch was served at about 1:30pm. By this time Suzy had managed to have a good sleep and I had a short doze. The business class seats reclined flat and horizontal.

Cathay Pacific's service and food was fine but not nearly as good as we'd experienced earlier this year flying with Qatar to and from Europe. Qatar do extra things like giving you pyjamas and putting a mattress down on the flat bed seats to make your sleep more comfortable.

Coming in to land at Hong Kong, it was cloudy and hazy and so visibility out the window was reduced.

It's a big airport terminal. There were several lounges for Cathay Pacific and we went to the one closest to the gate we were originally due to leave at. Their lounge was very impressive. It had great atmosphere and was very big.

They changed the departure gate and so we needed to walk to a different wing of the terminal. Once again the flight left on time. There were very few people in the business class section of the plane.

The flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi was only about 1hr 40 min and so it was a rush to get the food to us in time.

At Hanoi airport, there were long queues at customs - especially for foreigners. As we waited in one of the long slow-moving queues, we noticed Rob and Ulli in the queue next to ours. They had just landed too after flying from Sydney via Singapore.

Our transfer driver was waiting for us outside the terminal and he took us on the 45 minutes trip to our hotel (Sofitel Legend Hanoi). He said the airport is quite new - only 2 years old. It certainly looks new and modern. The motorway leading to the city looks new. There were wide lanes and even a separate road for bicycles and motor bikes.

Closer to the city, the roads become narrow and crowded. The cars share the road with motor bikes. Often the bikes have whole families on them - mum and dad and the kids. Some bikes were carting cargo such as flowers for the overnight flower market.

The Sofitel Legend Hotel has a colonial feel. It reminded me of Raffels in Singapore. The entrance and reception area are grand with formal columns and timber. Some of the staff wore long golden robes.

Our room is in the new wing across a garden courtyard near the pool. It is quite spacious with a king size bed and a writing desk that I can use for my laptop.

By the time we got to bed, it was about 10pm Hanoi time and 1am Sydney time. It had been a long day with lots of travel but we'd arrived in Vietnam.