My Travel Day Phuket to Osaka via SGN

This is a long venture, on the road for 30 hours but only a 2-hour time change. Today I will fly VietJet from Phuket to Ho Chi Minh city, have a 9-hour layover and then red eye to Osaka. Let’s go, here are the details of my travel day Phuket to Osaka via SGN Ho Chi Minh City.

Leaving Phuket

I am down towards the south of the island and the airport is at the north end. I have had, hands down, the cheapest rides on Phuket using Bolt. Both Grab and the local taxi’s have been significantly more every single time. Once they were double! Have a look at these comparisons that I kept record of.

Ride from Phuket airport to Phuket Old Town

Ride from Kamala Beach to Kata Beach

So Bolt it is, up to the airport, a ride of an hour and 15 minutes.

Phuket Airport HKT

Much larger than I anticipated, bright, clean and lots of shopping and food options. Expensive yes, I saw a Burger King, and after struggling with Thai food for the last few weeks, jumped at the chance to have a familiar taste and some beef. What I was not expecting was the price! $20 CAD for a double cheeseburger, fries and coke zero….ouch!!

There was a great view though, so while dined, I took photos and video clips for IG. 😋 There were soooo many Aeroflot aircraft!

HKT to SGN

Flying VietJet again and this time it was just fine for a budget airline. The Airbus A320 was tidy, the seats were worn, no smiles from staff, and no service. The usual. But what matters is getting from A to B safely, and that was successful.

Landing in Ho Chi Minh city for the first time, I was blown away by the size of the city, and just how close the airport is. It feels like you are landing inside the metropolis, lots of great views of buildings and skyscrapers.

Ta Son Nhat International Airport SGN

Big beautiful airport, full of light and clean. It felt great to be back in Vietnam and you bet I was on the lookout for an authentic coffee! I have a 9-hour layover here, from 5pm until 1:30am. I had a walk around to look at all of the cute shopping boutique stalls.

At dinner time, I checked in to the Rose Lounge, even after reading the bad reviews on line. They were not unfounded. The food is fairly abysmal, but the views are great.

The best thing to eat is the Pho, noodle soup, which I doctored up with fresh lime, salty peanuts and crunchy fried onion bits.

The lounge was a nicer area, quite with comfy seating and a more pleasant place to while away the three hours I was allotted.

SGN to KIX

The wee hours of the morning finally rolled around and I boarded a VietJet Airbus A321 to Osaka. Again, the flight was just fine, five-hour duration, no service, not even a sip of water. You get what you pay for. 🤣

My seat was so worn, I could feel the metal bars underneath poking through at my back side. 😐 Interesting to note too, that I was the only Caucasian person on the whole plane. 😁 The landing was fine and here I am, in Osaka Japan!

KIX Arrivals

On the plane, you are provided with two paper forms to complete. One is for immigration and the other for customs. They are straight forward, and even though I haven’t had to fill these out in years, they were not difficult.

At immigration I was asked several questions, and had a paper stamp placed in my passport! How cool is that! Welcome to Japan Carol. ☺️

I am not able to check-in to my Airbnb until 3pm and its now only 8:30am, so I will spend the time, having breakfast at a beautiful café, lovely hot coffee and a sweet roll. I’ll get my steps in, withdraw some Japanese Yen, and purchase a SIM card.

Never the cheapest option to do at the airport, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving without data this time. I approached a counter, too expensive so went to the next one. I explained to the young man than I only need about 10G for the whole month, not each day. 🤣 They don’t have a whole lot of cheap options, but he did reduce the price from the advertised 6,000 yen to 4,000 yen for the cheapest SIM card. Interesting and good to know there is wiggle room in the advertised prices. 🧐

Bus Ride

I took a ‘limousine bus’ from the airport to downtown Osaka, to the stop that was the closest to my flat. I had to use a machine to buy the ticket. Cost 1,800 yen or $16.15 CAD. Everything is located outside the exit doors. If you want, I can do a detailed post about this with added photo’s, excellent service straight into downtown.