At 2:45, over two hours after our original scheduled departure time, Vietjet flight VJ512 for the ancient capital city of Hanoi was called for boarding. Hanoi has been a populated settlement since circa 3000 BC. It was established as the capital of the Đại Việt people in 1010 and is Vietnam’s second-largest city by population. It sits 1,070 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on the right bank of the Red River. In its 1000-year history as the central city for the Đại Việt people, it has been occupied by the Chinese, the French, and the Japanese. All of her occupiers have architecturally and culturally influenced her, and I was excited to see this truly rich and vibrant city.
As we boarded the flight, I took note of something that struck me as curious. It was a Vietnamese state-owned air carrier, yet all its flight attendants appeared European with thick Turkish accents. The preflight demonstration was performed in a thickly French-accented English broadcast over the intercom, and the airplane taxied for take off. I had no idea if these details were of any significance. They just struck me as interesting.
As the plane lifted off the runway and climbed skyward, the jungle haze below swallowed Da Nang. It was only an hour and 5 minutes to Hanoi, which I was grateful for. I was not yet mentally prepared for another long plane flight. The flight path would take us northwest over the South China Sea and into the Gulf of Tonkin before hitting the North Vietnamese shores and descending into Hanoi. I laid my head back in my seat, pulled my sunglasses down, and closed my eyes. The low hum of the jet engines mixed with the tonal conversations swirling around the cabin soothed me sweetly. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
I woke abruptly just minutes after drifting away to a sharp pain in my right ear. This wasn’t the mega Airbus or redesigned modern B787s I flew with Qatar Airways. This was a smaller, I’m guessing 727 class, older airliner. She was in good shape but was obviously not the new luxury liners of recent years. Her pressurization wasn’t as smooth, and my inner ear struggled with the adjustment. I stuck my pinky in my ear and gave it a good shake while trying to yawn and swallow simultaneously. My ear finally de-compressed, and I closed my eyes again.
Within about 20 minutes after takeoff, the seatbelt light came on. There was no turbulence I could detect, and I was pretty sure it was too early for landing prep. Within moments, the captain came on and said to fasten safety belts as we prepared to descend into Hanoi airport. He quickly and methodically made his pitches and awes as if maneuvering a race car high in the Asian sky.
As we cleared the cloud layer, the city began to come into view hazily. The smog was potent, and it hit your eyes and throat as soon as the cabin decompressed and the doors opened. We were unloading the plane some 28 minutes ahead of schedule. I can only guess what time the pilot was teeing off this afternoon to warrant such a push to get us to Hanoi as quickly as possible. We were ushered off the back of the plane into a shuttle that took us to the terminal. I waited for what seemed like an eternity to see my bag coming down the carousel. I grabbed it, walked out to the curb, and got in a grab, the Southeast Asian version of an Uber, and we were off to the heart of Hanoi.
