11day trip from IAD (Dulles airport,va) - SGN (Saigon)
Day 0:
originally, was going to take a 22" carry-on and a backpack. then discovered that checked-in luggage was free! (im used to domestic travel.)
but still was undecided on whether to take my 22" carry-on or my 26" check-in luggage.
after 3/4 of the way packing the 22", it was clear to the use the 26". lol
day 1:
United flight was uneventful. had a 3hr layover at Tokyo.
was tempted to spend $10US on the Narita lounge but after spending an hr on the free airport wifi on my laptop catching up on stuff, I was down to 2hrs.
and I estimated that boarding was to begin 45min before takeoff, so only 1hr 15min to kill.
nah on the lounge. decided to walk around the airport.
Found the McDonalds..lol.
United doesn't feed you much for a 13hrs flight.
small lunch, turkey sandwich as snack, small breakfast.
but beer and wine are free.
after landing in Saigon, was expecting to use the free airport wifi to contact them.
they had a Vietnam sim for me so wasn't going to buy one at the airport.
well, airport wifi wasn't working.
so after my luggage arrived, I gave up on trying to get it to work and walked over to the many sim dealers.
the vietel booth was empty.
so picked a booth that did sims and taxis.
they couldn't get the sim to work in my phone.
luckily, I spotted my friends thru the window.
got dropped at the Hotel. they came up, talked a little, handed me the sim, and left.
well, I got the sim recognized on my phone but the instructions to load $ onto it was in Vietnamese. doh!
Airpay 3g Vietel 30day (1gig)
Day 2 in next post.