saigon arrival

arrived around 1 o'clock in the morning at the tan sot nha international airport. the immigration queue was very short and we noticed that the immigration officers are really young, most probably not more than twenty-five years old. Anni however said that they might be older because of our asian genes. anyway, when it was my turn with the immigration officer, i had a hard time understanding him. i guess i haven't been acclimatized to their way of speaking yet --

officer: no visa?

as i come from an asean country and doesn't require a visa to enter their country, this statement confused me. so the only thing i had to say was --

me: i'm sorry? (meaning, can you please explain that statement/question?)

again, he repeated, "no visa." i was still probably looking confused that he said again "no visa" and then just shrugged. he was probably thinking what i'm idiot i am for not understanding! LOL. funny thing was when it was anni's turn, he also said the same and she got a bit confused, too. only my sister, who was last to have her passport checked , understood that the officer was just really stating that we don't have a (long term) visa. once she reached the officer, she immediately said "no visa!" :)

we were picked up by the taxi the hotel arranged for us (cost: USD 15). the driver was very kind to carry all our bags but it was touch and go there for a while since he got confused on where to exit from the parking lot. he ran into a closed checkpoint and had to reverse and go around the lot, only to return to the same checkpoint where we found out that there was really someone there to lift the bar for us!

around 2 o'clock am, we arrived at Bich Duyen Hotel, the hotel that we decided to stay in because of their quick email replies, accommodating manager and good reviews in several travel forums. we were greeted by the manager himself (who was already asleep but was actually expecting us), took our bags and passports, led us to our room on the second floor and immediately left us to have our rest. the room was pretty small but was enough for our needs. the toilet/bathroom was also very clean (which is our number one criteria for a hotel) and amply spaced! it has also an a/c, fan, cable tv and wifi (my number two criteria). we reserved this room for three nights and it only cost us USD25/night!

after a few minutes fixing ourselves, we were all ready to go to bed and sleep tight. we were still going to have a very early morning and it was just a few hours away....