The plane: The Boeing 767-300 is a trusted Air New Zealand workhorse and this one was slightly older than most I’ve been on recently. That said, everything worked beautifully and it had the feel of a reliable old friend.
Class: Economy, but being the inaugural flight we were treated as though we were flying Premium Economy -\- lots of champagne and very attentive flight attendants.
Price: Air New Zealand’s seasonal non-stop service from Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City runs three times a week from June to October. Economy one way starts at $764.
On time: We left bang on time and despite hitting a spectacular thunderstorm as we approached Vietnam, we still landed right on time after a 12.5-hour trip.
Fellow passengers: An excited mix of media, politicians, airline management and lucky, cheap-fare recipients.
How full: When you’re on the inaugural flight and have only paid $599, you make sure you don’t miss the flight – every seat was full.
Entertainment: I did my usual trick of spending every minute catching up on movies I’ve missed at the cinema. Watched Mahana (excellent), Spotlight (brilliant), Point Break (awful) and The Revenant (much better than expected).
The service: Extremely friendly and efficient – more business class than cattle. Kudos to the attendant who always gave me two of every drink I ordered.
Food and drink: I went for the Vietnamese-style chicken for the first meal, followed by the Vietnamese-style beef for the second – both were delicious. The cheese after the meal was tasty but slightly melted. The Kapiti icecream halfway through was a nice touch.
Luggage: There was plenty of room overhead for carry-on luggage and our checked bags were already there when we arrived at the carousel – surely the holy grail of luggage handling.
The airport experience: Exceptional. As this was the inaugural flight there was a specially cordoned off area for our flight in the Air New Zealand Lounge with champagne and delicious Vietnamese-style spring rolls and duck in mini-hamburgers. For our arrival in Ho Chi Minh City there was a Maori powhiri, which certainly went down well with the locals.
Source: NZ Herald
Diverse activities will be held during the festival, including banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and banh day (round glutinous rice cake) making contests, a table tennis competition, a folk song festival, and a street carnival introducing visitors to the diversity of the province’s folk culture. Notably, a special art performance will take place at 20h00 pm on April 12th and incense offering to the Hung Kings will take place on the morning of April 16th at Hung Kings Temple relics. The festival is a chance for Vietnamese people to pay tribute to the ancestors of the nation. It also contributes to raising public awareness of preservation and promotion of the Hung Kings worship ritual and Xoan singing, as well as promoting the tourism development of Phu Tho province.
