We both liked Nha Trang, but we had to leave and we were looking forward to the next stop on our travels; Hoi An. From what we had heard about Hoi An, it was a lovely river side town with a lot of French colonial architecture. We'd decided to fly to Hoi An, thinking it would be simpler than other forms of transport and cause us less hassle. So, along with Jamie, the Australian shopaholic we met on the cooking course, we headed to the airport. Jamie's 11kg bag was the envy of both Emma and I as we had been lugging around 20kg each since we started. Unbeknownst to us as we made our way to the airport, Vietnam Airlines were getting ready to implement idiotic rules and try their hardest to annoy us before our flight.

Upon arriving at the empty airport, we saw that our check in desk had no queue and foolishly believed that this was a good omen. Obviously, Vietnam Airlines likes to give people a false sense of security. We handed over our passports and a printout of our flight booking and were quickly asked for the credit card we used to book the flight. Now, let me provide some context. This was the only flight we booked on my debit card. My debit card was also the only card which had expired since we booked the flight. I had a new card linked to the same account, but it had a different number. We tried to explain all of this to the girl behind the desk. However, she just saw that the numbers didn't match and everything else I said was lost on her. She explained that this meant we couldn't check in for our flight and told us to go over to the Vietnam Airlines help desk. Seeing that we weren't getting anywhere with her, we decided to fight our battle elsewhere. The girl at the new desk had not been told anything about why we were there and so quickly informed us that the card numbers didn't match. As if we didn't realise. We explained the situation with the new card again and just like the last girl, she took no notice of anything we said and simply told us that we couldn't use our tickets because the card numbers didn't match. She told us that we'd have to buy two more tickets now and fill out a form requesting a refund. She told us the refund would be made into the account which was used to buy the tickets originally. I tried to explain to her that it seemed illogical to refund the tickets to an account in my name, with account details I could give to her now and for which I could give her a debit card linked to the same account, but that she couldn't use those same details as proof that we bought the tickets. All my 'rant` achieved was the manager came over and also looked confused at what I was saying. By this point, we were both fed up and so we bought new tickets. I'm pleased to say that they have since refunded the money, but at the time I was not optimistic.

After the frustrating beginning to our flight, I was pleased that the rest of our journey went as planned. Although we didn't get any bright green cake on the flight. Our hotel was great value at less than £10 a night and the pancakes we had for lunch worked wonders in raising our spirits. If anyone at Vietnam Airlines ever tries to get a pension I'll make sure I get my revenge.