Saigon Visa Run

[happyrobert]

All in all, I don't mind visa runs. I could get a retirement visa but I came to SE Asia to see new things, so getting out every two or three months is a blast for me. A month or two ago I promised a post on my visa run to Saigon/HCMC, so here it is: The airport was modern, clean and all officials personable and professional. There were plenty of immigration officers present and passing through took about four minutes at 7 p.m. The airport taxi was a flat $7 American and they took us right to the hotel, about a twenty minute ride. My hotel, in a skinny alley full of small hotels, was very clean and very quiet. $17 for a windowless room that provided excellent sleep. Air, hot water, TV. Rooms with windows are $20. Book in advance. (My buddy tried the hotel around the corner, a very nice one, maybe 4 stars, that cost him $50 a night (much nicer than the hotel I stayed in in Vientienne for the same price,) but he never slept because of the street noise.) Well managed by English speaking manager Chanh, who also arranged for a cab to take me to the Thai Consulate the next morning. He will be moving on in about two months and his replacement speaks English, but not as well. Email: BichDuyenhotel@yahoo.com After the fifteen minute ride to the Consulate, I passed alone through the small gate and into the reception area which was a 15 foot square room. Empty. Yep, wall to wall empty. No lines, no waiting, no number taking and air conditioned to boot. No hawkers, no "helpers", just a peaceful, professional enviroment. Phone: 393 276 37 Fax: 393 260 02 There were forms on bar height writing shelves and sample-filled-out forms posted on the walls. A list of requirements for various visas was posted. The lady behind the window spoke excellent English, smiled and patiently answered all my questions. Well, I think she would have but I only had two, so can't be sure. I dropped off my passport, a single photo, a copy of my return ticket and and the single page form for a 60 day single entry Tourist visa, extendable 30 days for a total of 90 days (for a 1900 baht fee at any immigration office). I was told a double entry would have been possible if I had had a return ticket for the second trip, not something overly difficult to accomplish. It could even be a bus ticket to Cambodia. The lady said drop off by 4:30 p.m. pick up next afternoon after lunch. I think she would even have done it by the next morning if my plane wasn't leaving for another week. And I'm glad it didn't. Saigon ( the South Vietnamese call it Saigon while the North call it Ho Chi Min City) is a beautiful city with a totally different feel than Bangkok ( yes, I do love BKK). The spaces seem more open, and there were more parks than I could keep track of. All in very good order, and very clean. The first things we noticed were regularly-emptied trash cans on every major corner - yes, corner, not just intersection, and that almost every corner also had street name signs. Imagine that. I live in Chiang Mai and see a trash can now and then, but private, not public, usually overflowing. Trying to find out what street your on in CM reminds me of reading about WWll when the Brits took down all their signs to confuse an invading army. Works in CM, too. Traffic is a sight to behold. 90% motorbikes. NO parking on the streets, either. Streets are for moving traffic only. If I see one more idiot, stopping for Guaydiow, in CM triple-park blocking three lanes of a four lane road, I'll... Driving on the right is the rule, but rules are always broken at the intersections. And horns. Lots of them. Buses wouldn't slow for for a quadrapelegic grandma wheel-chairing her grandkids to school - but they sure as heck'll be thoughtful enough to let her know she's about to be slammed. Despite the crazy traffic (take a look at the round-abouts ) I only saw one motorbike accident in 6 days. He slammed into a dumpster being rolled across the street with a whomp, then got up and got going again. People were very friendly. Food is magnificant and the prices are cheap. The Ben Thanh Market (just off a park that's blocks long, a football field wide, and full of paths, trees and trimmed shrubs, where people gather to play a form of hacky-sack or badmitton and that's across from the hotel) is a great place for shopping and food. We had fresh spring rolls, two Saigon beers - ice cold - a bowl of noodles with beef (yes, red meat) all for $3.40. Pho was less than a dollar for a large bowl full of beef. Good flavor and tender, too. Allez Boo (everyone knows where it is) sits on the corner of NGUYEN THAI NOC and PHAM NGU LAO and offers a wonderful sidewalk seat to view the motorbikes, cars and buses stream by like whitewater rapids, sometimes taking the path of least reisistance, sometimes powering through unheeded (everybody honks non-stop so it's a little like "crying wolf") and unimpeded. Great people watching 24 hours a day, though it is for tourists, so although the food is quite good, it's not great and the prices are much higher than typical. Say hi to Phuc. She's a hoot. Saigon is a beer lover's heaven. The local beers, Bia Saigon, 333 and, oops, can't remember the other (probably drank too much of it), are tasty and cheap. And for true connoisseur, there were a number of true brewpubs. We made it to three: Hoa Vien Brauhaus, which had the best atmosphere and had a blond and a porter style that were thirst quenchers at only $1.90 per half litre (yep, no lie); Nguyen Du Brauhof, whose beer was even tastier and a few cents more per litre, and Lion Beer, whose beer is great, cheap but whose ambience is rather bright and white. And, yes, it's the same Lion that's in Ginza. All three had great food but at higher prices than the mom and pop restaurants. All three are less than 10 minutes from the hotel, which, by the way, is in a popular area of District 1. Want to meet some locals? If you look