There's so much I want to share, but I think I'll need to start with the craziest and possibly the scariest of my experiences - getting a VISA FOR VIETNAM.
Apart from the fact that this is a story worth sharing for your amusement, I also strongly believe this a story worth sharing for any poor tourist who shows up to the check-in counter forgetting their visa (for e.g. a dumbo tourist like me!). We all make mistakes I guess :)
General speaking, I like to think that I have a decent track record of a being a responsible adult, and just to support that statement with a relevant example I actually did about 2 weeks of research fully exhausting all my sources to ensure I didn't need a visa for my trip to Thailand.
When I booked Vietnam however, I did so at the last minute which left me with minimal time to plan my trip (my original plan was to watch the cherry blossoms bloom in Kyoto!). So when it came to the day before departure we had only just booked a couple AirBnbs, but still had no solid plans of what we would do! Finally the evening of our departure arrived and I got caught up in a conversation after work, just before having to leave to run and catch my flight. With only 2 hours before departure my friend and I made it to the Hong Kong Airport Express, it's an airport service train station where you can actually perform your check-in outside the airport so that your luggage is taken directly to the airport and you hop on a direct train that permits you to avoid all the traffic.
When we arrived at the train station and approached the check-in counter for Hong Kong Airlines, the woman at the counter immediately asked me for my visa. For a moment I thought she was referring to my Hong Kong visa, seconds after that I realized that actually I don't even have a Hong Kong visa (not necessary) - then it hit me, "you mean a visa for Vietnam right?" I couldn't believe it! How could I have forgotten...
At this point my brain went into emergency mode, "I need a visa, OKAY. How do I get a visa? Tell me how can I get this visa ASAP?" ... Lady at the counter, "Just look online, you can get one there." ... Me: "OK, but when? If this visa arrives tomorrow there is no sense of us even going through this trouble right now." Lady: "There are 1 day services, 5 hour services, even 2 hour and 1 hour services, just google it".
I google, 200+ search results pop up. Hmmm over 200 websites offering visas for Vietnam... I dunno about you, but logic would tell me that for something official like a visa there should be ONLY ONE RELIABLE SOURCE - government website. Logic would also tell me that probably HALF of these websites are scams. That government website I was hoping to find was nowhere to be seen. After challenging this with the lady at Hong Kong Airlines' check-in counter, she confirmed that these random websites were the norm and that probably, many of them could be scams - but she couldn't confirm which ones. The funny thing was, some of these sites offered a 1 hour visa service, while others did not offer the same - lack of consistency... hmmm...
DEEP BREATH, I send my credit card details to this one random site and pray - www.govietnamvisa.com
128 USD LATER, I get a confirmation that my payment has been received. The lady at the counter looks at me and strongly suggests I leave to the airport immediately otherwise I risk missing my plane!
While on the express train to the airport I receive an email from govietnam.com, you can read it below:
I just paid a TON of money for an express 1 hour service, and now they say it won't be ready until tomorrow morning at 10:30am? They want MORE money? At this point I was panicking and pretty much convinced this was a scam. Have you ever watched that episode of Black Mirror where the guy keeps getting texts for instructions on what he must do next, only to be dug deeper and deeper into a mess he can't remove himself from? Well that's what I was afraid I was getting myself into!
Once we got to the airport, we ran over to Hong Kong Airlines customer service desk to see if they could give us some insight as to whether this request for additional payment is legit. In summary, they said they could not confirm whether this site is legit or not - but that many of their passengers have done the express visas in the past with these "agencies", and requests for additional payments is part of a normal procedure. This all still seemed sketchy to me, and I still had no way to rule out whether this site was a scam. I was definitely caught between a rock and hard place, so another DEEP BREATH - send off 70 USD so I can board the plane. Within about 10 mins the visa arrives, the Hong Kong Airlines staff prints the visa and tells me to RUN to the gate.
Once we get to the gate, it's final call. I show them the printed out "visa?" and it's accepted! I was almost surprised they actually let me board with this paper? All good, I thought I was all set now... UNTIL... I receive another email, see below.
So... I am instructed to DESTROY this visa, not to talk to any authorities, pay MORE money and bring photos - and if I make any mistakes I'll be sent back on the next plane to Hong Kong. Let's just say the whole plane ride I was incredibly nervous and had no idea if I was involved in something illegal now and I'd go to jail! Haha Sometimes I can be pretty dramatic, but honestly here I just had no idea and I was pretty SCARED.
Once we landed in Hanoi I opened up the email again and read the instructions CAREFULLY. Someone was supposed to be waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper and was expecting another 25 USD in cash. As I entered the airport I saw my name right away on a small clipboard at a small desk away from the customs counter. The guy asked me for my passport, the 25 USD + photos - all I had was my passport. How am I supposed to have USD in cash??? The guy directed me to an ATM where I could take out Vietnamese Dong + some extra money for the photos I obviously didn't have on hand.
After waiting for a bit, a REAL visa got stickered into my passport. I went to customs and I was cleared - no questions asked.
What the hell was that all about, 250 USD later? Well it seems to me that the visa itself actually costed only 25 euros, and the remainder of the costs were service fees + most very likely some facilitation payments. Quite the first experience for me!
Moral of the story is - remember to research in advance whether you need a visa! If you forget to get a visa, you can do it in as little as 1 hour for a PRETTY price. It's a bit of sketchy process, but at least you can now better understand how it works and what to expect. When I was going through this, unfortunately I could not find any blogs or info about this process. So I hope I can help out some other poor travellers like me!
Was all of this money and anxiety worth it? YES - Vietnam really impressed me and exceeded many of my expectations!
