Millie woke up too early and we paid the price for most of the day. We had our free hotel breakfast and I was happy to have the pho they offered. I think China officially turned me into a breakfast noodles person. We’ll see if it sticks.

We slowly got ready and lounged around in our hotel room until we had to check out at Noon. Our flight wasn’t until 5:45 and we had to kill time until then. Millie figured out how to text my parents from her iPad and sent them a series of photos and emojis and very limited messages based on what she can spell.

We did a short little food tour for lunch where we stopped and ordered anywhere near the hotel that looked popular.

We had these savory donut thingies, served on, I think, a rice porridge? We liked them.

Then we waited in a very long and inefficient banh mi line. The sandwich was delicious but we weren’t sure if it was worth the wait. The banh mi we had in Ninh Binh two nights ago is still #1. Millie got a fresh melon juice. We hung out by the cathedral and she befriended the babies all around us. At about 2 we walked back to the hotel to pick up our bags and call a car to the airport. The whole day was moving from point A to point B to wait.

We checked in and got through customs and security easily. We had over two hours to wait. The airport had a playground which helped kill some time.

I spent most of the time on the phone with Airbnb support. We had booked a place but I never heard back from the hosts, so we didn’t know the address or how to check in. Of course it wasn’t easy to cancel it and I had to spend a while going back and forth with support. Eventually they refunded me and I was able to book a last minute hotel (which is double the price, but alas…) Considering how many Airbnbs we have stayed in now, I’m surprised it took us this long to run into a snafu.

The flight was super fast. It felt like we started descending as soon as we had gotten up to cruising altitude. Millie whined that it was too fast and she didn’t get to watch what she wanted. We got through passport control and entered one of my least favorite parts of traveling: arriving at a foreign airport. No matter how many times we do it and how much we plan ahead, it is always stressful to land in a foreign place and to try not to get ripped off when trying to get a taxi. We went to an ATM and figured it out eventually, but I always feel overwhelmed in these moments.

We checked into our nice last-minute hotel. It was late and Millie was overtired and could not stop crying about how this hotel doesn’t have bunk beds like our planned Airbnb had. We eventually dragged her out for a late dinner. We walked along the main road and stopped at the first place that looked busy and good. We had a delicious meal of chicken satay and curry. The area feels very hip and full of tourists,

We walked back to the hotel and got a very very tired and grumpy little girl to bed.