My journey to Vietnam (so far)

We had waited in the airport for a long time, and there were some hiccups along the way (especially with my brother making a big fuss about it all), but eventually we were on the plane to Vietnam after three years of not being there. The plane journey itself was quite relaxed, having music and movies to entertain us. But no matter the plane company, I think there is unanimous agreement that plane food is generally quite horrible. At least all of us had calmed down during the plane flights since we had to stop in Singapore to catch another flight. Once we tumbled into the apartment it was time to explore. It had a lot of space and suited everyone's needs, so that wasn't a problem. We also had an actual shopping mall underneath all the apartments, which I was excited about (imagine only having to go downstairs to go shopping!) with a lot of things, some of them not even available in your average Australian shopping mall like playgrounds and arcades. My brother was also thrilled.

We only relaxed for the few days after that, only going out to buy takeaway, meet the occasional family member and go to the arcade downstairs. But the first journey afer that was a night in a resort with probably more than ten of my mum's friends and their children. The bus ride was long and tiring, but arriving there was definitely worth it. It was spacious and had lots of room and entertainment, with its own     p l ay g ro u n d     in the back. All the children, including me of course, quickly became friends and played together often after a few minutes outside. We were right next to some mountains and a river, which provided an excellent  view. Too bad my brother and dad stayed at home.

After that, we arrived back home and the next few days were back to normal. Then my dad suggested we go on a tour that lasted the entire day, travelling on different terrains in tourist sites. We visited a lot of places in only a day, going to temples, rivers, mountains and a delicious buffet. My dad brought his drone, and while he didn't let me use it too much, it was fun to watch and see what he filmed. We paddled through a river called Ha Long Bay On Land (I don't know why it's called what it is), climbed up a huge mountain that had 500 steps and went to a bell tower, or perhaps a building with a bell. By the time we came home it was very late and we were both exhausted, but I enjoyed the journey.

The next trip was to Yen Tu, with a lot of my mum's friends but with less children-only two I was familiar with from the resort and another one. This time my whole family traveled, and we went to a five star hotel with a delicious buffet for dinner and breakfast. The layout of our hotel room was fancy and it reminded me strongly of a cave. Outside there was a huge field with just grass and while it wasn't a playground, we still had a lot to play. There was another girl there, and she was much calmer than the other two boys that came along. We had left them in the middle of the field chucking sticks at each other to walk around and look for some water to put in her water bottle. We walked straight down the steps. There was quite a beautiful view to greet us. A row of yellow marigolds peeking out the sides of large ponds, both of which leading up to a museum. Koi fish swarmed in the two ponds, and I discovered a jar full of fish food. I tossed some in calmly. It was a bloodthirsty battle to reach the food first as soon as it grazed the water, all the fish writhing next to each other. They were definitely hungry. The next morning when I brought my brother down to feed the fish, he was ecstatic (mainly because he loved fish and this was the most he had ever seen at one time) and quickly learnt how to feed them, a grin on his little chubby face.