I made it to Saigon, uh… I mean Ho Chi Minh City. The flight attendant repeatedly caught herself calling the city we had just arrived in by the “wrong” name. When one refers to the city as Saigon, it insinuates something negative. I don’t know what, something to do with communism. I will leave that part to the historians. Apparently it took half the flight crew to wake me on approach. Literally, I woke up and there were three flight attendants standing in front of me looking quite shocked. I mumbled something about San Francisco and put my seat upright. I fell back asleep on our taxi. I attribute my sober stupor to two days of flying to get here, but also to Cathay Pacific’s lie flat Business Class seats. At first glance they look small and cramped but there is plenty of space, privacy and comfort. More on those seats to come.
I was allowed to enter the country too, which was good thing. Not sure what the Visa policy is/was, all I knew is that I needed one. I used a service called http://www.luckyvietnamvisa.com/ . At the visa desk I was greeted by unorganized chaos where I turned over the documents I had received from Lucky Vietnam Visa. I was given another form to fill out then had to wait, sweat (because it was hot) and wait some more. I have no idea if using the visa service helped or not but I am here.
I return to the US via Tokyo/Narita Airport and JFK.
I am going to check out Saigon now.

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