This post is just about getting all the details straight before embarking. And there are a lot.
First, our travel itinerary. We board a train in Brest at 6:28 A.M. which arrives in Minsk at 10:30 A.M. We then take another train at 7:21 P.M. to Vilnius, Lithuania that arrives at about 9:30 P.M. We stay overnight in Vilnius, taking a flight from Vilnius to Moscow to Bangkok. We stay in Bangkok for a little over a day and then take an afternoon flight from Bangkok to Danang, Vietnam where we get our 'visa on arrival'. We then have a car pick us up and drive us the 16 miles to our B&B in Hoi An.
Planning the trip was a complicated process. First, I needed to decide where we wanted to come to rest in Southeast Asia. Initially, I thought I would be traveling solo and I chose Pattaya, Thailand as entertaining. I didn't plan on staying for more than a month, but that was where I planned on starting, because it is a very good place to meet people. When that changed to traveling as a couple with a dog, Pattaya was then not the best choice.
So, I watched lots and lots of videos and read lots of blogs. They mostly advocated for Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. However, more and more, Vietnam started coming up. Indonesia and Malaysia were not choices because they weren't dog friendly. Thailand was often the first choice for Digital Nomads. But, lately, the visa situation has been getting more difficult. It is OK for 2 months, but beyond that they get testy with visa runs. If you decide to go for a long term visa, they want you to put a pretty hefty amount in a Thai bank. Philippines is very attractive, but it is either very rustic or more expensive. Now that they have reopened Boracay, it does look like one of the better choices, though it definitely is not inexpensive.
So, I started watching lots and lots of videos on Vietnam. Hanoi and HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City, the old Saigon) are very popular with Digital Nomads, but they are a bit more expensive and much more urban. Much of them are still the Vietnam that most people think of but they are building newer, Western friendly accommodations. In general, they didn't appear that attractive to me. So, I started looking at Danang, the third largest city in Vietnam. It is going through a boom and My Khe Beach, made famous in America as China Beach, is turning into an upscale, international destination with luxury high rises lining the beach. However, 18 miles away is Hoi An and, clearly, per the videos, visitors from all over the Anglosphere fall in love with it.
I was able to find a B&B with a 35 m^2 room and a balcony, buffet breakfast and accepts our dog for 490USD per month. All of Hoi An receives reviews with much higher ratings than any other place I've ever seen, not just in SE Asia, but anywhere. Cleanliness and service are the features that people rave over. As I dug into all the features of Hoi An, it became the clear winner and I booked a room from Nov. 19 to December 19.
So, next, it became a matter of the best way to get from Brest, Belarus to Hoi An. That is complicated by the dog. Aeroflot and Ukraine Air are dog friendly and inexpensive. Turkish Air is inexpensive and takes dogs but charges over $200 per leg for them. Most of the other airlines are expensive and take dogs or are inexpensive and don't.
Next, I needed to consider what airport would be our departure point. At first I thought that we would take a train to either Warsaw or Minsk and fly from there. Brest is actually closer to Warsaw, but the train is less expensive to Minsk. The first thing I found out was that flying to Bangkok and then to Danang was much cheaper than flying to Danang directly. I tried flying to Hanoi or HCMC and then to Danang and that didn't help. The difference was between about 900USD and $600USD per ticket. So, I was planning on a train to Minsk and then flights from Minsk to Moscow to Bangkok to Danang.
I got lucky in a bizarre way. Strictly speaking Social Security does not pay beneficiaries if they are living in Belarus. You can file for an exception with the State Department, which we did. But, after seven months and numerous calls, we had not yet received any Social Security payments. They owed us thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. That money was the difference between just getting by and having all the money we needed to enjoy SE Asia. So, I hatched a plan. We would rent an apartment for a month in Vilnius, do the change of address and and get the money released. Then we would leave to Bangkok from Vilnius. When I went to check the flights, I found that the tickets were just 330USD, which saved another $340.
At the last moment the State Department released our Social Security, so Vilnius wasn't necessary. But it still was the correct choice money-wise on the flights. So I booked two tickets from Vilnius to Moscow to Bangkok on November 17, arriving in Bangkok on November 18 and two tickets from Bangkok to Danang on November 19. I still needed to book hotels for one night in Vilnius and one night in Bangkok. I could try to do it all without breaks but there are two very good reasons not to do that.
