First day in Vietnam means last day of holiday with mum. 😭 Horrifically early start to the day, having to get up at 5am and leave the hotel before 6am to be at the airport by 7am. We got a taxi to KL Sentral and then got the 2nd KL Ekspres of the day to the airport. Glad we left as early as we did, as bag check-in took ages, as did immigration! We had a grumpy immigration assistant serving us who did nothing but scowl when stamping us out. Dropped mum off at her gate, and said goodbye, as I’ll see her next in 2 months’ time.

Now it was time for me to make my way back to my gate – mum’s plane went from the satellite terminal so I had to get the train back to the main section, and then queued at my gate to go through security. Queued… A bit longer… and a bit longer, until half an hour had passed. A man held my place while I ran up to the front to check my flight status, and it turned out my flight was on final call but yet no announcements! It turned out the people queuing were waiting for a different flight which wasn’t leaving for another hour but yet the same gate – I got the attention of an immigration official who allowed me to cut in the queue (against every bone in my body!) because nearly everyone else was waiting for a different flight. Ran down to the gate and boarded the plane… I was the last one on the plane despite having heard other people in the queue saying they were also going to Vietnam, so that was a close call! Badly organised and only one scanner on shift, bit unimpressed. Still, made it onto the plane, and got an entire row to myself.

Finally, I was on my way to Vietnam! I readied my paperwork, photos and visa application fee for immigration. After I had handed in my document and while waiting for the visa decision, I overheard the immigration officer talking to an Australian girl who did not have cash on her, who was explaining that her boyfriend was outside with cash, but the immigration officer had evidently decided that she wouldn’t allow the boyfriend to give someone the money for the visa fee. I offered to pay her visa fee in US dollars, which she accepted. Her boyfriend gave me back the money for the visa fee after we’d collected our luggage 😊

I made my way past the taxi touts and expensive buses to the cheap local bus stop – 7000 dong from the airport to the end of the road where my hostel was, about an hour’s drive for 25p, not too bad! Got off the bus with everyone else and walked down the road towards my hostel. The traffic was absolutely appalling – they had pedestrian crossings but I’ve never felt so much like I was putting my life in my hands by just crossing the road!

Hostel was weird, like a hotel room with bunk beds in it, it had its own bathroom but some of the residents had left their underwear hanging everywhere. Or at least I hope it belonged to the residents…!

After checking in, I went for a beer and some spring rolls, as I arrived at like 10am and there wasn’t exactly much to do so early in the morning, as I couldn’t check into my hostel.

I then walked over towards Independence Square past the station of Ho Chi Minh. It would be Independence Day tomorrow so preparations were just starting. It was so oppressively hot; 40C in the shade at one point in the square, so I sought refuge in a local coffee shop with an iced coffee and rang my grandparents to catch up with them 😊

Walked back in the twilight and went to a local pho restaurant full of Vietnamese, and had my first proper Vietnamese meal. Delicious with all the fresh herbs! After, went for a craft beer and had some rib ends, as you do when in Vietnam…! Survived day 1 in Saigon – still don’t know whether I should be calling it Ho Chi Minh or Saigon as even the locals seem to call it both.