It started off according to plan.
We hopped on the night boat at 11pm on Sunday night which was headed to Chumphon. We were assigned a bunk bed and each given a pillow and blanket. We headed to the roof, sandwiched ourselves between the blankets and cuddled as we dozed off under the stars sharing an iPod. We woke up a few hours later, uncomfortable from the steal boat we lay on and went down to our bunks. We cuddled in a twin bed and immediately fell back to sleep. I woke up first around 5am after hearing the boat horns and realizing we were at port, I woke Mike up. We gathered our backpacks and headed to shore. At the pier a van was already there to pick us up and take us to the bus stop. An hour passes and we are on the 9 hour bus up to Bangkok. We settle in the back handicap seat with no seat in front of us hoping no handicap personnel would load on, luck was in our favor. We got comfortable,
shared the iPod, dozed off to sleep. The hours passed, we took a few toilet stops, one lunch stop and finally made it to Bangkok. We find ourselves in a giant Bangkok bus station, we see a sign that says “Taxi” we walk there and catch a cab to the international airport. It started off according to plan. 

    
 We get to the airport, we find our check in counter and get in line. I hand the woman our passports. 

“Visas?” The woman asks

I show the woman my visa debit card. 

Mike and the woman look at me oddly

I realize I messed up big time. Tourist visas. It was so clear now, of course we needed tourist visas to enter Vietnam. For some reason I thought we got them on arrival, wrong. 

The woman is friendly and gives us advice, I am thankful we decided to bring a laptop along. We log into the airport free wifi and Google emergency Vietnam tourist visas. We fill out the information and go to pay. My debit card was declined. Mikes debit card was declined. I go to call my bank on my phone and assure them, again, that I am traveling SE Asia and it is me using my card, but my phone is out of minutes. I use a pay phone, I get disconnected midway because I am out of coins. We get coins, I call again, we pay for our emergency visa, the company emails me and says we are 30 minutes too late, and they will continue our service at 10:30am. We talk to the woman at the ticket counter, she gives us a flight for the next afternoon, we book a hotel in Bangkok and get a taxi out. We decided a night in Bangkok, although not according to plan, does sounds fun. Than we see the news, a bombing about 20 minutes away from our hotel room. We decide to stay in, we order a banana split through room service. I take a bath, we go to bed. 

It’s a new day, we are starting off fresh, today will go better. 

We enjoy complimentary breakfast, take a swim in the pool, receive a confirmation email for our visas, the hotel prints out our papers for us and transfers us back to the airport. 

   
We wait on one line, we are told to go wait on a different line. We pay a fee for missing our flight and switching to today. We go through security and get a little confused at immigration when our tickets were taken, we finally understand we need to fill out a departure card, we than swap that card for our tickets back and continue to our gate. We eat lunch, have a drink, board the plane and share an iPod. 1 hour and 30 minutes until we are in Vietnam. We get ripped off on our taxi we take to our hotel. We get to our hotel and realize we are in the ghetto of Vietnam. The staff does not speak English, we do not feel comfortable. We sit on our creaky bed in our 17 century themed room and connect to the wifi. We trip advisor a hotel in center city and agree to take our loses and upgrade to another hotel. I go to pay with my debit card, declined. Bank of America will hear it out from me, again. We decide to just go to the hotel and book a room in person. This side of Saigon is what we were expecting. A city, with French architecture and bright lights. This hotel is what we’ve been missing as we’ve spent the last 3 months on a hard bed in a tiny bungalow without a flushing toilet and a fan. (Don’t get me wrong, we love our little home) it’s nice to sleep in air conditioning, under a comforter, take a real shower, flush the toilet with out using a bucket and even enjoy English speaking cable television in bed. We head out and enjoy the city looking for dinner, we realize that city expenses are a global thing. We decide to enjoy this week anyway and try not to focus on price tags. It takes me a little longer to do the math and understanding of the dong. 20,000 dong is only 1USD, but makes me feel so much richer. We walk around looking at menus, and a French man walks up to us, gives us a flyer and invites us to his roof top restaurant. We agree and enjoy a drink with a view and some good lamb and steak. We watch an adorable elderly couple salsa and clap as other couples join in. We are exhausted and head back to the hotel. 

    
 As much as I always seem to be seamlessly going with the flow of things, I like plans. Planning is my comfort and helps me rationalize. But no matter where you are in the world, how much research you’ve done or who you are with, there will always be bumps in your journey. It’s how you handle those hurdles that really show your true character. Ho Chi Minh City is chewing us up and spitting us out but we’ve added a new stamp to our passport and memories in our hearts and for that I am thankful that we have finally, as planned, arrived in Vietnam.