Easy Travel Day Bali to South Korea via Ho Chi Minh

I’m on the move again, its finally time to leave Bali and head to my next destination. Super excited about this move. The travel day will be relatively short compared to many I have done, but tiring as its through a night and includes a red eye. My easy travel day Bali to South Korea via SGN Ho Chi Minh is underway.

DPS Bali

First step was getting a Grab ride from Sanur to DPS which is a distance of 16km and took 50min at a cost of $12 CAD. The airport was smokin’ busy. One unusual thing visitors will find here, is that everyone must put all belongings through an Xray security before you can even reach the check in desks.

I arrived at the 3-hour mark, just before my check-in desk opened and thank goodness I did because I barely had time to grab something to eat at the boarding gate, the airport is that congested and time consuming.

After check-in, the next hurdle is security. The line for this was soooo long, weaving its way through the airport with no stanchions in place. This meant, that of course there were multiple times people butted in, making those who were waiting in the queue very frustrated. No joke, this line took just over 45 minutes.

Next line is this same group of people but now in line for nearly another 45 minutes to get through immigration. The officers do ask questions, some more than others, especially if you have been in the country for more than 30 days. I did see one lady being accompanied to the ‘room’ to presumably pay the steep fine for her overstay.

Departure Lounge

This area is quite dark, not overly pleasant even though it appears relatively new. There is not a whole lot of food selection, so I grabbed what I could that had the shortest line. Chicken fingers and fries (yuck), but I was hungry and needed to fill my belly a little before my budget flight with no free food or water.

DPS to SGN

The flight on VietJet was the norm. I have come to expect uncomfortable, threadbare seats, dirty worn aircraft and zero service. This flight was the same. But at least I had a window seat, yay!

Flying into SGN was just as cool as the previous trip. The city is huge and sprawling and the layout of the industrial complexes fascinating.

SGN Ho Chi Minh City

Facing a six-hour layover, from 7pm to 1am, I walked around trying to find somewhere to charge my phone. I ate dinner in a small dimly lit food area on the upper floor. The food was not good to be honest, garlic vegetables and fried dumplings. I was craving vegetables but should have stuck to something more benign.

This airport looks really old. It is dark, dirty, has a shopping strip mall type vibe of the stores down each row of gates. There are a few places to eat and have a delicious Vietnamese coffee which is what I did.

I found a prettier bar at one end and they had seating with an electrical outlet. Sold! Here I had two cups of tea $4 US EACH, one mango sticky rice which was delicious as only fresh fruit can be at 11pm.

SGN to BUS

As my next departure approached, I headed to the gate. I found myself and one other couple the only foreigners on this full flight. Another leg with VietJet and the exact same scenario as always. At least they are predictable.

It is astounding how little the VietJet crew follow procedure. My seatmate, pictured above, not only did not have her seat belt fastened for takeoff, but had her tray down and this huge stuffie on her lap. The crew didn’t even glance into our row before takeoff. 🤯 I flew through the night and arrived in South Korea at 7:30am local time.

BUS Busan

At the arrivals hall I followed the others to quarantine and then to immigration. Here I was met with two different people handing out two different forms that I needed to fill out and given to various officers. My airline did not provide these forms in advance, but I noticed that other travellers had them, so know that these might be provided by your airline.

These are the two forms. They are simple to fill out, logical, in English and the information required is easily on hand. The large yellow one is handed to an officer at the quarantine desk, no questions are asked.

The smaller card is handed to the immigration officer, who didn’t look at me. He waved for me to place my two index fingers on the reader, then to look at the camera for a photo. I was handed back my passport and left that area.

Next was baggage claim which is straight forward. My flight was coming from Vietnam and the baggage reel was comical in the number of large, yellow wrapped Styrofoam containers that were rolling around, jostling for space with all of the suitcases. Do these contain seafood I wonder?

SIM Card & Cash

Because I could not check into my Airbnb until 4pm (no exceptions!), I had time to kill. I walked the entire airport, arrivals and departures to see what all of the SIM card vendors were offering. No surprise, everyone had the same listed price. After humming and hawing, and speaking with another couple who were also deciding what to do, I coughed up the hugely high sum of $70 CAD!!! For 30 days.

This is the most expensive I have paid anywhere in the world for a SIM card. Why did I decide to pay knowing the airport prices are always the highest? Because I am solo, wanted to take public transport to my condo, needed google maps (which turns out doesn’t’ work in Korea), and needed the security that having data provided me.

Cash. Having read that the ATM’s that accept foreign cards might be difficult to find, I wanted to get cash at the airport, thinking surely there would be a machine here that would take my card. After much looking and asking at information there is indeed one single machine for visitors to use.

After leaving the baggage claim, walk to your right. You will see a line of machines beside a bank. Most of these machines are for currency exchange, however the one on the far left, will take your international debit card. There is a fee for the transaction, which worked out to be around $3 for me.

I’m in Busan! I can’t believe it! I am utterly thrilled to be in Korea and to be exploring a new destination.