Vietnam, what to see and what not to miss out on?

Flaviofolan

Hi all,
Was reading some of the posts about travelling around SE Asia, and picked up some good advice from various members and threads (the Laos one for example).
Hoping to spend about 3 months travelling around SE Asia myself this Spring/Summer and was wondering if anyone could give their opinions on travelling in Vietnam in particular. Not sure how best to plan a route. Hope to spend a month in Thailand, a few weeks in Laos then onto Siem Reap, angkor, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, sort out a Vietnamese visa there then onto Saigon/HCMC and the Mekong Delta. I know there's a bus you can get which can take you up (or down) along the coast where you can hop on, hop off at different places, just hoping to hear from people who've done this before maybe, and could recommend places worth stopping at and seeing along the way.
Also, could anyone recommend a good tour company for Halong Bay? heard a few stories about some outfits who weren't great (bad food, little or no activities etc) so would be great if anyone has any info at all, especially to do with how many days you would need, 2 3 more days??. Also, is the nearby city worth staying in, or should you just bus it from Hanoi and back?

Anyway, if anyone has any advice or opinions whatsoever on travelling in Vietnam, things to do etc it would be great to hear from you
Thanks

sioda

Bus it back and forth from Hanoi for accom in Hanoi try the Hanoi Backpackers they organise an excellent 3 day 2 nite halong tour that for love no money can i remember the name of the company. It was 89 us dollars each all in. Companies name was South Pacific Travel

I travelled from Hanoi to Hue on the overnight sleepers train did few days in Hue then Bused Hoi An and never really wanted to leave great pubs food cheap clothes place is fantastic. Decent hotel with AC for 2 people inc breakfast 25 dollars a night.

From Hoi An hit Saigon which is an amazing place.

In Cambodia get the 3 day pass dont try and fit it all in a defo be at Angkor Wat for sunrise.

Food and pubs in Seim Reap are fantastic and great cheap massages essential after a days walkin.

Any help I can give fire away

mac123

for your vietnamese visa you can get it in about 15mins in sihanoukville and its cheaper than it is phnom phen. sihanoukville is a beach town about 4 hours from phnom phen.
in vietnam, siagons a cool city with decent nightlife and its reasonably cheap. theres a few tours that you can do when your based in saigon like a delta tour and the chu chi tunnels. i got the open bus up to hanoi stopping in a few places along the way, nha trang is good for nightlife and apparently its the best place to dive in the country. the beach is a bit dirty though. look around to a few different places for accom in hanoi and def go to halong bay. i made my own way out to cat ba island and booked a tour from the island itself. it was two nights and 3 days and we stayed on the boat over night. i think it was 65 dollars and it was well worth it as i heard from alot of other people that the trips they booked from hanoi werent the best with regards to food etc.

Hedgepig

Flaviofolan wrote: »

I know there's a bus you can get which can take you up (or down) along the coast where you can hop on, hop off at different places, just hoping to hear from people who've done this before maybe, and could recommend places worth stopping at and seeing along the way.
Also, could anyone recommend a good tour company for Halong Bay? heard a few stories about some outfits who weren't great (bad food, little or no activities etc) so would be great if anyone has any info at all, especially to do with how many days you would need, 2 3 more days??. Also, is the nearby city worth staying in, or should you just bus it from Hanoi and back?

While you're in the north, you should take a trip up to Sapa Valley. I went to Halong Bay, and wish I had gone to Sapa instead. Halong Bay was really cool geographically speaking, but it was a bit uncomfortable how it was just bus after bus of tourists being herded to this place, hundreds of boats like bumper cars heading out into the bay, dropping you in to take a look at some cave (even if the cave itself was amzing), dropping you off so that you can all point and take pictures of people on floating villages, sticking you into a canoe while you paddle around, and then back home to Hanoi.

Still, breathtaking scenery so I do recommend a Halong Bay trip too. But make it a 1 day trip and go for a cheap tour. My tour cost ~$20 and there were others on the same tour who had paid $100, and the only difference between us and them is that they got a different meal from us. (My meal of spring rolls, fish, rice, and chips was fine by me). The tourguides were good too, I can't remember the name of the company I booked through, but it was one of many on Pho Ma May in the old quarter in Hanoi - I'll try to think of the name.

Down south I highly recommend the Cu Chi tunnels. Even if you are not interested in the war, it is the best history lesson you will ever get.

mac123

Hedgepig wrote: »

Halong Bay was really cool geographically speaking, but it was a bit uncomfortable how it was just bus after bus of tourists being herded to this place, hundreds of boats like bumper cars heading out into the bay, dropping you in to take a look at some cave (even if the cave itself was amzing), dropping you off so that you can all point and take pictures of people on floating villages, sticking you into a canoe while you paddle around, and then back home to Hanoi.

Thats why i booked mine from cat ba island, we kept away from the mass of tourists in the bay and we were only on a small boat so it wasn't as commercial!

Lao Lao

I spent a full month in Vitenam and it was my favourite country out of all the ones that we went to.We arrived in Hanoi from Laos and it is such a beautiful city, I really loved it!

