2017 December Trip to Vietnam

March 8, 2018 KP Editor

I saw a great deal on flights to Vietnam in October of 2017 for around $500 RT so I knew I had to finally head to Asia and not always back to Europe…get a little out of my comfort zone.

When I posted the good fare on social media I had a good friend ask if she could come along and of course I said yes.

We flew to Los Angeles the day before and explored the Venice Beach / Venice, CA area a bit.

Flight to Japan

On Sunday morning we left LAX on our way to Narita (Tokyo), Japan and then after a quick layover (45 minutes) onto Ho Chi Minh City, Veitnam.

Fires outside of Los Angeles, CA

The flight from LAX to Narita on United went smoothly and we were lucky enough to fly on the 787 Dreamliner by Boeing. We upgraded to Economy Plus which gave us more room between seats and a bit more recline on our chairs. That upgrade was SO WORTH IT!

We arrived in Japan and had to hurry to make our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Our seats were not assigned until we arrived so we didn’t get to sit together, but it was a relatively short flight (6 hours) compared to the last one we were just on.

When does this tunnel end?

So…I immediately fell in love with Japan for having bidets in the airport toilets!

Flight from Narita to Ho Chi Minh City was packed and I was in the last row in the middle seat. Ugh.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Once in Ho Chi Minh City Airport we picked up our luggage and went to the VISA desk to get “checked in” to the country. That went quite smoothly and we were done in about 30 minutes

Hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City

View from hotel window. The view wasn’t so great, but the smells of food were amazingly good.

First breakfast at the hotel.

View from the top of the hotel

Our pool from the upper balcony

First beer in Vietnam

Wandering around

Bitexco Tower view

Post office

Religious place

City Hall

Opera House

Stark Tower 😉

River full of garbage

Delicious restaurant

Tree

Local Brewery

So many scooters

Wandering around Ho Chi Minh City:

Mekong Delta Tour

Random city on the way to the tour start

Buddhalicious

Taking a ride

Bees

Yum!

Snake wine!

Fun day!

Da Nang Time!

Very good flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang

Da Nang Airport

We arrived at the hotel mid afternoon and were greeted by the staff who were very friendly and helpful.

We stayed in the hotel on the right

Main bedroom

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My bunkbeds!

View from room

Welcome message from the hotel. “Mr/Ms”. Ha! That was funny to see, but they didn’t know and I’m not sure how often friends of the opposite sex travel together.

Tran was amazingly helpful!