2022 November--The Journey Begins Our Asian Adventure

This year's Asian Adventure started smoothly. We decided to take a B-Line car and driver ($652, including an automatic $82 gratuity, an $88 processing fee, and a $41 fuel surcharge) and leave a day before our flight in order to avoid the horribleness we encountered getting to our flight to Thailand last year. 

Our room at the Westin at the airport was fine; we enjoyed the Jacuzzi (with wonderful bubbles). Now the food is another story entirely. We will get our 7 am flight to Dallas tomorrow by waking up at 3:30 am and going to the AA/Qatar lounge for breakfast. We took the American first-class flight. It was no better than the United first from SF to Denver last year. Domestic first-class is definitely not worth the money. 

The Qatar Q-Suite business class flight from Dallas to Doha was very, very worth it. The Qatar flights from Dallas to Hanoi cost $5673.50 x2 =$11347 and we would spend that kind of money again for a 14-hour flight! The seats turn into flat beds, the side walls rise for privacy and we slept. The service was excellent and the food was good (Dimitri had Egyptian foul medames for breakfast and liked it.)

In Doha, we checked in to the Oryx Hotel that was inside the airport (so we didn't have to get our luggage). The room was fine and cost QAR 1290 / US$360. We were glad we reserved it. We thought that there was a co-ed hot tub in the hotel and we had brought our bathing suits on the plane with us. There was not. Inside the women's and men's locker rooms were separate hot tubs but they were not hot. We just went to our room and went to sleep.  We waited in the much-acclaimed Qatar lounge for our connecting flight to Hanoi. It was a disappointment. The sit-down restaurant food was so-so, the showers had a line, the quiet area was full, and the business center didn't have universal electrical plugs. But we found a place outside the business center to sit that did have universal plugs. It was quiet enough.

The Qatar Q Suite flight from Doha to Hanoi was very good. The plane was smaller so the cabin we were in was smaller too. The service was also very good as was the food. The 6-hour flight went fast. The Hanoi airport is not a place to spend too much time. We collected our luggage and outside the baggage claim found the Lotte Hotel representative to whisk us to our hotel. 

Click here for the 2022-2023 Indochina & Singapore photo album. 

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