Fast Track to Saigon

The past three months have absolutely flown by. We've been super busy with life stuff, and I hardly realized that it was time to renew my visa. It took me so long to apply for and receive my Yellow Book and Pink Card, that I wasn't able to extend the visa to a full year before the one I had expired, so I am having to leave the country on a visa run... hopefully the last one now that I finally have all of the documents that I need to stay in Thailand more permanently!

I flew out of Suvarnabhumi Airport in late morning, departing from Terminal S (for "satellite"), which is reached by train from the rest of the airport. It was my first time leaving from Terminal S and, while I actually think that BKK Airport is one of the nicer ones in the world, I was especially impressed by how quiet and beautiful the satellite terminal was.

Around an hour and 10 minutes later, I had landed in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, Vietnam's largest city and economic center which is located in the south of the country.

SGN Airport is notorious for its long, slow lines at immigration, so this time I decided to try something new and splurge for the "fast track" arrival service. I had never done it before, but it was only $20, and I figured I might as well see and find out if it was worth it or not.

In the end, it absolutely was. I was met as I disembarked by someone holding a sign who was able to brush me past the lines and into a special queue, cutting the wait at immigration from 2 hours to around 20 minutes.

About 40 minutes after that, I had arrived at my hotel, a super cheap place that I booked for just one night before my real adventure begins. Unfortunately, not knowing Ho Chi Minh City that well, I booked a hotel in the backpacker neighborhood. It's not a big deal, but it just means that I'm surrounded by overpriced food and loud bars which were already filled with drunk Europeans shouting at the TVs as they watched the World Cup (which I genuinely couldn't care less about!).

Anyway, my room itself is quiet and comfortable, and it will do.

My first meal was a simple banh mi filled with char siu pork and a cup of iced coconut coffee, both of which were delicious. 

I love Vietnamese food, and I'm super excited to be back. It's been a few years! One of my big goals is to focus on food to collect more content for my food blog while I'm here.