Travel Diary

I was in the air when Saturday began. Time zones would be changing quickly, so my bearings were going to be off in short time. No matter. I would adjust. It was my first flight on Starlux Airlines.

I stayed awake for my first meal, and it was decent enough. Lots of variety for sure. The only oddity was the pours on soda were very light. Just not something I was used to. Even Alaska does maybe 10-ounce cans for economy and even that was more. Again, didn’t matter much. I didn’t need to fill up on soda before sleeping and they had already provided free bottled water—for three people. Yeah, I had the full row so three waters and kits just for me. I mainly just needed the space though. I sat in the middle and had my backpack on my left and extra pillows and blankets on my right. It was tight for my legs I guess but otherwise, ample enough room.

After the meal, I was tired, so it was time to rest. I stretched out over the three seats and used the blankets, which were small as usual, but did okay. The three tiny pillows also helped. It’s easier to sleep this way (as compared to just a regular seat reclined slightly) but definitely not was easy as biz or first class—or home in bed for that matter. But a few hours passed okay this way.

I woke up in time, though was able to sleep a little more before breakfast service started. I did skip breakfast though. It would have been too much food and my digestive system already wasn’t in the best of shape. Regardless, it was tough to sleep anymore. I was looking forward to getting off the plane, but that also meant a long layover and that wasn’t ever fun.

We landed in Taipei, and wow, disembarking too a long time. I think it was a half an hour at least, though I was in the last row of the plane. I wasn’t sure of what the immigration situation was for a layover in Taiwan. Even with three hours to kill, it did cause some concern.

But it was incredibly easy. People going to another location just showed a boarding pass and turned right. We were then in a special D-Gate area. At least I thought it was special. Turns out, I would later discover (upon the return trip) that it connected to the other areas of the airport and I could have explored that to kill time. As is, I just stayed in the D section, which was a little boring.

My iPhone was in non-roaming mode, so I relied on just WIFI at this point. The plane had none for economy passengers (just weak texting). The Taipei airport had a decent WIFI connection for free, so I could check what was going on in the world again. Nothing vital. Finally, it was time to board the second plane to reach Saigon.

This time, while I originally had a full row to myself, I found two others in “my” row. Darn. At least I had the aisle. But I also had sacrificed being in the last row, so longer immigration now for no benefit. I also made the mistake of placing my pack under the seat and that took my leg room. Without extra empty seats, it really made the flight much more uncomfortable. Nothing I could do at this point, but suffer through it. So yeah, despite being 3.5 hours, it seemed like a very long flight. I did have the meal, though tried to go easy on how much I ate. Finally, we landed in Saigon.

This was all new to me. I’d been to Hanoi Airport in 2011, but never Saigon. It was fine enough, but a little confusing. I did finally locate the immigration line and wow! It was long! Yeah, about an hour at least to get through that. Plus, I was hot now after freezing on the plane for almost four hours (and during the layover). Slowly, it moved until I finally got to enter the city.

I had arranged to have a driver pick me up so that helped a lot. I was soon on my way to the AirBnb. The ride was probably a half hour and then I was dropped off, but unsure where exactly I had to be. Everything of course was a different language. Some locals did assist me in reached the flat. Wrong place at first, but then to the right one next door. The others were out and about so I just found my room and rested a little. Oh yeah, I guess it’s actually Sunday now and not still Saturday. Let’s switch over.