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hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

I know this isn't a travel board but I've gotten some great travel tips off the Chinese board and was hoping for the same here. We're going to spend 5-6 weeks in Vietnam over the summer and have already planned out the kind of "core" of the trip, but have a week or so at the beginning and end that we don't have much of a plan for.

For the main part of the trip we'll fly into hanoi, do trekking in Sapa, do a cruise in Halong Bay and maybe poke around there a little, then fly to hue and check out some of the sites around hoi an...then sort of bump down the coast on the train to Saigon. After Saigon we're not sure whether to check out SW Vietnam or head into Cambodia. I'd like to see Angkor what but I think some summer in the future we'll buy one of those circle ticket deals where you can fly to a ton of places in Asia and we could check it out then...

Any ideas, especially in northern vietnam, would be appreciated.

EDIT:
Oh, and are tuk tuks or taxis pretty common in the smaller coastal cities? My mom will be with us for part of the trip and she's not going to want to ride a scooter.

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

There are no tuk tuks in Vietnam. Just motorbike taxis and taxis. I find Hue to be incredibly boring... Hoi An too for that matter, but at least Hoi An has beaches and lots of places to eat.

You should definitely stay in Danang for a few days. Danang has nicer beaches than Hoi An, and tons more things to do. You can skip down to Hoi An for an evening or day trip and see everything there is there.

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

Are the taxis pretty available in most places? reasonably priced? I've traveled a bit in SEA and some small towns had next to no taxis or they were extremely over-priced due to tourism being their source of revenue.

We probably won't spend much time in Hue or Hoi An...just some sites to see basically. obligatory touristy stuff.

TRH · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 340 Location: Hawaii

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

It may be because I've been to Hue several times now, that the citadels and tombs and palaces all seems the same. They could be really nice, but they're not well maintained. The Vietnamese seem to have no problem desecrating their own historical monuments. Several of the tombs are covered in graffiti of people painting or carving their names.

If you visit the main citadel now, it has some interesting history within, but 90% of it seems to be restorations, not original. It's also a ton of walking, the entrance and the exit are on opposite sides with no signs to show you where to go. You also have to pay multiple times now to see everything, not just a flat entrance rate. Oh and there's separate lines for foreigners and Vietnamese. Foreigners pay double. And all of it is run with typical Vietnamese cluelessness when it comes to pretty much anything.

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

Anh Dep · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 56 Location: Bangkok Thailand

There are some nice beaches like An Bang near Hoi An which are worth the visit to relax for a few days without all the tourism.

Deats · Joined: 02 Jan 2015 Posts: 503

You could head into the hills in the south to DaLat.

Also, the Mekong region near Saigon (My Tho) is interesting as are the tunnels at Cu Chi.

Just checking, but have you got a visa to last 6 weeks? Isn't the visa usually a month? No clue how easy/hard it is to extend.

It's always easy to say you will do things in the future, but sometimes you get sidetracked and don't get round to it. For this reason, I'd go to Angkor. It's one of the most interesting sites in the world. You will need a MINIMUM of the 3 day pass. There are so many temples to see and all have a different story. If you don't want to rush, then 3 days is fine, but you could get the week pass and have a day off between each 'temple day'.

If you go to southern Cambodia before Angkor you can visit Phnom Penh for a couple of days and the interesting abandoned French hill station near Kampot. There are also some very nice beaches and secluded islands in the south, if that floats your boat.

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 3:53 am Post subject: Re: Places to visit in Vietnam

TRH · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 340 Location: Hawaii

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

We got back from Vietnam a bit ago but then was slammed with deadlines from work and then had almost a week off do to a holiday here in China.

Vietnam was an interesting place to visit. I'm not sure I would want to live there, but definitely interesting. Overall, our experience was that the tours generally offered were extremely low quality and you're better off exploring on your own.

We started out in Hanoi, which had amazing street food but not a lot else going for it. The trekking tour we booked for Sapa was really poorly done, but we stayed a few days afterwards and explored on motorbike and it was great. One of the most beautiful places on earth and we had a couple really nice 'moments,' like stopping at a small shop and having my first taste of Vietnamese moonshine, or my girlfriend trying to smoke the Vietnamese version of a hookah (have an excellent video of her coughing her lungs up while a couple elderly Vietnamese laugh their asses off in the background).

Da Nang was OK but not much to it besides beaches and the seafood was really expensive.

Hue we almost skipped but it was actually one of our favorite spots. Seeing some of the sites at the DMZ was a sad but good experience for an American like myself, though my mom was really uncomfortable with it. There's also an excellent market in hue that we first visited during a cooking class.

