19th March: Hanoi, Vietnam to Doha, Qatar

Our final morning in Vietnam was upon us. I felt numb and empty, when I perhaps expected to feel exhilarated after such a trip. I think it’s going to take a few weeks to process everything we’ve done once we get home.

I had to have salt coffee one more time, both because it’s delicious and to pay homage to Muoi from Cat Ba! Our final wander deliberately took us through streets we’d not yet walked down. One was exclusively full of currency exchange places, and the next motorbike seat repair shops. I still wanted a final caffeine hit and it had to be from a traditional strong, bitter, and sweet black Vietnamese coffee to blow away the cobwebs. The sun even poked through occasionally. We thought it had already left to meet us at home!

A temple caught our eye, which turned out to be Kim Ngan communal house for community worship. We had this peaceful escape from the busy streets to ourselves for around 15 minutes. It had the classically Vietnamese light-yellow colour scheme, pink lanterns decorated with each year of the Chinese calendar, and giant white fans on the walls. I think it was my favourite temple we’ve seen in Vietnam and neatly sums up the random and unexpected places which have so often been the highlights of this trip.

Cutting through more alleyways, we headed for a last walk around Hoan Kiem Lake and the old town. We had time for one final delicious meal on our way back, using our final cash to buy everything we could in order to savour these flavours. We tried a fresh nom bo kho salad of green papaya, carrots, mushrooms, and sauce; com chat Ninh Binh, which was crispy scorched rice with a curry soup; and a perfect fresh pineapple juice to wash it down.

And that was it! We collected our bags from the hotel and walked down the road to the train station from where the half-hourly express bus to the airport departs. It was on time and straightforward, although the payment system was a little unusual! After the final stop in the city, the driver pulled over on the motorway slip road to walk down the bus and collect the fares. On the way to the airport, we passed over wide rivers and past another French polystyrene-style church. We were glad we weren’t driving given the chaos in the car park!

We were in good time for our evening flight and were conveniently able to bypass the bag drop queue as we’d checked in online and had the required memberships. Security was quite efficient too, even though our passports were checked a bonkers five times in the airport! On one of these occasions, we were stamped out of Vietnam and back into the liminal spaces of liquid modernity which marked our passage home. Before boarding a busy flight to Doha, we had time to share the banh mi we’d taken away from lunch. With that, our time in East Asia was at an end for now. We’d experienced all we could and taken the essence with us.

We made it above the cloud layer just in time to see the distant afterglow of sunset, which we chased westwards. This plane fortunately had darkening windows (new technology to me) instead of blinds, so we were always able to see the view! Dinner on board was a feast too of stew, steamed veg, salad, fruit, a roll and strawberry jam, served with red wine and orange juice.

There were so many ill people on the plane with nasty sounding coughs. It’s been similar in Hanoi too over the last few days, especially in the hotel. It’ll be a miracle if we don’t get ill from this journey! After passing over northern Thailand, Burma, and Bangladesh, we reached the east coast of India. A huge city appeared below, with the glow from a distinct oval immediately identifying this as Kolkata. The Kolkata Knight Riders were having a final practice session at the vast Eden Gardens ahead of the new IPL season.

Heading inland, we watched spectacular lightning shows over the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. Thankfully, the plane was routed around them to the north and the flashes remained at a safe but observable distance below our left wing. When clear skies emerged, the flashes didn’t stop as firecrackers were let off in towns and villages far below.

Just as we passed over Gujarat into the Arabian Sea, it became clear that something was wrong with the passenger in front of me. Her husband couldn’t wake her and called the crew for help. The crew and the husband all remained amazingly calm as they took the woman’s vital signs and decided to give her oxygen. I looked at the map and assumed that if we were to make an emergency landing it would have to be at Karachi in Pakistan. We were still two and a half hours from Doha. There seemed to be indecision and also an issue with the medical equipment, plus a delay in translating from French to English, which I have to say didn’t exactly inspire confidence. However, fortunately, she gradually came to, and it seemed to be a condition related to pressure changes. We were OK to continue to Doha, where they would be met off the plane by paramedics. Before landing, we were served another snack in the form of a pastry filled with peppers and beans, along with a chocolate muffin and more orange juice. We passed directly over Dubai and the Palm, lit up below, before the tell-tale glow and flaring from hundreds of gas wells off the coast. Landing at Hamad International was from the north, after a loop which doubled as a sightseeing tour of the city we’d visited 6 months ago. One hard landing later, we were back on the Arabian Peninsula.