The journey to Vietnam

My flight to Vietnam turned out to be a bit longer than expected.  The ticket prices for direct flights were beyond my budget for a last minute traveler like me.  Thanks to mom, I was able to get a pretty decent flight however the catch was in the details - aka: layovers.

After completing my 5 you flight from Toronto to  Vancouver, facing me was a 10 hour layover.  It would not have been too bad if it wasn't for lack of heating and bench space starting from 1:30am. According to the guy at information, they have received many complaints about the cold temps....however, in Nov they were still in summer mode. Fine, I can do this...just by cosuming something warm from Tim's every two hours. Started with tea....then chilli at 5am.  Once through customs, I got some Viet pho ...just to get my taste buds fired up..by noonish we were off to Seoul.  

The flight took just over 11 hours to Seoul. Immediately in the terminal I walked through with an amazement. Large convex TV screens, classical music heard from the distance, and later I walked by a group of people dressed in traditional Korean clothes playing music and walking the entire distance of the airport. But never mind, my flight was in less than an hour to Hanoi and I still needed a boarding pass.  As I ran upstairs where I was directed....lady checked my visa letter and then hesitated to issue my pass.  She called her manager over the they proceeded to tell me that I have to enter Vietnam on Nov 19 and not on 18 (even though I knew I had my visa for 17th).

What?!

I panicked...did not checked the letter..... Called my agent to double check.  Sure enough, the lady read the wrong person's visa date (since 6 people were listed) and thankfully I got on the flight without further issues, arriving to Hanoi in another 5 hours.

Arrived to Hanoi at 11:30 or so with customs...and traffic to my hostel was as interesting as my first morning in this city.

More of my first day in Vietnam to  follow in another post.

Cheers 

- R :-)


Here is my anticipated travel itinerary through Vietnam:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zck55BDy0Q0E.kZYE88cpEojk