SIN-SGN-DAD-SGN-SIN In One Day

[SQ22]

I went on a work trip to Vietnam almost two weeks back. The intention was to spend a night in Da Nang, then come down to Ho Chi Minh City, where I would spend two nights, before returning to Singapore. However, as luck would have it, a family emergency occurred and I had to return on the same day.

My flight schedule was supposed to have been as follows:

21 April: Tiger Airways TR2322 (SIN-SGN)
21 April: Vietjet Air VJ626 (SGN-DAD)
22 April: Jetstar Pacific BL595 (DAD-SGN)
24 April: Tiger Airways TR2329 (SGN-SIN)

I was at Changi Airport by 5:45am to check in for my 7:05am flight. I always hate morning flights, preferring to go for something more earthly, like 9:30am. However, I did not have a choice this time as I had a connecting Vietjet Air flight at 10:40am to catch.

Check-in was done in a breeze and since I had more than an hour to my flight, I zoomed over to Terminal 1 to visit my lounge to catch some breakfast. Note that I was to fly on Tiger Airways, and I hate to spend $12 on a meal.



I have been to the Oasis Wellness Lounge many times, but still here I was to catch some chow. I do not have Priority Pass, and the only lounge that my ANZ card brings me to is this lounge.



Simple offerings at the Wellness Lounge. The perennial chicken rice is there. Not that I love it. I went for some hash browns and instant noodles. Instant noodles, though cheap, is always a safe choice if everything else fails.

By 6:25am, I was done. I took the Skytrain back to Terminal 2, where I hurried to Gate F37 for my Tiger Airways flight. This gate is located at a bend within the terminal, so I was not able to see the plane fully from the holding gate.



There was a dirty Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 parked next door at Gate F42. I did not check where it was headed to. I was still groggy when I took this early-morning shot, having had just 3.5 hours of sleep. Eventually my plane took off from Runway 02C.



Flying over the South China Sea. I love the deep blue sky... The yellow wingtip reminded me that I was on a Tiger aircraft.



My aircraft making a U-turn over the Mekong Delta before straightening itself for its final approach for Runway 25L. This time of the year, most flights would follow this path. You could see a whole swathe of industrial territory under you, chock full of factories, warehouses and storage tanks, as the aircraft banked left, then left again to head westwards. The terminal you see here is Cat Lai Port, the largest and most modern container terminal facility in Vietnam.



After landing at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Our gate was not available yet as we arrived about 20 minutes early and the prior aircraft was still occupying it!



Upon clearing immigration, I immediately headed for the Domestic Terminal, just five minutes by foot away, along a sheltered walkway. Somehow, the exterior of this terminal was more modern-looking than that of the International Terminal.



I wasted no time in checking in for my Vietjet Air flight to Da Nang. It was going to be my first trip to the resort city. I had booked this trip way back in February, so I paid only S$31 for it, all in. Vietjet Air is positioned as a fun and wacky airline, not unlike Scoot, and I was eager to try it.



Tan Son Nhat Domestic Terminal, airside. This place was probably renovated over the last few years, as I do not recall seeing anything like this during my last trip here in September 2009. It was totally modern and totally refreshing. There was a row of three F&B eateries.



Star Cafe (western cafe), Big Bowl (pho shop) and Banh Mi Kep (Viet sandwhich place), all arranged in a nice, convenience layout. Apart from Star Cafe, the outlets specialised in traditional Vietnamese fare, though the facade and operations were definitely Western. Well, you have to catch up with the times and cater to the tourists if you were to make it big on the international stage!

To be continued ...

[SQ22]

SIN-SGN-DAD-SGN-SIN In One Day

... Continued from previous post



Star Cafe specialises in light bites like pastries and coffee, both Western and Vietnamese. I didn't want to be drinking Western coffee while in Vietnam, plus I have a thing for ca phe Viet Nam (Vietnamese coffee), so I ordered just that. I also went next door and ordered goi cuon (rice paper roll).



The rice paper roll was great. It tasted authentic enough and came with the all-important pickled soya bean sauce. But never in my wildest dreams did I expect to receive my Viet coffee in a Starbucks-style cup! Well, I was rather disappointed with this, but I knew I was in an airport. And if you were running a business, you don't expect yourself to go too far if you didn't adapt to the tastes of the modern flying consumers. Singapore Airlines and its modern presentation of delectable traditional cuisine is a fine example of this approach.



So it was time to board. A long line formed at Gate 16, and we were all herded onto a stuffy, overly-packed bus, but not before a local woman tried to cut my queue and got rebuked by me. Note that this bus wasn't the type you get in Changi, with a low step for ease of access. This is the normal type of commuter transport you take to school or work. I stood beside the driver for a good five minutes before he got the go-ahead to drive to our waiting plane.



So this colourful plane was to be my air transport that would bring me to Da Nang. I had known about Vietjet Air for a while, but this was my first flight on this airline. Kudos to the entrepreneur who started this airline and enabled the masses to criss-cross the socialist country. Each time I think about Vietjet Air, I think of AirAsia's slogan, "Now Everyone Can Fly."



