The Peninsula Bangkok – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Monday, August 28th, 2023

We were on our way to the airport by 7:30 AM. We needed to leave early because of the rush hour traffic.

We arrived with plenty of time to check-in and go through security which was very thorough. We had a long line to wait in to get through customs.

Our flight left on time and we landed in Ho Chi Minh city at 1:13 PM. It was hot and very humid. We were told that in Vietnam they had two types of weather hot and hotter!

We transferred from the airport to the Sheraton in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon. The locals still call it Saigon and only write Ho Chi Minh City on all documents and papers of official capacity.

Traffic was heavy in Saigon and there were PLENTY of motorbikes!

The rest of the day was free for us. We went walking on the Nguyen Hue walking street. We left our hotel and this street wasn’t very far away but we had to cross some streets which was an experience in and of itself. Even at a crosswalk you had to look both ways and cross slowly because the cars and the motorbikes might or might not stop for you. But we successfully made it to the walking street which was one of Saigon’s main streets. In 2015 it became a wide pedestrian street and it ran from the People’s Committee building with a Ho Chi Minh statue down to the Saigon River. It was a popular place for locals in the evening.

From our hotel room we could see Nguyen Hue pedestrian street.

When we returned to our hotel we decided to have Pho soup with chicken. Dave also had spring rolls. It was a delicious meal.

We ended the evening with a glass of wine at the hotel’s Wine Bar on the 23rd floor. The views were awesome.

Our guide had told us that Vietnam wine wasn’t good so we had an Italian white wine and they served it in a frosted wine glass! Delicious!

Tomorrow we will tour and learn about Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon.

Thursday, August 24, 2023 & Friday, August 25, 2023

Our Uber driver picked us up a little before 8:00 AM (after the first driver canceled on us) to take us to the airport. It was raining heavily with thunder and lightning!

We flew from Columbus to Minneapolis, Minnesota on Delta Airlines and it was on time! We thought this was good for us because we had 10 minutes before boarding began for our second flight! But when we got off the plane we found out the gates weren’t even in the same terminal, from C 11 to F 14 and boarding had begun. We probably would have missed our flight to Seoul, S. Korea if Dave hadn’t asked a passenger cart driver to take us to our gate. It was so worth it. We tipped the driver well.

We left Minnesota and bound for Seoul at 1:00 PM on Thursday. When we landed in S. Korea it was Friday around 4:30 PM because we crossed the International Date Line. Our layover was a couple of hours and then we boarded for our third flight of the day that would take us to our final destination, Bangkok Thailand!

Going through Customs in Thailand went smoothly. Our baggage claim was at the other end of where we went through Customs! It was now after 10:00 PM. We retrieved our luggage quickly and walked 3/4 of the way down the exit before we saw our sign for our transfer! The airport was very busy and it took a while for the driver to get from the cell lot to pick us up. We waited outside the airport in the hot and humid weather.

Waiting for our driver outside the terminal.

It was about a 50 minute drive from the airport to our hotel. It was almost 1 AM by the time we checked in our room, got our luggage and got ready for bed! It was a long day and we would need to be up early for a tour of Bangkok!

Our hotel in Bangkok was gorgeous and our room was exceptional at The Peninsula Bangkok.