I feel like i should fill in some back story here. There was so much excitement to visit Vietnam and so much detailed planning that went into the 5x week long “Great Airbnb Trek”. However there was some panic to set in due to some rookie errors. There was several changes to the locations planned for Vietnam, which was purely in the interest of reducing travel time. We both agreed it was important to get to our rentals easily after our flights. As we didn’t want to get bus’s or trains to other locations, we settled on Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh as the Vietnam stops.
It was just over 1 week out from the beginning of the trip. I had spent a couple of weeks researching and contacting various outlets seeking approval to fly a drone in Vietnam. I never did get that approval. In fact, I never even received a single response from anyone. In the process this is where I realised the rookie mistake. Having travelled to Thailand so many times and not requiring a visa for an under a 30 day stay, I assumed it would be similar. Australians absolutely must have a visa to enter Vietnam. There are two ways to get one. To get a visa on arrival you first need a letter of approval. Don’t get caught out on this one with online scams. Generally obtaining a visa on arrival is only applicable when you travel through other countries first before arriving in Vietnam as this makes getting one prior a real challenge. A quick Google search will find any number of sites offering letter of approval for a fee. However if you visit the Vietnamese Embassy website, they list there, along with a warning of all those sites stating that they are not authorised to provide such approvals. That leaves the only other option of obtaining a visa before arrival.
This is where panic set in. The online application is new and not yet complete. So that was out. That left a big problem as there is only one Embassy in Australia and it is located in Canberra. That eliminates the ability to apply in person. Two issues with that.
- We now have to post our application and time is not on our side
- Our Original Passports are required to be sent with our application.
So off to the post office we went, new passport sized photos had to go with the application. As you can imagine, sending your real passport in the mail is scary enough. This was just one week out from the trip and we were sending our passports away in the mail. That’s crazy! We paid extra for fast turn around and tracking on the parcel with signature required. That gave us a little more piece of mind. Panic soon turned to joy. It took just one day and we had our passports back and new visa’s inside. That left only one more issue to resolve and that was approval to fly a drone in Vietnam.
I read a pile of articles online about this. I have seen even more videos online with drone footage in Vietnam. Some people had permission, some did not. Some got caught and some did not. There was one scary story I read about a unlucky chap that was arrested by the Army in Ha Long Bay for flying a drone. I did not fancy a similar story to tell on my first visit to the country, so in the end, I didn’t use the drone while in Vietnam. I should also point out there are also some articles stating that drones are illegal in Vietnam and you could risk having it seized at the Airport. I had no problems with airport security at either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh Airports. I had the Ghostdrone 2.0 VR model along with two batteries.
