“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
— Laozi.
I have been dreaming and wanting to travel with my family for a very long time and I do believe, now it is time for a new adventure !
The Journey Begins
Back To School
Monday has come and it is Back To School for Leonardo!
We are all set! After a good night sleep, the alarm goes off at 7.30 am and a new sunny day is waiting for us!
Breakfast is served on the terrace (a buttered toast, fresh pineapple juice, cornflakes and yogurt) while the only sounds we can hear are birds chirping and the rustle of the big palm trees’ leaves…
8:15 : time to go! We get on our bike and ride to school (we have got a scooter ! No car needed here).
Leonardo is very excited to get to know his new teacher and his new classmates.
Few minutes later, we arrive at Global Village School welcomed by Gerry Morgan the Principal, from Victoria ( British Columbia – Canada) who founded the school in 2010.
After sorting out few practicalities, Leonardo gets his uniform and he is ready to join his class with teacher A.
We follow him to the class to greet the teacher and the kids. After few hesitant seconds that took Leonardo to step into the room, kids stop chatting, look at him and ask his name, where is from, how old he is… He timidly answers and immediately spots a map on the wall: he turns to it and point to a far-away-Spain resulting in a general surprised “ohhhhh wow” from the cheerful crowd. The ice is broken !
We leave him to write the first page of a new chapter of his life!
Have a nice day Leonardo!
Time to cruise …
28/12/2019
We are ready to embark on a new adventure with the Olofssons: destination Halong Bay, stunning World Heritage Site.
After a 2 hours transfer from a cloudy Hanoi, we reach Halong Bay where the sun is waiting for us to embark on President Cruises to enjoy an overnight cruise.
Unexpected Christmas gift!
It is Christmas Eve, almost midnight here and the party organized by the hotel is over …
We come back to our room but we are not tired at all … we just reflect on how different it is this Christmas … “just” the three of us, this time far away from the hectic days and hours before Christmas, the stressful shopping race, the packing, traveling, planning before gathering with family … even if we miss them, we also feel in peace and happy this way too.
In Sweden and Italy our families and friends are getting ready to celebrate … we FaceTimed with grandparents, already received some messages and exchanged pictures with friends.
It is over midnight here … it is officially Christmas Day!
We select one funny picture of the three of us and send our greetings via WhatsApp … “Melly Chlistmas to evelyone🎄”
We decide to stay one day longer in Hoi An and leave to Hà Nội on Friday.
We fall asleep and wake up around 9 am and … what do we find under our Christmas tree ???
“Merry Christmas to you !!! Also from Vietnam ”
Also them in Vietnam but where ?
– Hà Nội –
– No way! What are the odds ???! –
We decide to meet and our Christmas Day turned to be a reunion with dear friends Hanna, Johan and the kids for a very nice dinner!
The best gift is the one unexpected !🎁
Cu Chin tunnel
One day trip to Cu Chin tunnel by speed boat.
Located about 70 km to the northwest of HCMC, Cu Chi tunnel is the miniature of the creative and transformed battle of Cu Chi people and soldiers in the fierce fight, lasting for 30 years against the aggressors for independence, freedom of the country.
With its victory scale, Cu Chi tunnel went into the history of heroic struggle of the Vietnamese as a legend of the 20th century and became famous in the world. This is a unique and incomparable wonder with 250 km tunnel spreading like cobwebs underground, with the completion of works associated with the tunnels such as trenches, docks, fighting places, tunnels for eating, sleeping, meetings, activities, military, food storage, water wells, Hoang Cam stoves…
Tunnel structure
The tunnel system runs squirming in the ground, from the “backbone” (Main Street) spreading numerous branches of diferent lengths, connecting together or independently end, depending .on the terrain. There are many branches to Saigon River, so in emergency case, they could cross the river to the base of Ben Cat (Binh Duong).
The tunnel is not too deep but is able to against heavy artillery and tanks, armored vehicles, deep combat sections and small bombs. There are structural sections from two to three floors (upstairs called the “upper”, downstairs called “low”). Place up and down between the floors; there is a secret hatch cover. In the tunnel, there are necessary stop points to prevent the enemy or toxic chemicals sprayed by the enemy. There are narrow passages, pretty small to go through.
Along the tunnel, there are vents discreetly disguised and carved up the ground with many secret doors. Countless doors are structured as combat, sniper gun emplacements very flexibly. This is the sudden t the enemy. Under the single tunnel in important coverage areas, there are jaws, nail holes, pitfalls…Around the covers of the bunkers, there are many nail holes, mine left (called dead area), including anti-tank landmines and cluster bombs against wheels helicopter shooting down, to destroy and prevent military enemy approaching.
It is time to take off!
After days of intense preparation, Monday has come and we are very excited and ready to go !
We leave our house close to the sea early in the morning and well in time, we drive into Barcelona, we drink the last Italian style cappuccino made by Jacopo at our favourite bar Crema cafè around the corner, we drop the keys of our ( rental ) apartment&office once for all after 4 years ( in a very casual way as if we just rented for a long weekend ) and jump in a taxi to the airport … “Terminal 1, please, Qatar Airways”.
Surprisingly it is a quite morning at the airport … we skip the long queue by putting ourselves in the drop-off-bags-for-online-check-in-only dedicated line, walking straight to the young and smiling hostess who is there to welcome us … to discover that to be checked in to our flight to Ho Chi Min and enter Vietnam for a less than 15 days stay without Visa – as we were well aware of – we HAVE to show the actual purchase of our tickets out of Vietnam prior the departure ! – ” NEXT, please! “
It was in my TO DO list for the 2 hours of waiting before boarding and also one of the reason why we arrived early at the airport…
So, here we are, backing off in slow motion, sweating while pushing a 3-story airport trolley approaching a typical 3-seats airport bench, getting off my 3-days-moving aching back my perfectly organized, highly modern multi pockets backpack ( hold your horses dear Chiara Ferragni! you also wear one “zaino” of your line: only mine it is not so flirting like yours but yet, it looks like a bit more advanced in terms of usability) to switch on my computer and run&buy 3 one-way tickets out of Vietnam on the 30th of December … pffff … big questions: at what time? “better in the morning, right Mr. F ? “, ” which airline company: Vietnam or Thai airlines ?” Well, let’s go for Vietnam airlines: all set, 3 passengers, 30th of December, click click click… payment accepted and confirmed… email received… we are ready to check in !
…and here we are again, fast forwarding the scene of checking in, with myself waving the computer opened at the confirmation email page as a winning trophy in an imaginary fight against time, rushing to the finish line just to be told by the same hostess of before : “Hold on, Mrs Martina! we actually need the ticket number of each passengers to allow you to check in… let’s wait few more minutes until you get it by email… “NEXT please !”
A fast and furious call to the Travelgenio call center saves the wait when a young Victoria in a blink-of-an-eye sends over the electronic tickets via email even before I finish the sentence with the question and asks me if she can be of more help … ” Muchísimas gracias y Felices Fiestas Victoria! ”
Et voilà, we are checked in and ready to go!
Chiara Ferragni Flirting backpack
familywanderlust 