Journey to Vietnam

On Tuesday we spent most of the day traveling from Japan to Vietnam. However, before heading to the "more simple life", we were able to have some first class experiences. Alex had bought a 30-day pass to the Detla SkyClub, so we headed to the Tokyo airport early in the day to hit up the free food and drinks. In the lounge they had computers available with Internet, as well as tons of different food and drink selections. Alex especially enjoyed the abundant sushi rolls the self-pouring beer station. Kristin even had a glass of beer at noon just to try the self-pourer. It was quite the machine as it took the beer glass, tipped it back and then as the beer was being dispensed into the cup, it raised the beer glass up again to get rid of any excess foam. Pure genius!

Our 2-hour flight from Tokyo to Seoul, South Korea was smooth and we just had a couple of hours to spend in the Seoul airport before our next flight departed. However, when we boarded the plane for Vietnam we were pleasantly surprised to find that our row 12 seats were in the business class section of the plane! This meant we had tons of space between our seats and the ones in front of us, as well as larger screen TVs and seats that could adjust to a full flatbed position. We were in heaven for that 5 hour flight! The only thing we can figure out how we were upgraded is that since we got the ticket on airline points, and because the rest of the flight was full, they just upgraded us to a higher class of seats. However, we were not complaining one bit about the upgrade and took full advantage by reclining our seats and taking all the free drinks the flight attendants offered as they passed by.

As soon as we stepped out of the airport, it was mass chaos, and it was almost 11:30 at night. I had never seen so many people waiting at the doors of the airport - many were gathering there to meet some of the friends or family who were arriving to visit them. Getting a taxi was pretty crazy as well as everyone was trying to grab any taxi they could, whereas in Japan people would have lined-up organized and neatly to get one. However, we were able to get one and arrived at our hostel. Because we were so late in arriving, the windows were dark and we had to knock on the window for the girl to open it up for us. Luckily Alex had made a reservation the day before because the sign outside said they had no other rooms. After being up for 20 hours, bed never felt so good.