Vietnam: Bribery and Drama

Picture 1 - Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam was the last destination that we wanted to visit, since we’ve heard so many horror stories of tourists (especially Vietnamese) visiting Vietnam. Even our parents were worried! It’s very ironic since I was born and raised in Vietnam. My family and I left the country since I was 10 years old.  Le was born in the US, so the Vietnamese culture was passed to him thru his Vietnamese parents and the Vietnamese community in the Cincinnati area. We do have an advantage since we can speak the language, have a general knowledge of the culture, and last of all, we love the food.

In our minds, Vietnam is known for bribery, frauds, and scams. Yes, we know it’s also common in other countries around the world, but it’s nerve wrecking since it seems to happened to every other Vietnamese that we knew. There’s no way, in our right minds, Vietnam will be in the top 5 destination in our bucket list…then a travel deal showed up. We hesitated at first, but it was just too good to turn down.

How bad could it be?

To access Vietnam, a visa is required and can be obtained through a Vietnamese embassy in the US ( San Francisco or Washington DC location). You can apply for it the traditional way, which is mailing in the application package.  It includes the application, your ORIGINAL passport, and a check. It could take 2-3 weeks process.  The other way, visa upon arrival, allowed you to apply online and pick up the visa once you have arrived to Vietnam. Ride pickup can also be arranged with certain online companies. Well, we didn’t like either option. With the traditional way, we didn’t like the idea of mailing our original passports to anywhere. It could get very complicated if our passports were lost in the mailing system. Visa upon arrival? We didn’t know if we could trust that our visas will be at Ho Chi Minh Airport once we get there. We would be stuck in a bind if somebody were able to “name the price”, in exchange for our visas at the airport. There were tourists who found themselves stranded at the airport, didn’t know which way to turn since the confirmation email was invalid.

We decided hire a reputable Southeast Asia visa specialist from California. The visas were in our hand within 1 week! It did cost us a bit more, but our peace of mind worth every penny.

At 11pm, we finally landed in Ho Chi Minh airport (south Vietnam) after 21 hours in the air. We strategically planned our sleeping pattern (sleeping in their time zone) to reduce the jetlagged time but it didn’t seem to work at all. We were very awake! 

The first thing that worried me the most was going thru custom in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese placed money inside the passport for a smoother process, as bribery. We refused to play this game, since we have nothing to hide. We put on our poker face and head over to the station.

“Why doesn’t the picture in the passport look like you?” the office asked Le.  The picture in the passport can be valid for 10 years. People look different when they are in their 30s versus in their 20s.  How were we supposed to prove this to him? I remember the last time I went back to Vietnam with my mother, they erased my middle name in my paperwork, somehow, and claimed that it didn’t match my visa or passport. My mother slipped some money into the passport for him, all of the sudden, the middle name was there again and everything was fine. It made me so frustrated, thinking about that.

"Maybe he couldn’t see your face completely, why don’t you take off your glasses so he can see you better?", I said loud enough to Le (without yelling) so the officer who was questioning Le could hear me also. Thankfully, he nodded and couldn’t think of anything else to ask. Our first obstacle was accomplished with ease, surprisingly!  

The luggage pickup area is the area where they make the most bribery money. Since many Vietnamese coming back to Vietnam, bring back many gifts for their family and friends, the airport gang will hide the luggage and ask for money if you wanted your luggage back. Worse, they would rip your luggage open and take whatever valuable items that you have and once your luggage get back to you, it will be ripped with useless packaging tapes all over your luggage.

We didn’t fall for that trick, of course. We’ve learned to pack efficiently to any country that we visit. For 3 weeks in Vietnam, we only had 2 backpacks on us. (There will be another blog on how we pack) We usually don’t have to wait in line for anything in the airport either. Since we didn’t bring any luggage, we didn’t have to wait to pick up our luggage and give them a chance to mess with us at all.

I have distance family who lived Ho Chi Minh city (10 minutes away from the airport). We were planning to rent a room somewhere close to them, but I figured we should do our duty to visit them at least one day since they haven’t seen me for 6 years, let alone Le, a new member to the family.

Just when we thought we hit home run at the exit of the airport, the next challenge already found us. My family wanted to greet us at the airport. I was so worried about planning the majority parts of the trip, I didn’t take the time to get the details where I would meet them at the airport! I didn’t have their phone number since I’ve been contacting thru Facebook messenger. I figured once I walked out of the gate, they will see us…but no, not as simple as I thought.

