As a salaried worker who has to work at the end and the beginning of every month regardless of holidays, New Year holidays and Japan’s Golden Week in May (GW holidays) are almost non-existent in my life for last 20 years or so although the situation has gradually changed in past few years. Even so, I have never gotten the point of making plans for GW holidays in well advance, however, I began to contemplate as May approaching.
There were times in the past when I believed I could go to Europe with four consecutive holidays using red-eye flights. As time goes by, my body is aged, airplanes can no longer fly over Russian airspace, and the value of Japanese yen continues to be weaken. After all things considered, I concluded that Southeast Asia might be the place to go during this year’s GW holidays.
Still, the schedule was rather tight. The only flights I could choose were the most expensive ones, leaving Tokyo at late evening of May 1 and returning to by another red-eye flight arriving in the early morning of May 7.
It was already too late. Both Singapore and Bangkok flights were too expensive. I then searched for flights to/from Ho Chi Minh City, which were relatively inexpensive. Indeed it was about a half the price of Singapore or Bangkok. I quickly booked the round-trip flights, and then searched for my final destination in Vietnam.
I narrowed down the search by weather trends. It seemed that Central Vietnam was the only place in the country where was not in rainy season at the time of visit. I had already been to an old town named Hoi An in Central Vietnam, but I found an another ancient city called Hue.
On May 2, I did some rather loosely works (or killing daytime) in my office, came back home to pick up my luggage, and then headed for Tokyo Haneda Airport. I did not have much luggage, so I tried to take a local bus from near my house but I missed the bus right in front of me. This bus route is not famous for reliable schedule, I left the home little late but it seemed the bus was running on time because of the good traffic conditions during the GW holiday season. I ended up walking to train station but made to catch the express bus to the airport. Still, it was a bad start for me, as I was late for schedule at the very beginning of the trip.
I was thankful to the majority of other passengers onboard who had a good start of their trips, the plane made on-time arrival to Ho Chi Minh City Airport early in the morning. I came to Vietnamese immigration checkpoint with my brain and body sleep-deprived and tired. As usual, immigration checkpoint at this airport did not seem to be functioning efficiently. Since there was no information on where to line up, I went to the end of one line, which seemed to be shorter than the others, but all lines seemed so slow anyway. I became nervous because I made separate ticketing for a connecting flight on a low-cost airline with a rather tight connection. The passenger next to me who was going to Phu Quoc Island was already in despair.
It was no big damage to me when I missed the local bus and had to walk to the station like last night, but it might be problematic if I miss the connecting flight – I just could not walk from Ho Chi Minh up to Hue as free recovery. Remembering that I messed up my own plan from the beginning, I stood in line with a gloomy feeling. Nevertheless, while I was waiting in line, immigration officers seemed showing up for work one after another, and numbers of operating immigration booths were gradually increased. As a result, I was able to pass through with a little time to spare. It would have been better for my mental health either the arrival of my flight adjusted to schedule of immigration inspectors, or the immigration inspectors came to work prior to the flight arrival.
Anyway, I was able to board a domestic flight to Hue without issues, continued on to Hue Airport. I arrived at my hotel in Hue smoothly, there was still plenty of time before check-in.
I was planning to charter a car via Grab for about 4 hours to go to sightseeing spots in the suburbs, but I could no longer charter a car from the app. I thought about requesting a normal one-way dispatch, but I was not sure if there would be a taxi available coming back to the city central. I asked the hotel staff about taxi charter, they ended up calling a travel agency and introduced me to a private tour.
I was told that the driver would be able to pick me up in 20 minutes, I signed-up for the private tour. Because of the tight connection at Ho Chi Minh City Airport and I arrived at the hotel so smoothly in Hue, I had not been able to go to an ATM after arriving in Vietnam to get local currency. Although the hotel had a bank on the 1st floor, it rather looked more of an office than a business branch for public, and there was only one ATM which was not working. I walked around the hotel and found an ATM, but even that time, I could not withdraw money due to a communication error. Remembering I missed the local bus last night, I felt gloomy again. This trip might not go well.
In the end, I couldn’t get local cash by the pickup time, so I started the tour by visiting a bank before sightseeing. The driver could speak English, but he did not seem to understand my intentions at first. I cannot complain about it – no one would request a tour without having any local cash at all.
After a while, I found a bank branch and asked the driver to stop the car. Thanks to him, I was given VIP treatment by a security guard escorting me from the parking lot to ATM. This time ATM worked fine, and I was finally able to start real sightseeing tour with peace in mind.
First, I was taken to the Khai Dinh Imperial Mausoleum. This should have done on the first day of my visit to Hue, as this was main place I came to Hue. It was a gorgeous tomb of a Vietnamese king who was greatly influenced by French culture. It was a wonderful place, I felt it was a good decision to come and see. Although it is a famous tourist spot, it is in a quite remote area and I did not see any cabs available for way back to the city. It was a good decision to come by chartered car too.
After visiting another king’s graveyard and a Buddhist temple, I returned to Hue city. For unknown reasons, I was taken by boat from the Buddhist temple back to the city. After all, it was just a substitute for a souvenir shop the tour operators might get commission or something else. The boat was surely on the river, so it was impossible to hide or escape, and their price was as same level as the airport. I would rather had a beer than mass-produced souvenir items, but supply and demand did not match. Earlier I was looking for an ATM, but now I guess I am the ATM. Still, the river breeze was cool and I didn’t get lost in the heat wave on my way back.
It was a generally successful first day of the trip.
I had gloomy feeling because I missed the first local bus, but I should have rather focused on the fact that I made to catch my flight from Tokyo then connected domestic flight as planned. If the main results are good, I should consider all are good. There is no use in worrying about unnecessary details.