The four blissful days I spend at the Six Senses Resort in Con Dao are just so relaxing. In essence, I spend my time sleeping, swimming, reading and eating. Even so, I must say I’m also glad to be leaving again. I think another day of doing absolutely nothing at all and I might slowly start to get bored. Apart from that, I am more of a city person, so I’m looking forward to exploring Hanoi.

Getting to the Airport

There is only one road on Con Dao island, which runs from the airport to the harbour. The term ‘road’ should be used in the most liberal sense here so as not to insult the sensitivities of the local population… The road in in fact a path covered with gravel and littered with heaps of cow shit. The perpetrators are usually not far off and to be found standing either on the road itself, seemingly oblivious to the traffic (such as it were), or by the roadside. Towards the airport the cow shit subsides and makes way for the proverbial sleeping dogs, lazily waging their tails in the heat of the midday sun.
I am driven to the airport by the hotel’s very own shuttle service. The trip from the hotel takes about 15 minutes. On our way there, we drive along the cost, which looks beautiful today with the waves breaking against the coral reef.

Check-in

As soon as we arrive, one of the concierge’s sidekicks ushers me to a seat, takes my passport and heads over to the only one of the five check-in counters that’s open. The place is empty when I arrive, so the check-in process is quickly done.

I’m not usually one for collecting boarding passes, but I think this one I’ll keep, a boarding pass of VASCO printed on an ancient matrix printer.

Boarding

About 45 minutes before departure, my ride arrives on the inbound from Ho Chi Minh City. The line for security does not open until the aircraft has landed and stopped in front of the terminal. There are two departure gates.

The gate is at ground level and there are a few large windows open to let in the breeze and also allow for some good photo opportunities of the admittedly rather quiet airfield.

At exactly 12h00, as stated on my boarding pass, boarding begins. Con Dao airport is a gem in that you get to walk across the apron to your aircraft. What’s more, none of the officials seem to mind the picture taking. At all airports I make a point of asking if I may take pictures. But Con Dao is the only place I’ve been to so far, where the official offers to take a picture of me in front of my plane!

The Cabin

This aircraft carries the full livery of Vietnam Airlines. I step inside to find the cabin is also Vietnam Airlines branded. Unlike the aircraft I flew down to Con Dao with, this one looks very neat and prim and I wonder just how long it’s been in service. Can’t be long by the looks of it. This bird has leather seats in the Vietnam Airlines colours and also the head covers carry their logo.

Originally I’m on 9B, an aisle seat. But fortunately, the flight is not entirely full and as the engines power up, I quickly move forward to grab a window seat on 3G. We backtrack down the runway and do a 180 degree turn at the end, with some nice views of the beach. We already have our clearance, so once we’re lined up with the runway, the props immediately spool up and we go hurtling down the runway. Right after take-off we do a sharp right turn to point us in the direction of the mainland and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Crew

There are two cabin crew on board this bird, a young woman and a young man. Both of them are very friendly and helpful which, on second thought, I think I can say about all the Vietnamese I met on this trip. Both of them look very serious, but as soon as you interact with them they break out into a beaming smile.

The Snack

As the seat belt sign goes off, we are given a lovely jasmine scented, prepacked refreshing towel. This is followed by a bottle of VASCO branded still water.

Arrival

The flight is only 40 minutes. About 15 minutes into the flight the lovely shades of azure of the sea beneath turn a muddy brown as we approach the Mekong delta. A short while later, we make landfall and immediately start our descent into Ho Chi Minh airport.

Upon arrival, we taxi all the way back, past the domestic and international terminals, towards the threshold of the runway we just landed on. Space is scarce at Ho Chi Minh airport, so we park on a kind of mini apron which is capable of holding three aircraft the size of an ATR.