My favourite kind of itinerary
SIN to Vietnam, HCM
HCM TO Japan, Fukuoka
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Realised after the trip that the 4 planes I took do not have individual entertainment station. But it did not affect my mood travelling in Vietnam Airlines. Seat comfortable, not too narrow with good food and staff are nice. Afterall I will be sleeping in the plane. What more do I want with good offer at only $540 to go Japan?
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Meaning we leave Singapore on Saturday, 8pm. I will have apx 1.5 hour of shopping in the airport. I can sleep all the way from HCM to Fukuoka in plane and reach Japan at 7.30am. I save a day's hotel cost ($150) yeahhhh. It is also very good to break the flight into 2, so that we need not sit in the plane for straight 7 hours.
As planned, we landed in HCM Airport and started to hunt for our favourite coffee. The airport looks different this time compared to 2015 when there are lots of renovations going on.
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HCM Airport now has a lounge for sleep at one corner. You can rent a small partitioned corner to sleep at USD7 per hour. Otherwise you can sleep for free in the open on those benches or inclined chairs. Needless to say, you need to be very lucky to secure these chairs.
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We do realized that all food and shopping items were displayed in USD. Unlike previously there were both Don and USD. They will convert to Don if you request for it.
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| This is what I get after trying out after my trip. Portion not too small. Taste good actually. |
We also learnt that if we want to transit in HCM International airport, we need to follow our boarding time v closely. We will have to depart together in a bus to reach our plane. Not all planes are linked via air bridge.
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| Trust me. It is not a bad thing to do transit when travelling. You get to eat 2 meals on board plane. I think Vietnam Airlines offer the best on board meals so far. Supersede the ones from SIA. |
It took 2 hours to trave from SGD to HCM, then another 5 hours from HCM to Fukuoka.
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When you exit the custom exit at Fukuoka Airport, do not rush to get out.
Turn right, there is a small japanese cafe selling local food. If you drink coffee, you will ended up having a small cup at 400yen.
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Fukuoka International airport arrival hall is very small. So it is very good for 1st time traveller. All services and information can be found within a glance. Tourist information, express bus. There is also a prepaid mobile card kiosk located next to the custom door. The prepaid card were priced very expensively. So it is always better to get a starhub happy card when we visit Japan. Check this link if you need to know more. Starhub Happy Roam card.. Yes I paid only SGD$5 for my 3 days 1 GD of data is Japan.
We decided to take an express bus and we reach Hakata Station in less than half an hour. By the way the subway is only 2 stations away from airport to Hakata. When we were at Osaka or Tokyo, the first thing we saw upon leaving airport is residential buildings. However in Fukuoka, you see big factory immediately the bus make a turn out from airport. Hakata Bus Station is located indoor. Just like our Ang Mo Kio Bus terminal. But it is located in different level. We need to figure out how to get to the level we want. So we followed the crowd and ended up in B1. We cannot find our way for the East Exit, We walked and kept finding ourselves in the West exit.
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| These food street are definately not helping us as it kept distracting us LOL. |
Eventually we went up to Level 1 and realised we need to get to Level 1 to the Hakata Central, before we can find the signages to our East Exits.
With a little more navigating, we found our way to Richmond Hotel Fukuoka. Checked in time is at 2pm. It is only 11plus in the morning, hotel staff informed us that they will arrange for our bags to be left in our room at 2pm. We will just show our voucher to them and they will direct us to our room numbers. How convenient.
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Decided to have our 1st Fukuoka meal immediately after leaving our bags with hotel. So we took some time to find ourselves back at this food street at West Entrance Basement 1.
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| We have a good meal here. Scallops at only 370Yen for both huge scallops. Fatty Tuna, 270Yen only. Huge slices. |
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At level 1 just at Central Zone, you can find gift shops selling all sorts of Hakata goodies. The shops stretch all the way to AMU east shopping mall. Spolit for choices. Knowing I have only 3 days here, I started to grap everything to try when I reach home in Singapore. I also went to Seven Eleven to get the instant Ramen. This instant Ramen has a piece of round meat when you eat them. Understand it is exclusively sold in Japan 7 Eleven outlets only. So it is very worth to bring them all the way home.
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| Finally its already after 2pm. Its a good time to check in. Hotel staff already left our luggages in our room. So we just got to get the keys from the front desk. No deposit required. They even provide some small gifts. 3 nights stay, we chan choose 3. I chosed the 2 face mask and 1 disposable shower cap. The mini fridge do not have any drinks which is good. We need not account for their stocks. We can get drinks at level 2 at normal prices, hotel stated in our check in slip. We did not try out as we only come to know about it upon check out. |
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2nd meal for the trip. Went for their infamous Hakata Ramen. There is a Ramen street on level 2 just the food street near to AMU East shopping mall. The whole street has only Ramen stall. Wanted to try Shin Shin Ramen, the much talked about in the internet. Decided not to try out Shin Shin as the queue was so long and cost more expensive. Decided to try out this store. We took the set with the Hakata speciaty. Fish Eggs. Taste salted and good for plain rice. As for noodles, guessed all Japanese love salty soup. The soup is too Salty for us. The bones taste is strong. We ended up only eating the ramen without soup and drank plenty of plain water. Guess Ramen not for us in Japan. I remembered the Ramen in Tokyo were as salty.
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