First Day in Vietnam!

Hi There!

Hope that you had a nice Christmas!

I flew from Japan to Vietnam on Christmas Day and will be spending about 10 days here. A Vietnamese airline runs out of Kansai International Airport (in Osaka), so I was able to catch a direct flight from Osaka to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Getting to Kansai airport was straightforward - there is direct, express bus that runs from downtown Kobe to the airport. Total journey there takes about an hour and costs maybe $20-25 round trip.

This was my first time traveling internationally from Japan, besides my trip back to the USA in August. It can be a little nerve wracking to make sure you have followed all of the visa, baggage and travel restrictions properly.

For Vietnam, it is rare country in that Americans need to apply for a visa before entering the country - once you apply and pay a fee, it takes about 3 days for the Vietnamese government to issue your travel documents. This is different from many other countries that just issue you a visa upon arrival.

I am not sure what happens if you did not apply for the visa - the airline checked that I had one as I checked in and there was not any where to purchase one once arriving in Vietnam.

I also have some worries about a minor issue with how my name is spelled on some of my travel documents. I won’t get into the details here, but it was something that I did not notice until I immigrated to Japan. It has not caused any issues so far, but sometimes causes travel agents to do double-checks of my documents or ask for manager approval.

Also, just going to a new place can be stressful. I usually have doubts before going on bigger trips but, afterwards, I am usually always glad that I went.

I had some of these doubts before going to Japan for the first time in 2016 - I just assumed that I would be able to figure out how to navigate my way from Tokyo to Kyoto on day 1 of arrival. The day before the trip, I started to worry about how easy it would be.
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But it turned out to be fine - if you have access to a pocket Wi-Fi, you can figure out most things on your own.

The flight from Japan to Vietnam ended up being around 6 hours. After going through immigration and grabbing my bag, I was in Hanoi.

The first thing that struck me is how cheap things are here. To get a cab from the airport only ended up being around $20. And getting a SIM card to allow me to use my cell phone in Vietnam during my trip was about $12.

I have eaten a few meals here so far and they have usually cost around $3-4 for a lot of food.

Vietnam’s a lot different from Japan. Being outside of Japan can cause you to realize how different it is from other places.

Most everything in Japan is very orderly and formal. There are also a lot of social rules that people follow there that can make you feel out of place or unsure of what to do.

In Japan, as I have written in the past, there are a lot of place where you have to take off your shoes, like at temples or even doctor’s offices. Also, ordering from restaurants can be difficult - some places you have to buy a ticket from a vending machine to place your order, or other places you use an iPad to make an order.

Vietnam so far seems a lot more relaxed and the people appear more comfortable with English, so it might be easier to navigate around here.

Also, it has been very easy to get access to vegetarian food so far in Vietnam. Around my hotel, there are many restaurants that have vegetarian options and even an all you can eat buffet of vegan food. These types of things just do not exist in Japan.

I will share photos and more updates from Vietnam next time.

Until then,

Tom

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