There is so much to do here, you will need a few days to take it all in. The Temple of Literature, The Revolutionary Museum, The Museumof Fine Arts, Hoan Kiem Lake plus a host of others. There is also a pretty cool water puppetry show just beside the lake that weas really good too! There is also a cool water park in Hanoi as well, it'll be full of kids but go anyway,you'll (like we were) be more entertain to them than the amusements

There are also loads of cool bars and nightclubs around Hanoi which has a great nightlife. You have got to go to The Jazz Club by Quyen Van Minh,he is the dogs b*llix when it comes to Jazz in Hanoi, even if you don't like Jazz,you have got to go there, it's such a cool place! Oh,you have also got to go to Highway 4 to drink the most rancid drinksever,Snakes Blood, Bee Hive and my favourite Goats Balls,yes,real Goats Balls fermented in some spirity type liquer thingy. It was hilarious, the locals would be there with a bottle of the stuff and we'd be struggling to get a shot of it into us without gagging,you just haven'tlived until you've drank Goats Balls

From Hanoi, we booked a trip to Halong Bay through our hotel (whose name,I just can't remember at the minute but all places will book it for you!) We got the bus out of Hanoi and then board our boat where we spent one night on the boat and one night on Cat Ba island. The weather wasn't great when we were on Cat Ba island which kinda curtailled our activities but the night we spent on the boat was fantastic. Following a day of exploring caves,we had dinner on the boat and then, ahem....a few drinks....lets just say we drank the boat dry and had a massive sing song well into the early hours of themorning with the captain of the boat throwing in one or two Vietnamese classics to spice it up! Come midnight,we all decided that the only thing to do was to go night swimming, it probably wasn'tthe safest thing in the world to do but it was great fun! I was happy out with the food at all timeson the trip but one of my mates is a veggie and she wasn't overly happy with it as there was a fair bit of fish on offer

From Halong Bay we headed back to Hanoi for a night or two and from there we bused it down to Hue.It's a fair 'ole trek and took us about 14 hours to get there.it was a really pleasant town and for some reason it reminded me or Arklow from when I was a kid but yet I'm sure I'm the only person to ever think that!!! There is a really cool beach about 15k outside Hue and you can easily hire motor bikes to get there and back. The roads aren't exactly good to and from the beach,in fact they are pretty awful and are the main reason why Iam now terrified of getting on a motor bike but sure you just gotta do these things! Also, I wouldn't recommend going to the beach on a day that it is pissing rain in the hope that it will stop by the time you get there,it won't :eek: - Jesus wept,it was like looking out onto the Atlantic crashing in, the wind and the rain lashing inot our face. We still had a paddle neverthe less and unsurprisingly,we had the placeto ourselves....

Also, from Hue,you can do a tour of the DMZ,The Demilitarised Zone,which it was called back in the Vietnam War. I really enjoyed this and it was a full day long tour. One or two of the things that you go to are just monuments but the history you learn here is amazing. Our tour guide, Tam, lived through the whole time and he was brilliant.My respect and admiration for the Vietnamese people went up about 1000% after hearing first hand some of the things that they endured.

From Hue,we again bussed it to Hoi An,which is my favourite place in the whole of SE Asia (Ko Phi Phi is a close 2nd) This is just the most beautiful little town you will ever find,full of cool bars, restaurants,tailors and art galleries. There is also a really nice nice beach about 5K outside the town which can again be reach by renting motorbikes. Thankfully,the roads here are a bit better. We spent several days here and every day we went to the beach,five minutes into the sea and any sign of a hangover from the night before was gone!

From Hue we headed south again to Nha Trang which is meant to be the party place of Vitenam.It was ok but I thought it was a little tacky albeit bizarre. We did one of the party boats which was good fun, it's not often you get the chance to drink red wine will floating in a ring bouy in the middleof the South China Sea. I also recall having a very drunken arguement with Tim Roth over the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland in the Sailing Club (probably the best pub in Nha Trang) - One point i'dmake about Nha Trang and that it was the first place where I felt abit aware of what was going on around me. I'm sure it was safe but I couldn't help get the feeling that it was a bit dodgy even though nothing happened to any of us travelling together.

We left Nha Trang and continued heading south for Ho Chi Minh and as we entered, it felt very strange,we were coming into a big city for the first time in ages and at first I didn't like it. We took it easy for our first couple of days and nights in Ho Chi Minh,doing a bit of sightseeing around the city. We also used it as a base for day tripsto the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Mekong Delta. I would strongly recommend a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels,it was amazing! On a rather bizarre note, I also shot an M16 for the first time at the Cu Chi tunnels,very bizarre!

Right, I've typed way too much again here, but if you need to know anything else, just drop me a PM and if I can help, I will of course.

breadmonkey

"Costa Del" Nha Trang was probably the low point of my time in SE Asia. Definitely one to miss imo.

elambra

great post as I'm heading around the world on my own in late April... I'm flying into Hanoi from Singapore and making my way down to Saigon/HCM. Did anyone come accross solo travellers? Do you think it will be ok for a solo lad travelling to all these places, and doing random tours? I'm just going with a lonely planet book and no inhibitions and just going to jump head first into it, so looking forward but am also a bit nervous!:)

Flaviofolan

Thanks for the posts guys, thats some great info.
I'd say its going to be a hard job to fit everything into a month. doesnt sound at all like a country you'd want to leave in any hurry!
Does anyone know if there's much English spoken (Southern Vietnam say). obviously will try and learn some basic phrases to get by, but just wondering how ye fared with the language barrier?
Thanks

sioda

All the people I met made an attempt at English. A few basic phrases will get you by.

So found no real barrier at all even when half cut

TheNibbler

Definitely don't miss out on Hoi An, great place. Probably the nicest place I visited in SE Asia (followed closely by Luang Prabang in Laos).

Ideo

That's a great post Lao Lao, loads of info in it! Planning about 3 weeks solo in Vietnam in August, after China in June and Malaysia for 3 weeks in July and was beginning to wonder whether I'd need a full 3 weeks but it sounds like I have my work cut out for me! I found this page interesting for those also thinking of going to Vietnam