Travel Day: Singapore-Vietnam

Not all travel is fun and carefree. Here is a small insight into our travel day to Vietnam.

U.S. citizens require a visa to enter Vietnam. Nancy and I were a little tardy and did not start the visa process until Thursday for our Friday flight. We were caught by surprise in finding the “e-visa” requires three processing days. If you plan to visit Vietnam, allow enough time to secure the visa!

We paid $139 USD each to expediate the visa. The visa approval and associated paperwork were received by end of day. One of the documents was a passenger manifest which included ours and many other names with country and passport number! I guess the privacy laws need a little improvement.

We got to the airport and checked in and the visa provider had us arriving in Hanoi instead of Da Nang. We were sent to the airline “special desk” and they were able to get this issue resolved. With this problem resolved, we went through security and boarded our flight to Da Nang.

The flight was not full and was actually quite pleasant. We flew Vietjet Air which is a “low cost” airline servicing Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Upon arrival at Da Nang International Airport, we headed toward immigration with a little apprehension. We had the visa approval, but no entry visa and did not have the two required passport photos to accompany the visa (I thought this was an e-visa). We were directed to several lines, asked for our passport photos (which we did not have), and pleaded our case. Eventually, the Vietnamese authorities figured we were not a danger to their country, they granted the visa, and we were allowed to enter Vietnam.

Hopefully we have learned our lesson as visas are required for both Cambodia and India!