T-mobile has been our favorite phone provider for our travelling purpose, since they have connection with many countries around the world with no extra charge…but with our luck, Vietnam is not covered. So there we were, sitting in the airport, couldn’t call anybody, wi-fi connection was there but my family wasn’t on Facebook at the time, since most of them were in at the airport waiting for me. There’s a SIM card booth, but we didn’t have any Vietnamese currency (dong) on us! But even with the SIM card, who can we contact? Walking out of the gate, everybody look like everybody. It felt as though I was at a sold out concert, and to find one familiar face is impossible.

The second floor air-conditioned waiting area seems like a good idea since it was so hot and humid outside. Plus, we would have a better chance of spotting a familiar face in the crowd of the first floor. We had a plan. While Le was guarding our backpacks, I would run thru the 1^st and 2^nd floor every 15 minutes to see if I can find anybody, or maybe somebody will be find me! It did definitely beat sitting around and wait for someone to find us.

 “Ngoc, is that you?” a familiar voice and that’s definitely my name. It worked! Somebody found me while I was squirming thru the crowd! It was one of my uncles. We were packing up our stuffs so fast, you would think we were about to miss this ride home. My aunt waved down the taxi to take us home, even for her, they wanted to double the price. She thought it was hilarious since they were mistaking her for a foreign visitor. She walked us down to the bottom of the taxi line and called a taxi that will take us home for a more reasonable price. Our first bargaining lesson in Vietnam: never accept the first offer!

The taxi dropped us off in front of our place. In front of me was the house that I grew up in and everything looked so different. All the dirt alleys were paved and expanded! I remembered, every time it rains, the alley would get so flooded. My friends and I paddled around in our plastic buckets, pretending like we were racing in the river. They cut down the tree that I used to climb with the boys in the neighborhood. We were in so much trouble when our school uniforms were ripped from climbing.

It’s amazing how eight of my relatives can lived together, under one roof. Everybody just find a spot in the house to sleep, and in the morning, everybody has places to go. My parents had the hot water system installed in the bathroom for us, but it was so darn hot and humid, we took cold showers 3 times a day while in Vietnam. 

Below is one of the homemade dish that my family made for us. Would've missed it if we chose to stay in a hotel! 

Picture 2 - Homemade Vietnamese dish  - vermicelli noodle with fermented shrimps and papaya, thin slices of boiled pork belly, extremely spicy homemade fish sauce, and variety of different vegetables, cucumber and bean sprouts

Picture 3 -  individual dish presentation

Chile: Stranded on an island

First of all, why were we on the island?

Picture 1/12 - We wanted to see the king penguin colony in their natural habitat.

 

Picture 2/12 - We wanted to touch the fur of a penguin! 

Was it worth? Definitely! It was a “once in a lifetime” experience!

Once the plane landed in Punta Arenas (southern part of Chile), our hearts were just about to explode from the excitement of seeing the king penguin colony, in their natural habitat. Le loves penguins and it makes me so happy, just seeing him get excited about this adventure.

The penguin colony is located on Tierra del Fuego island... a three hour ferry ride from Punta Arenas. Getting to the penguins, was no easy task. Many tourists would just skip the route, since it’s very time consuming and the tour’s cost is very high, for just one attraction. Of course, we refused to pay $1000, to sit on the tour bus, for 10 hours, so we can just see the penguins!

Picture 3/12 - Punta Arenas - our base location
in the Southern part of Chile

A rental car, from our homestay’s host in Punta Arenas, was much more reasonable than anything we could have found online. If we had the extra money, we would have looked for an 4x4 car, instead of a Toyota Prius. The roads were long and the potholes were rough, especially when it was raining.

We planned out the details as much as possible (before leaving). We tried to think of all the questions that might come up, like how much gas we would need; what we would do if the GPS signal didn’t work; where were the nearest gas stations, and how many miles were there between each stop. We knew that if we did not plan carefully for this trip, it could be a very expensive mistake (even life-threatening) which we could have prevented.

A round trip from our base location will only take half a tank of gas. The option to use the Prius's electric power was a nice plus. Therefore, it didn’t seem gas shortage would be a problem (or so we thought).

Picture 4/12 - location of Punta Areas and Povenir town on Tierra del Fuego island

Picture 5/12 - Our fancy ride!

Starting at 7:00 AM , a ferry took us across the Strait of Magellan, to Porvenir (a small town on this island). There was only one gas station in Porvenir (actually, the only one on the island). As our tank read about 90% full, we did not feel the need to fill the tank. So... we started our drive to the penguins. 

Three hours didn’t seem long at all. We had many stops along the way to take pictures. Most of the streets didn't have names; we had to remember all the turns...so we could return the same way. It didn't seem complicated at all. Some of the roads were paved, but most were just dirt with potholes (and it was raining). We didn’t know if the Prius could handle all the potholes and slippery hills.  

