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Thursday, December 21, 2017

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Days 39 & 40) The Finish Line!

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia - Reaching the Finish Line! 


We arrived at our day of departure and guess what we did? Yeah, not much other than chillax and celebrate the conclusion of our epic adventure with final bowls of pho, final toasts (final lychee martinis) to a great trip success, and final dips in the pool.


I did change it up a bit. I had a Passion Paradise. Don't worry, I still had a Lychee Martini. Or, 2. Maybe, it was 3.




We had a late flight departure, so I had pre-arranged a day rate with the hotel. They had indicated that if they were not full, we could stay in our room without extra charge. I didn't want to chance it, so I went ahead and reserved the guaranteed booking.


We had to scale down to just the one room.



It eventually came time to leave so we headed out to the lobby to look for our transfer from Hanoi Transfer Service, which I had pre-booked and paid. There was a little confusion as the hotel staff insisted that we take their arranged transportation. Once we realized it wasn't HTS, we got our luggage back and then noticed a guy that had been shooed away several times by the hotel staff. I guess they thought him "sketchy", but he turned out to be our driver. Boy, was he annoyed. He appeared to vent it all out on a phone call though while we made our way to the airport. No worries though as he wasn't mad at us - whew!

We arrived and checked into the near empty airport.  It was all rather chill and we killed time wandering. Both flights were pretty easy peasy, especially since they were the exact same ones in reverse (connecting in Narita).
Sleep pods are genius!

There goes the neighborhood!

So, to wrap things up - I witnessed something truly amazing on the way home that I want to share. I saw the sun rise on Aug 3rd TWICE!!! No joke!!! I took a pic of the first one on our first flight as we came into Japan the morning of Aug 3rd. I caught my second sunrise of Aug 3rd on the 2nd flight after crossing the international date line somewhere over the Pacific Northwest. My heart soared as my mind processed what I was seeing. I've also included travel pics of Rob's new obsession - Japanese toilets. He can't stop talking about the toilet at the airport that he must find and get installed at home (as I'm telling him about my double sunrise wonder *sigh*). Anyways, it's good to be back home sweet home.

August 3rd Sunrise #1.

Rob's new obsession.

Music 🎶 too. So many options.

August 3rd Sunrise #2.

WE ARE HOME! We did it. We really did it!!! 6 weeks, 3 countries, 9 flights, 18+ accommodations, so many adventures. I cannot believe how smoothly this epic trip went considering how easily things could have gone wrong. We were so fortunate in so many ways with regards to health (injury/illness-free with bandaids to spare), weather (2 major tropical storms that we managed to dodge) and just overall quality of experiences (tours booked blindly fingers-crossed off the Internet).  Did I leave enough info for you all to plan your Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia trip? Hahahahaha. 

Up Next: (Of course, there's an Up Next) :) Road Trippin Mexico

2 comments:

  1. What a great read! Well written with plenty of pictures that really make for a brilliant JBR.
    Merry Xmas Team Chic!

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    1. Awww, thanks, Tricky! Your comment warms my heart :)
      We are just back from "12 days of Xmas" road trippin Mexico and I will have to get to work on my JBR. It was a really great trip!! My, oh my, travel sure is addicting... Happy New Year 2018 - may we cross paths out there exploring the globe!

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