Vietnam is supposedly closer to Hong Kong than Thailand, but we've been programmed to head to Thailand when we look for a tropical paradise. A big reason is because we can enter Thailand visa-free, but Vietnam requires an onerous visit to the dingy consulate in Wanchai's back streets, paying a fortune, and returning a few days later to get my passport back with the visa.

Hence, while I can fly to Thailand at the last minute for a weekend enjoying good food, a spa, and more, I can't do the same for Vietnam. Even now, 9 years after my last visit, despite being able to apply online for an e-visa, it still takes a few business days to process. Vietnam is clearly an outlier compared to other popular Southeast Asian countries for tourists. Cambodia allows on-arrival visa, while Malaysia and Singapore are visa-free for us.

Hong Kong Express has been offering very good specials in recent months. Each time, they pick a few cities to offer rock-bottom fares, so when Nha Trang came up, it was too good to be true. A roundtrip including taxes costed only HKD $913 (USD $115). They're at the tail end of dry season so I was confident I won't be caught up in a whole weekend of rain. Booking almost a full month before departure, it gave me plenty of time to apply for the e-visa, and never visit that dingy consulate again.

Carefully planning my flight south, I opted to pay an extra charge to secure a front window seat on the right side of the plane, hoping to capture a snapshot of Nha Trang's beachfront and skyline on final approach. With such a cheap ticket, the $60 seat charge was comparatively insignificant.

I was able to online check-in but it spat out a message at the end to pick up my boarding pass at the airport. I presume they need to check my visa paperwork is in order. So I arrived at the airport more than 90 minutes early to find the check-in line extremely short.

The agent checked my visa print-out in detail and weighed my hand-carry before affixing the cabin-approved label on it. It was slightly overweight but he wasn't so interested in my offer to move some of the weight to my backpack. So off I go!

Security took a bit of time with huge crowds and a more normalized departure schedule compared to before the pandemic. I emerged air-side seeing far more people and almost all shops open again.

With my gate across the Sky Bridge and plenty of time on hand, I did some plane spotting and noticed a special livery Cathay jet!

Last time I came through a few months ago in the evening, the unmanned store was closed. Not today, but defeating the purpose of having an unmanned store is a staff outside watching over the store and helping curious customers on how it works.

Start by scanning your credit card to open the gate. Inside, it was like a typical 7-11 with a mix of toiletries and food, but prices are over the roof, with the frozen dim sum costing double compared to the supermarket.

If you are wondering whether you will be eating the dim sum cold, don't worry. After you check out and exit the store's gate, there is a microwave off to your right.

Leaving without buying anything, I headed up the Sky Bridge and noticed a plane had just passed through.

Hong Kong Express was sold off to Cathay Pacific before the pandemic as the Hainan Airlines group fell under hard times and could barely pay off its debts.

Although I passed the first round of weight check, I was a bit worried they will check again at the gate, Ryanair-style. Luckily, that didn't happen and I boarded with my slightly overweight hand carry but without paying any additional charges!

Seat pitch was very tight and I barely squeezed my legs into the row. Luckily, it's under 2 hours to reach Nha Trang so I hoped for the best. We pushed back a few minutes ahead of schedule at 3:22pm and taxied to the far end of the airport to take off at 3:40pm.

As we departed, the Hong Kong Observatory would imminently change the typhoon warning signal to 3 as Super Typhoon Saola approaches the city. I was a little worried whether my return flight a few days later would be cancelled.

We took off towards the east and turned south just past Disneyland and the infamous Penny's Bay quarantine camp. Even this time last year, COVID patients would be isolated in there.

What a contrast between a children's wonderland and an imprisonment camp next door.

The weather was actually quite decent and the flight was smooth. With an hour and 44 minutes flight time, I kept busy on my phone since there was no inflight entertainment. The crew came by selling duty-free and I saw some pockets of blue sky over the South China Sea. Hong Kong Express doesn't allow passengers to bring outside food on board so I pre-ordered a bottle of water, which the crew delivered before we took off.

At 5:02pm, we started our descent and I spotted the Vietnamese coastline, albeit with lots of clouds. I was a bit surprised given it is dry season but still hopeful the city's skyline would emerge soon.

My hopes were dashed as we descended into a huge cloud and bounced around a bit. There were walls of rain all around us and the next time I could see land, we were on final approach with the city nowhere to be seen.

We landed at 5:28pm, or an hour earlier local time. The airport looked empty and it was still raining. It took us some time to taxi into a new terminal building to end this short flight. I didn't have much planned for the rest of the day given it's already late afternoon, so I wasn't too entirely up set with the weather. Visiting the night market would be fine with or without rain.

It was only a short walk to the immigration counters after getting off the plane, where a staff held us while the previous flight's passengers were still being processed. With my e-visa printed out and sitting at the front, I was luckily stamped in shortly. Heading downstairs, a few money changers off to the left were all offering 22,000 dong for every USD and the staff were out wooing customers like a big sale. The terminal looked really nice but I hope it'll get busier soon as Vietnam hopes to attract more tourists.

All passengers need to scan their bags at customs and I exited into the open-air arrivals hall. Noticing the bus ticket counter, I headed over asking about the public bus to the city. The staff there spoke decent English and told me the city bus would come in an hour but a shared minibus can take me directly to my hotel for 100k dong.

We arrived at a fairly quiet time of the day, with barely any international arrivals. The bulk of the activity would be late at night when a number of Korean flights arrive. By now, it is only half hour after my plane landed.

The shared minibus was very nice with comfortable seats but we waited until it was full before setting off into the city. The journey was long as there are no highways connecting Cam Ranh with Nha Trang, taking some 40 minutes on a narrow but well-paved road with the rain picking up once again.