First, we would need to get up at 3:00 A.M. to get a train that would get us to Minsk and then to Vilnius by 6:20 P.M. when our flight left for Bangkok. Then at 6:00 A.M. (Brest time) we would need to rush to catch the flight to Danang, arriving around 9:00 A.M. (Brest time) and then take a car to Hoi An, arriving at our B&B around 10:00 A.M. That is 31 hours of constant going. To say that it would be exhausting is a vast understatement. Two, and this is the most important, if any of our legs were late on their arrivals, we would miss the rest of the flights to Danang. These cheap tickets are not refundable and we would need to buy new tickets, spend more on hotel rooms while our B&B in Hoi An would still be charging us, even though we weren't there. Thus, one night in Vilnius and one night in Bangkok.
Vilnius is a small city, but because it is the Capital, it has an International Airport. Consequently, when I put one night, near the airport and takes a dog in Agoda, then Bookings.com, I got nothing. There were two that met the criteria in downtown and one looked good enough for one night and cost 45USD. So, I booked it. Bangkok is a huge city and I had lots of choices, but I chose one relatively near the airport and close to a huge mall. I figured that would be important if we forgot something essential. Good thing I did.
Vietnam has become a 'come on in; stay as long as you like' kind of place with 30 day, 90 day, six month and one year visas. We decided to get 90 day multiple entry visas. We applied for them through ivisa.com and everything was quick and smooth with a minimum of paperwork.
A month in advance we got the dog current on all shots and updated the 'pet passport'. Just before we leave we need to get a veterinarian certificate of health that is good for only 5 days. So, we can't get it until November 15, leave the next day and clear passport control in Danang on Nov. 19. So, that just leaves the dog on the plane. Aeroflot was a breeze. I just called a number, asked for English (I could have done Russian but at B1 it would be frustrating for everyone) told them about the dog. They told me I was clear and that the cost would be $84 to have the dog in the cabin with us. The Vilnius to Moscow and the Bangkok to Danang legs are short but the Moscow to Bangkok leg is 9 hours and the dog would be traumatized if it was in the cargo bay the whole time.
Nothing was easy about the flight from Bangkok to Danang. Flights were either very expensive and took the dog or very inexpensive and didn't take the dog. The best alternative ended up being on Bangkok Air. I booked from their site, where I got a 102USD ticket that was not advertised on any of the usual sites. In fact, traveling with a dog in SE Asia is difficult. Bangkok Air only takes the dog in the cargo bay. But, they also only charge $33. It is a short trip, so I don't think the dog will be very traumatized, especially because, by then, she will be an experienced flyer. I bought the tickets, selected our seats and wrote down all the information. Good thing.
For some reason, my confirmation went to a Yahoo! e-mail address and Yahoo! threw it into the spam folder, which they only retain for a week. So, I lost it. After a whole lot of searching around, I finally found a place where I could communicate with Bangkok Air via e-mail and I told them the situation and that I needed to get the dog approved. I waited two days and then I received an e-mail giving me a different e-mail address. So, I cut and pasted the story into a new e-mail and sent it off to the new address. Three days later I got the confirmation e-mail and another e-mail telling me that I needed to tell them the breed and weight of our dog and the size of our dog carrier. In that e-mail I was told that it needs to be a hard sided dog carrier. Ours, because it works in a cabin, is soft sided. So, we are going to need to buy a hard carrier in Bangkok and use it for travel around SE Asia. That isn't a problem because, as I said, I booked us for 31 hours in Bangkok. This is another reason why you should take a break between legs.
We wanted to get vaccinated against Hepatitis and Typhoid, but our doctor in Brest told us that these shots are only available in the government clinic in Minsk. They are advised but not required in Vietnam, so we are going to risk it and get vaccinated upon arrival. I found a great site, hoiannow.com that has everything you need to know about living there. I also joined the Hoian and Danang expat Facebook groups. Between them all, I found that there is a U.S. trained doctor in Hoian that the expats love. Every three to six months, I need to get three tests, one for my diabetes and two for my cancer. Also, I have three medications that are 'prescription only' in some countries and OTC in others. Either way, it looks like it will not be a problem.
So, we are a week out and we have everything set except the dog certificate. Now, a lot of young DNs just fill a backpack, go to the airport, buy a ticket to wherever and go. Most have Schengen or U.S. passports, so if they need a visa at all, it will likely be a 'visa on arrival'. We aren't like that. We plan meticulously, but throw it out and make a new plan if the mood strikes us. WE are spontaneous, but, always, we are also prepared.
We had a two bedroom apartment and a studio apartment that my wife used as her retreat and atelier. We are letting the two bedroom apartment go, but we are keeping the studio. It comes with a very good sized storage locker where we will store the stuff from the big apartment. I still have a little bit of stuff that has not yet been moved out of the apartment, but that is it. Now, we just wait a week and GO!! I'll post again on train day. I'll also probably post some photos and maybe even a video.
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