Vietnam & Thailand 2025 Day 1: Sleepless in Saigon

Preface

For context, I am writing all this after returning from my trip. I took notes along the way and will flesh out the experience in this series of blog posts. They will be in chronological order. I’ve always wanted to do this, but never made time to make that first post. I want to share the photos I took, the lessons I learned, and simply document. Sometimes I feel like I’m running through life with little time to reflect. Therefore, I hope that in blogging my adventures, I can share some of my joy, learnings, and reflections with you, whoever happens to read this.

Without further ado, please enjoy my reflection and recollection of my trip back to Vietnam and to Thailand.

Vietnam & Thailand Day 1

For those who are wondering, flying to Vietnam is not a short trip from Toronto. Kelvin and I arrived at the airport around 9 am to meet up with Christine, my sister, and Jeff, her husband, who had just arrived from Halifax. In preparation for two long flights, one 14-hour flight to Tokyo and then a 7-hour flight to Saigon, also known as Ho Chi Minh City.

Kelvin had some Dragon Passes that got us into one of the lounges at Pearson. It was definitely a nice start to the trip, especially since Christine and Jeff left Halifax at 7 am. Also, my sister and Jeff have never tried airport lounges before, so it was a new experience. I wish we could have gotten into the Maple Leaf lounge, but it wasn’t an option. Also, Jeff was recovering from a recent illness, fever and all, so we needed to take it easy.

After filling our tummies, we got on our flight and were off to Tokyo.

It was a long flight, I should have slept, but instead I stayed up watching the whole second season of House of the Dragon. No regrets. We arrived in Tokyo and had 3 hour lay over, so we got to buy some treat and of course grab some ramen.

To be honest, we were quite full from all the meals and snacks we had on our flight, but we had to try some ramen. Needless to say, it was worth it. After getting some Japanese souvenirs and gifts for my family (yes, we got Tokyo Banana). It was off to our next flight. We flew All Nippon Airways, so the food was much better. I forgot to take a photo, but we had this delicious tempura and rice dish, which I swear was the best airplane meal that I’ve ever had, aside from that one time I got bumped to business class. I also finally got to nap on this flight.

Now, I said we needed to take it easy, but the schedule that I planned for day one was a bit crazy. We arrived in Saigon at midnight, and it took us about an hour and a half to get through customs. So by the time we get out, it’s 2 am. Our cousin, Ti, who is a Grab driver (Southeast Asia’s version of Uber), comes and picks us up to take us to a hotel nearby. I think we thought we were just going to sleep, but Ti offered to take us out sightseeing a bit and yes, at 2 am. Partly not to be rude, we said yes.

He took us to Bui Vien St, which is Saigon’s version of Khao San Road. It’s a pedestrian street full of loud music, go go dancers, cheap beer, and clubs. It was quite the site, though no one was up to go drinking after the long flight. Instead, we just wanted to eat some pho and call it a night. It was 3:00 am by the time we found some pho. No regrets, it was delicious.

After that lovely meal, we all went to bed to sleep. Yes, this is just the beginning of day 1 of our trip. We slept for maybe 4 hours before having to get up to pick up our parents from the airport. They were supposed to arrive at 10 am. Though we all got up early, Ti slept in, so we couldn’t get a hold of him for several hours. In the meantime, we explored Saigon on foot. Originally, I was hoping we could go check out Ben Thanh market, but clearly, the universe had other plans.

We found some delicious banh mi from a street vendor that only cost 20,000 VND which is $1 CAD.

We then walked by a Family Mart, which is a Japanese convenience store. Though we weren’t particularly hungry, we had to grab some more food.

And to end things off, I introduced Christine to one of my favourite Vietnamese drink chains, which has 2 locations in Toronto. Cong Ca Phe, which means communist coffee, given the Vietnamese communist government.

I am surprised that we didn’t get any photos of the drinks. We got the green coconut rice drink, a coconut coffee and an iced café mocha. Not too long after, Ti woke up and called us. Then we went to the airport to pick up my parents. Though their flight landed at 10 am, they didn’t come out until noon. By then, it was pretty late in the day, so we went and grabbed some lunch. After a traditional Vietnamese lunch, Com Nhan, which translates to home rice/lunch, with the family, we made our way to Ben Thanh market to get some cash. Some tips: the money exchange accepts cash, and to have the best rate, you want the biggest denomination and the newest bills. We brought crisp $100 USD bills, which gave us the best rate. Kelvin and I only exchanged $400 USD, and that covered us for our entire trip in Vietnam, aside from some hotel and flights that we paid for via VISA or USD cash. We also went into Ben Thanh a bit to do some shopping and grab some drinks. After that, Ti drove us back to our hotel. And by then, everyone was truly pooped.

Now, sadly, our travels did not end there. You heard me correctly, we were off to another flight to Thailand. To be honest, I had hope we would have seen a bit more of Saigon this day but with the delays in getting picked up, and my parents taking a while to get out of the airport, it was just ended up being a chill day of eating in the city and a bit of logistical work exchanging money and luggages. After resting for maybe an hour, we were back at the airport and off to Bangkok, Thailand. Once again, the customs took so long to get through, even when leaving Vietnam. We had a multi-entry VISA, so we were fine, but we still had to go through the long wait. A good travel tip for Vietnam is to give yourself a lot of time at the airport.

It was only 2-hour flight and we arrived in Bangkok at 11 pm. By then we were a bit hungry and also wanted to grab some food for tomorrow’s breakfast. I had another jam packed day planned so we didn’t have much time to grab food in the morning. We found a 7-11 near by and got a bunch of snacks. Across the street from the 7-11 was a McDonald’s, and curiosity got the best of us so we had to try.

I won’t lie, this was probably one of the best fried chickens we’ve ever had. It was so good. Just look at how happy Christine was.

And after that final detour, we could go to sleep at our cute Airbnb and call it an end to a very, very long day.