I have to say, I was surprised at some of the produce in Vietnam. It seemed like everything was picked really early, sometimes on purpose. Like there was really cheap starfruit but it was picked early and grated for salads rather than eaten as a fruit. Very different. I gorged on avacado smoothies though...avacados are ridiculously expensive here...usually at least $2 a pop but I had a co-worker who paid $20 for 2 because she had a craving for them.

Hoi An was not a bad place for a mixed group. Don't mean to sound like too much of a pansy but I freaking love the bespoke egyptian cotton shirts I got there...got a nice outfit for my girlfriend but she's too afraid to wear any of it and get it dirty.

One of the best places we visited was a fishing villiage a little south of quy nahn. A couple UK guys had set up a restaurant and hostel there...didn't stay overnight but a pretty amazing place to chill out.

Phu Quoc was a nice resort island but a bit too touristy. Still pretty nice though, but largely because we had a bungalow on the beach I think.

Saigon no one really liked...too urban, too sterile, too crowded (and I live in Beijing!). Just seemed lifeless somehow despite the swarms of people.

Mui Ne was a nice place to relax, and would be awesome if you had kiteboard gear. There's a really good Indian restaurant there that was a nice change...was funny when his former Russian boss (who had fired him for drinking on the job) came by because he loved the guy's food. Can't remember the exact name but it has Punjab or Punjabi in the name.

The biggest downsides were that hotels were fairly low quality for the price and the local restaurants often had the same food. The Pho, Bun, and spring rolls were generally very good but we were pretty tired of having the same dishes by the end of the trip. Some of the Vietnamese food we really liked, like banana flower salad and fresh rolls, only seemed to be offered at tourist restaurants.

Overall though, a very nice country to visit...though if we did it again we'd grab motorbikes in Hanoi or Saigon and travel around the country on them, exploring on our own, and not deal with any of the tour companies.

Seemed like most of the long distance buses were either crowded or sleeper buses (which have especially short berths in Vietnam). Train travel was great but slow...and hard to get tickets for a soft sleeper at many places. Planes were fine and not that expensive but you need to book them a bit in advance.

We were on 90-day single-entry visas, which aren't much more expensive than 30-day ones.

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

Thanks for the feedback - I'm sure it will help others.

I'm curious what your mother found uncomfortable at the DMZ but perhaps you prefer not to elaborate.

Any military museums here do not pull their punches and advance a very partisan POV - but you've got to accept that really.

cb400 · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 274 Location: Vientiane, Laos

Did you see anyone pooping off of boats? Incredible balance !

http://www.thanhniennews.com/travel/the-ugly-truth-about-vietnams-floating-markets-51064.html

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

Did not see anyone pooping off boats but I'm sure it happens. I have a lot of background in boating and sailing and am perfectly fine with the idea. Holding tanks are an absurd invention. There was a lot of garbage in the water though...not that big of a deal for me after living in China for a while but a bit of a turn-off for my mom.

My mom protested the Vietnam war and felt quite a bit of guilt and shame visiting some of the sites. America did some pretty horrible stuff over there for almost no reason. Some of the stuff at the DMZ is a real punch to the gut.

Personally it was a sad experience for me but a bit removed (I'm in my early 30's and basically an expat). I found it amazing seeing how little the Vietnamese had to work with fighting against a super power and actually pulled it off. A real testament to the survivor instinct and to some extent patriotism. I had already been pretty impressed by some of the Chinese tunnels and bunkers from WWII but they pale in comparison to the DMZ in Vietnam. Can't imagine living 60 feet under the ground in tiny tunnels for years on end hoping some super-power bully will just leave you alone. Crazy. Or all the people you meet who basically say "hey buddy, yeah, we like americans, but they did sort of bomb most of my ancestors to death," or "we don't know how my grandma died, but probably a bomb."

One of the funny things coming from China was all the displays, I think in the citadel in Hue, about all the claims Vietnam had to a group of islands (forgetting the name) that Vietnam has been disputing with China. It was kind of funny after all the stuff you get from the Chinese government, and being there with a Chinese girlfriend. After we visited Halong Bay she was like "Vietnam has so many islands, why are they making such a big deal about it?"

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

OK thanks for clarifying.

The Paracel Islands are a pretty hot potato. Leaving aside your girlfriend's hopefully joking comment international law is very much against the Chinese claims - and so is the US. What exactly to do about it is more difficult.

China is trying to claim the whole South China Sea is theirs - presumably based on its name. There is a real risk of people being killed over this issue in the next few years.

The displays are preparing people and putting forward the official Government line.

China has fortunately backed off a little recently but I expect they will be back.

It's not just Vietnam they are bullying but also the Philippines and Malaysia.