remotely like an English speaker, college students will approach you in the parks and sit and talk with you until you've had enough. Sometimes entire groups will encircle you and just listen in. All very friendly. I had a date every night. Seems like more Vietnamese in Saigon speak English than Thais in BKK. Makes getting around a bit easier, and their alphabet is close to ours, so a dictionary or a map is easily read. Want movies? Forget the pirated crap quality 100 baht ($3) discs here in LOS. Many stores in Saigon carry nicely packaged (hardcover) "compilation" boxed sets at at $1.50 per disc. Made in Malaysia, or so I've been told, each box set can have from 2 to 20 discs. Each disc can have 8 or more movies. That's an average of .18 cents per movie! All excellent quality, including perfect subtitles. Morgan Freeman Collection (15 movies for $3), Alfred Hitchcock (45 movies for $12), National Geographic, Oliver Stone and Spielberg collections, etc. I ended up with 248 movies in 12 box sets for about $45. Paid for my ticket. I won't buy from anyone in LOS anymore since the kiddie porn thing, anyway. Flights to Saigon from Bangkok are cheap. Get your Vietnam visa in advance for no waiting, good for 30 days and renewable should one of the college cuties in the park want to give you long term lessons in Vietnamese, and cost between 1700 and 2000 baht. Don't suggest you get them on-line - some only actually offer a letter you are supposed to use on arrival to get the final visa stamp at the airport. Another 200 baht through a travel agent gets the actual visa pasted in your passport, ready for immediate action. 48 hour turnaround. Take dollars or get VN Dong on arrival. The Thai baht is not accepted. Downsides: not many, really. 1.Many of the taxi drivers will try to rip you off like it was their fatwa. VinaSun was the best and I never had a problem. Cyclos will gouge you, too. We walked most places so we could drink mo' bia. http://www.vietnamtr...eing-taken-ride 2. Guys on every corner and in between who have extensive practice speaking the English words, " You want marijuana or young lady boom-boom." Ignore them or reply in Spanish and they smile and move on. But it does get annoying. 3. Many websites said a night club called "Appocalypse Now" was a no misser. Yes, it was. 4. Food at the airport for the return was poor and a rip. Brown bag it. 5. Uhm, can't really think of any others. Oh, yeah, I strongly suggest you DO NOT FLY AIR ASIA! Everything I heard from others, and, ahem, ignored, was true. Flight from CMX to BKK: 1hr10m. Time to collect check-on baggage: 55 minutes. Seated us contrary to our reservations and wanted $7 each to change us to the right sets. <EM>75%</EM> late flights. After another one hour boarding delay, the return flight from Saigon got half way down the runway on take-off except, well, didn't actually take-off. Pilot forgot his lunch or something (they never gave an explanation) and slammed on the brakes and returned to the gate. But at least we didn't crash - except for our heads into the seats in front of us. We sat for three hours, constantly being well uninformed with profuse silence by staff who could not answer any question except, "where's the bathrooms," and finally were sent to a hotel - us, not the staff - at 11 p.m. to be awakened at 5 a.m. for the "possibility" of a 9 a.m. flight. It is well worth the extra few dollars to go Bangkok Air or Thai Airways, whose prices are all inclusive. Air Asia charges for everything individually. Soon they will charge passengers a fee for their delayed flights (Just kiding. I think). Do not fly AA if you have connecting flights on a different airline. They do not comp for missed connections. Must-sees: The War Museum at 75 cents is well done. Depending on your views of the Vietnam war, your reaction may be different than mine, but it is an excellent way to spend an afternoon. (Take water with you, don't buy it there!) Reunification Palace. The parks, the Art Museum and lots more. All conveniently located in a small area (all the more convenient as the 3 brewpubs are also nearby). It will be a long time before I return to Vientienne (yawn) or Phnom Penh ("look out for that pothole...oww"). Actually, never. Saigon is cheaper, cleaner and with much more to see and do. I go again in two months, this time staying for the 30 days - or more - and travelling around a lot, great scuba (I hear) and into Hanoi to verify the visa situation there. All in all, a good experience.

Edited December 12, 2010 by happyrobert

[eljeque]

I have not been there in 12 years, but now I may make plans to go back soon.

[CharlieH]

I know you said "get your Vietnam visa in advance" but can you get a "visa on arrival" or visa examption for a short stay ? do they take a whole page in your passport or is it just a stamp in and then out again ?

Great report and thanks for posting it.:jap:

[happyrobert]

I know you said "get your Vietnam visa in advance" but can you get a "visa on arrival" or visa examption for a short stay ? do they take a whole page in your passport or is it just a stamp in and then out again ?

Great report and thanks for posting it.:jap:

Thanks! Some on-line sources arrange for a letter to take to immigration, but it really sounds iffy. Bangkok has a 24 hour turn-around for the visa. Chiang Mai had to be sent to the Vietnam Consulate in Khon Kaen so took 48. Yes, they take the whole page, plus a two small stamps on another, but then, so does the Thai ED, OA and Tourist visa. Look at it this way: I'll use up all available space in my passport before Immigration gets tired of the tourist gig. I'll soon have to get a new one, and that's a clean slate. Unless their computer system is more advanced than I've been led to believe. No exemptions that I am aware of. I was told by many ex-pats that visas are easier and longer there than Thailand.

Edited December 12, 2010 by happyrobert