“You have arrived!” the GPS proudly announced.

We were in the middle of nowhere! No penguins, no people, no cars, no houses, just nothing.  We were in fact, trespassing on private property!

We turned back, to see if we had missed any signs. There were no signs!

 Luckily, we saw a tour bus that was “probably” headed for the penguin location...and we decided to tag along. At last, we saw a sign which confirmed that we were headed in the right direction!

Picture 6/12 Penguin Colony sign

 Picture 7/12 - The Penguin Colony

 Learning about the penguins was FASCINATING! We wished we could have gotten closer, but for the sake of their habitat, this wasn't possible. Even from far away, it was still a great experience.

Coming back to town was harder than getting to the penguins. We remembered taking two left turns to get us back to the main road. We made the first left turn...and kept on driving for what seemed like forever. The question that nagged us...was that the first turn… or the second one?

This is where most couples begin to argue. We tried to stay calm... as much as was humanly possible. We tried to backtrack from where we had begun, trying to remember the landmarks along the way. The GPS was there on our phone, but it had let us down on our way back to the ferry. We circled around many times! Should we have gone all the way back? We didn't even know which way was “back” anymore. The landscape looked identical, in every direction.

“We should have taken the survival class when we had the chance!" " Once we get home, you are going to sign us up for that class!” Le was getting louder and louder.  How am I supposed to think with him yelling like that?

We decided to stop the car. The best solution seemed to be to wait until another car came in sight and ask them for directions. We didn’t have any extra gas to waste, either.  We sure didn’t want to be stranded out there after dark. In addition, the temperature kept dropping the later it got.

Picture 9/12 - Chasing the truck

Something was moving in a distance…a truck! Inside were three Chileans. Our basic Spanish was of little use, but our "sign language" seemed to be sufficient. The Chileans were nice enough to lead us all the way to the ferry. As it turned out, we had made the second turn already. If we had kept driving in that direction, we would have taken five hours to get there, instead of two.

We finally reached the ferry dock, when the car's empty gas tank signal began to peep!  There was no gas station anywhere in sight, and our snacks were running low. We assumed that we would be home by dinnertime, so why should we have brought extra food? We turned off the engine, to conserve fuel, and  it was so cold (30 degrees Fahrenheit). Even our thermal jackets weren't of much use. In this stressful situation, Le joked that we would die Rose and Jack, in TITANIC! 

Picture 10/12 - Empty gas 

 The ferry's departure time came and went, yet no ferry insight! Could this adventure get any more “exciting”? The wind was howling from all directions, and getting out of the car seemed dangerous. If not for all the cars and trucks on either side of us, the little Prius would have flipped and rolled like a tumbleweed! To this day, we still wonder if this was  normal weather, or if a storm passing by.

While waiting, we decided to be practical. We would approach other vehicles asking if they would sell us an emergency liter of gas. It dawned on me, however, that they might also need their own emergency gas.  Ironically, there were two big gas or diesel trucks waiting for the ferry, in front of us. 

 What could we do? Our phones were on low battery, (and the car was of no use when stopped). We were trying to find out whether we could make it to the next gas station, and how far our car would really go after the empty signal came on. Could we figure out how to get the Prius to switch over to its electric power mode? Who could we contact...and how could we apply low fuel driving strategies?   Le thought we could save gas, by putting the car in neutral when going downhill. 

The next gas station was two hours from the dock. We were definitely not going to make it there. There was another small gas station on Google map, but we couldn’t confirm whether it was open. We couldn't risk getting there, only to run out of gas because they were closed!

Then, we had a brilliant idea...contact our homestay’s host. We asked her to deliver a litre of gas to us. In return, we would pay for her driving time and the gas. She was more than happy to help us out!

We were finally got onto the ferry at 10:00 PM, and heading back to Punta Arenas. We were never so happy when we found a hot dog vendor onboard. We were so tired, however, that we didn't have much of an appetite. We still had to decide whether to keep going toward the town (when we reached land), or should we stop somewhere so our host could find us. 

When we finally reached the mainland, we decided to wait for our host. If we had kept on driving, we would have run out of gas, and then there would have been no heat in the car. If we were forced to stop in an area with little or no light, our host might not have seen us. 

We picked an area with the brightest lights and a great big sign. We took a picture, and sent it to him.

The sky was dark, and the stars were bright. We curled up under our jackets, trying to sleep.  The light of passing cars and the cold made this impossible. We were drifting in and out of sleep, when our host arrived...at 1:00 in the morning. 

Picture 11/12 - Our last stop

Looking back, it was definitely an EXCITING trip… just to see the penguins!