Every Vietjet Air aircraft has an advertisement painted on its fuselage. During my breakfast in the terminal building, I had noticed one with the familiar Pepsi logo sailing by. Well, this one carried the happy trio Mickey, Minnie and Donald. I think some Disney musical was coming to town.

I had taken a shot of the famed Vietjet Air girls, in their long, golden hair, red shirts and khaki shorts but it turned out blurred as one of them stopped me, causing my hands to jerk. It was too lousy to post up here. I had just settled in my seat when I was informed of a family emergency. What happened next was extraordinary. I promptly made plans to cancel my trip and return to Singapore.

Once I landed in Da Nang, I tried to secure return flights home. SilkAir had a flight back to SIN via REP, however there was no more award ticket available for redemption. The next VJ flight to SGN was prohibitively expensive, at VND2,000,000. Good thing I remembered about BL (Jetstar Pacific). A ticket would cost a fraction of what VJ charged, at just VND749,000. I also redeemed an Economy Saver award ticket on Singapore Airlines for that evening. Because it was a last-minute redemption, I burned 21,250 miles instead of the usual 10,625. But at least my flights home were secure: BL597 DAD-SGN and SQ185 SGN-SIN.



The Jetstar Pacific flight was uneventful. I landed back in Ho Chi Minh City at approximately 5:45pm local time. This was going to be the final time I would get to experience the mighty presence of the aircraft and hear the whistle of the engines on the tarmac.



With two hours to spare, I settled in my usual haunt: The Apricot Lounge in the International Terminal. As I wolfed down my instant noodles with hard-boiled egg and munched rice crackers, I took a photo of the Turkish Airlines jet berthed next door. TK69 flies daily on the SGN-BKK route, before continuing on to IST. Each time I think about TK, I think about its role in ferrying brainwashed people to join the ongoing conflict in its southern neighbour and I can't help but feel sad thinking that Turkey hasn't done enough to control the situation.



Time to board my beloved SQ aircraft at Gate 20. I normally take a snapshot of the plane from the large windows in SGN, but SQ185 was an evening flight and the reflection from indoors effectively masked whatever nice view I had. Still, I could not help but smile when I boarded my aircraft. Having taken three narrowbody jets earlier in the day, walking through an aircraft with a 2-4-2 configuration was very much welcome. After all the euphoria associated with saving your hard-earned dollars by flying on budget airlines, one still comes down to reality: Nothing quite beats flying on a full-fledged airline! The better food, the better service, the IFE, the multiple lavatories all make a difference to the flying experience!



The male FA you see on the right was a pretty nice chap. Speaking good English, he made sure my needs were attended to. Now this is something you don't get on Tiger or Jetstar or Vietjet Air! The Caucasian lady seated to my right chatted me up. It turned out that she and her husband had been living in Vietnam for 15 years. She runs a PR/branding consultancy and hubby runs a timber import/distribution business. She was on her way to London to oversee renovation to her investment property just outside the city.



My chow for this short flight. I chose fish with pasta over beef with rice. As usual I washed my meal down with coffee and Singapore Sling.

[SQ22]

SIN-SGN-DAD-SGN-SIN In One Day



These days I like to take angled zoom-ins of my food. I thought the fish pasta was pretty decent.



Yeah, my Singapore Sling, housed in a disposable cup. Till this day I wonder what the glass that the plastic cup sat in was used for. Can someone enlighten me?

My seating companion was slated to depart on SQ322 at 11:30pm. All was well, except for a tiny problem. Our flight out of SGN had departed late and we weren't expected to land till 11:00pm! But our fears were allayed when we realised that because we were flying with SQ, connecting flights would be well taken care of. True enough, the Captain announced that a ground staff would be waiting at the gate to assist passengers on four different connecting flights. It also helped that we landed in Terminal 3. No more shuttling between two faraway terminals.

As soon as we landed, my newfound friend hurried to meet the well-dressed Indian man standing before a sign with the flight numbers. That was the last time I saw her. I proceeded to Belt 37 to collect my check-in luggage but it took a long while before the first bags appeared.

So, I had come to the end of my trip. I had departed Singapore at 7:05am and landed back on home ground at 11:00pm. Not exactly my idea of a fun trip but well, life has its unpredictable moments.

Hope you guys enjoyed this short trip report!

[dfs24]

Those miles are really handy in situation like this. Almost got around to trying VietJet last year, but they cancelled my flight. Looks like they are quite acceptable to fly.

Hope it was nothing too serious and thanks for writing the report

[lcpteck]

I'm assuming the glass that the plastic cup sat in is heavy enough so it prevents the plastic cup from tipping over when there's turbulence. That's just my guess.

[SQ22]

So the glass is not actually to hold any drink on its own, yeah?

[flying.monkeyz]

There was a dirty Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 parked next door at Gate F42. I did not check where it was headed to. I was still groggy when I took this early-morning shot, having had just 3.5 hours of sleep. Eventually my plane took off from Runway 02C.

I must say that's a mighty strange-looking Airbus A330-300.

[SQ22]

I must say that's a mighty strange-looking Airbus A330-300.

Lol... I just noticed the registration. It's a B777-300ER.