My pals and I are off on an adventure to Vietnam. The first leg of our journey was on Hawaiian Airlines from Hilo-Honolulu then to Incheon, South Korea. We were prepped with passports, Vietnamese Dong, easy travel black attire, and lots of energy. We had great service on our 11-hour flight to Incheon on Hawaiian Airlines. Shon took good care of us during the flight and we enjoyed our instant Korean noodles before landing. We got through customs and immigration easily with our bags. We found our way to the Grand Hyatt Incheon Airport. We had dinner there and then got some rest. Our early morning flight awaited us.

We had no problem waking up early! In fact, we woke up way before the alarm we set. We got on the 5:30 am shuttle bus to check into Asiana Airlines to Ho Chi Minh. Upon checking in, we found that one of our entry visas for Vietnam had an error and was not accepted. If you have a trip coming up, check and double-check all details when applying for your visa. Despite this hiccup, we were able to secure an expedited visa and made arrangements for a later flight to Vietnam. Since we suddenly had bonus time in South Korea, we stored our bags at the airport.

We decided to head to Seoul for a breakfast of K-BBQ and soju. We spent our time in Myeongdong. We couldn’t do all the shopping we wanted. Time ran out, and we had to head to Incheon Airport. There, as we checked in for our flight,we found out that the flight was delayed by 3 hours! We would be arriving at 1:30 am instead of 10 p.m.! Shucks. We would have had time for an Olive Young shopping spree. Despite these unexpected changes to our itinerary, we made it to Vietnam. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh at 1:30 am. We had a bit of a wait for our bags but they all arrived. We found our driver and got in our van and arrived at the JW Marriott Saigon at 3 a.m. Stay tuned for the blog post about our time in Ho Chi Minh. Living Hilo Style in transit.