 

Picture 12/12  - Taking a picture with our host, when somebody almost backed their car into our cameraman.

Vietnam: Watch out for layovers!

This post is about my flight to Vietnam, 

but the same trick can be applied to any trip, anywhere.

$700 per person, travelling from Cincinnati, OH to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – 2 connections with only 2 hours layover at each connection. What a deal! Especially coming from one of my favorite airlines: ANA airline. Flying to Vietnam is not usually comfortable for those who cannot afford First Class. Our total flight time was 21 hours, with 4 hours total of layover time. My ultimate goal is to try to make our trip as comfortable, in the most economical way, as possible.

Many flights are available, fly from Cincinnati to Ho Chi Minh City. They usually are around $1600 per person. The important factors, when it comes to picking out a good deal, are: the total flight time, how many connections, how long is the layover.

Keep in mind: Time = Money

If don’t have money, you’d better expect to lose time. Cheaper flights usually come with longer flight time and multiple or long layovers.

But if you find a cheap flight with short flight time and short layover, on a good airline, that’s a deal that doesn’t come very often.

Look at this sample above, of a trip from Cincinnati to Vietnam.

The price looks reasonable, compare to $1600 per person. Now let’s add up the flight time and layover. Flight time is around 21 hours and layover time is 20 hours!!!

It might not have any effect on you when you’re sitting at home booking your ticket, but after that 13 hours flight, trust me when I say to you, that you just want to be at your final destination.

You could make the most out of the layover by spending the day in city of the layover, but again, you will end up spending more money than you’ve planned. You could have just booked a more expensive flight and arrive at destination faster.

Let’s look at the other side of the story… the route that we took. Our total flight time was 21 hours. It took one hour to get to Chicago; 13 hours to reach Narita (Japan); and 7 hours to arrive at Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). We had 2 hour layover in Chicago, another 2 hour layover in Narita; neither of these were bad. With all the security checkpoints, they were just about right. We also needed to stretch our legs. We’ve heard many “horror” stories about passengers who missing their flights, because the airline didn’t allow enough time between connections!

In all truth, it was hard getting on to the final 7-hour leg to Vietnam (after 13 hours from the US). There were moments when we wished that we had allowed more time, and just booked a room and gotten some rest. No!! We have to stay on track.  We kept telling ourselves that the plan was to spend our money in the Vietnam…where the exchange rate was more favorable! After all the “travel pain”, we wanted to get as much bang for our buck as we could.

There’s really no easier way to travel halfway around the world, without the pain of long flights. We did, however, make it as comfortable as possible by doing research ahead of time!

Yes, you are allowed to check 2 bags, and bring along 2 carry-on bags. However, think carefully about the torture of  “dragging” these items to the airports and picking it up after 21 hours of flying. Travel light!  

We had too much fun with the individual retractable remote control, which can be use to play games and navigate onscreen movie menu. 

What's in the Bahamas?

About Us

For better or for worse…

I’m Ngoc and my husband is Le. Our lives revolve around our dream to travel. We both feel very lucky to have found each other to explore the world, taste new food, and experience new adventure.   

There’s no easy path to reach your dream. We knew that, and we did it anyway!

 We’ve decided that if it’s not our dreams that we’re living in, then there’s no better way of living! So we gave up our bachelor’s degrees and focused on travelling the world.

It was rough, dropping the incomes that we had, so we can find a better way to survive AND travel. Many sacrifices had to be made, many lessons had to be learned, and the balancing act is definitely not for the faint of heart. But let me tell ya… once that plane landed at our destination, it was all worth it! It’s not a picture that you see online or a story that you’ve read, but you’re actually there! Is it even real?? You try to take as many pictures as you can to show your family and friends when you get back, but the pictures are just not doing justice for the beauty and the experience that you had.

“Minimize the budget, maximize the experience” is our ultimate travel goal. Instead of staying in a nicer hotel, we would choose to stay in a “homestay” that is more affordable to us. (It does not necessarily mean the cheapest place, in a sketchy neighborhood with a nasty bathroom! That would scare us too!) Giving up that nice hotel, has given us a chance to experience “once in a lifetime” activities, such as rock climbing outdoors with a mountaineer, in Chile, or snorkeling through clearest water, in Iceland. OR we can choose to have a “once in a lifetime” hotel experience, such as spending a night at the glass-domed hotel, in Finland, to watch the Northern Lights dancing in the sky. There are just too many things to see!

With this blog, we hope to share with you our travel experiences, so you guys can go and see it for yourself! Don’t just live on a page of the book; there is the rest of the book, which you need to finish (and live)!

For those who just want to live thru us, Le and I just hope we can entertain you.